Volkswagen’s XL1 Review

There are four brand-new supercars at this year’s Geneva motor show. All are advanced hybrids and made of carbon-fibre. Although, with just 47bhp from its 803cc turbodiesel, a 100mph top speed and 0-62mph in 12.7 seconds, Volkswagen’s XL1 appears puny compared with LaFerrari, the McLaren’s P1 and Porsche’s 918. This diminutive silver machine is, however, every inch a supercar, from its hi-tech construction, to its 300mpg-plus fuel economy.

More than 120 years after the invention of the first motor car, isn’t it time we changed our view of the supercar? Welcome to the new super, super efficient. And when this remarkable two-seat coupé trundled silently into this year’s Geneva show having traversed the Swiss Alps from Lucerne across the precipitous 5,000ft Brünig and Jaun passes, it was averaging more than 140mpg. Having covered this entire project from its very beginnings, it was your correspondent, along with development engineers, swapping turns at the wheel.

In 1998, Ferdinand Piëch, the then head of VW, ordered his engineers to develop a “ine-litre” car. This refers to the German measure of fuel consumption of litres per 100km, which equates to 282.5mpg. Wolfsburg went into overdrive, producing a carbon-fibre bodied, tandem-seat, single-piston engined special. Looking as though he was about to tackle the Bonneville salt flats, Piëch climbed behind the wheel for his last public appearance as VW chairman in 2002 and drove from his office in Wolfsburg to the VW shareholders meeting in Hamburg. In the rain and in chilly temperatures, the canny old engineer beat his own target for the car, setting an average fuel consumption of 317·4mpg at 43·5mph.

Micromax Bolt A35 Review

Micromax launched a new smartphone, called Bolt A35. This is also the first handset of Micromax’s Bolt Android smartphone series.
“The Bolt category will include a new range of feature rich phones from Micromax,” said the company n a press release while announcing the launch of the phone.
The Micromax Bolt A35 comes with a 10.1 cm full capacitive touch screen and runs on Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread). It is powered by a 1 GHz processor. The new Micromax handset is equipped with a 2.0 megapixel rear camera and a 0.3 megapixel front camera. The A35 comes with an expandable memory up to 16 GB too.





Powered by a 1500 mAh battery, the phone claims to provide talk time of 4.5 hours and supports Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi. It has something called ‘Flash’ application that, according to Micromax, enables users to share apps, games, photos, videos, songs and much more with just a swipe.
“Users can drag content across the screen or simply shake and share seamlessly between Android devices to spread the excitement at blazing fast speeds. The app works on WiFi, making one of the devices a Hotspot and sharing files over the private network via “Flash Transfer” App to keep the action going even without any data connectivity. It is the ideal application for the young generation who is always on the lookout for better, faster and savvier smart phones on the go,” Micromax explained further.

Sony Xperia Ultra Slim Smartphone Tablet

Sony Mobile Communications (“Sony Mobile”) has revealed its most ambitious marketing campaign yet for its Xperia smartphones with a significant global marketing investment.

• Integrated marketing campaign highlights the best of Sony in the flagship Xperia™ Z smartphone
• Iconic creative execution synonymous with the Sony brand
• Most ambitious marketing campaign to date for the Xperia™ brand

The integrated campaign, which will be deployed globally in over 20 markets across TV, print, digital, out-of-home and retail from March 2013, highlights the best of Sony’s innovative technologies as found in its new premium Xperia Z smartphone. In a creative execution that features a selection of Sony’s much-loved products from the past, the campaign reflects the unique consumer experiences that only Sony can deliver as it looks back at iconic moments in history and showcases Sony’s technologies available today.

Archos 97 and 80 Platinum tablets Comes In March

Archos will undoubtedly be accused of apeing Apple with its latest tablets. The screen on the Archos 97 Platinum matches the size of the iPad's 9.7-inch display--it even has an identical 2,048 x 1,536-pixel "Retina" screen resolution. Meanwhile, the smaller 8-inch Archos 80 Platinum is a mere decimal point away from the iPad mini, down to its underwhelming 1,024 x 768-pixel screen.
It probably doesn't help Archos that these two Android 4.1 slates come in white with an aluminum back. Consumers will probably not mind the comparisons, especially as the 9.7-inch version comes with pretty good hardware, such as a quad-core processor, for its price.
Price and availability: US$199 for the Archos 80 Platinum and US$329 for the 97 Platinum from March.