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For every year, Ward's AutoWorld magazine picks the best interiors the automotive industry has to offer. For the 2011 season, the publication chose the 10 best interiors after editors analyzed 51 vehicles that were all-new or featured significantly upgraded interior. Ward's Auto picked the 10 winners from all segments, including luxury sedans, economy cars, SUV and MPV. These cars were chosen after editors completed score sheets for each one based on materials, ergonomics, safety, the human-machine interface, comfort, fit-and-finish, overall value and aesthetics.

Is it just me or do we keep getting near misses news from Qantas?? I'm personally not ever flying this airline again. Qantas plane lands after cockpit fire AFP | Thu, Mar 24 2011 There were 'no ill effects or injuries' experienced by passengers and crew on the Manila-Sydney flight. Qantas plane lands after cockpit fire The plane was en route from Manila to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon when an electrical fault caused smoke and small flames near the left-hand windscreen of the cockpit. The pilots used an extinguisher to douse the fire and diverted to Cairns, in tropical north Queensland. "There were no ill effects or injuries experienced by any of the 147 passengers or 11 crew, and all passengers were accommodated on other domestic services to complete their journey to Sydney," Qantas said in a statement. A passenger told The Sydney Morning Herald that the incident was "truly scary". "There was a burning smell in the cabin that was very strong, and then the captain came over the loudspeaker and explained an electrical problem meant there was a serious risk of fire," he said. "Later he explained flames had come back for a second time and they'd had to use a fire extinguisher in the cockpit." Qantas has endured a string of dramatic incidents in the past few months. Last November it temporarily suspended flights of its Airbus A380 superjumbos after an engine on one exploded after taking off from Singapore, damaging the plane. Then in January, a flight bound for New York made an unscheduled stop in Fiji after the Boeing 747 developed a problem with a fuel valve supplying one of its engines. Soon after, another Boeing 747 suffered mid-air mechanical trouble soon after taking off from Bangkok and was forced to return to the Thai capital.

Last night chanced upon a free app (for now) as above. Found it very useful. Basically it makes your iphone work like a car video recorder with GPS logging functionality. I have been testing out a commercial recorder of $400 value and found the apps to be of much better quality, due to the good camera in my 3GS. 4G iphone should return even better performance. During playback, you can see the video together with gps location and speed, very cool. Should be good for oversea driving holidays too. But you will need to pay US$3 to get it exported from the phone, which I will gladly pay if the need arise. Try it and see if you like it.

http://www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/cockpit1.htm So many buttons... which one to press? And what are those round things in the middle?

Any bros using the above? I happen to just read the instructions and realised that it is supposed to be used on PLASTIC surface.... Think my dashboard is those leather surface... still ok to use?