London's latest double decker bus has hit the streets of the UK capital for the first time, after first being revealed back in November 2010.

Described as a true "21st century bus" and the "most environmentally friendly of its kind", it's the first time in 50 years London has had a bus designed specifically for its streets.

Built by Wrightbus in Northern Ireland and set to be operated by Arriva, it's green credentials boast a hybrid set-up that promises twice as efficient fuel consumption over a standard diesel bus at 11.6mpg.

Test showed the bus emitted only 640 grams per kilometre (g/km) of carbon dioxide and 3.96 g/km of oxides of nitrogen (NOx). These figures are less than half the carbon dioxide emitted by a current diesel bus (1295g/km), and under half the NOx emitted too at 9.3g/km.

The bus will serve the 38 route from Victoria to Hackney as of February 2012, and is one of 8 new designs set to hit the tarmac in London next year.

"Christmas has arrived early in the form of this revolutionary new bus whose gleaming coat of red paint and sinuous curves will brighten the day of all who see it humming along our great city's streets," said Boris.

"It is the latest, greatest masterpiece of British engineering and design, and I am certain it will become a much-loved and iconic vehicle akin to the legendary Routemaster from which it draws so much inspiration."

But forget all that; the best bit, as true Londoners will attest to, is that the jump-on platform a the rear of the bus is back! Sure, it's now doored as standard, but will bring back many happy memories to those who ran and caught a ride at the very last minute, Indiana Jones style.

Via: TFL

Today car giant Ford announced that it is developing one of the world's first digital human child body models as part of their program to make car travel for young people safer.

The company has won numerous awards for the safety of their cars and now wants to increase their knowledge of how to create a safe travel environment for people of all ages from adults to young children. Specifically focusing on the impact of injuries to younger travellers are different to those of older passengers.

Dr Stephen Rouhana, Senior Technical Leader for Safety at Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, said "Our restraint systems are developed to help reduce serious injuries and fatalities in the field, and they have proven to be very effective. But crash injuries still occur. The more we know about the human body, the more we can consider how to make our restraint systems even better."

Digital bodies are very hard to make, the work on Ford's adult human body took a staggering 11 years to complete. They aren't replacing test crash dummies, the digital bodies are used in research laboratories to further understand the effects of injuries caused by accidents and how they can be avoided.

The digital bodies take so long to create because a very large amount of information is included in every bone and organ included in the body and how it works and effected. The data is gathered with lots of different medical scans taken from patients, and the research team can build a perfect copy to research with.

With the child's body Rouhana said, "Building a digital human model of a child will help us design future systems that offer better protection for our young passengers."

Of course, test crash dummies are still used in testing and development, and they have been for the past 70 years with Ford, the original design being created for the US Airforce to test ejector seats in jet fighters. However more modern crash test dummies have vinyl skin, a steel ribcage, a spine made of metal discs, moveable neck and knees that are designed to respond like the human equivalent. No longer are they just plastic figures bent into shapes.

Each test dummy has a variety of sensors built into the surface of the object to record impact crashes and pressure levels,"Today's crash test dummies are very complex devices, a Hybrid III costs approximately 34,000 Euros but with full instrumentation this can rise to more than 50,000 Euros." explained Senior Engineer for Safety Jake Head

It is life saving research that the team are doing and with these more insightful tools and equipment researchers will be looking for way to save more lives in the future and make it safer for everyone in cars.

Letting you cycle and listen to your favourite tunes without fear of getting your headphones caught among the wheels or missing ambient noises crucial to staying safe whilst peddaling away is the new ACOUZTIC bike light and speaker from Xceon.

Popping onto your bike's handlebars, the unit combines an ultra-bright 170 lumens LED flashlight with a 3 watt omni-directional speaker capable of playing back MP3 and WMA files via its built in storage.

A single charge will offer 40 continuous hours of lighting or 70 hours of music playback, while the water resistant light features 5 different flash modes (Hi, Low, Flash, Disorienting Strobe, S.O.S.) also making it the perfect companion for campers or festival-goers this summer.

