What if changing the color of your car was as simple as tapping an app? Toyota's Fun-Vii concept promises exactly that and more.

The Fun-Vii's skin is actually a massive display that can change its color at will, and display graphics, images, and custom messages for other drivers or bystanders. Toyota gives the visual example of a business using the Fun-Vii to display advertisement livery, but I'd love to be able to quickly throw up a "Back off, chump!" to a tailgater.

The custom graphics aren't limited to the exterior. Toyota also envisions that large interior display surfaces can add augmented reality functionality to the driving experience while allowing the vehicle's interior to be "freely adjustable to match the mood of the moment."… Read more

commentary RIM's Blackberry PlayBook tablet is now on sale for $199 at Best Buy. A price it should have had all along.

Like Hewlett-Packard's ill-fated TouchPad, which stalled at $499 but became an instant hit at $99, the PlayBook is now seeing newfound popularity at $199 (16GB), discounted from $499.

In fact, the $199 BlackBerry tablet is now listed as "unavailable" at most Best Buy stores in the U.S. For example, a Best Buy in suburban Los Angeles said it had sold out of the $199 PlayBook "a couple of days ago," according … Read more

Aside from a couple hulking memory chips, Texas Instruments owns the interiors of Amazon's Kindle Fire.

iFixit's teardown shows an abundance of TI silicon, with flash memory storage and system memory from Samsung and Hynix, respectively.

Keep in mind that a system-on-a-chip (SoC) like TI's OMAP 4430 already packs many of the core device features onto one piece of silicon. But the Kindle Fire also attaches a number of less glamorous TI chips to the SoC for things like power management and audio. … Read more

Will Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire reset the tablet market, rendering the $500 tablet obsolete?

Let me preempt any challenges from Apple iPad folks. Yeah, I know, Apple will continue to sell the iPad at $499, $599, and $699. And, yes, Apple is slated to ship more than 12 million iPad 2s in the current quarter. Android rivals like Motorola's Xoom or Toshiba's Thrive aren't even close.

With that out of the way, the most immediate impact will be on the pricey Android guys. "I think [the Kindle Fire] resets the bar," Carter Nicholas, CEO of market researcher eDataSource told CNET this week.

To expand on Nicholas' argument, why buy a $500 Xoom if you can get most of what you need from a $199 Fire or a $199 Samsung Galaxy Tab? Or a $249 Nook Tablet? Or a 10-inch Lenovo IdeaPad for $349.99? … Read more

Amazon's Kindle Fire continues to rack up impressive preorders, according to a marketing research firm that's been tracking sales of the imminent Amazon tablet.

Direct sales through Amazon are now projected at 500,000 from September 28 through October 28, according to Carter Nicholas, CEO of eDataSource.

But Nicholas is quick to admit that isn't the whole picture. "I'm going to assume that for every unit sold on Amazon.com there's also a unit being sold to a Best Buy or Staples. So maybe 1 million to 1.5 million," he said in a phone interview Thursday.… Read more

Smartphones raised the bar for hands-free voice activated technology, and consumers are starting to expect the same level of intuitive usability in their cars. But they'll have to wait until next year to find it.

The Detroit Free Press reported that at the Nuance Automotive Forum in Detroit this week, speech-recognition company Nuance said an auto manufacturer will integrate advanced voice command technology into its vehicles next year. Nuance's connected car product manager, Ed Chrumka, said the new systems will enable drivers to make natural-language requests in their vehicles to initiate tasks such as making dinner reservations. … Read more

Ford CEO acknowledges miscues; customers to receive free upgrade on flash drive early next year

DETROIT--Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally vows that revised versions of the Sync and MyFord Touch infotainment systems will be simpler and more reliable and says more improvements are coming.

He also says Ford has tightened its quality-control process for developing those systems' software. That appears aimed at avoiding the glitches that have dogged the new technologies and hurt Ford's standings in quality and reliability studies.

Told of anecdotal tales of shoppers who want to buy a Ford but won't if they have to … Read more

Ford has announced an update to its much-criticized car tech interface, previously plagued by slow performance and cluttered screens.

Ford came out with its new MyFord Touch interface on the 2011 Edge last year. This interface featured LCDs on the instrument cluster showing navigation, phone, audio, and trip data, along with a big center touch screen allowing control over these different car tech functions. But the touch-screen interface came under much criticism by CNET and others for its slow performance and cluttered displays.

Today, Ford showed off an update to the system intended to address its various problems. According to … Read more

At the 2011 SEMA Show, Directus debuted an aftermarket infotainment system that uses MirrorLink technology to integrate smartphone social media and entertainment applications.

The Directus Prodigy One Pro is based on the Android platform and uses MirrorLink technology to bring in approved mobile applications from paired smartphones, such as iPhone and Android devices. Directus' Redfly app controls which applications can be mirrored on the Prodigy One Pro, so you'll probably be able to access Pandora or iHeartRadio with its touch screen, but don't expect to play Angry Birds. … Read more