Yes, it looks like an overgrown TT or an R8 without the blade. The grille is a bit scary, although I dig the headlights. The wheels suck. There’s no rear window (and I don’t like what’s in its place).

But then there’s that tail end and those taillights. Holy cow, that is a thing of beauty right there. There’s so much awesomeness going on on that tail end.

Likewise, the interior (except for the color choices) is stellar. Almost literally, as it kinda looks like the right amount of car vs. spaceship.

Audi, please, please, PLEASE incorporate this tail end design and that interior into something we can buy and drive for real. Please.

Autoblog

For the 50 year birthday of the Mini cooper they have reviled the car that they say will compete with the Audi TT. It starts out with chopping off the top and and making it a soft top. Under the hood they put a 211 horsepower 1.6 liter engine  and stiffened suspension.  I really like the new look of the mini cooper I hope much doesn’t change from the concept to the real thing. It is set to make its debut at the frankfurter auto show coming up soon. Hit the clicky thingie to check out more pictures and see how close it is to the Audi TT

*Update* I recently found out the due to a lack of funds the unveiling of the new Mini Cooper concept is being pushed back to later next year…

greencarreports.com

As you know, we jumped on the story of T3′s “secret” 01 Phone project when they first posted a mysterious entry about it a few months back. And we were delighted to learn that they actually had a desire to produce it, working with design firm The Alloy, and asking interested parties to sign a petition to get it made for real. So it was a pleasure to see the latest incarnation of it, sans laser-keyboard (awww) but with an even better solution: A slide-out, contextual keyboard with a rubberized film giving the keyboard the ability to transform for any particular use, and provide some tactility…something a certain telephony device that rhymes with schmeyephone is lacking. More after the clicky thingie…

If the iPhone 3G is too pedestrian for you these days what with it being available globally and selling in huge numbers, and you’re not all over the Samsung Instinct or Blackberry Storm, maybe a signature and a little time will get you exactly the phone you’ve been dreaming about.

That’s because T3 is still at work in conjunction with design firm The Alloy to create “the perfect mobile phone”. Whether or not that comes to pass will depend on, likely, a zillion factors, but as big T3 fans and, personally, somebody who thinks this is a brilliant design in the making, I’m certainly hopeful they pull it off and produce it, so that I can get my grubby meat hooks on one myself.

The latest rev of the 01 Phone ditches the laser keyboard, which probably would never have worked in such a small form factor anyway…not with any sort of decent battery life, that is. Instead, they’ve added a slide-out contextual keyboard that changes based on the application…QWERTY for texting & typing, numeric for math-related apps, D-pad and other controls for gaming, nav controls for naving, etc. It’s a great idea, and one that’s made better by the inclusion of a rubberized film over the keyboard surface to give the physical-virtual keyboard a more tactile feel.

Other nifty additions in this round are wireless earbuds that tuck into the back of the slide-out keyboard, and even a “mini phone” that can be removed and used as a sort of “remote phone” so that you’ll be able to keep the 01 Phone in your pocket, backpack, briefcase or purse (if you’re Eddie Izzard…oh, or a woman) and still make and receive calls. The mini phone is supposedly flexible, meaning that it can even be strapped around your wrist if so desired, giving you that “Hey, I’m like Dick Tracy but way cooler!” feel. Even if you don’t know who Dick Tracy is. And when not in use, it locks into a recessed area on the back of the 01 Phone.

There’s also a multi-stylus (which you don’t have to use) that’s designed to let you practice your chopstick skillz while resizing photos of swimsuit models that you don’t want people to find on your real computer.

Major props to T3 for keeping the 01 Phone project going, and hats off to The Alloy for an even more interesting revision compared with the original. I’m hoping that the battery life is decent, too, as with all the included tech, well, we’ve seen how that can wreak havoc on battery life in the real world.

If you’d love to get your mitts on an 01 Phone, too, make sure you head on over to T3′s petition site to get the 01 Phone produced in the real world (and ignore the fact that they haven’t updated the photos yet on that site heh).

T3

Oft-ridiculed in the U.S. for being girlier than a hot pink VW Cabrio, mopeds and scooters are typically shunned for bigger, more powerful motorcycles here. Across the pond and in Asia, however, they’re not only abundant, but a good choice in the crowded, narrow streets found in many of the countries there.

And Elliot Ortiz loves mopeds. A product design student of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco who’s currently working via student placement at one of the UK’s most prominent design firms, Ortiz spends some of his free time repairing and tuning old, classic mopeds, in one case more than doubling a bike’s performance using an original motor.

Traveling abroad, Ortiz noticed that, unlike here in the U.S., scooters and mopeds are ridden quite extensively, especially in old-world countries where the roads are small and automobile traffic can become dreadfully dense during rush hour.

“I was in Milan Italy and noticed that during rush hour the intersections crowded with scooters each slipping past lines of cars up to the very front of the pack, it was quite inspirational to see them being used so effectively in rush hour traffic.” Ortiz told pause.com.

On another trip, to Seoul, Ortiz was equally inspired by the use of motorbikes as delivery vehicles, but was less enthusiastic about their cobbled-together nature: Large wooden boxes were strapped to the backs of the bikes. That’s when the idea for his funky-cool Cargo scooter concept hit him:

“I thought to myself why has no one even tried to pose the idea of a light cargo vehicle? That is what Cargo was created to do, to put a new idea in peoples heads and get people thinking outside (or inside in this case) the box.”

And we love it, too. Minimalist with functionality designed-in, we think it’d be pretty darn cool to see these zipping around the streets of London, Florence or Hong Kong.

The only thing that worried me was the relationship of the seat to the frame, as it seemed like a quick stop might render a male rider’s manly bits somewhat less than useful. Ortiz assured me that it shouldn’t be a problem, seeing as how that setup is derived from (and used currently in) various modern motorcyles.

Good thing, too, because if the family jewels aren’t safe, whatever other cargo you happen to be hauling probably won’t matter much.