So what is a P2 anyway?

I recently blogged about the innovative Prodrive motorsport technology company that was involved in the reacquisition of Aston Martin. Prodrive have their fingers in a lot of pies and are cutting edge in every way. They not only make modified sports cars in to extreme racing vehicles, they also make satellite technology and are soon to venture in to combined heat and power systems for houses utilising Sterling engines.

However, cars are their bread and butter and in an effort to demonstrate their prowess in all things automotive, at the behest of their owner David Richards, they designed and developed their own car - the P2. As you will see from the photo, it looks incredible but the fun lies beneath the gunmetal silver paintwork.

The technology packed in to its 2-seater frame includes anti-lag turbo that gives instant oomph, selectable active rear diff that virtually sticks it to the road, a 2 litre engine that takes it from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds and active torque dynamics that has sensors dispersed across the car, monitoring everything. Mind you, it was designed by Peter Stevens, the man who designed the McLaren F1, probably the greatest car ever made....

The best tv show in the world, Top Gear, tested the car and it yielded astonishing results relative to it's size, projected cost, and engine size and even made Jeremy Clarkson vomit due to that lateral g forces he felt because the active diff was so good at keeping the car going round in a circle.

Sadly Prodrive have no plans to produce the car, so we can only dream about owning one...

IT IKEA?

The General stumbled across this sweet piece of gadgetry....a touchscreen coffee table with integrated pc technology. It's called the 'Misto' but is not on general release as yet. It still looks very tasty and no doubt offers a glimpse of the future of....furniture.

Prodrive – Cutting edge automobile company brings Aston Martin back in to British hands.

The General is delighted to see that most iconic of British brands, Aston Martin, return to British ownership from the hands of Ford. I am a Ford fan but the AM stable always seemed an unlikely fit with the mass-production nature of the US giant. Nothing personal but we’ll take this one back for safe-keeping thanks Uncle Sam. Sir Winston would approve...

You may not have heard of the new owners but they are very famous in motoring terms – Prodrive. They will be even more famous from next year when they launch their own Formula 1 team. Led by the genius David Richards CBE, Prodrive provide absolutely cutting edge tech to the automotive industry including work on cars such as the Aston Martin DBR cars (Custom racing variants of their sports cars – lovely!), Ford Focus RS, Mazda RZ-8 PZ, numerous limited edition Subarus and their World Rally team, Ford’s world rally team, custom components, electrics etc. etc….I could go on.

For more information check their website – http://www.prodrive.com/ - you will be there for hours. They have even recently made technology for space-borne satellites such is their prowess for precision engineering!

Needless to say TDG reckons this will herald a new beginning for Britain’s coolest brand (see more) and see Aston challenging the Ferraris and Lambos of this world.

More about the innovative Prodrive soon…

Ford and Microsoft – A match made in heaven?

In a link up of two of the most famous companies and brands in the world, Ford and Microsoft have unveiled a specialised in-car operating system that will soon be installed in US Ford cars.

The OS will allow voice-controlled navigation of your I.C.E. (in car entertainment for those over 25!) so you can shout out what you need or want. Should be cool if they can pull it off but what happens if you are singing along with a song – beep – next message – damn, I was enjoying that one! It's about time that in-car pc's came as standard. They could link with your home network when you park in your driveway to enable wireless transfer of music, maps, downloads etc. - the possibilities are endless and no doubt why Microsoft are getting involved.

RIAA - Worst company in America

Nice to see the company that led the attacks on downloading being voted the worst in America recently. The RIAA beat the mighty Exxon to the title. Hopefully they will realise they are not speaking for everyone when they try to force DRM on everything whether we want it or not, especially on consumers outside the USA.

At least Apple seem to realise the impact of security on music sales and Microsoft's Zune has wi-fi for transferring files so surely DRM would restrict this as well? Is the spirit of Napster coming back?

