Toyota believes that cars can be friends, and in the current era of social networking websites drivers should be offered an opportunity to interact with their cars in the digital world just like they do with their buddies, family and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter and other services of this kind. On Monday, May 23, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced that it had formed a strategic alliance with San Francisco-based enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce.com to develop and launch Toyota Friend, a private social network for Toyota customers and their vehicles.

While an ITC support cane capable of measuring pulse and blood pressure that won the first prize of the Fujitsu Design Award 2011 is still a futuristic device that is unlikely to enter mass market in the near future, the latest enhancements to Ford’s Sync technology designed to report health-related information may become reality in a year or two, Ford assures. The automaker is currently in the process of development of mobile gadgets to allow measuring the health metrics that are vital for the drivers diagnosed with diabetes and other chronic diseases.

Samsung and Acer are working together with Google and will soon roll out two models of Chromebooks. The first two notebooks running on Google’s Chrome OS will be introduced in the U.S. and six European countries. According to www.gigaom.com, the price for Acer’s Chromebook will start at $349, while two models by Samsung will be available for purchase at the price of $429 (a model equipped with Wi-Fi interface) and $499 for a model featuring 3G connectivity.