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Goodyear's self-inflating tires could improve gas mileage, leave Schrader valves unsatisfied
Reminiscent of Ghostbuster's Marshmallow Man, new Goodyear tires might just Stay-Puft on their own. The company is developing Air Maintenance Technology (AMT) tires with built-in pumps to keep themselves at the perfect pressure. The reason? Even slightly under-inflated tires can drop your mileage by 3.3 percent, costing you cash at the pump. For highway-hustling commercial trucks that's a whole lot of moola, leading the US Department of Energy's Office of Vehicle Technology to grant Goodyear $1.5 million towards self-plumping commercial tire development. For those of us who don't wear mesh hats, Goodyear is working on a consumer version in its Luxembourg lab. It's unclear exactly how they will work, but earlier implementations have a pipe that's compressed as the tire rolls, allowing air to enter the tire without bursting thanks to a pressure sensitive valve. With so much automated car technology now all we need is the kind that cleans out its own trunk and pumps its own gas. Check out the full PR after the break.
Switzerland leads in Mac market share around the world
The official Pingdom blog did a little research into Mac market share around the world according to StatCounter (all based on browser visits to a pretty solid sample of 3 million websites), and it turns out that Switzerland is the most Mac country in the world. OS X has a 17.61 percent market share there, making it the country with the highest share on the planet. We've actually heard this before -- the Macworld Expo has been to Switzerland, and there are a number of terrific Apple Stores in that country as well. The Swiss really love their quality computers, apparently. Luxembourg follows next on the list, and the United States comes in at third with 15.36 percent Mac share. The United Kingdom, strangely, didn't make it into the top 10 of the list at all, and the Mac share in Asia, where Apple is making big pushes lately, is only 1.61 percent. Granted, one percent of a couple billion computers is still a lot, but you'd expect that to grow over the next few years. The least Mac-savvy region in the entire world? South America, where Mac OS X, according to these numbers, claims only a 1.08 percent market share. Looks like more of our friends to the south will have to look into just how enjoyable using a Mac can be. [via 9to5Mac]
iPad hitting nine more countries this Friday
Apple has just let word out that it'll be bringing its super-selling slate to nine new markets. The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore are all getting their hands on the device this Friday, July 23. We were just remarking on how the iPad's sales pace had slowed down recently, but this expansion in markets should move things along toward rounding the next milestone. Local pricing hasn't yet been revealed, but it's not like there's long to wait now. "Many" more countries are promised before the end of the year, so don't despair if your local Apple Store isn't stocking the iPad just yet.
