CES 2012 is not with us just yet, but many interesting products always start to show up ahead of their proper unveiling. A pair of such budget tablets going to CES are made by Velocity Micro under the trademark Cruz: a 7 inch T507 tablet and a 10 inch T510 tablet. They are given the following specs at the manufacturer’s site:

• 7″ Capacitive Touch Screen
• Cortex A8 1.2 GHz Processor
• Flash Player 11
• Discrete ARM Mali 400MHz 3D Graphics Acceleration
• 512MB DDR3 RAM
• 8GB Internal Storage
• Front-facing Camera
• HDMI Out
• Amazon Appstore, Kindle for Android, and QuickOffice Full
• Android 4.0

T510, a 10-inch model is shown like this:

• 9.7″ Capacitive Touch Screen
• 8.9mm Thick Chassis
• Cortex A8 1.2 GHz Processor
• Flash Player 11
• Discrete ARM Mali 400MHz 3D Graphics Acceleration
• 8GB Internal Storage
• Front-facing Camera
• HDMI Out
• Amazon Appstore
• Android 4.0

PC Mag adds that the a 7-inch T507 will have an 800×480 screen and retail for under $150, while the 10 inch (actually, 9.7 inch) Velocity Cruz Tablet T510 will sport a 1024×768 screen similar to the HP Touchpad’s screen. The screen on T510 might be even be the same as was manufactured for the HP Touchpad, perhaps out of leftovers from that carnage HP did to their mobile tablet division last August. The 10-incher T510 may retail for under $250.  Front camera on both tablets is of VGA quality (0.3 Mpix). Both tablets are planned for launch in the US some time in the first quarter of 2012.

Best known as a maker of high-quality, value-priced PCs, Velocity Micro has also made e-readers and Android tablets for a few years now, even if these were not met with a significant success from customers of cheap devices of this nature. However, unlike the models from the “good” brands, the Velocity Micro Cruzes are known for being relatively easy to hack and mod. So, if specs above don’t mention Google Market and Google Apps pre-installed, it may mean the community might “correct” this problem very soon. Even if the claimed Android 4.0 they run is not exactly your Google’s certified version.

The post Velocity Micro Budget Android 4.0 Tablets Unveiling At CES appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Chevy’s got a quick solution for rising gas prices – new tires! The tires, designed for the Chevy Cruze Eco, boost fuel efficiency by three miles per gallon. That’s 38 extra miles on a tank of fuel. According to Chevy, the new tires will save big bucks – about $112 a year.

The Cruze Eco tires make use of special polymers built into the tread compound to reduce rolling resistance, which means less energy is required to keep the tire moving. This is not the first type of tire that reduces rolling resistance. Yokohama Rubber based in Japan has been creating low-resistance tires for years, and in 2007 introduced such tires for heavy trucks.

A good question is how much the new tires cost. With some sets of tires coming in at almost $1000, would it really be worth it to buy the tires? There’s a chance that in 10 years you’ll need a new car altogether, meaning you didn’t save much with the purchase.

And last time I checked, buying things didn’t save me money. The Cruze Eco’s suggested selling price is $19,175, and it comes with a nice green ‘Eco’ logo on the back. Although, according to Transport Canada, low rolling resistance tires can improve fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by up to three per cent.

In other news, taking the bike out of the garage saves you $19,175 plus the cost of gas and new tires in a year.

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