BMW’s key EV executives depart for Chinese startup

Several key executives behind BMW’s well-regarded i8 and i3 electric vehicles have been hired away by a little-known China-based company called Future Mobility. The German automaker confirmed to Engadget that “BMW i” division head designer Benoit Jacob, head of product management Henrik Wenders and powertrain developer Dirk Abendroth have departed. They’ll be joining Carsten Breitfeld, who left BMW last month to become CEO of Future Mobility Corp. The Chinese startup is funded in part by Tencent Holdings, a $200 billion company with divisions ranging from gaming to messaging.

BMW launched its $40,000 city-oriented i3 vehicle and $135,000 i8 EV supercar in 2011, both to general acclaim. Sales for the vehicles have been respectable in the EV category, as the company sold 24,000 i3 models in 2015. However, the company delayed plans to introduce a new model called the i NEXT from next year to at least 2020.

At the same time, rival Tesla has sold 50,000 copies of its Model S, a $76,500 vehicle. In addition, it has so far pre-sold nearly 400,000 copies of the new Model 3, a car that won’t hit roads until at least the end of 2017. If just half of the folks who placed orders take delivery, that would put the Model 3 in the top ten best-selling cars in the US, ahead of mainstream vehicles like the Hyundai Sonata and Ford Focus.

Despite the departures, BMW spokesman Paloma Brunckhorst tells Engadget that it’s “totally convinced [about BMW i] and that the electric car is the future.” Later this year, the company will reveal a new BMW i3 model with 50 percent more battery capacity. That would boost the vehicle’s range to 120 to 150 miles (without the gas-powered range extender), enough to make it practical for short trips outside of cities. Tesla’s Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt both have claimed ranges of around 200 miles.

BMW will also launch an i8 Roadster in 2018, and the aforementioned i NEXT vehicle, “a larger, electrically-powered BMW i model … [at] the beginning of the next decade,” says Brunckhorst. New tech in the model will include “autonomous driving, digital connectivity, intelligent light-weight construction and the next generation of electric mobility.” In addition, the company will have five hybrid-electric vehicles under its “iPerformance” banner by summer of 2016.

If accurate, the departure is no doubt a blow to BMW. However, it’s certainly not unusual in the EV industry — a key Tesla executive reportedly left for Apple recently. Tesla has called Apple — which is reportedly developing its own EV — the “Tesla graveyard” for hiring its unwanted engineers. As for China’s Future Mobility, it will do EV research and development in Shenzhen, China, with European divisions responsible for the design, powertrain, self-driving system and other features. The company plans to build a premium “internet smart electric car … with Chinese roots and a global reach,” according to China Daily.

Apple Backs Open Letter to Senators Criticizing Draft Encryption Bill

An open letter expressing “deep concerns” about a U.S. draft encryption bill that would force smartphone makers to decrypt data at the behest of the government was published yesterday, signed by four coalitions representing Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and other major tech companies.

The letter is addressed to the bill’s sponsors, Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, and warns of the legislation’s “unintended consequences”, calling its requirements of technology companies “well-intentioned but ultimately unworkable” (via The Verge).

Any mandatory decryption requirement, such as that included in the discussion draft of the bill that you authored, will to lead to unintended consequences. The effect of such a requirement will force companies to prioritize government access over other considerations, including digital security. As a result, when designing products or services, technology companies could be forced to make decisions that would create opportunities for exploitation by bad actors seeking to harm our customers and whom we all want to stop. The bill would force those providing digital communication and storage to ensure that digital data can be obtained in “intelligible” form by the government, pursuant to a court order. This mandate would mean that when a company or user has decided to use some encryption technologies, those technologies will have to be built to allow some third party to potentially have access. This access could, in turn, be exploited by bad actors.

It is also important to remember that such a technological mandate fails to account for the global nature of today’s technology. For example, no accessibility requirement can be limited to U.S. law enforcement; once it is required by the U.S., other governments will surely follow. In addition, the U.S. has no monopoly on these security measures. A law passed by Congress trying to restrict the use of data security measures will not prevent their use. It will only serve to push users to non-U.S. companies, in turn undermining the global competitiveness of the technology industry in the U.S. and resulting in more and more data being stored in other countries.

We support making sure that law enforcement has the legal authorities, resources, and training it needs to solve crime, prevent terrorism, and protect the public. However, those things must be carefully balanced to preserve our customers’ security and digital information. We are ready and willing to engage in dialogue about how to strike that balance, but remain concerned about efforts to prioritize one type of security over all others in a way that leads to unintended, negative consequences for the safety of our networks and our customers.

The letter is signed by Reform Government Surveillance, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Entertainment Software Association, and the Internet Infrastructure Coalition. Facebook, Netflix, eBay, and Dropbox are among other companies represented by the groups.

The news follows heavy criticism of the bill from security experts after a draft titled “The Compliance with Court Orders Act 2016” was circulated earlier this month following Apple’s standoff with the FBI over access to an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack. The draft states that all providers of communication services and products must respect the “rule of law” and comply with legal requirements and court orders to provide information stored either on devices or remotely.

