Gizmodo: kawasaki

80s Superhero Alert: Motorcycle Features Full-Sized Sidecar

Mark Wilson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:02:52 EDT

The sidecar always seemed like a precarious way to ride a motorcycle. So maybe it's a good thing that this ridiculous yet awe-inducing "Snaefell" fit a whole 2-seater car on the side of a bike.

It's the product of 10 years and $20,000 worth of custom work, a combination of a Kawasaki 1000 RX the and a Citroën Xantia...along with who knows what else (though Laverda is name-dropped, too). And it reminds us how wonderful the world would be if only more of our transportation were designed by the M.A.S.K. team. [Snaefell via Auto Motto via DVICE]

217MPH Japanese Train Will be Good For the Environment, Going 217MPH

John Herrman — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:45:00 EDT

Rail-happy Japan, a country that probably takes great joy in watching America's embarrassingly slow and fitful adoption of high-speed and maglev trains, will be graced with new breed of green, 200+ mph trains by 2010. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the designer of these new trains, isn't promoting speed as the main selling point—Japan railways have seen much faster hardware fly down the tracks before—but instead is emphasizing its environmental benefits.

The main bit of green tech will sound somewhat familiar to car enthusiasts; regenerative braking, which converts braking resistance to electricity, has been a standard feature of hybrid cars for quite a few years now. The 217 mph cruising speed, not so much. For reference, Amtrak only serves about five destinations with its high-speed service, which tops out at 150mph on a good day. For terror, consider that the Metrolink crash that killed over 25 people occurred at no more than 50mph. [Wired]

Homemade Electric Motocycle Gets 300mpg

Mark Wilson — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:26:00 EDT

Yes, this homemade electric motorcycle gets the gas price equivalent of 300 miles per gallon. Yes, its speeds hit 40mph within its modest 15 mile range. And yes, the engine runs silently with zero vibration. But don't blame the auto companies. They work really hard. And besides, with their limited resources, how can they be expected to compete with one guy who has limited mechanical training buying all of his parts on Craigslist? [hellforleather via bbgadgets]

Ballmer Talks iPhone SDK, Screams Again

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:25:42 EST

After dismissing the iPhone as "silly" last year (just to see it crushing Windows Mobile's market share a few days ago,) The Other Steve spilt his thoughts on the iPhone announcement yesterday, all during the Mix'08 keynote with Guy Kawasaki. Ballmer touched on Adobe-Flash-wannabe Silverlight on the iPhone, Apple's cut on iPhone's application distribution and Apple's ActiveSync license. All good, until he reprised his chimptastic "developers, developers, developers" screams, which got caught on (YES!) video:

• They like the idea of being in the iPhone with Silverlight instead of Flash: "Silverlight for the iPhone is of course interesting," he said. "I can't say there's been extensive discussion with Guy's old boss [Steve Jobs]."

• Far from being non-profit, he accused Apple to take a too-large slice off the developer: "grabbing 30 percent of every bit of revenue, it's a good business if you can make it."

• This model may limit the royalty free distribution of Silverlight: He failed to notice that 30% of zero dollars is zero dollars.

• The Exchange connection was not a surprise for Microsoft: "We've licensed ActiveSync for a while. That's been an option that's been available to Apple. It was certainly an option we knew Apple might take advantage of."

• The scream reprisal is not a joke, as this video shows.

On his defense, someone asked him to do it. Actually, forget about the defense. No wonder Bill is divorcing him. [Georg Holzer via ISS via Cnet]