Toyota Company unveils 2015 Bass Pro Shop Edition Tundra.

This is really a monster truck!! Look out, Texans, there's a new 2015 truck to drool over.
Gulf States Toyota made the big reveal at the State Fair of Texas' auto showcase, debuting the new 2015 Toyota Tundra Bass Pro Shops Off-Road Edition.
The truck features all of the standard Tundra's capabilities, along with a tow package, 20-inch matte black wheels and all-terrain upgrade, custom Bass Pro Shops floor mats and bed decals, 5-inch oval black step tubes, bedliner, pocketed fender flares, and a stainless steel exhaust tip.Toyota unveiled an off-road Bass Pro Shops edition of its San Antonio-made full-size Tundra pickup at the State Fair of Texas. Price tags start at $43,975, according to a news release.

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Volkswagen Group’s pre-Paris Motor Show event: Lamborghini Austerion LP1 hybrid supercar concept a crowd teaser

A LITTLE dog named Junior and a left-of-centre hybrid Lamborghini supercar stole the show at Volkswagen’s Paris Motor Show preview night, one of several corporate events held around the French capital ahead of the show’s opening.

Parking a Lamborghini in any street is almost guaranteed to stop traffic but a Lamborghini with a fire-breathing V10 engine, three electric motors and a combined 680 kilowatts brought rousing applause from industry and the world’s motoring media when it snarled its way onto the stage at Porte de Versailles.
The car, designed to give world a look into what could well be the future of high-powered sports cars, was given another round of applause as it was driven, silently and on full electric power, around the display area.
The stunning Italian super coupe was not the only one to paint a rosy picture of the future for powerful cars.
Porsche also used Volkswagen Group’s “Les Images des Marques” to showcase three plug-in hybrid cars as well as having one of its 919 petrol-electric hybrid racing cars parked in the foyer of the display hall.
Porsche’s charge was led by its limited-edition, million-dollar 918 Spyder with a pair of plug-in hybrids, a Panamera GT sedan and Cayenne SUV which will be launched in Australia in November.
The night showcased cars from Volkswagen Group’s Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley, Volkswagen Commercial and motorcycle maker Ducati, which used the night to launch its new Scrambler bike.
Only the Scania and MAN truck brands, both owned by Volkswagen Group, failed to appear.As for the little dog, his name is Junior and he is the star of VW Group’s current European adverting campaign. He was also something of a star at the corporate night.

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World Most Expensive Bicycle 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike.

Just saw this,Its so lovely to behold.What you think about the price when you see the heading of World Most Expensive Bicycle Whatever was that but I assure you that original price of the 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike is far higher than you expected.

24k Gold Extreme Mountain bicycle

The house of solid gold offers 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike  for $1Million which is almost equal to the price of McLaren P1 car. Question arises in every mind after listening the prices that why this bicycle costs as much. The answer is there are a lot of expensive and gold plated bicycles around the world which includes Peacock Groove have their gold plated bicycle there are some gold plated BMX like Hutch Trick Star and many more. Aurumania have their Gold Plated bike Crystal Edition, 24k gold plated Swarovski crystal adorned fixed gear that claimed the title of the world most expensive gold bike at under $110,000. But house of gold bike 10X expensive than Aurumania fixed gear bike. And house of gold claims that 24k Gold Extreme Mountain bike is world most expensive bike.The 24k Gold Extreme Mountain Bike is handcrafted and each part of the bike is electroplated with 24k Gold using modern techniques all the process completes in 750hrs in USA. “THSG” the logo of house of the solid gold on the bike is paved with the diamonds and sapphires and “THSG” is embellished and encrusted with over 600 black diamonds 6.0 carats in total and 500 golden sapphires 4.5 carats in total. The seat of the cycle covered with the fine chocolate brown alligator leather is one of its kind. Water bottle is covered with gold and accented with chocolate brown stingray.

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MERCEDES-BENZ S400 HYBRID SET TO LAUNCH IN INDIA

German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz is really doing excellently well in the Indian market and a fantastic performance in 2013 has propelled the firm to try out a few things in the coming future. According to reports, the Stuttgart based firm has brought the S400 Hybrid in India, a model set to be launched soon, for homologation. Sources claim that the German giant has gauged the potential of hybrid cars in India and will be hoping to offer the class of S400 combined top class efficiency.

mercedes s400 Hybrid

According to reports, the positive response rendered towards S-Class models has boosted Mercedes-Benz’s resolve to further expand the portfolio, which is the reason why, after launching S500 and S350 CDI, the S400 Hybrid is set to be introduced in India. And that is not all as the Mercedes-Benz, rumours claim, has the S500 Plug-in lined-up after this. The arrival of S400 Hybrid in India for homologation makes its launch in the sub-continent imminent. Though there are not many modification on the exteriors and interiors, Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid is among the top most economical hybrid sedans with a spark engine in the world. This car features a V6 petrol engine that is mated to an electric motor. A combined maximum output of 302 BHP can be achieved after the coming together of petrol drivetrain and electric motor. In addition, the maximum torque level of Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid is 370 Nm.