Without detailing specific technical demands, the wording of the act itself makes end-to-end encryption impossible. Experts said it was “absurd”, “dangerous”, and “bad legislation in every way”, amounting to a government-mandated back door.

The White House remains deeply divided on the issue and has so far decided not to offer public support for the legislation. Language in the draft bill is subject to changes based on input from stakeholders, although an official draft was released one week ago with few changes from the earlier version. Senators Burr and Feinstein have yet to respond to the letter.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs Amid Declining PC Market

Intel has announced a major corporate restructuring that will see 11 percent of its workforce laid off as the company intensifies its focus on its data center and smart connected computing businesses.

The move is being billed as a profitable and efficient evolution of the company away from its traditional PC sector base toward more high-growth areas, broadly defined as its cloud-powering hardware and Internet of Things businesses. These areas reportedly made Intel $2.2 billion in revenue growth last year, making up 40 percent of its operating profit and offsetting its decline in the PC market.

Combined with its gaming, home gateway, memory and connectivity businesses, the initiative will fuel a “virtuous cycle of growth”, said Intel, but the move comes at the cost of up to 12,000 jobs globally. The company said the layoffs will be completed by mid-2017 through a combination of voluntary and involuntary departures as it re-evaluates its programs and consolidates its sites worldwide.

Intel forecasts that the initiative will deliver $750 million in savings in 2016 and annual run rate savings of $1.4 billion by the middle of the following year.

While Intel’s press release makes no mention of its latest microprocessor uptake in the PC market, the company did recently confirm the end of its highly successful decade-long “tick-tock” strategy of annually delivering new processors, after chip updates stretched beyond the yearly cycle in recent generations and began affecting Apple’s product launch cycles. The launch of Intel’s Kaby Lake 14-nm microarchitecture was delayed to the second half of 2016 after Skylake suffered similar setbacks in 2015.

Semiconductor foundries have had increasingly tough times creating smaller process nodes as fabrication of smaller transistors has become increasingly expensive and complex. Intel has said it will now move to a new “Process-Architecture-Optimization” model for its current 14-nm node and next-generation 10-nm node family of chips.

Tag: Intel
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World’s first HDR display smartphone, the Sony Xperia X Premium leaks

Sony has already wowed the world with its Xperia X Performance smartphone which sports a 4K screen, yet it may already have an HDR upgrade. The Sony Xperia X Premium is being leaked as the world’s first HDR smartphone which is set to be the brightest with most colours.

The Sony Xperia X Premium, according to sources of Phone Radar, is going to offer a 5.5-inch display at 1080p resolution which can manage High Dynamic Range. Baring in mind that televisions haven’t had this feature for long that’s an impressive jump, even if it isn’t 4K also.

One of the important parts of HDR is brightness, in order to show that range. That’s why the Xperia X Premium should come with a screen capable of up to 1300 nits of brightness. By comparison the Samsung Galaxy S7 tops out at 855 nits.

For colour depth this HDR screen will offer a staggering 1.07 billion where the nearest best right now manages just 16.8 million. So instead of 256 shades of RGB colour, the 10-bit HDR display manages 1024 colour shades.

On top of all that the screen refreshes at 120Hz and has a contrast ratio of 2000:1.

But what’s it all for? The 4K Sony Xperia X Performance hasn’t proven that useful or sold that well. But, in the near future, virtual reality will require these refresh rates and colour ranges as people start using their phones more in headsets. Looking at screens that close requires quality and, in order to avoid disorientation, a good refresh rate.

The Sony Xperia X Premium is expected to run a Snapdragon 820 processor with Adreno 530 GPU, 3GB of RAM and USB-C. When it will appear is not so clear.

READ: What is Ultra HD Premium and why does it matter?

Apple agrees to pay $24.9 million to settle Siri patent lawsuit

Apple has agreed to settle yet another lawsuit from the ever-growing list of litigations it’s battling to the tune of $24.9 million. This particular case, filed back in 2012 by a company called Dynamic Advances, alleges that Siri infringes on a patent owned by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private research university in Troy, New York. Rensselaer’s patent application was granted in 2007, years before Siri was released, and Dynamic Advances holds the exclusive license to it. The lawsuit was supposed to go to trial next month, but the settlement terms require the plaintiff to drop the case completely.

In exchange for $24.9 million, Apple will be allowed to continue loading its devices with Siri and the assurance that it’s not going to be sued based on the same patent again… at least for the next three years. Dynamic Advances is getting $5 million as soon as the case is dropped, with the rest to follow. It expects to pocket half of the amount and divvy up the rest to pay Rensselaer and its lawyers, among the other entities involved in the case.

If you’re wondering, the patent in question is called “Natural language interface using constrained intermediate dictionary of results.” The document says the invention “relates to user interfaces, and more specifically, to user interfaces that recognize natural language.”

Via: The Verge

Source: Albany Business Review

Google launches new Chromecast, Chromecast Audio in India for ₹3,399

Google has launched the new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio in the Indian market. Both devices are now available for ₹3,399.

