2006 BMW 530xi

BMW is finally offering all-wheel drive for their 5-series passenger car. They offered all wheel drive on the 3-series in 1991 but took a break until the 2001 model year. They never offered this on other sedan offerings. That always surprised me since Audi has been doing very well in this segment. Mercedes-Benz got into the arena in 1990 for their E-Class but they bowed out for several years. As of 2004 they (MB) offered 4matic for all their sedan offerings. So now it seems all preium/luxury marques have some AWD sedan offering. (Infiniti, Lexus, Cadillac etc.)

BMW could out-Audi in this offering. Leaving in the NorthEast I'm more reliant on all-wheel drive. My 2002 A6 2.7t was the first Audi (as well as my first all-wheel drive) I had. I don't know how I managed to drive around here without AWD. The car is basically unstoppable. This doesn't give me license to drive like an idiot but makes me feel much more comfortable that I won't get stuck somewhere. This self-confidence makes the commute home much easier.

Next Gen XBOX announced at GDC 2005

Be sure to check out the next generation XBox guide Hi-Res photos.

Motorola to announce new iTunes capable phone this week?

It was announced in MacWorld this year that Motorola would announce a phone that would work with iTunes. What's next Kohler will announce an iTunes enabled toilet? Anyway, I'm sure this will spark interest. Odds are more people carry cell phones with them on a daily basis than an MP3 player. (or PocketPC/Palm OS device-my wife has a Treo 600 and will never go back to a "plain" phone...but that sounds like a topic for a different post) So I guess people will see the benefit if they only have to carry one device but retain the same form factor that they are used to. Not sure how Apple's CLICK WHEEL functionality will be ported over to a cell phone.

Disposable DVDs - The end of rental returns?

Here something that I found today. The BLOG author makes reference to an article that is over a year and half old (as he states himself) but the issue is still relevant. Seems like the company flexplay is like a lazy man's NetFlix. I'm all for recycling but this seems like a deliberate way to put strain on the environment rather that eliviate it. To me they are answering a question no one is asking. There is a "What is Flexplay?" video stream on the Amazon.com site. After looking at it, I just can't understand how then can allude "Watch what you want, when you want". Every rental place allows you to "watch want you want" as far as the claim "when you want"...if the when is within 48 hours of you opening the package then OK...they're correct. They also state that a movie can be viewable up to one year if the packaging hasn't been opened. Who's going to want to prove that wrong. I know in the early days some players worked like some demo software works today. (e.g. Allowing you a certain number of starts before the program stops working). After poking around a bit more while writing this I found another article that shows this is still a current topic.

NOTE: It looks like I'm having an issue with trackbacks. I'll see what I can fix...my apologize to the orignating BLOG author. I may just do a direct link if I can't resolve this issue.

Audi Celebrates its 25th Year offering quattro

Be sure to check out the videos of the Audi driving up a ski jump ramp at 60 kmph. Granted studded tires where used but still impressive. (the original commerical was aired in 1986 and they repeated the event in Jan. 2005 to introduce the all new Audi A6)

2005 Geneva Auto Show (3-Mar until 13-Mar)

It is nice to see the product intros in Europe. They have some unique cars that will never bring over here.

Scopetech.net - Up and running

Dan Huard's site has been open since 01-Mar-2005. Kevin Rose posted a link on his site announcing this as well. Should be a good hangout for those loyal TechTV viewers (Call for Help, The Screensavers etc.) before Comcast bought them out to create the short-lived G4TechTV. (As of Feb. 2005 Comcast dropped the "TechTV" part and is now known as G4 once again. If you like games (and I mean LIKE games....like as in every show having gaming in it) not a bad place to visit once in a while but they no longer offer the tech stuff they had before. Well with sites like Dan's Kevin's and Leo's there should be enough tech discussions to go around.

Captive Motion Picture Audience of America

I stumbled accross this and I totally agree that being forced to watch commercials before the movie plays is SO ANNOYING! It isn't as though movie prices have been lowered by these. Anyway, read the article. At least I don't feel like I'm alone on this.

iPod Shuffle Update (After applying iPod Updater Software)

Long title...short story. It appears the latest version of the iPod software for the shuffle (1.1 versus the orginal 1.0) has corrected the eratic behavior we experience. My wife has now maxed out the shuffle and was disappointed that the 1GB only took 255 songs. I'm glad I didn't get the 512MB version!