"As gas prices rise, more cyclists have appeared on the road," reads the Xceon press statement.

"Unfortunately, so have theirheadphones that can endanger their owners' by reducing spatial awareness and ambient road noises. While listening to music on a bicycle ride can be pleasurable, it can also be very dangerous.

"Xceon designed the ACOUZTIC to keep cyclists and outdoor recreationists safe, but sharing music with friends while having fun outdoors is just plain cool."

Available now in 6 different colours for $139.95, click here to find out more.

Augmented realiy features are quickly becoming widespread in smartphone technology, and are now even making their way into games consoles with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS.

It's an exciting area of growth for the tech industry, and even car tech manufacturers are looking to grab a slice of the AR pie. We've already seen a demo product from Pioneer at CES earlier in the year
which projected a HUD onto the inside of your windscreen, and now windscreen repair experts Autoglass are throwing their thoughts into the mix too. They've produced a video of how they expect an AR-capable windscreen in the year 2020 will look.

Dr Chris Davies, head of technical research & innovation at Autoglass® said, "As well as accounting for up to 30% of a vehicle's structural strength, the windscreen has become an interactive tool for sharing information and improving the driver experience. Essentially the car is becoming more like a laptop and the windscreen will evolve into the virtual information screen."

Davies continued, "Augmented reality technology has been widely used in smartphones for more than 18 months. Manufacturers are already working on assistance technologies such as collision avoidance systems, lane departure systems and sign recognition. We believe that within 10 years car manufacturers will have completely revolutionised the function of the car windscreen."

"We're very in tune with technological innovation in the motoring industry, particularly around the role of the windscreen. Both glass and augmented reality technology are nearing a point where the windscreen can work harder to improve road safety, awareness and driving in general. The traditional dashboard will become obsolete," added Davies.

Click the video above to check out the Autoglass concept. We particularly like the plug near the end when the car windscreen is "compromised" and the intelligent motor rings Autoglass automatically!

Qantas flight decks may soon come equipped with iPads, according to Australian Business Traveller.

The airline are reportedly looking into using the touchscreen tablets to replace the ring-binder flight manuals that are commonplace within airplane cockpits. The benefits of an easily searchable digital copy of the manuals are obvious; you're not going to end up with a dog-eared iPad are you? Though long-haul flights may encounter battery problems.

If the move gets the go-ahead, it'll be interesting to see if it will affect passenger's allowances to use mobile devices in-flight. Currently, using connected devices on a flight is a security issue, as it can potentially call radio interference, dangerous as it disturbs communications between the aircraft and ground crews.

London's Underground tube network is to get a series of Wi-Fi hotspots in time for next year's Olympic Games, it has been revealed today.

120 hotspots will be coming to the capital's tube stations, with the first 16 coming from the private networks staff themselves already use in some stations being made open to the public too.

While the networks' ranges won't extend into tunnels, those passing through stations or waiting on platforms will be able to check mail and websites on their web-connected devices during the morning commute. A tiral is already underway at Charing Cross station, as organised by BT.

TFL are currently looking for a company to undertake the installation process.

Via: Cellular News

Car giants Ford took this week's CeBIT technology expo in Hanover, Germany, as an opportunity to announce the global launch of their new connected dashboard system, SYNC. Already available in North America, the voice activated MyFord Touch interface opens up your dashboard to a whole host of connected devices, as well as promising increased road safety. Tech Digest went hands-on with the device at the show.

Embedded within the car dashboard, SYNC features a bright 8 inch touchscreen,with connectivity options for RCA cables, an SD card and two USB inputs. The screen suffers from a slight-but-noticeably present lag when pushed, but you'll be touching it very little in any case; SYNC's trump card is its impressive voice activated commands.

Pulling in the software expertise of Microsoft and voice-recognition experts Nuance, the SYNC system can recognise and respond to 10,000 commands in 19 languages. In theory, you should barely have to touch the screen in order to access SYNC's many functions. In our quick test the voice recognition software was very responsive, understanding various ways of asking for the same actions ie. "Play playlist X" or "Open and listen to playlist X" and so on.

