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Jaguar's smart windshield will eliminate blind spots
It's hard to spot every possible road hazard. Mirrors and cameras will show what's behind you, but your car's roof pillars can still hide careless pedestrians and aggressive drivers. They won't be issues if Jaguar's 360-degree Virtual Urban Windscreen comes to fruition. The update to the company's windshield project uses cameras to create "transparent" pillars which highlight threats you can't see, giving you an extra moment to take evasive action. It promises distraction-free navigation, too -- the screen generates a ghost car that shows you where to turn, as if you're simply following a friend. The technology is still in mid-development and probably won't be as sleek as Jaguar's concept video suggests, but it hints at a future where you're rarely caught off-guard while driving.
Oona smartphone stand, as seen on Kickstarter
Take an iChair, remove the case, add a suction cup and, voilà, the Oona smartphone stand. The Oona stand is a Kickstarter project, looking to raise US $10,000 to produce the first run of the neat, unobtrusive stands that look perfect for holding your iPhone steady on your desk or attaching it to your car windscreen. We liked the iChair a lot and there'll be a hands-on review tomorrow, May 11, on TUAW TV live. The Oona fills a slightly different need, particularly in places where you want to have your iPhone stuck to something rather than just resting it on a flat surface. Its developers have gone to some lengths to use just the right kind of material for the suction cup. "We spent a lot of time designing the right suction cup for The Oona," says Sam Gordon, one of the project founders. "The ones we prototyped early on were made of a thermoplastic elastomer so they could be easily injection molded. After testing we found that low shore durometer silicone produced the best results." The Oona is designed to be stuck and un-stuck many times a day, rather than rest in place for long periods of time. Its size lends itself to this usage as it is certainly small enough to be carried around easily. Check out the Kickstarter page and let us know what you think. a
