It’s hard to believe Hyundai has been selling cars in this country for more than 25 years. Wasn’t it just yesterday that the first Excel—remembered more for its low price than its Giugiaro-penned exterior—hit our shores with a thud? Since then, the brand has grown dramatically, in both the scope and quality of its offerings.
Keep Reading: 2012 Hyundai Azera – First Drive Review
Photo by Blackburn Photo / Flickr Creative Commons
You’ve probably heard: Maryland is putting the Chesapeake Bay on a diet. A pollution diet, that is. The six states in the Bay watershed are being required by the federal government to reduce the flow of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment into the bay by 15 to 25 percent by 2025.
In December, Maryland submitted a second draft of its diet plan—or more formally, its watershed implementation plan–to the E-P-A. The state is taking public comments on the plan through March 9th, and will hold informational meetings around the state over the coming weeks about it — a full list of the meetings is below. The first takes place today, in Chestertown.
Sheilah discusses what this latest draft means for local governments with Richard Eskin, the director of Science Services Administration at the Maryland Department of the Environment. He’s been leading Maryland’s Bay Cabinet in activities related to the Watershed Implementation Plans.
You can also listen back to our interview in December with Anne Arundel County Councilman Chris Trumbauer, who proposed new stormwater reduction measures for that county. He withdrew the measure because of a lack of support from other councilmen, but says he’ll propose it again.
Here’s a full list of the public meetings — more information at MDE’s website.
It's been a busy few weeks for cameras, with announcements coming from pretty much all of the major brands.
The next big photographic show is Focus on Imaging, which kicks off at the NEC at the beginning of March.
While we're not expecting there to be any huge launches at the show, we know that all of the manufacturers will be gearing up to show off the best of their new products.
Once such company is Olympus, which recently announced the OM-D. We got to spend some time with the new camera in Amsterdam last week, read about how we got on in our updated hands-on review.
What's more, we also have news from Canon, Nikon, Sony and Flickr. Read on below to see the big news this week, each with links to the full story.
As already mentioned, the big Olympus headline this week is our time spent with its new camera in Amsterdam.
The Olympus OM-D E-M5 really impressed us, and we'll be keen to put it through our rigorous testing once we get one in for full review.
One of the features of the new camera is its shiny new set of digital art filters. Existing Olympus PEN users may be disappointed to know that they won't be able to get their hands on these via a firmware upgrade, according to Toshiyuki Terada from Olympus Japan.
Speaking of PENs though, it has been revealed that the next camera from the manufacturer is likely to be a new model in the PEN line-up. Perhaps we will see some of the exciting new technology from the OM-D trickle down into a more affordable package - fingers crossed.
One of the only companies not to have made any major announcements in the past few weeks is Sony, so we've been turning our attention towards some of the rumours that have been circulating.
First up, the possibility of a new entry level DSLT camera seems to be on the cards, and all the way on the other end of the scale, a pro full-frame DSLT is also looking likely.
Read our Sony a99 rumours piece to find out everything we know so far.
Nikon announced the D800 only a few weeks ago, but you may not have realised that the 'D800E' was also announced.
Coming at a price premium, the second version of the camera removes the anti-aliasing filter. But what is the better choice for you? Find out in our Nikon D800 vs Nikon D800E guide.
This week, Nikon also confirmed it believes that the newly introduced XQD memory card format is the future. Although only currently available in the Nikon D4, the card boasts extremely fast read and write speeds.
We've been waiting for the announcement of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II replacement ever since, well the Mark II came out.
Rumours are intensifying that next week could finally be the release we've all been waiting for.
But what will it be called? The 5D Mark III? 5D X? How many megapixels will it have? Will it be enough to beat the Nikon D800?
Get up to date with everything we know so far in our Canon 5D X/ 5D Mark III rumours page - and feel free to let us know what you're hoping for.
We had a little chat with Flickr ahead of its redesign that is being rolled out over the next few weeks.
Happily, it told us that DSLR uploads were still on the rise. It wasn't such good news for budget point and shoots though, which are being overtaken by camera phones.
Flickr's big rival, 500px, meanwhile, also overhauled its service this week.
If you're confused about the best place to share your photos, have a quick read of our Best Social Networks for Photographers piece to help make your mind up.
That's it for this week... stay tuned next week to find out if all those Canon rumours do come true. As always, we'll bring you all the big news right here.
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In one translation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, the military philosopher says of an enemy, “Emerge to their surprise.” Infiniti’s EMERG-E concept has now completely lost the element of surprise. After being outed via patent office drawings earlier this month, a full set of official photos depicting Infiniti’s secret mid-engine sports car has been posted on Carscoop.
Bulbous curves and sharp creases—and nary a flat plane—define the EMERG-E’s styling. The taut, muscular bodywork flexes over the rear fenders to reveal a pair of intakes; they feed air to the mid-mounted powertrain, which pairs an electric motor with a range-extending gasoline generator. Considering the mid-engine layout of the EMERG-E, the car’s range-extending engine, and that its steering wheel resides on the right, we have a suspicion this car has been built in collaboration with Lotus. Assuming that’s correct, the Infiniti may ride on a modified version of the Evora’s platform; alternatively, Lotus may only be supplying the range-extending technology, or it may not be involved at all. We should know the details soon, as official information on the EMERG-E will arrive around its Geneva auto show debut.
Fiat is apparently about to launch a new Panda sport edition, a 105bhp TwinAir two-cylinder turbo engine version. The TwinAir engine is already available in the 65bhp and the 85bhp versions but, as a Fiat spokesman declared to Autocar, Fiat is developing a more powerful engine. The engine is flexible enough to have a broad range of power outputs, but 105bhp is the limit without significant re-engineering of the unit.
But let’s try to investigate why Fiat engineers are developing this model. If the new Panda is commercialized, it will be a direct competitor of Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.4 Turbo or Audi A1 1.6 TDi, just to give a couple of examples, and it could also be in direct competition with another model of the Fiat family, Fiat Punto 1.4 MultiAir. If a sport version of the notorious Panda enters the market, its price will be around € 14.000 euros (the TwinAir turbo da 85 bhp starts from € 12.450 Euro) same price as Renault Twingo Gordini 1.2 102 bhp. Other cars with the same features, like Mazda 2 1.5 and Skoda Fabia 1.2 TSi, under 4 meters in length, are priced not less than € 15.000 -15.500.
Can the new Panda be successful in a market where for the same price people can choose between a range of cars in a superior class (Lancia Ypsilon, Seat Ibiza, Peugeot 208, Hyundai i20 and Fiat Punto Evo) though less powerful?
View the full New Fiat Panda gallery
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