The engine in S400 Hybrid is conjoined to a 7G-TRONIC PLUS gearbox that is configured for a hybrid module. This sedan is capable of rendering a mileage of around 15.87 kmpl, which is excellent given its size and power levels. As far as price is concerned, analysts and reports claim that the Mercedes-Benz is likely to put the S400 Hybrid right between S350 CDI and S500. The company aims to draw customers who are Mercedes-Benz aficionados but want a car that is more frugal than the others.

Mercedes-Benz has made a stunning comeback in the Indian market and it is hoping to multiply its success in coming years. The last year was fantastic for the three pointed star in India and its “Year of Offensive” policy worked in every possible way. With the graph of the luxury car segment rising upwards, Mercedes-Benz’s relentless launches and expansion might spell a boon for the Indian market. Another positive effect that could happen would be the entry of more foreign luxury brands. It would also mean that BMW and Audi need to pull their socks up and stop the charge of Mercedes-Benz.

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VOICE HACKERS WILL SOON HAVE A FREE WAY INTO YOUR TECHNOLOGY

Voice-activated technology is so vulnerable to attack that users should immediately disable speech recognition on all their devices, a security researcher at AVG has warned.
Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at the anti-virus company, has carried out several experiments which revealed the new techniques hackers might use to gain control of voice-controlled devices.
He made the ominous prediction that a “thief outside the door” could take control of gadgets such as smart televisions or laptops from outside a target’s home, potentially burgling them without even smashing a window.
The vulnerability of technology which uses voice commands is likely to become an important issue in the coming years, as smartwatches and connected home devices grow in popularity and the technology becomes commonplace.
His warning presages a future where voice hackers use recorded or synthesized speech commands to bypass security mechanisms. But this scary reality is not as far away as it might seem, as security researchers have already managed to trick Siri into letting them bypass the lock screen on an iPhone and post Facebook messages, access call history, send text messages and fire off emails.
“Microphones should be disabled immediately and our current recommendation is that the user switch off features [involving voice commands],” he said in a phone interview with Forbes. “At the moment, leaving biometric technology as it is today is like leaving a computer without a password and just allowing anyone to walk by, click and take an action.
“We realized there is something very basic here that everyone seems to have forgotten: authentication. If you have a smart TV at home, for instance, it will respond to a synthesized voice as well as yours.”
His team has conducted several experiments which give a clue as to how hackers might hijack voice controlled devices. In the first, the researchers designed a game for Android which was able to recite a voice command which ordered the personal assistant Google GOOGL -0.1% Now to send an email from the same device.
“If you played Google Now a recording of a voice, you could easily make it send a message to all your contacts and say: I’m broke, I need money,” he claimed.
In a further experiment involving another biometric form of identification, he designed an application which responded to the accelerometer in a phone and dialed up a premium rate number when the phone was in motion. When it came to rest, the call would immediately cut off. This could potentially raise significant sums of money for a thief before the hack was even noticed.
These sound like relatively innocuous crimes, but are likely to just be the first of many targets for the voice hackers.
“There is already voice recognition software in a car,”  Ben-Itzhak added. “Just imagine what could happen if someone targeted that.”
AVG does not have specific plans to release software to guard against voice hacking. Indeed, Ben-Itzhak claimed that few vendors were tackling the problem, even though it represented something of an open goal to hackers.
“We haven’t seen this in the wild yet,” he said. “But it is something that is pretty easy to take advantage off.”
One device which is sure to rely on voice commands is the Apple AAPL +1.03% Watch, which is expected to use a modified version of Siri. In the coming years, we are expected to see voice recognition embedded in everything from light bulbs to refrigerators.
Just keep an ear out for the thief at the door.

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IPHONE 6 PLUS NOT SO BENDABLE AFTER ALL

The experts have weighed in — the iPhone 6 Plus is not so bendy after all.
Calling recent criticism of the new Apple product "highly unscientific," Consumer Reports decided to find out for itself just how pliable the device is.
The magazine ran what it called a "three-point flexural test" on the phone, and it passed with flying colors.

 

In the test, the smartphone did not start to "deform" until 90 pounds of pressure was applied to it. According to the watchdog magazine, Apple uses the same test and applies 55 pounds of pressure to make sure the device is strong.
"All the phones we tested showed themselves to be pretty tough," said the Consumer Reports study, published online Friday. "The iPhone 6 Plus, the more robust of the new iPhones in our testing, started to deform when we reached 90 pounds of force, and came apart with 110 pounds of force."

