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Nissan's Around View arrives in the US December
Ok, it's not a jetpack or flying car but Nissan's new Around View Monitor is impressive transportation tech nonetheless. Best of all, it's available this month in Japan's new Elgrand before showing up Stateside December in the new Infiniti EX35. The Around View Monitor synthesizes the system's four, 180-degree cameras into a single display for a bird's-eye-view of your car's position on the road. Now even Bridge-n-Tunnelers will be able to parallel park outside their favorite East Village bar. Full video after the break. [Via FarEastGizmos]
Infiniti's EX35 Around View Monitor system makes windows redundant
Infiniti looks to be upping the ante in in-car cameras considerably with its new Around View Monitor system, which makes its first appearance in the company's new Infinti EX35 SUV. As you can probably guess, the system includes cameras at the front, rear, and sides of the vehicle, which are apparently intended primarily to help with parking, but we're sure will also find plenty of use for practical jokes around the neighborhood. While they didn't take advantage of that particular possibility, the folks at AutoSpies did get to check out the vehicle first hand, and they've thankfully provided a video of the camera system in action, which you can check out after the break.
Nissan NA warns that cellphones could disable intelligent keys
For proud owners of Nissan's newest Altima or Infiniti's G35 sedan, we certainly hope you don't habitually stuff your shiny new I-Key in the same pocket as that diminutive handset, or you may return from your next stop to find yourself totally immobile. In a rather bizarre (and strangely ambiguous) announcement, Nissan North America has claimed that owners of the 2007 Altima and G35 should make certain that their "intelligent key" is kept at least "one inch away" from their cellphone at all times, as getting too close for comfort could cause the keys to be "erased, rendering them unable to unlock or start the car." Interestingly, a Nissan spokesperson stated that the company found "incoming and outgoing calls had the potential to alter the electronic code within the I-Key," and as if that weren't tragic enough, the keys seemingly can't be reprogrammed afterwards. Of course, the firm assured everyone that the issue was only in "a very small percentage" of the total keys (and cars) sold, and while a new iteration will be out this fall, you can presumably rent a car and drive to your dealer for a replacement if the glitch hits your whip.
2007 Infiniti G35 gets in-dash system with hard drive and CF
Infiniti's G35 may be the most expensive CD ripper you ever bought (or lusted after, anyway). The new 2007 G35 has an in-dash system apparently outfitted with not only a CompactFlash slot, but a CD player that will also rip and encode your CDs for storage on an internal drive of unspecified size (we're really hoping the "9.5G" mentioned in the article is a model designation, and not capacity). Sure, it might just be easier to have a removable drive (or USB port) for dropping already-ripped or, um, downloaded songs into your car, but Infiniti must not expect the unclean to understand luxe doesn't always mean ease.[Via Anything But iPod]
iPods and Macs taking over cars
Woops, I take my "Macs aren't going anywhere" post back, as they're certainly going one place in a big way lately: cars. I have a double dose of iPod/Mac in-car news coming at you from our sibling site, Autoblog. First up: they caught wind of a projection from the Telematics Research Group that by 2011, 73 million cars on the road could have iPod integration. I'm no professional, but I'll toss my own prediction into the hat: by 2011, a lot of un-burned blank CD's are going to be lying around.Next on the list is probably the slickest "Mac mini in a car" setup I have seen to date. As if one Mac mini feeding two screens in a 2006 Infiniti M45 Sport isn't enough, the creator is also using a Palm Treo 650 and Salling Clicker to run the setup, as well as Rsync X and an AirPort network to keep the mini's library in tune with a PowerMac G5 in the house. Oh yea, how could I forget the Mac mini also seems to be running Front Row? Maybe that's why this setup wasn't featured on that new "Big Ideas" page Apple just put up.
