John Sisler

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While a majority of those people playing Gran Turismo will never race a Civic, let alone the supercars featured therein, you can bet 100% of the people “playing” Ferrari’s new racing rig will end up on the track some day.

This is because Ferrari’s 200-ton racing simulator is designed to throw as realistic a simulation as possible at the drivers, who will eventually sit behind the wheel of a real, live Formula 1 race car.

The rig is comprised of 10 computers, sporting 60GB of RAM. The hydraulics it uses to simulate motion generate force equal to 174 horsepower—a whopping 34 more than the current Civic I just mentioned in my lame lead-in joke above.

A 180-degree track view is displayed to the driver using five 3D video monitors. Real engine and track sounds are pumped into the cockpit via a 3,500 watt Dolby surround sound system. This thing is unsurprisingly not available to the public and that geeky image at the top of the page is all Ferrari is giving up for now. [Gizmag via DVICE]

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Consumerist is investigating a reader’s complaint regarding the inability to purchase an iPhone through AT&T’s website when using an NY zip code. So far they’ve discovered that, according to a CS rep: “New York is not ready for the iPhone.”

This is the conversation Consumerist’s Laura Northrup had with an AT&T customer service representative after confirming that iPhones were not available when using any New York zip code:

Daphne: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?

Laura: Hi, I was looking at the iPhone 3Gs and the system tells me that I cannot order one in my ZIP code. My zip code is 11231. (Brooklyn, NY) Is this true? Are iPhones no longer available in New York City?

Daphne: I am happy to be helping you today . Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.

Daphne: You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.

Laura: Thank you for your help. So the phone is not available to people anywhere in the city?

Daphne: Yes this is correct Laura.

Yikes. So the solution to the localized strain heavy data usage is putting on a network is to stop online sales of a particular phone? Doesn’t exactly seem like a sensible idea, especially since there are plenty of phones in AT&T’s brick-and-mortar stores in New York. I’m definitely curious to hear if AT&T makes an official statement on this issue and what the explanation for this odd issue is. [Consumerist]

Photo by 1Happysnapper(is trying to catch up )

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Cycling apps are nothing new to the Apple App Store, but this hardware/software combo called Pedal Brain is the first to provide convenient ANT+ wireless device support.

As a quick primer, ANT+ is a wireless standard used by cyclists to measure and analyze their ride performance using a variety of wireless devices. It’s been around for a while, but until Pedal Brain, there was no way to sync it up to an iPhone of iPod touch. Now there is!

Once you plug the Pedal Brain Synapse hardware device into your phone or touch, you’ll start to get updates in real-time via the app on screen. When you’re all done pedaling for the day, you can sync up with Pedal Brain on the Internet for a more in-depth analysis. There’s team support too, which could make the software a boon for coaches.

The device/app will be available this spring, possibly in March, for $130 to $190. Unfortunately, the steep price does not include the additional charge for a subscription. A limited free version will be available at launch, but will crap out on you after a few weeks. [Pedal Brain via TechCrunch]