The interface is split into four sections; phone, navigation, media and climate control. Each has its own lengthy list of associated voice commands. Syncing a phone via Bluetooth allows calls to be answered via voice activation alone, and received text messages will be read aloud by the system's HAL-like voice. You'll also be able to respond to messages by selecting from a list of presets, again adding to Ford's safety mantra that eyes on the road and hands on the wheel make for a significantly better driver.

Music controls are similarly intelligent. MP3 files are read from an MP3 player, mobile phone or directly indexed from a USB thumbdrive, and then churned through Gracenote to ensure suitable artwork and track names are applied. You'll then be able to browse your library and control playback by voice commands alone, with the superior voice recognition software and Gracenote's metadata intelligently understanding unusual characters in artist names (AKA Kie$ha) and even commonly used nicknames such as "The King" for Elvis.

Navigation controls are likewise voice operated, with the integrated GPS system making the likes of TomToms redundant. Again the clever implementation of Nuance software ensures that the system can account for variations in dialect and location nicknames; you'll just as easily turn up at Her Majesty's doorstep by saying "Buckingham Palace" as by asking for directions to Westminster, London SW1W 0. Also, the software can handle an entire address in one single voice command, rather than splitting it into street, city and postcodes, which is a plus.

Of course these controls logically carry over to the climate control system too, asking the car to warm up or cool down and it responding accordingly.

While USB inputs for music playback in dashboards aren't uncommon these days, the SYNC system goes one better by allowing you to power a mobile dongle from the port. Your car in effect becomes a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing up to 5 devices to pair with it. In an age where all the kids and the dog too have a smartphone or web connected games console, laptop or tablet, having an in-car internet connection will be a god-send on longer journeys.

SYNC runs alongside Ford's other in-car innovation, App Link, for which developers can either create dedicated SYNC apps for driver's smartphones, or submit SYNC-compatible variations on existing apps, allowing for hands-free control. It has already thrown up its first gem in the shape of the Emergency Assistance feature, which uses GPS and cell data to locate the vehicle in the event of an accident, immediately call emergency services, and relate accident information to the accident controller in the language most likely to be used in the location you're currently driving through.

"At Ford, we have always believed that the intelligent application of technology can help us deliver the very best customer experience and help us contribute to a better world, so we challenged ourselves to build technologically advanced cars that make driving greener, safer and smarter for all," said Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

"SYNC is a smarter, safer and simpler way to connect drivers with in-car technologies and their digital lives."

Ford plan to roll out the SYNC system across the continent in 2012. The new Ford Focus model will be the first off the production line with SYNC built in, with Ford promising to add the new dashboard to other models soon after.

(Guest post from Shiny Shiny)

The Oyster card was a small revolution in ticket payments when it was launched less than a decade ago, but it seems it may soon become obsolete. Transport for London has confirmed that by the end of 2012, it will accept contactless credit and debit cards at the tube turnstiles, according to The Register.

Card payments on the bus will be enabled earlier in 2012, in time for the Olympics, but due to the work involved the tube will follow only later in the year. While changing the ticket system is quite complicated, it is cheaper for TFL to deal directly with the banks, omitting the Oyster middle-man.

There are some problems related to the project still - such as the time it would take for the system to call up the bank to check if there's any money available. Commentators are speculating the solution may be to check this later in order to avoid massive pile-ups at the turnstiles, and then catch the cardholder as they tap out to leave the underground system.

I for one will miss the Oyster card, which feels like an integral part of London life. But an all-in-one chip that covers payment as well as travel is appealing too - actually we can probably just go ahead and implant this magic chip directly into our phone handsets?

At the weekend those nice folk at Ford took us out to Madrid to race cars around a test track and look over their new Ford Focus. So what I hear you say has a new car to do with tech?

