Garage

When I first saw the 44-page reviewer's guide that shipped with Fusion Garage's Grid10 review unit, I knew at the very least that I was in for an interesting experience.

Now, I love new and innovative technology. Well, I'm supposed to love it at least. Truth is, I only love new and innovative when it's executed well. New and innovative can go stuff it if it's frustrating to use.

The Fusion Garage Grid10 tablet has a unique OS interface, but...OK, I won't bury the lead here. It's not well-executed. … Read more

On this week's show, OnStar decides not to be nosy, BMW's M5 makes some noise, and we get our truck on.

• OnStar reverses snooping policy

• BMW officially rebrands itself as Ultimate Poser Car

• M-B gets a 4-cyl in the U.S.

• Artist renders next-gen Toyota Supra concept

• Nissan building GT-R based 'Super Juke' (rumor)

Films from Miramax premiere in Facebook, Fusion Garage's Grid 10 gets a date and a $200 price cut, and Gowalla announces version 4.0 of its app that focuses on stories and guides.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Fusion Garage's new Grid 10 tablet is selling for a healthy $200 below its originally announced price.

Available for sale in the United States and scheduled to start shipping this past Monday, the Grid 10 is being served up in two versions--a 16GB Wi-Fi-only version for $299 and a 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G edition for $399. Those numbers compare with the previously announced prices of $499 and $599, respectively. Shipping is free.

A spokewoman for Fusion Garage told CNET that the company was able to lower the price after negotiating its supply chain costs with a manufacturing partner. Customers who … Read more

From the depths of the Microsoft's experimental Garage group comes a free, useful application this morning. Replicating the core functionality of a KVM switch using only software, Mouse without Borders makes it impressively simple to control multiple Windows PCs over a network using a single set of input devices.

Simply download the program to up to four machines, and use one system to generate a security code to plug into the others. Click apply, and you can then use the mouse and keyboard on any of the four systems to seamlessly control the other computers.… Read more

Just when I thought the tablet market was settling into a Honeycomb malaise, a rogue tablet has jumped into the mix. The Grid 10 from Fusion Garage (yes, that Fusion Garage) was unveiled today as a 10-inch tablet alternative to Apple's and Google's offerings, due to ship on September 15.

Sure, at $499 for a 16GB model the pricing suffers from the same delusions that afflicted HP's TouchPad and RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, but at least Fusion Garage is in good company. Like HP and RIM, Fusion Garage is banking on a post-iOS, post-Android gag reflex to drive consumers into its arms. … Read more

Realizing too late the threat of its PR2 robots taking over the world, Willow Garage today began offering a less dangerous version with only one arm.

The PR2 SE can be yours for the low, low price of only $285,000. That's way down from $400,000 for a two-armed PR2, and a discount is even available to those who make significant contributions to the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS) community. Users can buy another arm later if they want.

PR2 has made the rounds of late with its skills in helping people, reading, cooking, tag-teaming with a TurtleBot to serve drinks, and fetching beer.

Willow Garage says about two dozen PR2s, which went on sale last September, are being used by researchers around the world, and that PR2 SE will expand the community because it's more affordable. … Read more

My Garage Manager is an automotive database program designed by a classic car enthusiast and optimized to capture the maximum amount of detail about car collections, whether large or small, classic or modern, real or imaginary. Whether you use My Garage to keep track of your fleet of vehicles or just your all-time favorites, it's capable of storing details, images, files, links, and more information on just about any car. However, with tools for calculating mileage and fuel use, not to mention records for insurance, repairs, valuation, and other factors, it's ideally suited for maintaining the family fleet, … Read more

REDMOND, Wash.--It's typical for Microsoft to show off its latest wares at its annual Worldwide Partner Conference, if only to amp up partners' enthusiasm for hawking the software giant's goods. Some of the biggest gasps from the partisan crowd of 15,000 partners at the Staples Center in Los Angeles last week came for a nifty little program, the Lync Conversation Translator.

The application, part of Microsoft's enterprise communications software package, lets two people who speak different languages have an instant messaging conversation in their native tongue. An English speaker wanting to chat with a German … Read more