Toyota Teases Furia

TORRANCE, Calif -- +Toyota USA  has announced that they will be unveiling the Furia Concept at the 2013 North American International Auto Show.  In order to gain some interest in the concept, Toyota has released a video to stroke people's curiosity.  Toyota did not specify whether this was a pure concept, or a prelude to a production vehicle.  The only clues is that Toyota has said " this exciting new sedan concept will be revealed in the Toyota display at Cobo Hall."  Full details will be unveiled on January 14, 2013.

Infiniti Reveals New Naming Strategy

HONG KONG -- Infiniti has announced a new nomenclature in its "desire for clarity and cohesiveness."  In its current naming strategy, the letter defines the model and the number defines the powerplant.  The new simplified naming strategy is for all sedans, coupes and convertibles to be prefixed with Q and crossovers and SUVs to be prefixed with QX.  Each model now will be identified with a number representing its place in the model range.  An example is the FX is higher in the model range and so will be branded QX70, where as the EX is lower in the model range so it will be branded as QX 50.  The change will take place with the 2014 model year and the first model to debut with the new nomenclature is the Infiniti Q50, currently known as the G37 sports sedan.

Roabst's Picks For Best Smartphone 2013 Part I

The year is almost coming to a close and we hope next year will bring everyone a lucky `13!  Here are our picks for the best smartphones currently on the market. Some of our picks may even surprise you.

Best Smartphone on AT&T

Selection at one time was an issue at AT&T.  Rumors blamed the exclusive contract with Apple as the reason why the selection was somewhat poor.  Logically it does make some sense.  If iPhone sales were so great and helping their bottom line, what's the need to sell anything else?  Times have changed and AT&T is no longer the exclusive carrier for the iPhone.  Even T-Mobile has announced they'll be selling some Apple product in 2013, but it hasn't been announced what exactly it is.  It's pretty remote that it isn't the iPhone.  AT&T currently has a wide selection of smartphones and picking one phone as the best is a challenge.

HTC One X+

It was hard to choose one, but there can be only one winner and we picked the HTC One X+ on the AT&T network.  The One X+ is powered by a NVIDIA 1.7 Ghz Tegra 3 processor and Android 4.1 Jellybean with HTC Sense.  It runs quick and smooth and looks lovely on its 4.7" Super LCD 2 display.  The OneX+ can take lovely pictures with its 8 megapixel camera and a dedicated HTC Image Chip processor.  It doesn't have an expansion slot but it has a huge 64 GB of storage space.  Unfortunately, not all of it is user accessible.  The battery is a good size at 2100 mAh, but its the embeded type, so it's not user replaceable.  With a two year contract, the One X+ is $199.99 on AT&T.  It's a very good price considered a 64GB Apple iPhone 5 will set you back $399.99, and that's the two year contract price.  With a large and ample storage space, powerful processor, and lovely display, the HTC One X+ is our choice for best smartphone on AT&T.  

Best Smartphone on Sprint

Sprint is one of the carriers that is in transition. Nextel is just a memory and the company is being bought up by Japan's Softbank. What is interesting is that even though it's being bought up, Sprint is in the process of buying Clearwire. Sprint gambled big on Apple's iPhone and its made some traction except it hasn't really put a dent on its bigger rivals AT&T and Verizon.  Sprint touts its "Simply Everything" plan which gives you unlimited everything including data on its network.  The big question here is if Sprint is your choice of carrier, what's the best smartphone on the Sprint network.

Samsung Galaxy S III

The answer to that question would have to be the Samsung Galaxy S III.   It is one of the most advanced smartphones currently on the market.  It's quite a productivity workhorse.  It'll be even more useful when it gets the Premium Suite upgrade.   It's got a large and beautiful 4.8" display.  It's great for things like watching videos and navigation   Part of what separates the Galaxy S III from smartphones of other manufacturers is motion gestures.  Features like Direct Call, Smart Alert, and our favorite, Smart Stay, are useful and improves upon the wonderful experience that Android provides.  The Samsung Galaxy S III also still has two important features that are missing from a lot of phones these days and that's microSD card slot and user replaceable battery.  The Samsung Galaxy S III has an abundance of features so it's sure not to disappoint.