Specialized
Latest
Specialized's latest e-bike is a lighter, easier-to-ride city cruiser
Specialized has introduced the Turbo Como SL, a super light e-bike meant for maneuverability and less effort when you pedal.
Specialized partners with a Tesla co-founder to recycle e-bike batteries
By all accounts, e-bikes are having a bit of a moment: at one point during the pandemic, sales of powered bicycles outpaced all others by a considerable margin. The appealing of easy, socially distanced rides can be hard to ignore, but the resulting boom in sales has led to a pivotal moment for e-bike makers: What do they do with the batteries once they can’t power rides anymore?
Specialized's latest e-bike is a super-light all-rounder
Specialized has been churning out road and mountain bikes since the 70s, and developed its first electric model in 2012. Since then we've seen the company's chops in action as it electrified many of its models, and the new Turbo Vado SL, in particular, seems like it could become a fan-favorite.
Specialized Turbo e-bike reaches the US, offers a speed boost for $5,900
When Specialized's Turbo e-bike launched last year, it was almost too fast for its own good when it couldn't legally be sold in Europe and the US. The American riders, at least, won't be held back now that the Turbo is on sale in their country. The US version costs an eye-watering $5,900, but it can reach the same 27.9MPH peak speed through its combination of pedal power and the 250W of typical output from the electric motor. With that kind of performance, it could almost pay for itself -- who wouldn't want to blow past rush hour traffic in the bike lane?
Specialized Turbo e-bike is too fast and furious for the western world (video)
While not quite the fastest commercially available e-bike in the world as some have suggested (as far as we can tell, that claim belongs to a DIY kit out of Taiwan by a company called Cyclone), the Specialized Turbo is still a speedy little beast. In fact, it's fast enough to find itself on the wrong side of the law both here in the US and across most of Europe. The 250 W rear hub motor is powerful enough to get this guy up to about 28 MPH, or 8 MPH over the legal limit here in America. It's the other features, though, that make this guy particularly interesting. The frame has integrated LED head and tail lights, regenerative braking and the 342 Wh battery can be juiced in just two hours from an outlet. There's even a backlit display that lets you monitor charge and assistance level, as well as standard bike computer stats like speed, distance and time. Oh, and it even supports ANT+ for wirelessly connecting with your existing accessories. The Specialized Turbo is expected to land in some European nations in May for €5,499. Check out the video after the break to see it in action.
Eizo industrial monitor does 4K resolution at 36-inches, start saving now
Looking for a display that can do justice to all that 4K footage you've been shooting on your Red One or Arri Alexa lately? Okay, perhaps not. But if you were, then the DuraVision FDH3601 from Eizo Nanao could handle it easily with 4096 x 2160 pixels spread over 36.4-inches of LED-backlit real estate. It comes with another big number too: a price tag of ¥2.88 million ($36,000), which gently hints at the fact that this beast is primarily aimed at specialist industrial applications. Eizo claims it's perfect for air traffic control, where staff can make full use of specs like "Digital Uniformity Correction" circuitry to compensate for uneven color or brightness, motion sensors to power the monitor on or off as needed, and a stand that can be minutely adjusted to get the perfect angle. Suddenly, despite the heavy burden of responsibility and the fact that you have to keep your phone switched off all the time, that career choice seems almost worth it.
Plastikman releases SYNK, an app for his tour
Earlier we were hearing that Apple might get involved in location-based ad-hoc social networking, and now it looks like Plastikman might beat them to the punch. That's the DJ, not the superhero -- he's released an iPhone app that's designed to be used at his concerts this summer, giving you some personal involvement on your iPhone while the music and video of the show goes on around you. It's a free download, and while at a concert on a free Wi-Fi network, the app will receive real-time information about the music and video during the show, and even give access to some of the samples being used. Outside of shows, the app says it will work as an "atmospheric location shifter," using the iPhone's microphone and headphones to wrap users "in a Plastikman environment." Whatever that means. The point here is that this is an app actually built for a specific location, adding in specific funcationality when you're on a certain Wi-Fi network. That's a very cool idea. Even if you don't have Plastikman tickets (looks like he's only playing Coachella and one show in Detroit here in the US), the idea of location-specific software is one we'll probably see come up again in the future.
Blue Mars developer too good at replicating reality
See if you can follow our reasoning on this one. Avatar Reality, the creators of the Blue Mars project, which is aimed at delivering a next-gen graphical Second Life-like MMO, are outsourcing the actual content of the game, while they work on the engine. Given the screenshots, and what we've been told by the studio, there will likely be many replicas of real-life objects -- golf equipment, for example, for the golf game that's said to be in development. However, one of Blue Mars' third-party developers, Virtual Space Entertainment, sports a company logo that's eerily similar to that of mountain bike-makers Specialized. Is VSE so into their role as replicators of real things that the mandate has seeped into every aspect of the company? Someone's in trouble here, and it's not Specialized.[Thanks, Peter!]
