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| Mobile life |
According to a study by The Australian National University (ANU), life would now be much harder to organise without our mobile phones. A survey of more than 1,300 mobile phone users, which included an analysis of each respondent's last 10 calls, revealed that the essential device - invented as a business tool for executives - is now mainly used for contacting family and friends.
90% of those surveyed confessed that everyday life would be 'unimaginable' without a mobile. The vast majority said that letting family members know when they would be home was among the most important function of their phone, while parents said the phone was essential for keeping tabs on their children. The survey found that family-related calls vastly outweighed work-related calls and 75% of respondents said they felt much more secure with a mobile phone in their pocket or handbag. |
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| Saddle sore |
| Three naked cyclists have been fined for 'disrupting public peace and order' after riding along the banks of the River Danube during a Serbian heatwave. As temperatures soared, the two Austrians and a German took to their bikes with no clothes on, and were promptly reported to the police by passers-by in the northern city of Novi Sad. The cyclists were arrested and subsequently fined $200 each. |
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| Going for gold |
Samsung Electronics is to manufacture a special 18-carat gold-plated mobile phone in China to mark next year's Olympics in Beijing.
The sleek P318 phone is actually mostly black, but with a gold trim on the sides and half of the back and has yet to be priced, but will be on the Chinese market in time for the start of the summer games, which will run 8-24 August 2008. |
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| Wwwacky website |
www.weatherbonk.com
is officially a mash-up - a website that pools features from several different sites so that you can easily make use of all of them without having to trawl the net. It's a very good mash-up though that brings in weather forecasting sites from around the globe so you can find out whether or not it's raining just about anywhere. Just type in the location of your brother-in-law's aunt's second-cousin's house in Auckland and you'll instantly know if he should be taking an umbrella to work, or his sun hat. Google's trusty zoomable maps and webcam views of locations make Weather Bonk a totally addictive site. Who knew world weather could be so fascinating? |
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Volume 12.08
August 2007 |
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Hello Welcome to the August issue of Fleettorque, brought to you by Fleetcare!
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Locked out |
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 Car manufacturers are concentrating their efforts on developing new locks that simply don't operate if the driver has had too much to drink.
Saab's Alco Key is just one of several 'alcohol locks' now being trialled. No bigger than a mobile phone, the key fob comes with a tube to test the driver's breath for alcohol - if the reading shows that the driver is over the legal blood alcohol limit, the Alco Key won't allow the car's ignition to be started.
The devices can be retro-fitted to the cars to prevent convicted drink-drivers from making the same mistake twice.
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Hyundai Tucson City |
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 It may look like its V6-engined 4x4 siblings, but the four-cylinder Hyundai Tucson City is front-wheel drive only and nominally the base model in Hyundai's compact all-wheel drive range.
Similarly sized to Toyota's RAV4, the Tucson feels like a much smaller car to drive, although it's deceptively spacious inside, with a comfortable amount of space for passengers both in the front and the back and room to stow a good deal of luggage.
The Tucson is just as feature-packed as its more expensive rivals too, with dual extending sun-visors and illuminated vanity mirrors as standard, as well as a two-way height-adjustable driving seat with lumbar support, a tilt-adjustable steering column, variable-speed intermittent wipers and a decent left foot rest.
A large lockable glovebox is just one of an array of storage options, from generous front door pockets to a bi-level central storage bin. Nevertheless, the Tuscon City SX sells for $24,990. |
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Bio future |
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 Nearly all modern cars could easily be run on a 5% mix of biofuel, according to new research, which also showed that with a little modification most cars could use a 30% mix.
Industry research company Global Insight also concluded that more than 100 billion gallons of bioethanol and biodiesel could be being produced around the world by 2030, which is enough to supply more than 15% of global demand for motoring fuels. In the US, the figure could rise to 35%.
According to Global Insight, corn and sugarcane will remain the lowest cost source of bioethanol, while non-food crops such as jatropha and pond-grown algae could also become important sources. |
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Hey good looking |
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 Just right for watching the Grand Prix, these high-calibre Ferrari Visio binoculars are available in any colour as long as it is the distinctive Ferrari red.
Made by ocular specialist William Optics, the high-class binos even feature the famous Prancing Horse badge on the side, and cost around $240 from
www.williamoptics.com. |
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Electric Smarts |
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 Australian roads will be treated to the new ultra-green version of the Smart Fortwo when it is launched here early next year.
Not content with being the smallest car on the world's highways, it'll also be one of the most fuel efficient, when three models go on sale around the globe. The range of zero and low emissions smart vehicles is aimed at the rapidly growing market for low-emission vehicles market segment, and the line-up will consist of the Fortwo Petrol Hybrid drive, the Fortwo Diesel Hybrid drive and the Fortwo Pure Electric drive.
At the moment though only one model is scheduled for production - the Fortwo Hybrid drive, powered by a 1.0-litre petrol engine coupled to an electric motor to boost fuel economy - which is expected to reach European dealerships by the end of 2007. Meanwhile, the Fortwo CDI Diesel and the Fortwo Electric are still being evaluated by Smart. The diesel version is expected to arrive in 2008, while the future of the zero emissions pure electric version depend on how well the petrol hybrid version fairs on the new car sales chart. But Mercedes, the firm behind the Smart brand, say that if interest in the Fortwo Hybrid is strong and sales rise throughout 2008, the 100% electric model may be fast-tracked to production.
The full model range will be announced closer to the release date, along with Australian specifications and pricing.
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