Videos of customers bending the iPhone 6 Plus went viral last week, even though Apple claimed only nine people oficially complained.

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TOYOTA'S NEW HYDROGEN POWERED CAR SOON TO HIT THE MARKET BY 2015

Toyota’s on the verge of finally bringing a hydrogen-powered car to market. The problem is that it promises a boring, if innovative, driving experience, for the price middle-aged men pay to have their toupees blown off.

Next year, Toyota will start selling the unimaginatively named FCV (to be fair, Honda had dibs on FCEV). The car will be able to drive 300 miles on nothing but hydrogen, with only water vapor as a byproduct. Hybrids and battery-powered electrics are hogging all the attention when it comes to alternatives to internal-combustion engines, but the German and Japanese automakers, especially Honda and Toyota, haven’t backed off the idea that the best route to a fossil fuel-free future is using fuel cells to combine hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, inside the car. Fuel-cell cars offer the range of a gas-powered car, and their tanks can be filled with compressed hydrogen in just a few minutes. No range anxiety, no waiting hours for your EV’s battery to charge.
FCEVs have plenty of shortcomings. Hydrogen fuel is available at only a handful of gas stations in the U.S., and the infrastructure for transporting it around the country hasn’t really been developed. The production of hydrogen can itself yield greenhouse gases, if it’s generated from natural gas. The cars are frightfully expensive and the fuel is no cheaper than gasoline. But Toyota’s serious about the technology. It has spent 20 years on this program and made a lot of progress. From one generation of test vehicles to the current platform, it cut costs by 95 percent, reduced the size of the fuel cell, and developed tanks made of carbon fiber that improve capacity and can be designed to fit any car body. To make filling up the hydrogen tanks practical, Toyota’s part of a state-funded, $200 million effort to build a network of fueling stations around the Bay Area and Los Angeles, with a few in between. That will help build out the infrastructure and encourage people to buy the cars. It doesn’t do anything for the cost of the fuel itself, which by Toyota’s estimates is as expensive as gasoline.

Last week, I met up with Jared Farnsworth, an engineer with Toyota’s advanced power train group, to gawk at the FCV and drive the test “mule,” the camouflaged Lexus HS that’s been fitted with a system very similar to the one that will be in the production car. Under the hood is a fuel cell roughly the size of a suitcase, pulling hydrogen from two tanks each a bit bigger than what you take scuba diving. Total power output is roughly 100 kilowatts.
I drove the mule for just about 15 minutes around downtown San Francisco, hardly enough to form a detailed judgement, but came away with one impression: This thing, like other FCEVs, is completely unremarkable. The torque is a bit better than your standard internal combustion engine car. There’s no noise, which is nice. I didn’t get the chance to floor it, but the lackluster 0 to 60 mph time of under 10 seconds promised by Toyota sounds about right. All in all, it drives like an underpowered electric car.

The FCV doing cold weather testing in Yellowknife, Canada. Toyota

A High Price for Meh

Toyota hasn’t released U.S. pricing for the FCV, but it will charge Japanese customers $69,000. A few years ago, it said it was aiming to deliver the 2015 car for $50,000, which is still a lot of money for a car that won’t save you any money on fuel, can only be filled at select stations in California, and is barely more fun to drive than a Camry—whether or not you’re helping the planet breathe.
“There’s no doubt, that the success of this technology will depend less on the genius of the car, than on the ownership experience,” says Bob Carter, a Toyota senior vice president. “Cost in one thing, but convenience is another.” It’s a fair point, but the high price would hardly be an issue if the drive experience were more fulfilling. Tesla customers can justify the $71,070 base price and reduced range of the Model S because the battery-powered sedan is not only elegant, it’s one of the most thrilling and capable cars you can buy today. The most powerful version goes from 0 to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds with enough torque to imitate the space shuttle taking off.
The Toyota FCV has an edgy look to grab attention, especially for a four-door midsize sedan. Toyota’s design philosophy of “air into water” results in nice lines from the front to the rear. (Toyota isn’t showing off the interior just yet.) But the car is missing the performance to back up the fresh look and get people really excited about hydrogen.
Toyota may be right to say fuel cell cars have a place alongside their hybrid and battery-powered brethren in the roster of future technologies. The best way to prove it—or at least to get the public really interested in the idea—is to give us a hydrogen-powered car that really excites.
Fortunately, Farnsworth says cranking up the power of an FCEV would mostly be a question of increasing the number of plates in the fuel cell stack, which presumably comes with a few extra engineering challenges. Toyota’s already working with Hino Motors to make fuel cell-powered commercial vehicles, which require bigger power plants. Even better, it’s got an agreement with BMW to jointly develop a fuel cell system by 2020. BMW is very good at making cars that don’t suck (or bore), so we’ve got high hopes.

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