Filed under: Diesel, MPG, India, USA

Starting to wonder if the Mahindra TR20 (two-door) and TR40 (four-door) small pickups will ever come to market here in the Says? You’re not alone. Though our Magic 8 Ball still tells us it’s likely that the workhorse compact trucks will indeed make an appearance at some unknown point in the future, news comes by way of PickupTrucks.com that the Indian haulers have been delayed yet again, this time until sometime in the spring of 2010.

Sound familiar? It should - this isn’t Mahindra’s first delay. As a matter of fact, it’s not its second delay, either, not that the extra time is completely unexpected. After all, it’s not easy to launch an entirely new brand in the United States with as-yet untested products.

In any case, Global Cars USA, the chosen distributor for Mahindra’s wares here in the Says, is saying that the TR20 and TR40 have now passed U.S. federal safety requirements and that its estimated 30-mile-per-gallon, 2.2-liter diesel engine has passed emissions standards with the final paperwork to be finished by February. We shall see.

[Source: PickupTrucks.com]

Diesel Delay: Mahindra distributor states trucks coming in spring originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

China Mobile’s current announcement that it’d be getting really tight with RIM — finally — to offer a more official, customized BlackBerry experience to the locals than it had before must have sent off a wave of jealousy among carriers, because competitor China Telecom has wasted no time in following on with an announcement of its own. No roadmap has been set for when we might see devices in the marketplace — the company states that it’s still ironing out specifics with RIM — but we figure this should be an easier rollout than China Mobile, since Telecom uses a hybrid (but well-understood) GSM / EV-DO infrastructure as opposed to Mobile’s essentially one-off TD-SCDMA network. At a glance, it seems like devices like the Storm and Tour are basically ready to rock here, but there’s no question RIM will need to work both with the carrier (to tailor the BlackBerry experience to the needs of a Chinese audience) and with the government, which probably doesn’t love RIM’s infrastructure any more than India does.

China Telecom follows China Mobile’s lead, hooks up with RIM to offer BlackBerry originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Via [apple.qj.net]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Manufacturers and carriers are showing commendable restraint in avoiding absolutely bastardized, walled-garden versions of Android on their handsets (for the most part), but they’re not avoiding it altogether — take Sony Ericsson here, for instance. The company has announced that it’s expanding the reach of its PlayNow app store to cover Android in concert with its launch of the X10, which presumably means that users will be juggling a minimum of two sources for third-party wares on this thing. Long-term, this kind of needless fragmentation seems like one of the greatest threats to Android’s capability to become and remain a heavyweight player in the smartphone ring — but then again, what do we know? It’s not like these guys haven’t already figured out how to dominate before with UIQ… ah, wait. Anyhoo, yeah, back to the topic at hand: devs are now invited to submit their Android apps for inclusion in the PlayNow store, so hey, you may as well — the phone’s looking to be a hottie, so it can’t injured to have your stuff featured on there, we figure.

[Thanks, wimbet]

Sony Ericsson starts taking submissions for Android version of PlayNow originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Filed under: EV/Plug-in

Smith Electric Cars US has nameed Roy Stanley as its chairman of the board. Stanley is also the founder and former chairman of the Tanfield Group, the parent company of Smith’s UK parent and 49 percent owner of the U.S. company. Smith is one of the top manufacturers of electric trucks in the world and, earlier this year, began assembling its Newton medium duty truck at a facility in Kansas City, MO. While running Tanfield, Stanley also started Optare, a bus company specializing in hybrid and electric transit buses. Stanley takes over the reigns at the U.S. operation on January 1. The press release is after the jump.

[Source: Smith Electric Automobiles US]

Continue reading Roy Stanley named chairman of Smith Electric Vehicles US

Roy Stanley named chairman of Smith Electric Vehicles US originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 2% [?]

iPhone app developer iSoft has released a new version of MySMS, a replacement SMS app kinda like BiteSMS. MySMS now stands at version 0.8.6-1. We don’t have a changelog, though, so let’s look at the features instead. Here’s what MySMS can do: Set main password on app loading Total single / individual SMS or conversation deletion (default client just hide a message, it still be in database. mySMS Secure erase and wipe deleted messages, it can’t be restored) Fast load of program and messages Landscape typing Character counter SMS forwarding (works with chat conversations too) Send contacts through SMS Easy contact list search Use stock message templates or create your own Disable autocorrection Use your own skin A free but unregistered version of MySMS can be downloaded through Cydia. It’s already full-featured, but the devs state that 20 of messages will send a tiny longer than usual. You can pay US 4.95 to remove the SMS sending delay or go for the full US 24 version that lets you send encrypted SMS messages with 256-AES encryption. Related articles: iPhone homebrew - biteSMS 2.5

Via [apple.qj.net]

Popularity: 1% [?]