2010 TOYOTA PRIUS: OVERVIEW

The 2010 Toyota Prius is redesigned with freshened styling, more power, higher EPA fuel-economy figures, and a host of newly standard and optional features. This gas/electric hybrid is a five-passenger, 4-door hatchback that teams a 4-cylinder engine with a battery-powered electric motor and a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). Toyota's hybrid system allows Prius to run on one or both of its power sources to balance acceleration and fuel economy. No plug-in charging is required. Five models are available, called I, II, III, IV, and V. Available safety features include ABS, traction control, antiskid system, curtain side airbags, and front side airbags. The V model has LED headlights, fog lights, and 17-inch alloy wheels vs the 15s on other models. Newly available features include an adjustable-height driver seat, heated front seats, telescopic steering column, and, later in the year, Toyota's Safety Connect assistance system. Also newly offered are some high-end features usually found only on vehicles sold by Toyota's Lexus division, including adaptive cruise control, Lane Keep Assist with lane-departure warning, and Intelligent Parking Assist that provides hands-free parallel parking. Other new options include a solar roof panel that can power a ventilating fan when the car is parked, and electric air conditioning that can be turned on for up to three minutes to cool down the interior before getting in.

2010 TOYOTA SEQUOIA: OVERVIEW

The 2010 Toyota Sequoia gets freshened styling and a new base engine. Sequoia shares elements of its basic design with Toyota's Tundra pickup truck. SR5, Limited, and Platinum trim levels are offered. Newly standard on the SR5 is a 310-hp 4.6-liter V8 engine, which replaces a 276-hp 4.7-liter V8. Optional on SR5 and standard on Limited and Platinum is a 381-hp 5.7-liter V8. All Sequoias have a 6-speed automatic transmission and are available with rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive that can be left engaged on dry pavement. The 4WD system includes a low-range gear for off-road use. Maximum towing capacity is 10,000 lb. All 4WD models with the 5.7 V8 can be equipped to run on E85 ethanol-blended fuel. Seating for eight is standard on SR5 and Limited. Seven-passenger seating via 2nd-row bucket seats is standard on the Platinum and a no-charge option on the Limited. Available safety features include ABS, traction control, antiskid system, curtain side airbags that cover all seating rows, and front side airbags. Standard are a tilt and telescopic steering column and three-zone climate control. Optional on the Limited and standard on the Platinum are a navigation system with real-time traffic information, DVD entertainment, and a rearview camera. Heated and cooled front seats, heated 2nd-row seats, a power-folding 3rd-row seat, and a load-leveling suspension are standard exclusively on the Platinum.

MSI upgrades X-Slim X340 with magnesium shell, Core 2 Duo

MSI has added yet another variant to its ultraportable X-Slim line, this time tweaking its X340 and rebranding it the X350. The X-Slim X350 moves from Intel's 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo processor to a Core 2 Duo unit and features a magnesium laser-etched shell as well as a chiclet keyboard.

Apart from those additions, the system seems largely unchanged. It still packs a 13.4" 1366x768 display, up to 2GB of DDR2 667MHz RAM, Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics, a 320GB or 500GB HDD, an optional external DVD or Blu-ray drive, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and a two-in-one card reader.

Connectivity includes gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n, optional Bluetooth, HDMI and VGA ports, one eSATA/USB combo and two USB 2.0 ports. The system offers the choice between a four or eight-cell battery, weighs about 1.5kg (3.3lbs) and measures just under an inch thick.

MSI hasn't specified when the X350 will ship or how much it will cost. In the meantime, if you're on the market for a similar system, you can read the complete review of the X340 here.

REVIEW ACER FERRARI ONE 200 SUBNOTEBOOK

At the moment there are two models of the Ferrari One 200 available. The entry-level model is the Ferrari One 200-312G25n at 480 euro, which is equipped with two GBDDR2 RAM and a 250 GB, 5400 rpm hard drive. The Ferrari One 200-314G50n under review is sold for 580 euro. It comes with double the RAM capacity, that is 4 GB and also offers a bigger mass storage capacity of 500 GB.

All other components of the two models are identical. AMD's Athlon 64 X2 L310 with 2x 1.20 GHz serves as processor. The integrated on-board graphic chip from ATI is called Radeon HD 3200. Thanks to the XGP-port on the rear side of the case, it is possible to enhance the graphic performance by more powerful external graphic cards. Both models have a small 11.6" display with a resolution of 1366x768 pixel and use Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit as operating system.

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TeliaSonera launches the first LTE (4G) networks in Scandinavia

Let us welcome you into the future. While some already pretty well-developed countries are yet struggling to build reliable 3G networks, TeliaSonera is already making a push for LTE (the 4th gen networks) commercially available.

There are any publicly available phones that can make use of it but those will certainly come sooner rather than later. For now the owners of the LTE-supporting laptop modems will be the only potential customers.

The Sweden and Norwegian capital cities, Stockholm and Oslo are the first to enjoy the blessing 100Mbps-capable touch of the LTE. Ericsson supplied the equipment for the Swedes, while Huawei were chosen in Norway.

Those 100 Mpbs certainly sound pretty impressive, considering that the fastest HSPA-enabled 3G networks today offer a tenth of that. If and when will the mobile phones hardware be able to process data with such speeds is a whole other question of course, but that doesn't make the LTE technology any less of a significant achievement.

Finland will also have their 4G network up and running in Q1 of 2010, and O2 is already testing theirs in the UK so you might want to prepare for a few LTE announcements at the MWC in Barcelona in February next year. Or is it just us getting a little too excited a little too early?

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