los angeles

Polygon's Russ Frushtick joins me in the studio today to talk about the lighter side of our recent trip to Los Angeles. Best of all, he'll help answer the most-asked question of last week: "What was the best food you had at E3?"

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Enter CNET's "From Old School to Tech Cool" contest.

- What do you think of the new "Anchorman 2" trailer?

- Follow Russ on Twitter.

- Listen to Russ' podcast, The Besties.

- Watch Human Angle on Polygon.… Read more

Apple will add $30 million to its coffers in a deal to outfit students in the LA school district with an iPad.

On Tuesday, following a collective thumbs-up for Apple from both students and senior staff, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted 6-0 to approve the contract, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Among the devices considered, the iPad came out on top in both quality and price, at least according to the school district's requirements. The vote means that an iPad will be doled out to every student across 47 campuses of the LA district, one of the … Read more

Since its first release in 1997, the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) video game series has given gamers a nearly unlimited supply of chaos and mayhem on virtual city streets. For several months now, Rockstar has been teasing hungry gamers with exciting screenshots from the highly anticipated GTA V.… Read more

When Matthew Keys allegedly handed over the passwords of his former employer to members of the hacker group Anonymous a couple of years ago, he probably didn't think it would lead to an indictment.

However, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that Keys was being indicted on three counts: conspiracy to transmit information to damage a protected computer, transmitting information to damage a protected computer, and attempted transmission of information to damage a protected computer.

Keys, 26, currently works as a deputy social media editor at Reuters but used to be a Web producer for the Tribune … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Once upon a time, Acura pushed the cutting edge of cabin technology, pioneering such features as navigation and active noise cancellation. But times changed and Acura didn't, letting other automakers steal the high-tech mantle. Now Acura fights back with the RLX, a new high-end sedan with some odd quirks.

By and large, premium and luxury automakers use rear-wheel drive for their flagship sedans, an architecture maintained more out of tradition than real necessity. Acura has always bucked this trend, and continues to do so with the RLX. This model will launch as a front-wheel-drive car sporting … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Leading up to the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford teased a couple of technologies for the 2014 Fiesta model, then brought out the car at the show. With an innovative new engine option and its own MyFord Touch system, the new Fiesta should be a high-tech fuel sipper.

Last week Ford handed out specifications for a new engine option in the 2014 Fiesta, a 1-liter three-cylinder Ecoboost already in use in Europe. The engine sounds ridiculously small by U.S. standards, but its turbo and direct injection help it achieve 123 horsepower, which should be more … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Modern cars play digital music, guide us to destinations, and respond to voice commands. But so do our smartphones. Through a technology called MirrorLink, the Connected Car Consortium (CCC) hopes to rid us of this duplication, using the car's LCD and interface to show navigation and play music from a smartphone.

The MirrorLink initiative turns the car into a dumb terminal, lacking much in the way of its own computing power and relying on the phone as its processor. One advantage of this system for the user is that the same data stored on the phone … Read more

LOS ANGELES - The Green Car Journal announced its Green Car of the Year award at the Los Angeles Auto Show, choosing the Ford Fusion in a field of five finalists that included Toyota, Mazda, Dodge, and another Ford model.

The 2013 Ford Fusion mid-size sedan comes out with a wide array of drivetrain options, from a standard 2.5-liter engine to a plug-in hybrid system. With its base 2.5-liter four cylinder, the Fusion gets an EPA average of 26mpg. Prospective buyers can also upgrade to either a 1.6-liter or 2-liter Ecoboost engine, each using direct injection and … Read more

At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford will unveil its 2013 Fiesta model, currently its smallest car. And along with its standard 1.6-liter engine, Ford will also be showing its smallest engine, the 1-liter, three-cylinder EcoBoost, a new option for the Fiesta model.

Three-cylinder engines are rare in the U.S., only used in the current Smart car or the odd past Asian import. In those applications, they have not garnered a really good reputation. But Ford's little mill may change all that.

Taking advantage of efficiency and power technologies, the 1-liter Ford engine produces 123 horsepower and … Read more