Actually quite a bit as it turns out. We've already written about the new in car tech that the Focus has including bluetooth connectivity, wi-fi and a voice activated Satellite Navigation system (just talk to it and it will give you directions - a bit like KITT, the car in the 80s TV series, Knight Rider).

But this time there was an opportunity to test the gear inside for ourselves as well as thrash the hell out of the car and, er, play football with it, as you do. See picture above . One thing we also got to test was a new feature called Park Assist which was good fun.

This actually takes the hard work out of reversing into a parking space. All you do is go along a line of cars with your indicator on and the car will find a space that's big enough to get into. Then you press a button and put the car into reverse and it will steer the wheel into the space for you.

It's good but not foolproof. You do need to make sure you are close enough to the parked cars for it to recognise a space and you also need to brake once the proximity sensors beep. Which is what one of the guests forgot to do and ended up crashing into the car behind him. Whoops!

You can see the video of me not crashing the car but still looking pensive - below.

Thanks to Ford and Jochen Siegle from German tech site Tech Fieber for putting up with my lunatic driving

Yesterday we brought you news that Chinese telecoms firm Huawei were in talks to provide London's Underground network with a mobile signal system that would allow passengers to make calls while riding the tube. Now, new research from GoodMobilePhones.co.uk has found that over three quarters of Brits are against the plans.

Surveying 1,094 Londoners aged over 18 years old and asking the question "Are you in favour of the underground mobile phone network?", a massive 76% answered "No". When asked why, 31% cited the increased threat of muggings on the tube, 16% were worried about increased costs to use the network, with 14% feeling that being contactable at all times would add further stress to their journey. No mention of a Mole-Men hi-jacking though, which would have certainly been my first concern.

In an interesting comparison to the 31% of negative respondees who feared an increased violent threat, the 24% in favour of the proposals felt the network could actually increase security and safety on the Underground.

Mark Owen, founder of GoodMobilePhones.co.uk and not the pint-sized star of Take That, commented on the findings;

"The news of the underground mobile network certainly has caused quite a stir, but I am surprised to see so many people are against it. Not only would it mean you could make calls on the tube, but it could be a great success in the case of any emergency."

"There are obviously risks with having increased usage of mobile phones on the tube, but these are things that can be sorted. Having an underground mobile phone network is the next logical step, following in the footsteps of Paris and Hong Kong, who have had no major problems."

And, just because I can't get over how great this picture is, here are those darstadly Mole Men once more, who I'm sure would really appreciate a bit of mobile coverage when out scouring the tube tunnels for hapless victims:

Ford SYNC, the hands-free voice activated in-car connectivity kit that allows drivers to control their music and other functions, has had its software development kit let loose to developers, leading many to believe an in-car app revolution is on the horizon thanks to the introduction of AppLink.

With Ford SYNC now installed in 3 million vehicles since being introduced back in 2007, AppLink will allow developers to create voice-activated smartphone apps that will work in tandem with the dashboard kit. AppLink will be initially available in the 2011 Fiesta and will be compatible with Android and BlackBerry handsets. iPhone compatibility is expected to be added to the system later in the year.

"More and more drivers will find a way to use their devices and their apps while in the car," said Derrick Kuzak, Ford Motor Company's Group Vice President of Global Product Development. "They can do it unsafely, or they can do it through safer voice-activated solutions such as Ford SYNC - keeping their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel."

This week, an IBM survey of 2,000 software designers around the world revealed that the design of business apps is expected to dominate all other forms of business software development over the course of the next five years.

"Smartphone 'apps' are making business more mobile and less office bound all the time," said Mark Mason, CEO of app developers Mubaloo. "Ford has released its software development kit today and Mubaloo 'apps' will be compatible with their SYNC voice command system. The other motor manufacturers are bound to be following suit soon."

"Automated voice command compatibility is an impressive feature for an 'app'," said Mr Mason. "Ford claim that their SYNC voice command system has a lexicon of more than 10,000 words."

