Kiran Upadhyay

  The custom van craze of the 1970s was huge, but relatively few have survived. They were unlikely to be squirreled away by collectors, nor were their original owners the type who only drove them to church on Sundays. All of which makes this 1974 Ford Econoline, with just 873 miles from new, a most unusual time capsule. And it's for sale right now on eBay Motors, offered by Classic Auto Mall. Bought new from Miller McVeigh Ford of State College, Pennsylvania, in November 1974, this Econoline sold new for $6,791.02. The bill of sale shows the original owner as Larry A. Brown, and his Econoline Custom 100 was equipped with a 302-cubic-inch V8, three-on-the-tree, and a high-output heater. Moreover, it was decked out in full-'70s regalia, with an 8-track stereo, Cragar slotted mags, side pipes, and bubble porthole windows. A flame-design stripe encircles the exterior, and there's the must-have mural. In this case, a trippy mountain scene with a dead tree in the foreground. The ...

    Zoom is taking advantage of the impressive rise in its stock price in the past year to make its first major acquisition. The popular video conferencing firm, which was valued at about $9 billion at its IPO two years ago, said Sunday evening it has agreed a deal to buy cloud call centre service provider Five9 for about $14.7 billion in an all-stock transaction. 20-year-old Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom after the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2022, the two firms said. The proposed acquisition is Zoom’s latest attempt to expand its offerings. In the past year, the video conferencing software has added several office collaboration products, a cloud phone system, and an all-in-one home communications appliance. The acquisition of Five9 — which has amassed over 2,000 customers worldwide including Citrix and Under Armour and processes over 7 billion minutes of calls annually — will help Zoom enter the “$24 billion” market for contact centers,...

  BERLIN — Germany will in July have 1 million electric cars on the road, hitting its target six months late, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told the Tagesspiegel daily on Friday, saying subsidy programs had boosted demand. "We will reach our target of 1 million electric cars by 2020, which everyone thought was unattainable, this July, just six months late," the minister was quoted as saying.   Read More

    Wally Funk, a woman who trained for NASA's "Mercury 13" program in the 1960s, is Jeff Bezos' guest for the trip to be made by his aerospace company, Blue Origin, on July 20. The 82-year-old Funk was trained as an astronaut in 1961 in a class known as the "Women in Space Program," which was privately funded with the goal of including women on NASA expeditions. However, after the group of 13 women finished their training, they were not selected to travel to space because they were women. "They told me I had done better and completed the job faster than any of the guys," Funk explains in the promotional video for Blue Origin.   Read More

  With the controversial design of the BMW 4 Series, we've anxiously awaited what the company would do with the 2022 2 Series coupe. The good news is that the über- grille has not reappeared. In addition, the 2 Series packs even more power than before. Although the grille is relatively normal by BMW standards, the 2 Series coupe is still distinctive. It has shark-like headlights and bulging, blistered fenders. The long nose and short deck seem even more prominent than before. And some of that may be a result of the fact that the new 2 is in fact larger than its predecessor. Depending on whether it's a 230i or an M240i, it ranges between 3.5 and 4.3 inches longer overall. And both versions have a 2-inch longer wheelbase and are 2.6 inches wider. Powering the 2 Series is a choice of two engines. The base 230i models will get a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder making an extra 7 horsepower and 37 pound-feet of torque for totals of 255 and 295 respectively. The M24...

MoviePass, the subscription service that lets consumers pay a monthly fee to see unlimited movies in theaters across the U.S., is slashing its prices yet again. The company announced today it’s now offering its service for $6.95 per month, down from the current price of $9.95 per month, when customers commit to a one-year subscription plan. That works out to a flat fee of $89.95 annually. The deal is a limited-time promotion, as opposed to a permanent pricing change, but MoviePass didn’t say how long the offer is valid. However, it is open to both new and existing subscribers – the latter who would receive a 25 percent savings on their current subscription if switching over to the annual plan. This is not the first time that MoviePass has dropped its pricing. When the company introduced its $9.95 per month, one-movie-per-day plan this August, down from $15 for 2 movies per month (or more in select markets like L.A. and NYC, and going as high as $50), it saw so many new sign-up...