Remember that uber-cheap, almost entirely plastic car that India’s Tata Motors was working up? Turns out, the still codenamed 1-Lakh automobile is expected to launch in mid-2008 and get around 15 miles-per-liter, which should give the Maruti 800 some serious competition in the budget car arena. According to R. A. Mashelkar, a nonexecutive director on Tata Motors’ board, it should provide ample room in “both the front and rear” for a six-foot individual, and he also noted that a “new kind of welding” would be used instead of bolts in a variety of locations on the motorcar. Still, there’s just something about the idea of riding in a brand new $2,500 vehicle that doesn’t sit well with us — probably something to do with the dearth of safety features, but who knows.

Remember that uber-cheap, almost entirely plastic car that India’s Tata Motors was working up? Turns out, the still codenamed 1-Lakh automobile is expected to launch in mid-2008 and get around 15 miles-per-liter, which should give the Maruti 800 some serious competition in the budget car arena. According to R. A. Mashelkar, a nonexecutive director on Tata Motors’ board, it should provide ample room in “both the front and rear” for a six-foot individual, and he also noted that a “new kind of welding” would be used instead of bolts in a variety of locations on the motorcar. Still, there’s just something about the idea of riding in a brand new $2,500 vehicle that doesn’t sit well with us — probably something to do with the dearth of safety features, but who knows.

Looks like there may have been a possible leak of the next version of Apple’s iPhone firmware, 1.1.3. According to Gear Live, it can now handle SMS to multiple recipients, the springboard (home screen) supports reordered icons and pagination (as well as web bookmarks), and Google maps gets hybrid view and that nifty cell-based location system. If this is all Steve plans to announce iPhone-wise at Macworld next month, we think there will be more than a few disappointed iPhone users out there. Then again, home screen pagination would kind of imply an SDK to make use of all those slots, so maybe the real news is under the hood.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We have cellular phone services all over the globe now. That almost implies a cell phone in every house. Much of this has been contributed by verizon cell phones.

Although Netscape was once a mighty pioneer in the world of internet browsers, it didn’t take long for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to overtake it and squash its dreams of market dominance. Granted, we highly (and we stress “highly”) doubt any viewers reading this now are relying on Netscape Navigator as their primary browser, but seeing it finally bow out is a bit surreal. According to a post on the Netscape Blog, support (and subsequent updates) for it will no longer be provided by AOL (disclosure: AOL is our parent company’s parent) after February 1, 2008. Sure, old versions will still be available for those who just hate to move on, but the team is suggesting that any remaining Netscape users (a show of hands, anyone?) make the leap to Firefox, and they even point you in the direction of a Netscape theme should you find yourself uncomfortable with change. Rest in peace, dear Netscape — it’s about time that last heap of dirt was finally flung.

[Via BlogRunner]

Wow, never thought we’d see the day that an iDEN handset came along that lacked that distinct iDENness. Motorola will definitely set that marketplace on fire if this beautifully RAZR 2-esque thing actually proves to be real, check out the frickin external screen on this thing! Featuring a 3 megapixel camera, external touch screen — we’re not positive if this only refers to the controls pictured above — Bluetooth, support for up to a 6 GB SD card, and have we mentioned how glorious the whole thing looks? Look for this to land Q4 this year, that is, if it ever gets out of Photoshop the design room. Color us pretty unsure until we hear more.

[Thanks, iDENguy]