plugins

DETROIT--Green is all the rage at the Detroit auto show, but a different hue emerged in the Blue-Will plug-in hybrid concept car that Hyundai revealed Monday.

The car can run solely on its lithium polymer battery for a range of 20 to 40 miles, said Scott Margason, director of product planning for Hyundai Motor America, in an interview here at the North American International Auto Show. Like the Toyota Prius, perhaps the best-known hybrid car, the Blue-Will has an engine that's directly connected to the drive wheels and that runs in parallel with the electric motor.

Hyundai wouldn't … Read more

We drive the most audacious Bentley ever, Saab gets sold off like a parts car, Ford opens up SYNC to app developers, and an Aston Martin even you can afford!

• CNET drives the Bentley Continental Supersports

• Saab gets sold off like a parts car

• The baby Aston Martin--the Cygnet

• Vote for CNET Tech Car of the Year

• BMW previews an electric 1 Series concept

Toyota Motor will begin selling "affordable" plug-in hybrid cars in 2011, upping the ante on General Motors and Nissan Motor as they aim to take the lead in the field of rechargeable cars.

Toyota's first plug-in model, the Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHV), will add an external charging function and more batteries to the popular Prius to enable longer-distance driving on electricity alone.

Because it can also run on gasoline, plug-in hybrids--such as GM's upcoming Volt due for sale next year--eliminate the "range anxiety" seen as one of the main shortcomings of battery-powered pure electric … Read more

So, another Internet Explorer add-on toolbar...but wait! Quero Toolbar is different: It's actually worth using. For starters, it's not like those spyware "toolbars" that continue to plague unprotected PCs and careless users. Quero Toolbar is actually designed to block pop-ups, flash animations, and other ad-related annoyances that can spoil your browsing. It also integrates a search-as-you-type function, easily selectable search engines and international profiles, a highlighter, easy zoom and resize, security options, and much more.

Quero Toolbar installs seamlessly with all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and above. The Quero button on the navigation … Read more

Word from the LA Times is that Google plans to phase out its Gears plug-in in favor of HTML5 when it comes to augmenting browser abilities. The precise details of its enthusiasm for the plug-in aren't clear yet, but the general trajectory is no surprise.

Google, along with Mozilla, Opera, Apple, and some other allies, has been agitating for features that can make browsers and the Web into a more powerful foundation for Web sites and Web applications. Gears was an early Google effort in this area.

But Gears emerged in 2007--back before Google released a browser of its own, … Read more

Quake Live plug-in (Firefox) is, as the name suggests, a Firefox plug-in that allows users to play Quake Live online from within Firefox. Although there's not much to the plug-in itself, it does effectively give users access to this first-person-shooter game.

Upon going to the Quake Live Web site, users are prompted to download the plug-in if it's not already installed in their copy of Firefox. We had no trouble creating a Quake Live account and beginning the game; the graphics looked great and everything seemed to operate as it should. There's not much else to say … Read more

A group of CEOs on Monday came out favor of a regional roll-out of electric vehicles in up to eight cities to demonstrate the viability of the technology and incubate the fledgling industry.

The Electricifcation Coalition held a press conference in Washington, D.C. and released an Electrification Roadmap, which prescribes the business and policy steps required to ramp up electric vehicle adoption.

There are 13 members of the coalition, including the CEOs of Nissan Motor, FedEx, Pacific Gas & Electric, and battery maker A123 Systems. The coalition was spun out of Securing America's Future Energy, a lobbying group … Read more

Automakers don't want people to feel like driving electric means radical changes. CNET News reporter Martin LaMonica talks about what they're doing to make the transition easier for consumers. That, plus Sprint continues to bleed customers, Nintendo unveils a supersized version of the DSi, and much more.

Today's stories:

Sprint losses and customer defections continue

Motorola sees small third-quarter profit

Amazon lets shoppers pay with a phrase

DSi LL: Nintendo supersizes its gaming handheld

Kaspersky tool detects malware in Twitter links

Microsoft puts its 'signature' on PCs

Plug-in electric cars: New technology, familiar feel

Winking robot nav head knows where you're going… Read more

In the past few weeks, I've had an opportunity to experience the cutting edge in plug-in electric vehicle technology. In some cases, you'd think you're just driving a regular car.

The bulk of production plug-in electric vehicles available now are either utility trucks, small cars that top out at 25 miles per hour, or the pricey Tesla Roadster sports car. Now automakers are building plug-in sedans and SUVs with lithium ion batteries designed for the mass market.

Judging from the cars I've driven, automakers are trying to strike a balance between enticing consumers with new technology … Read more