20110519

Japanese electric car 'goes 300km' on single charge

AFP

Japanese developers have unveiled an electric car they said Wednesday can travel more than 300 kilometres before its battery runs flat. Electric vehicle specialist SIM-Drive, which hopes to take the car to market by 2013 but gave no projected cost, said its four-seater "SIM-LEI" had motors inside each wheel and a super-light frame, allowing for 333 kilometres (207 miles) of motoring on one charge in a test. Its designers say they hope the prototype, a joint project among 34 organisations including Mitsubishi Motors and engineering firm IHI, will be sold to car manufacturers for mass production. (AFP)

Sony's Stringer calls hacker attack 'hiccup'

Japan Times

The hacker attack that crippled Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Network and Qriocity entertainment services was "a hiccup" in the company's online strategy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer said. "Nobody's system is 100 percent secure," Stringer said Tuesday in a phone interview, his first public comments on the attack. "This is a hiccup in the road to a network future." Stringer, 69, spoke in an interview almost a month after Sony, maker of the PlayStation console, shut down its online movie, music and games services. (Japan Times)