Despite the SDK only being launched today, Ford have already had 1,000 AppLink submissions from developers of brand new apps, or those looking to modify existing ones to make the most of the SYNC features.

Karbon Kinetics have announced that they are working on a next generation model of their impressive GoCycle bicycle range.

Lightwieght and portable, the GoCycle has garnered many fans thanks to it's one-button access to electric propulsion, giving riders an extra boost when they are tired or hitting a steep incline. Or just want to cheat in a race.

Karbon Kinetics founder and GoCycle designer Richard Thorpe has now revealed that a revamped version of the GoCycle, dubbed the G1.5, will hit streets in 2012, with a full G2 model released sometime in 2013.

Thorpe explained the importance of vehicles like the GoCycle, "By 2030, urban areas will be home to more than 60% of the projected world population of 8 billion people, putting tremendous pressure on the environment, as well as public infrastructure that is already struggling to meet the growing demand for transportation and basic services.

"This increasing pressure will drive a paradigm shift in city transportation, and a new breed of sustainable personal urban transportation will emerge. Our long-term vision is to be a leader in this market with Gocycle: cool, green electric transport for an affordable price."

Those crazy kids over at Imperial College are at it again. Famed for their pioneering research into invisible sheds, they say they have applied the undetectable garden sanctum theory of metamaterials to produce a type of "space-time cloak." Which translates from geek speak into "Were making a cape that will produce the "illusion of a Star Trek transporter"

The leading the team of Start Trek fanatics is Professor Martin McCall. He explains how the new idea works stating:

"Light normally slows down as it enters a material, but it is theoretically possible to manipulate the light rays so that some parts speed up and others slow down...This would mean that downstream of the metamaterial there would be an interruption in beams of photons travelling through space - creating a "corridor" in which "energy, information or matter can be transported undetected...If you had someone moving along the corridor, it would appear to a distant observer as if they had relocated instantaneously, creating the illusion of a Star-Trek transporter,"

No word on when we might see this transporter, but we like to think that by 2050 our commute to work will become a breeze.

Remember when the nearest thing you got to hi-tech in a car was a cassette desk and cigarette lighter. Not any more. New models, like the latest generation Ford Focus, have voice-activated sat nav and in car entertainment as well as a system that will automatically stop the car if something or someone steps out in front of you or gets too close. Clever eh?

Unlike this multi-media demo model they don't yet use the windscreen as a projection system though maybe that will come in time - as long as the vehicle is stationary, that is.

And you can see images of the new Ford Focus in our gallery below.

(Thanks to Ford for bringing us to the Paris Motor Show 2010)

Stephen Odell, Chairman and CEO of Ford Europe and Alan Mulally, President and CEO, Ford unveil the new Ford Focus ST.

More powerful than the previous model, it's also 25 per cent more fuel efficient. The model is due to be launched at the Paris Motor Show tomorrow (September 30). Look out for more footage from the show tomorrow.

(Thanks to Ford for bringing us to the Paris Motor Show 2010)

Here we are at the launch of the new Ford Focus in Paris - a car which Ford promises will be its first truly global model.

As well as loads of new safety features including Active Stop where the car's brakes are automatically applied if a solid object appears in front of it, there's also a pretty impressive voice activated satellite navigation and home entertainment system.

Says Jason Johnson, User Interface Design Engineer, Ford. "The whole idea is to give as much voice activated control as possible in order that the driver can keep his hands on the wheel."

In addition to voice activated satellite navigation and entertainment, the vehicle also boasts Bluetooth, wi-fi and a large video display capable of displaying album artwork and images - much like your home PC then.

See the video below for a full run-through of the system.

Tomorrow we will have live coverage from the Paris Motor Show including video footage of the latest must-have motors.

(Thanks to Ford for bringing us to the Paris Motor Show 2010)

What do you do when you stop engineering sports cars for McLaren? You turn your hand to revolutionising the humble bicycle, that's what! Anna from Tech Digest sister-site Shiny Shiny had a chat with Richard Thorpe, creator of the electrically powered GoCycle, this week. You can view the interview in the video above.

