Gizmodo: clarity

ClarityLife Phone: Good For Me and My Momma

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:20:00 EDT

If you're like me, you worry about your momma, even if you're just runnin' out to the grocery store. I used to like the Jitterbug, but ClarityLife phone might be what I should get her. It's got a big screen cuz her eyes aren't so good anymore, and it's got an amplifier that brings incoming voices up by 20 dB, cuz her ears aren't like they used to be either. There's a one-touch button on the back that will call and send text messages to five pre-programmed names, so if she takes a spill she can call for help. Best of all, no contract. What is my momma gonna do with 800 minutes of talktime? She'll talk for 800 minutes, but she doesn't need a phone to do it. Even if you don't buy her some fancy new old-person's phone, remember, treat your mother right. [Clarity Products]

Honda to Mass Produce Hydrogen Cars in 10 Years

Mark Wilson — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:37:24 EST

While I desperately could use a new car (OK, it's fine and I barely drive, but my ego could certainly use it), I have a hard time buying into any technology in the auto market. Gas prices are only getting worse (as we run out of the stuff) and hybrids are a bandage where we need stitches or maybe an amputation. But for those who missed our original article, the Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car drives like a dream, emits nothing but water vapor and can be leased by real people to actually drive. It's a viable product...but only 100 are on the market.

So when is Honda planning to mass produce their awesome fuel cell technology? Not for 10 years according to Honda President Takeo Fukui. Why? Or should we say, WHY???????????

It doesn't seem like they're waiting on the cars themselves. Instead, it's a lack of hydrogen refuel stations that is making the job difficult, along with a lack of a feasible home solution for consumers. So Honda is working on the home solution part. And while it sounds like a nice idea, I don't mind stopping at the gas station every once in a while...and we'll certainly have plenty of open corners once hydrogen technology destroys fossil fuels. But apparently Honda plans to build their own infrastructure within the home to force private business to follow. [jcnnetwork]

Honda FCX Clarity Hydrogen Car Tested (Verdict: Star Trek)

Mark Wilson — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:56:26 EST

Our brothers from another mother(s) over at Jalonik got to test-drive the Honda FCX Clarity, a hydrogen fuel cell car from Honda that gets the equivalent of 68mpg in a conversion metric that (we'll be honest here) confounds us since the car uses no gas at all. So what was Jalopnik's verdict?

At one point we even found ourselves behind a Ford Escape Hybrid with a license plate that read, "NO HUMMR." I was reminded of Star Trek IV...

Oh...this is gonna be good.

...when Kirk and the boyz warp back to the year 1986 and Bones finds a woman hooked up to a kidney dialysis machine. He feeds her some pills made from super futuristic technology, unhooks her from the apparatus and declares the then contemporary state of medicine, "Barbaric." All around us people were driving vehicles that in their minds are atop the environmental food chain. Yet they're still emitting loads of dirty old carbon dioxide (and whatever else) into the atmosphere derived from a tank full of Middle Eastern crude. Meanwhile we're zooming past all of 'em, dripping only water while nestled comfortably behind the wheel of the future.

Wow, when the diesel-lovers at Jalopnik are impressed, we're impressed. it's just too bad that only 100 will be driving around in the LA area, leased for $600/month.

Here's Honda's latest commercial that just makes us love the car more.
[jalopnik]