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Chevrolet at the Geneva Motor Show 2012

GENEVA, March 9, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Chevrolet Volt (together with the Opel Ampera) won the "Car of the Year 2012" award. By handing victory to the revolutionary electric vehicle, the first winner designed and built in the USA, the panel of judges, made up of 59 leading automotive journalists from 23 European nations, paid tribute to General Motor's innovative foresight. The Opel Ampera / Chevrolet Volt were the undisputed winners with 330 points against VW Up (281) and Ford Focus (256).

See video from Chevrolet at: http://inr.synapticdigital.com/chevrolet/geneva

"It is a proud moment for us and an honor to receive this award from Europe's leading jury of automotive journalists," said Susan Docherty, President and Managing Director, Chevrolet Europe. "Our car demonstrates that electric driving can be fun and reliable without ever compromising the owner's lifestyle."

The Ampera and the Volt are the first electric vehicles in the market that can go anywhere anytime. A 16 kWh lithium ion battery powers the 111kW/150 hp electric motor. Depending on the style of driving and road conditions, distance of between 40 and 80 kilometers can be covered in the purely battery-operated mode, completely free of emissions. The wheels of the car are always powered electrically. In extended-range mode, which activates whenever the battery has reached its minimum state of charge, the gasoline engine drives a generator that supplies the electric drive unit. The range extender enables an operating radius of 500 kilometers.

Chevrolet at the Geneva Motor Show 2012

New models, exciting concepts and the latest in infotainment technology are the hallmarks of Chevrolet's presence at the 82nd International Geneva Motor Show, which opened to the public on March 8, 2012.

The major attraction on the Chevrolet stand in Hall 1 is the Cruze station wagon, which will make its world debut. Two youth concept cars -- the Code 130R and Tru 140S -- make it to European shores for the first time while the future of on-board infotainment will be displayed in the form of Chevrolet MyLink.

Cruze station wagon makes world debut

The station wagon complements the existing Cruze line-up and has a natural appeal to families and people who want a compact car with more carrying space to fit an active lifestyle.

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VIDEO from General Motors and Synaptic Digital: Chevrolet Volt: European Car of the Year 2012

By Jennifer Kotila Staff Writer

DASSEL, COKATO, MN The DC School District has put a lot of time and effort into studying the most effective way to create an environment that caters to the 21st century digital natives tastes for learning.

For more than a year, the district has researched hundreds of articles and attended numerous workshops to understand all the choices available to create a digital learning environment.

All that research has led to the 21st Century Digital Learning Initiative, a plan to create a 21st century learning environment throughout the district by providing technology to all students, at all times.

We have been very deliberate and responsible in studying this. We want to make sure whatever we do is in the best interest of the students, said Dassel-Cokato Media Specialist Paul Beckermann.

It is now up to the DC School Board to decide if moving forward with the 21st Century Digital Learning Initiative is affordable for the district, and whether it will satisfy the needs of its students.

We need to move in this direction at some point if not, were not being fair to students, said Superintendent Jeff Powers.

The board was presented the initiative at the Feb. 13 board meeting, and had a lengthy discussion at the Feb. 23 meeting. The board plans to further discuss the topic at its Monday, March 12 meeting.

Digital natives learn better in a digital environment

The learning environment of the 21st century is much different than that of the 20th century, and is changing at a pace faster than the textbooks of yesterday can keep up.

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Dassel-Cokato examines catering education to digital natives’ tastes

ANDOVER, MA--(Marketwire -03/08/12)- PXT Money, a mobile payment app and rewards company, will be the payment method of choice at Agganis Arena this Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the Sweet Tooth concession stand, for hot dogs, sweets, pretzels, popcorn, and drinks. PXT Money is safer than cash, debit, or credit cards, is completely free to use, and promises to make concession stand lines move faster.

Hockey fans who download the PXT Money app will get $8 free loaded into their new PXT Money account, which will buy any 2 items of their choice at the Sweet Tooth stand. Or fans can save their $8 and use it to help pay the tab across the street after the game, at Sunset Cantina, Angora Cafe, and Big City.

In general, to use PXT Money to pay a store or restaurant tab with your smart phone, you click on the PXT Money app, give them your phone number, click on the Pay button, validate the amount they send, and key in your PIN. That's it. A digital receipt is sent to your app for your records. You can send money to stores, restaurants, concession stands, cafes, bars, arenas, and even another person, all in just a few seconds.

When your money is sent, there is absolutely no personal data or banking data stored, captured, or sent. When you load money from PayPal, checking, debit or credit card accounts, only the money is loaded into your PXT Money app. No data. Ever. Your privacy is our priority, so occupy your wallet.

The money you load is stored digital cash that's on your phone, in an app, in a PXT account. You can check balance, transaction history -- all the same features with debit card accounts except there are no hidden fees, no risk of money or identity theft, and no limits to the special offers or discounts you can receive from stores and restaurants.

With the PXT Money app, the discounts and special offers appear in the app, in your GPS map and list of local merchants. Plus, you can send money to another PXT Money account holder in less than one minute, completely free, just by entering their phone number.

This weekend during the games, to pay at the Sweet Tooth stand, you will click on Pay in the app, then the merchant name and price will pop right up. You hit Accept and key in a PIN. That's it. You get a digital receipt, too. You'll be paying with Agganis Arena's free $8 gift for trying out PXT Money.

Everyone who activates a secure PXT Money account today through game time Friday night will get a free $8 loaded into their account automatically.

