Will Apple's iCar ever see the road?

Published Sunday, May 27, 2012

iCar (Picture: SUPPLIED)

If you’re unhappy with your car’s design, you’re in august company.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs too was unhappy with modern car models, apparently to the extent that he wanted to design one of his own.

His dream – one of the few that went unfulfilled – was to launch a well-designed car, and he wanted to call it – you guessed it – the iCar.

Mickey Drexler, a board member at Apple Inc., recently revealed Jobs’ desire to add an automobile to the Cupertino-based technology company’s product lineup. He “Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?” Drexler said. “Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar,” he added during an interview at the Fast Company Innovation Uncensored expo in New York.
Drexler said – and we agree – that had Jobs designed the iCar, it would have dominated the industry.
“It would’ve been probably 50 per cent of the market,” he has been quoted as saying. In fact, rumours were rife about five years ago when Steve Jobs met with Volkswagen Group head Martin Winterkorn in 2007, with the companies reportedly planning to team up to work on a car aimed at the youth market.
Rumours have it that Apple has been working on an iCar for years, but will the vehicle ever see the light of the day?

World's 'slimmest' notebook now in UAE

Acer unveiled Aspire S5 - the world's thinnest Ultrabook - that measures only 15mm at the maximal point and weighs less than 1.35kg. The ultra-slim device is built with a 13.3-inch LCD.
It features the unique Acer Green Instant-On technology for fast boot and resume, and Acer Always Connect, which lets users manage their multimedia and data on all their devices at anytime, anywhere.
"The Ultrabook is much more than just a product segment," said Jim Wong, president of Acer Inc. "It's a new trend that will become the mainstream for mobile PCs, and customers will see the unique features gradually extended across Acer's notebook family."

Ultra-fluid contours
Adorned with a delicately curved chassis in Onyx Black, the Aspire S5's cover rim wraps around the system body like a protective shell. A magnesium-aluminium alloy cover and palmrest provide a slimmer and sturdier form, while the metallic brushed detail presents subtle elegance.

Performance and eco-friendly features
The Aspire S5 features an Intel® Core™ processor, SSD storage for speed and increased shock resistance, professionally-tuned Dolby® Home Theater® v4, long battery life via the PowerSmart battery pack (with a 3X longer life cycle than traditional batteries), and is equipped with a chiclet keyboard.