iReal

We got to shoot this thing today for the Wired magazine sponsored Nextfest happening in Chicago this next week (promotional photo shown). After a super early morning setup at the Bean in Millenium Park, Jimmy and I were greeted by team Toyota and the inventor of the iRide who proceeded to totally blow us away by how awesome this new car/segway/awesome rascal performs. The inventor was having so much fun racing around in his pimped ride I felt kind of bad we had to stop him to take his photo. It's super easy to use, you just toggle two joysticks in the cockpit and it goes. Fast. The thing has two different positions, upright for slower, pedestrian travel, and low/wide for up to 30km/hr speed. It's tricked out with a titanium skeleton, ergonomic seat, and a really cool active lcd display on the back. This was clearly transported from some crazy futuristic Japanese world we Americans are not ready for. Most cities in the US have outlawed Segways on streets and sidewalks, so there's no way we're going to have something this cool available anytime soon. Still, I'm officially putting it on my X-mas list. Jimmy's photos will be published in Dec. issue of Wired magazine.