PXT Money ambassadors, in PXT Money T-shirts, will be outside and inside Agganis Arena this weekend before and during games. Look for the PXT Money table right behind the BU band, where ambassadors will load your phone with the PXT Money app and a free $8 to go spend right there at Sweet Tooth concession stand. Or you can save the money for later, to spend at any of the participating restaurants and stores.

To sign up now, download the app at either the Apple Store or the Android Market. PXT Money means phones with benefits. Aside from exclusive discounts and special offers, anyone can also earn money on an ongoing basis by referring friends to sign up.

Originally posted here:
PXT Money to Give BU Hockey East Quarterfinal Fans $8 Free for Concession Stand, or Food & Drinks After the Games This ...

RUSKIN

Shrouded in a black garbage bag, the 67-year-old film projector sits in a corner of the small booth.

Last weekend, it played its final film at the Ruskin Family Drive-In.

A new machine, humming with life, is in line to take over. The digital projector has all the bells and whistles the film version lacked, and a hefty price tag to go with it.

Owners Ted and Karen Freiwald estimate the transition to digital will cost about $150,000. After raising a small percentage of that on their own, they are now borrowing from a private lender.

It's a risk for the one-screen theater built in 1952, but a necessary one. By 2013, production companies plan to stop distributing movies on film. Digital will soon be a theater's only choice.

"We had to do it," Karen Freiwald said. "You've got to do what you've got to do."

It's a decision many small theater and drive-in owners struggle with these days. Some are raising money, others are taking on debt and some may be forced to shut down.

By borrowing, the Freiwalds hope they have secured the drive-in's future for years to come. The Ruskin drive-in is one of only seven in the entire state, according to drive-ins.com, a website that monitors the outdoor movie business.

After a weeklong installation, the Freiwalds will reopen their drive-in today to present their first digital movie.

Link:
Ruskin drive-in theater goes digital to survive

A few days ago, my colleague Eric Mack brought together eight of the coolest items produced by 3D printing - I'd now like to add a ninth. Digital music artist and inventor Onyx Ashanti has spent the last couple of years creating a wearable system to help him break away from the confines of the front of a computer screen and create improvised music using wireless gestural interface controllers. His original prototype Beatjazz controller was made from cardboard and featured pressure sensors, accelerometers and an iPhone. The vast majority of the latest version has been 3D printed, and it looks and sounds incredible.

Ashanti - who currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany - told us that he's been playing digital music for almost 20 years, has spent three years on tour with Soul II Soul and played on the award-winning Basement Jaxx album Kish Kash. He calls his music Beatjazz, which is inspired by the flow of music in DJ sets and described as the creation of continuous live, improvised digital music. He told us that the music results from interaction with an array of software synthesizers, each played one at a time, recorded into a buffer and then looped. The process is repeated until an on-the-fly sonic orchestra is created. The player can add effects, add or remove existing loops, or throw in some new ones when the mood dictates. Beatjazz also caters for gestural control over synths, effects and loops.

The software side of the system is built and designed in Pure Data, and is interfaced using a hardware controller. Ashanti says that he developed his Beatjazz control interface because he had reached the limits of what he could achieve using a midi wind controller. He also admits to being somewhat frustrated - and even a little bored - by using an interface built to resemble its real-world counterpart or always having to stay in the same spot while looking at a computer monitor to create or record music.

"I couldn't understand why I had to hold my hands and head in this configuration when a digital instrument doesn't need an acoustic tube to make its sound," he explained.

He was struck by the idea that breaking down the controller into separate mouthpiece and handheld key units would allow him more freedom of movement when controlling the Beatjazz system. The control interface developed by Ashanti is a three-way wireless network made up of a head-mounted pressure sensor and two hand units, the latter each sporting four pressure-sensitive pads, two joysticks and an accelerometer. The instrument is played using modified saxophone fingerings and exhaled breath registered on a sensor. The multi-color LED lighting is not just for effect, as each color represents a different sound being produced.

"Each of the three units uses an Arduino Fio running Firmata to interface with the sensors, and XBee Series 1 wireless transceivers for communication - with 1mW transceivers on the interface nodes and 63mW Series 1 Pros on the base station nodes," Ashanti told us. "This allows for strong signal on the base station side and reasonable power consumption on the interface side."

Information from sensors on each unit is sent wirelessly to a computer, where the Beatjazz system translates the dance-like movements and controller commands into digital music output.

Ashanti headed to online crowdfunding portal IndieGoGo to help fund his first prototype in January 2011 and, although he failed to reach his funding target, enough money was raised to build a working prototype of the system from cardboard, guitar picks and an iPhone running TouchOSC. He was subsequently invited to New York to demonstrate his system for TED, a video of which can be seen online.

Full build plans, files and schematics for the early prototype also made it into Volume 28 of MAKE magazine.

Plans to build a better prototype from carbon fiber were abruptly changed when he was introduced to 3D printing in September of last year at the Maker Faire in New York. Fashioning build components by hand can result in finished products that look hand-made, whereas professional-looking designs can be achieved using software on a computer and a 3D printer. Another crowdfunding appeal provided Ashanti with the funds to buy an Emaker Huxley Reprap open-source 3D printer that was also being crowdfunded at the time. The unit's exposed circuitry inspired a number of the design choices for the new Beatjazz controller.

The rest is here:
The amazing Beatjazz Hands 3D-printed gestural digital music interface