The Chevy Volt is coming and I can’t wait to check it out! It is currently scheduled to release in November of 2010. Although this vehicle is long over-due…I’ll forgive that and celebrate it’s arrival!

So what makes the Chevy Volt so different from other cars? Well, for starters, it is an electric car that can run up to 40 miles on pure electricity…that’s gas and emissions FREE! After that, it uses it’s gas engine as a generator to recharge it’s batteries…and when you return home, just plug it into your standard 120 volt (8 hours till fully charged) or 240 volt (3 hours till fully charged) outlet and let it charge over night. That averages about $1 a day on a full charge a every night.  Just imagine if you did not have to charge it every night!

Not only is it closer to being “environmentally friendly”, it looks beautiful! This has been the one thing holding me back from buying a hybrid vehicle (if you don’t count the missing V8).  The only other car that I’ve been close to buying is the Chevy Malibu…but they really don’t offer anything new is design. I’m not exactly sure what the car manufacturers have had against hybrids and the limited accessories for them…which they are getting better at — FINALLY!

For example, the Honda Civic. I love Honda, we’ve owned 2 Honda Accords and have been very happy with them, but when looking into their hybrid vehicles I was completely disappointed. The Civic Hybrid did not offer the same features as the Civic Si. I want to be environmentally friendly…but I don’t want look like it!

Additional information from Chevrolet.com:

Technology: Volt is an electric vehicle with a range extender. Well, what does that mean? It means Volt runs on electricity from its battery, and then it runs on electricity it creates from gas.  Let’s assume you have a fully charged battery. Now, depending on the weather, the electrical features that are turned on and how you drive, you can drive up to 40 miles on the electricity stored in the battery — totally gas and emissions free. After that, its gas-powered, range-extending generator automatically kicks in to provide electrical power. So Volt can go for several hundred additional miles, until you can plug it in or fill it up again.  And Volt is even a FlexFuel vehicle as well, capable of running on the biofuel E85 ethanol (5).

Mobile: With the new OnStar mobile app, Volt owners can use a smartphone to access their vehicle’s current electric range and fuel efficiency. Plus, managing the Volt charging functions is easy with this application. You can look up the battery’s charge level, check on what time your Volt will be fully charged and ready to go, or even change charging priorities remotely with just a couple of taps. You can perform other commands remotely too — like unlocking doors or activating the remote start.

OnStar Mobile app demo:

I’m sure the Mobile feature will require you to keep the OnStar service active…which is understandable if your controlling your car from anywhere in the world, but I think the car should be Wi-Fi equipped so I can control it within my own network at home.  This would also allow me to download my audio files to the car’s hard-drive instead of using an AUX jack, USB or Blue-tooth. Maybe one day!

Watch MotorTrend’s Test Drive:

Sometimes we need to stop and appreciate the beauties of nature.

Today I took my 1,000th photo on my iPhone (3GS) and decided it was time to do something with them all…so I’ve decided to start posting them in a new category “iPhone Photography”. I have always had a great deal of interest in photography and could never really afford a nice camera, like the Cannon Rebel, so I just make due with my iPhone.

I do use the a couple iPhone applications like PS Mobile, Pro HDR, and Colors Pro do achieve the perfect look…in my opinion anyway.  So start watching for the picture post coming your way!
 
 
 
 

I was so excited to hear what Apple had in store for us the other day…and as usual, I was searching around for a live video/sound stream of the event. Finally I landed on TWiT Live and MacRumors for my feeding needs. Buy you can watch the keynotes for yourself now — Watch Apple’s 2010 Special Event.

So let me start off by talking about the name…iPad.  Really? Answer is “yes”. I’m not exactly sure who decided that would be the best name to label this new product, but after giving it some thought…it probably makes since considering it will probably be discarded after the hype of “new and trendy” is over, or until the newest one comes out. When I first started reading rumors around the iPad I wondered why they didn’t just use a name like iTab (for tablet), and then after hearing of about all the features it did not have…it finally came to me that iPad fit just right.

Magical and Revolutionary!! Not quite…since this does not fill the gap between a MacBook Pro and the iPhone — more like the iPod Touch and a Kindle.

So lets compare some features shall we:

• Touch Screen (iPod, iPad)
• App Store (iPod, iPad)
• iTunes (iPod, iPad)
• iPod (iPod, iPad)
• Wi-fi (iPod, iPad)
• 3G (one for the iPhone! , iPad)
• Size (Kindle, iPad)
• Maps (iPod, iPad)
• YouTube (iPod, iPad)
• Mail (iPod, iPad)
• Video (iPod, iPad)
• Calendar (iPod, iPad)
• Notes (iPod, iPad)
• Internet (iPod, iPad)
• Notes (Woohoo, another one for iPhone, iPad)

So I know your asking…wheres the magic right?? Well, it’s bigger and it may magically transform your posture into a hunch back while trying to use the keyboard on your lap/table and watch the screen at the same time. AWESOME!!! Hmm, maybe they are in cahoots with the Chiropractors of our world — better yet, the Prescription companies (in order to kill the pain).

Now, with the announcement of the iPad, Apple opened up the VOIP ability on the iPhone.  Which, if you use the application “iCall”, you can make free outgoing calls over 3G and is only $10 a month to have the incoming/outgoing call feature. So what about Google Voice’s application?? Is it going to be approved now? So now I can get the iPad and pay $30 to AT&T for the unlimited data and use Google Voice’s application for free phone service or iCall’s $10 plan (however right now iCall requires you to make a call to your AT&T’s Wireless number).  Which then made me think…why not just keep my iPhone (since it has a camera) and cut off AT&T’s wireless service and just keep the data service — I’m sure that’ll be a BIG FAT NO!! Although…it doesn’t make any sense in my opinion.

If iPad comes out with a front facing camera, and had blue tooth capability with a blue tooth headset, I would totally think about replacing my iPhone with the iPad and just use VOIP to make/receive all my calls over the iPad.  Because honestly, I would actually love to use a bigger version of the iPhone…as long as I didn’t have to hold it up to my head!

Here’s a funny video from Hitler’s point of view. Enjoy!

My little reflection of 2009.

Image provided by My Year In Status on Facebook.

WordPress 2.9 is here! It’s always exciting to download the newest version of WordPress to see what new features have been added and what current features have been enhanced. Of course the best part of it is running into those new features by accident.

Can’t wait to start using them!

Don’t forget to update…and if your not using yet, visit WordPress to get started!

The coolest new stuff from a user point of view is:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Here’s an example of the video embed. I’ll just add the following URL “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG8g3Xtpk80″ and WordPress will automatically use the proper embed code: