|
Drive Different. & Teeny. (6/16/99)
|
 
|
| | |
We saw it first over at Mac OS Rumors, and then NoBeige picked up on the story, too... If you thought the Volkswagen Beetle was the iMac of the automotive world, it's time to take a look at the Toyota e-com. It's small, round, even cuter than the bug (albeit in a vaguely disturbing manner), and sports a very familiar two-tone silver-and-teal exterior that looks suspiciously reminiscent of a certain translucent personal computer that hit the market last August. Heck, even the names are similar. iMac. e-com. Two vowels, an "m," and a "c." (Give or take a hyphen.)
And it's not just looks and names that make the e-com so iMac-like; the e-com thinks different, too. Or rather, it runs different. It's an electric car that's powered by twenty-four "sealed nickel-metal hydride batteries." One charge gets you about 60 miles of travel, at a top speed of 62 miles per hour. And this is very cool-- when you apply the brakes, some of the kinetic energy being lost as the e-com slows down is actually redirected back to the batteries to charge them. Innovative? Undoubtably. As innovative as a completely round translucent mouse with a two-color ball that you can see spinning? You be the judge. And get this-- we hear the e-com ships without a floppy drive. Imagine!
But the thing about the e-com that really kills us is the size. This thing looks teeny. Presumably it has to be, since it's pretty much running on old PowerBook batteries, but still... You know that McDonald's commercial with the business traveler who, at the end of the day, just wants to be "Super-Sized"? It was Katie, AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae, who noticed the distinct similarity between the e-com and the "two-door Speck." How cool is that?
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (1606)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/16/99 episode: June 16, 1999: Move over, Beetle-- there's a new iCar in town. Meanwhile, David Boies leaps back into the "Redmond Justice" fray, eviscerating a Microsoft witness in the process, and the lurking horror known as Divx dies a well-deserved death...
Other scenes from that episode: 1607: Who's Watching Whom? (6/16/99) Well, well, well... Where "Redmond Justice" is concerned, "ask and ye shall receive" seems to be the order of the day. Yesterday we mentioned that government lawyer David Boies, despite an auspicious beginning, has been slacking off a bit in the courtroom melodrama department in recent weeks... 1608: The Side Of Good Prevails (6/16/99) While it's not strictly germane to our usual subject matter here at AtAT, we've just got to take a little time out to do a happy dance on Divx's grave. That's right; as of today, Divx is history. Kaput...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