It's a pretty crazy concept; a battery assisted bike, it features a handlebar that when squeezed can speed up your cycling and turn you into a pedal-powered Evil Knievel, as demonstrated in the second video here. It has to be recharged from a mains supply for 3 hours, but it can then hit a max speed of 15mph and last for up to 20 miles.

It being National Cycling week next week, why not give it a try if you've the cash to spare? Buy it here in instalments of £45 a month, or in one go for £1,495.

The Routemaster wasn't just a bus; it was an iconic example of industrial engineering-cum-aesthetic tour de force which was every bit as important to Londoners and tourists alike as Big Ben, Carnaby Street in the swinging sixites and the dear old Queen Mum.

Launching in 1954 and built by the Associated Equipment Company, it became a recognisable worldwide symbol of London, adorning postcards and becoming the must-have holiday snap for international visitors.

So when Transport for London began retiring the buses from service in 2003, they were met with public outcry. The decision to scrap the big red bus was made even more painful when its replacement was revealed; the shoddy bendy bus, prone to spontaneous combustion, fare-bunkers and the most horrifying night-bus journeys you can possibly imagine.

So to appease the angry mob, TFL commissioned a re-design of the Routemaster, the fruits of which were today unveiled by Mayor Boris Johnson.

And you know what? It ain't half bad.

Ok, to be fair, it was never going to beat the original design. Everyone has fond memories of jumping onto the open back of the Routemaster and grabbing the ridiculously long tickets from the conductor.

But in terms of making the most of the technology available these days and keeping as many of the old features intact as possible, it's a success. There are now three doors (front, middle and the classic jump-on platform, which can be shut off completely if no conductor is present), a second staircase that now has windows as you ascend, larger windows across the whole of the bus, a curved finish and a hybrid engine to please the green conscious.

So what do you think? Good enough to drive proudly alongside the Routemasters of yesteryear, or a disaster as embarrassing as Boris Johnson's barnet?

To help you decide check out our gallery at the bottom of this post, and then leave your vote in our poll.

TomTom has launched its latest flagship GPS system, the TomTom Go Live 1000. With a design more in line with a smartphone than an in-car sat-nav, it's a bold move by the company currently battling the influx of mobile applications muscling in on their turf.

The TomTom Go Live 1000 features a capacitive touchscreen, an ARM 11 500Mhz processor, 128 MB RAM, Broadcom GPS, 4GB of storage, and enough battery power for 3 hours of continual use from a single charge.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes introduced in this model is how customisable it is. Based on the webkit platform, users will be able to add features as they see fit from third party developers. There's plenty of potential here - imagine add-ons for the best ways to avoid the traffic queues into music festival sites or football grounds, or adjustable menus tailored to different TomTom users needs.

There is also a greater focus on localisation features, meaning the content most relevant to you is given priority.

The windshield clip also gets a once-over. The unit is now held in place by a strong magnet. Handy for removing it quickly when in a hurry, but I have visions of it flying off and whacking you in the face if your car is involved in an accident.

The model will ship with 12 months worth of LIVE services, which includes IQ routes and TomTom HD Traffic real time jam updates.

Set to be available in 33 countries, no pricing details have been announced yet.

Best Buy, the massive US tech retailer, are opening stores in the UK this week, with the first opening in Lakeside on the 30th April. But it's not just hard-drives and gadgets for sale; Best Buy UK are set to carve out a niche for themselves by offering a fairly extensive range of green, electric powered vehicles.

The electric bicycle range will include the GoCycle, Ultramotor and Moore and Large's iZip bikes. There will also be electric motorbikes on sale, including the Enertia, and the Urban Citi, Urban Tourer and Classic electric scooters from Xero Tech.

For those with a fair-bit more cash to burn, Best Buy will also be "showcasing" the Tesla Roadster electric car (a steal at £87,000) and the more affordable Citroen C1 ev'ie.

Click the image below to fire up our gallery of what Best Buy has to offer.