Well, yeah. What did you think would happen if you packed hundreds of NBA-All-Star-Game-Crazed Orlandians into a mall parking lot and offered only some of them the chance to buy a pair of exclusive kicks? They'd be crazy not to riot. More »

The tips of our fingers are numb from typing, we're seeing 55-inch OLEDs in our sleep (when we can get it) and we haven't eaten a green vegetable in over a week, all in the interest of bringing you the biggest news from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. If you haven't been glued here since Sunday afternoon, we've put a Distro-flavored bow on our coverage for you. Following up on our first CES special edition, issue 23 collects the biggest breakouts from days four and five, and pulls together a collection of our favorite photos of the robots, autos and crapgadgets we peeped on the floor. Also in this issue, Box Brown brings you a cautionary comic, Ross Rubin talks app stores and Don Melanson recaps the week's best writing from around the web. We're going to submerge ourselves in an isolation tank now, but we'd recommend you download this very special edition, published live from a parking lot at the LVCC.

Distro Issue 23 PDF
Distro on the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Android Market
Distro APK (for sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

Distro's CES Special Edition Part II is ready for download originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fresh off the woman scoring a wooden iPad for $180 in a McDonald's parking lot, another woman spent $250 to buy a laptop in a gas station parking lot and ended up with a stack of paper wrapped in duct tape. More »

While we doubt the 3-year-old construction "hole" that's plagued Seattle neighborhood Green Lake will actually become a play area—complete with 65-space unicycle parking lot—it's really the thought that counts, and the thought here is pretty clever. More »

Paying for parking isn't exactly a fun experience, but Germany's Fraunhofer Institute is doing its best to make it slightly less painful, with Viatag -- an NFC system that allows you shell out your hard earned cash without even reaching for your wallet. The setup is relatively simple, consisting of a small RFID tag, compatible transceivers and a centralized database. Once attached to your car's windshield, the tag communicates with the transceivers installed within a given parking lot, alerting the system whenever your vehicle enters or leaves. An application running on the central server, meanwhile, keeps track of how much time you spend in the lot, and charges your debit card accordingly. Researchers have already installed Viatag at car parks in Essen, Duisburg and Munich, and are hoping to expand it to other locations. It might not be as sophisticated as some of the other automotive communications systems we've seen, but it could come in handy during those moments when you really don't feel like swearing at a parking meter. Cruise past the break for the full PR.

Continue reading Viatag NFC system pays parking lot fees with an RFID tag, saves lives

Viatag NFC system pays parking lot fees with an RFID tag, saves lives originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We all have our hobbies. Fishing, golf, coin collection. Leaving 35-pound bags of vomit in the parking lot of a Pennsylvania Bed Bath & Beyond. Wait, what? More »

Remember how the Segway revolutionized personal transportation? Neither do we, but this Tilto single-person electric vehicle is really gonna go places. Like, around the parking lot -- "manos libres!" Named for the two-step maneuver you'll use to get going (tilt and go), the battery-powered Tilto can move forward, backwards, and sideways at its top speed of 20km/h (12 mph) without the need for pedals or a steering wheel. You'll be able to travel 15 km with each charge, but that should give you plenty of time to score a traffic ticket in the UK, or to roll a safe distance away from screaming fans after your next concert in Arizona. Tilto is little more than a "prototipo experimental" at this point, without a release date or any plans for production, but roll past the break to see how it works.

Continue reading Tilto personal transporter looks like seated Segway, does donuts in Argentine parking lot

Tilto personal transporter looks like seated Segway, does donuts in Argentine parking lot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Geely McCar comes with an electric scooter for people who hate walking originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you're tired of hybrids like the Prius or Volt, cars that could easily get lost in a Hertz parking lot, check out the GP. It's the first and only product from resurrected Belgian auto maker Imperia, which previously operated in the early 20th century, but other than the pronounced front grille offers little resemblance to its forbears either above or below that pronounced bonnet. It has an inline four cylinder turbo engine offering 212hp that's paired with a 134hp electric engine, itself backed by a Li-polymer battery pack. It'll do about 45 miles on batteries alone but, more importantly, will roll the 0 - 60mph sprint in under four seconds. Or, at least, it will if it ever hits production. A concept of the car was unveiled at the Brussels Auto Show, but it's anyone's guess when it might actually hit the road for reals.

Imperia plug-in hybrid does 0 - 60 in four seconds, looks classy while doing it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This photo was captured in Athens, at the parking lot of the Olympic Stadium, during a raging summer thunderstorm. It took 30 minutes and 42 shots to capture the 51 lightnings in this composite shot, using a Canon EOS 550D. More »