Man, this thing is actually going to come out. GM said today that it’s going to release the Chevy Volt late next year in California, giving the Golden State first dibs on the car.

GM also said that it’s teaming up with local utilities companies, including Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, to make sure the state is ready for the car’s launch.

You’ll recall that the Chevy Volt is really, very important, particularly for GM’s future, being one of the first, practical electric cars on the market, and one that’s supposed to travel some 40 miles on purely electric power and some 300 miles with the help of the on-board 1.4L generator. That’s good, I think.

Presumably it’s faster than Top Gear’s Geoff!

Can you tell I know next to nothing about cars? They have wheels, right?

Last January, I asked you what your list of first installs on a computer was. We all have our own suite of applications and utilities that enjoy first dibs on a new/reformatted PC, and easily hours are spent locating the apps’ homepages and clicking on their respective download links.

With Ninite however, the process is streamlined. Simply visit ninite.com, choose the applications you want, and the site builds a customized installer for your convenience. And theoretically, it gets even better: if you’re really familiar with slipstreaming additional software onto your Windows installation disc, you can integrate your customized installer into Windows setup, potentially allowing a computer that’s usable from the get-go once you log in to your new Windows installation for the first time!

Check out Ninite at Ninite.com.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Well don’t I feel like a chump. Here I am, chilling with what I thought was the latest and greatest Viliv on the market when somewhere in the world, there is the S10! And it has Windows 7! Damn.

The pictures floating around the Interweb show a similarly designed bezel. The trackpad seems to be located in front of the keyboard now, and it looks thinner if that’s at all possiable. Plus, the resistive touchscreen has been enlarged to 10-inches from the S7’s 7-incher. The CPU will range from 1.33GHz to 2.0GHz depending on the configuration and a 64GB SSD will be an option along with a 3G modem. Best of all, Viliv is stating that this guy will get a 10 hour battery life.

According to the report, the S10 will start out at $500 which will put it in the S7 range. However, don’t hold back your purchase of the S7 if you like it. (I do)  It might be months before Viliv imports the S10 to the States. The Korean market generally gets first dibs at Viliv products for a while before we get ‘em here.

Samsung is now getting into the e-book game. It has developed its very own e-book reader, which will first be available in Korea for around $270. It’ll be Korea-only for a little while yet.

The reader, the SNE-50K e-book, has a five-inch touchscreen (the Kindle has a 6.5-inch screen) along with 250MB of storage.

Books will initially be supplied by Kyobo Bookstore, which is, as I understand it, on of South Korea’s biggest book sellers. So just because you’ve never heard of it doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal.

As far as relating it elsewhere, Samsung is in negotiations with book publishers to see if they’d be willing to release e-books for their reader.

So that makes three big e-book readers: the Kindle (including its different models), Barnes and Nobles’ upcoming e-book reader, and now Samsung’s.

Nothing wrong with choice, right?

Face it, our passion for tech usually comes at a cost: those long hours spent seated in front of the computer are fatal for waistlines, not to mention for our health. That’s why Leo Babauta’s Simple Fitness Rules are gold for gadgeteers:

A lean tummy, courtesy stock.xchng (details below)

The Two-Rule Version

• Get your body moving on a regular basis; and
• Eat a moderate amount of real, whole foods (with occasional indulgences).

The Eight-Rule, Yet Still Simple, Version

• Get moving
• Enjoy yourself
• Slowly add intensity
• Minimal equipment
• Just a few exercises
• Eat real foods
• Eat less
• Give it time

Follow the full details here, and who knows? You could end up lifting a 12-pound desktop replacement with one hand multiple times, enough to score first dibs on some cool piece of tech.

See Also: The Best Damn Healthy Gaming Tip Ever

(image courtesy ljk)

Post from: The Gadget Blog