Xbox 360 gets HDMI

After a campaign of insider information, illicit black market photography via mobiles, rumour, misinformation and flat out denial that wouldn’t look out of place in a Le Carré spy novel the Xbox 360 is getting HDMI at last to allow us HD freaks to make the most of our big screens. A bigger hard drive (120gb) is to be included in this 2nd edition of the box as well and is to be known as the ‘Elite’ edition. In a shout out to the first generation xbox, the new variant will come in all black – and looks rather tasty if you ask me.

. Many commentators have said they doubt if the HDMI connection will add any great picture improvement over the component cable currently provided but is probably more of a thinly veiled attempt to yield to HDCP. One factor against this upgrade may be the lack of available connections round the back of the new tv screens. Some only have one HDMI slot and a component option. Once HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drivers become more popular along with HD cable/satellite boxes (sorry Freeview – it ain’t happening for you) then where do we go to hook everything up? HDMI switching boxes are pricey but may become necessary if you want to avoid having to blindly fumble round the back of your tv on a daily basis.

Either way The General likes the look of this piece of kit….

Apple - A bite out of mobile phones?

So the mighty Apple have announced plans for an iPhone (subject to a likely court battle with Cisco Systems over the name) – a mobile combined with the ubiquitous iPod (powered by tech from an Edinburgh company too!). The big question is, will this be a killer app or will it simply be another in the long line of devices that tries to be great at everything but ends up being good at nothing. The stats back up the fact that many people buy their mobile based on the multitude of extras within its confines yet end up only ever using the phone component after about 3 months of ownership – the snazzy additional apps rendered redundant. However, there is an already massive and still growing business for buying music through mobile phones so don’t discount it straight away.

There is a long held belief in a/v that separate devices provide better quality (and a potential path for upgrades) so it will be interesting to see how the Apple device fares…

Trans-media Storytelling – An untapped opportunity…

The more I think about the trilogy of Matrix movies, the more I think how much of a missed opportunity they represented. The Wajchowski brothers took what I believe to be a unique approach to telling their story by expanding the tale of Neo and his fellow humans in their battle with the machines across various forms of media, in this case including a video game (Enter the Matrix by Atari/Activision) and anime-style cartoons (The Animatrix - only on DVD).
The concept was incredibly clever – the mainstream products (the movies) would stand alone as a story-telling medium but if the ardent fan wanted more depth to the storyline, he or she could dip in to the other outlets to get a bit more background. The pc game merged in nicely with the beginning of the ‘Revolutions’ movie for example. However, the execution was left lacking as the game featured brutal gameplay and graphics akin to an Eighties console game – not in keeping with the cutting-edge high-flying visuals of the movies. Also, anime cartoons are not necessarily to everyone’s liking.

The only other example I can think of such a cross-media approach prior to the Matrix movies was the prequel comic produced for the Independence Day movie but more recently a more measured and careful approach has been taken with the hugely popular ‘Halo’ video game franchise - an approach likely to be replicated in many other areas in future.

Halo was the original launch title for the first Xbox and has become a cultural phenomenon with the sequel ‘Halo 2’ setting awesome sales records. Low key expansion of the storyline has included a series of books (currently numbering four) and a graphic novel which again grew the storyline for the ardent fan but critically has always left them (us!) wanting more and the casual fan at no loss for having delved further afield. The hype surrounding the upcoming Halo 3 has left every gamer at a fever pitch and this despite a very cloak and dagger approach from the game’s developers (Bungie) who seem to actively restrain the promotion of the game rather than cynically milking it for all they can. The recent hold put on the planned Halo movie showed incredible restraint from Microsoft (Bungie’s owner), and clearly illustrates the high value they place on the franchise.

When the movie companies behind the film (20th Century Fox and Universal) tried to leverage their position to obtain a bigger slice of the revenues, Microsoft called their bluff and walked away from the deal, confident in the power of the intellectual property of their product. They should be applauded for this less is more approach, one that is bound to be followed in future as the power (and money-making success) of Halo grows. Halo 3 is set for release in 'Fall 2007' - likely to be October-ish.

MPAA - caught with their hands in the digital cookie jar!

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The Cyborg Ninja

Marshalling the troops of the Digital War.....