Google is bundling six months of Saavn Pro and Hooq with either device. Cast support in Saavn and Wynk Music allows you to stream music directly to the Chromecast with ease. As for the devices themselves, the new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio resemble a hockey puck, and can now connect to 5GHz Wi-Fi networks.

Configuring the Chromecast is very straightforward. Plug in the Chromecast to your TV using HDMI or the Chromecast Audio to your stereo through the 3.5mm jack, head to the setup page, and then start casting content through the Google Cast app.

The Chromecast and Chromecast Audio will be available for purchase at Flipkart, Paytm, and Snapdeal, as well as offline retailers such as Reliance Digital and Croma.

MORE: Chromecast and Chromecast Audio for 2015 review

The ivargo phone’s packaging is set to impress

It’s not so much packaging, really, as a big old Pelikan case.

We’re hanging out at CE China this week, a new event hosted by IFA, and since it’s Asia focused we’re seeing a bunch of stuff that we might not normally come across in Europe or North America. One of those things is the ivargo and its pretty epic box.

This likely isn’t the retail packaging, just as with the fancy Nextbit Robin box we received our review unit in, but it’s a Pelikan case, so it’s pretty fantastic either way.

Inside you get the foam padding you’d normally find in such a case, with cuttouts for the phone, a battery pack, and a bunch of boxes for the cables, adapter and such.

The phone itself is mostly standard fare for a decent mid-ranger. The body is all metal, it’s got a fingerprint scanner on the back (and also a home button on the front) and a 5-inch 1080p IPS display. Inside you find a Snapdragon 615 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a 2500mAh battery. There’s also what appears to be a 13MP rear and 5MP front facing camera, though the translations are a little shaky on some of the specs.

The software is based on Android Lollipop and is heavily customized, as is usually the way in China. They call it Vargo OS and it’s got at least one neat trick. When you pull down the notification tray and hit the settings button it overlays down the left hand side of the screen. Then whichever menu you select opens up on the right hand half of the screen.

I can’t really say a lot else about the software except it’s the usual Chinese style blast of colors and that there’s a lack of anything Google related as is the norm. It’s not a phone we’ll see over in the west but it’s a decent little phone, if only for the crazy box.

LeEco’s latest phones ditch the headphone jack for USB Type-C audio

LeEco has unveiled three new handsets in China today, the Le 2, Le 2 Pro and Le Max 2. The phones are the first to eschew the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of USB Type-C audio, with LeEco rolling out two USB-C headphones to go with the handsets.

The Le Max 2 is the flagship offering with a 5.7-inch QHD display, 2.1Ghz Snapdragon 820 SoC, an astounding 6GB of RAM, 64GB internal memory, ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, Category 12 LTE, and a 3100mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0.

The Le 2 and Le 2 Pro are aimed at the budget segment, but still manage to bring serious specs to the table. Both offer 5.5-inch Full HD displays, 32GB storage, 8MP front cameras and 3000mAh batteries. The standard Le 2 is powered by the 10-core MediaTek Helio X20 SoC, while the Le 2 Pro features the faster Helio X25, which also has a 10-core CPU consisting of two Cortex A72 cores and two variations of quad-core Cortex A53 CPUs.

The Le 2 has 3GB of RAM while the Le 2 Pro offers 4GB. On the camera front, the Le 2 features a 16MP shooter, with the Le 2 Pro offering a 21MP camera based on Sony’s IMX230 sensor.

No retail pricing or availability, but LeEco intends to bring at least one model to the U.S.

Samsung UBD-K8500 4K UHD Blu-ray player now available in the UK

It’s been a while since Samsung showed its first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player to the public, at IFA in Germany last autumn in fact, but now it’s finally available to buy in the UK.

It makes sense considering the discs themselves have only recently gone on sale too.

The Samsung UBD-K8500 is available from all good entertainment electronics retailers, including Currys, John Lewis, Richer Sounds and Samsung itself, including Samsung.com. It is priced at £429.99.

The deck has been designed with the company’s curved TVs in mind, offering a similar curved front. It is HDR compatible and has advanced picture upscaling technology built-in so conventional, 1080p Blu-rays and standard definition DVDs will be enhanced through Samsung’s picture tech.

This year is turning out to be massive for Ultra High Definition, with movie studios starting to roll out multiple 4K Blu-ray releases, which will ramp up over the next 12 months. 20th Century Fox, for example, is said to be releasing over 100 4K Blu-rays in 2016 alone, which includes recent hits, The Martian and The Peanuts Movie.

READ: These are the first 4K UHD Blu-rays with HDR and Dolby Atmos you can buy

Warner Bros is also betting strong on 4K UHD take-up. Mad Max: Fury Road is leading its roll out of UHD films, with others including The Lego Movie and Man of Steel.

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 phones get pink option that isn’t rose gold

Not one to hold back on spinning out new colors and editions months after a smartphone debuts, Samsung’s revealed metallic rose-hued Galaxy S7s and S7 Edges for Korean phone-shoppers. Wait, it’s not rose gold. That’s some other company. These phones are obviously pink gold. Completely different and “skin tone-inspired”.

Source: Samsung