Beijing Auto Show in pictures: The best cars from the China show

You might have heard that China is the second biggest car market in the world. But when it comes to Chinese car brands most Westerners are still blissfully unaware of the homegrown Chinese car market. If you do have an impression of such brands, it’s probably that they’re shameless copiers, ripping off vehicles like the Range Rover Evoque with cars like the Landwind X7.

However, we’ve been going to the Chinese Auto Show — which annually alternates between Shanghai and Beijing — for about five years now, and it’s safe to say that in 2016 the Chinese brands have truly got it together.

If you’ve read elsewhere that the show is full of copycat designs, you’re being misled. There are still one or two rip-offs, but you have to seek them out. For the most part, leading Chinese brand design has quickly caught up — and is level-pegging — with mainstream European, Japanese and American models. That’s something that would have been unthinkable, say, five years ago.

Our round-up takes you through the important debuts from some brands you’ll have heard off, and takes a look at some you won’t have — but ones that you might want to watch out for in the future. The message in Beijing was clear: watch out Europe, China is coming.

Click here to open our full-page gallery, featuring 17 cars from the show.

BlackBerry Rome and Hamburg: New leak reveals mid-range Android phones

BlackBerry wants to go mid-range with two Android devices, and a leak has revealed what those new devices might look like, be called, and cost.

Earlier this month, BlackBerry said it thinks the high-end phone market has gone soft, so it plans to launch two new Android phones this year aimed at the mid-range segment. Even though it just launched the Priv Android phone at the end of 2015, the company is eager to offer more devices, as it feels the $700 Priv is probably too expensive for people.

John Chen, BlackBerry’s CEO, has already said the upcoming new devices will include a keyboard-equipped model and a full-touch model, and now, thanks to image leaks spotted by PhoneArena, we’re getting our first glimpse of these devices. We also learned what they might be called: Hamburg (full-touch model) and Rome (keyboard-equipped model).

Times News

As you can see from the images, Rome looks somewhat similar to the BlackBerry Vienna, sans the grille design and camera placement. Rome is also thought to feature a Priv-like curved-screen OLED panel. As for the Hamburg, all we can decipher from the leaked images is that it could have a big bottom speaker. It’s also thought to cost around $400.

That price would would of course be in line with BlackBerry CEO’s previous comments about the company going mid-range.

Times News

Nintendo might stop making the Wii U by March 2018

Nintendo might not be axing the Wii U just yet, but that doesn’t mean the console will stick around for very long. While discussing its finances, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima has revealed that production of the one-of-a-kind system could stop by March 2018, or a year after the NX arrives. The timing wouldn’t be surprising. While Nintendo has a habit of keeping old systems around for a while after a new device launches, that rarely lasts — and the Wii U hasn’t been a strong-enough seller to merit sales well after its successor appears. From all indications, Nintendo wants everyone to move on to the new hardware once the last wave of big Wii U games is out the door.

Source: Reuters

Cassini flybys probe the depths of Titan’s methane sea

As Cassini makes the final rounds of Saturn on its roughly 20-year mission, the spacecraft has maneuvered into position over Titan to explore Ligeia Mare, the second-largest methane sea on the planet’s largest moon.

While Cassini has flown over Ligeia Mare before, the latest study from a French research team published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets confirms what earlier passes suggested back in 2014: that “this sea is predominantly made of pure methane.” Combining this data with earlier radar probes of the sea’s depth, the French team concluded that the sea is likely fed by “fresh methane rainfall” and its sea floor is “covered by a sludge layer of organic-rich compounds.”

Here’s more from NASA:

In the atmosphere of Titan, nitrogen and methane react to produce a wide variety of organic materials. Scientists believe the heaviest materials fall to the surface. [Study author Alice] Le Gall and colleagues think that when these compounds reach the sea, either by directly falling from the air, via rain or through Titan’s rivers, some are dissolved in the liquid methane. The insoluble compounds, such as nitriles and benzene, sink to the sea floor.

Ligeia Mare is about the size of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron combined, and those radar probes from 2013 created a detailed topographic map of Titan that marked the first time the human race ever found the bottom of an extraterrestrial sea. “It’s a marvelous feat of exploration that we’re doing extraterrestrial oceanography on an alien moon,” Steve Wall, the deputy radar lead for Cassini at NASA/JPL explained. “Titan just won’t stop surprising us.”

Those radar probes also made for a nifty 3D-rendered flyby of the moon’s surface. Observe:

Cassini itself has about 40 more laps around Saturn on its 2016-2017 farewell tour. After spending roughly half that time exploring Titan, Cassini will move into position inside the planet’s innermost rings, before it eventually burns up in the planet’s atmosphere around September 15th, 2017. Meanwhile, Cassini’s little buddy, the ESA’s Huygens lander, was left behind on Titan back in 2005. The probe managed to send back data for about 90 minutes after making the most distant landing ever achieved.

Babymetal is coming to ‘Super Mario Maker’

Nintendo announced that it will debut a new costume set and Event Course for its popular level creator, Super Mario Maker, based on Japanese pop-metal band, Babymetal. The “Mystery Mushroom” costume will feature all three band members mashed together in unison. It’s apparently the same basic sprite structure that we saw in December when a Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam mashup came to SMM, though obviously with a different skin and sound effects. Of course, this isn’t the trio’s first foray into video games. Their first single (and breakout hit), “Gimme Chocolate” made it into the a recent Rock Band 4 DLC.

Source: Nintendo News

NASA gets new Dragon capsule training simulators this year

With both the SpaceX Dragon and Starliner modules just a few years from their maiden launches, NASA has already started training the crews that will operate them. To that end, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Eric Boe recently spent some time at Boeing’s St. Louis facility trying out a pair of the company’s brand new part-task training simulators for the Dragon.

These simulators operate like the command consoles from the USS Enterprise — that is, everything is a touchscreen. “We can run multiple simulations by just changing software,” Williams said in a statement. “then [we] put that same software into a bigger crew simulator, which we will use to train the whole crew for a spaceflight.”

“The simulations are important for the flight tests, because this is the place to put it all together,” Boe added. “Think of the part-task trainer as our training wheels. As we get more familiar with the systems, the training wheels will come off and we will start advancing to the next systems. Eventually, we will work with another crew member, then with the whole flight control team.”

Astronauts will initially train individually on the simulators, learning how to operate the capsule under a variety of nominal and emergency situations that could arise on a trip to the ISS. However, once the simulators are shipped to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston later this year and wired into both the Boeing and NASA networks, astronauts will be able to interact with each other as well as mission and launch control to get the fullest training experience. Plus, once Boeing finishes building its full-size Starliner flight deck simulator, astronauts will be able to train on that as well.

Source: NASA

Spotify buys CrowdAlbum to give artists a fan’s perspective

It’s no secret that Spotify and other audio streaming apps are constantly looking for ways to help artists connect with fans. Today, Spotify announced that it’s acquiring CrowdAlbum, a company that builds a library of photos and videos from fans so that artists can gauge the reaction to live performances. The two companies are no strangers, teaming up on a Fan Insights feature for musicians and concert recommendations for listeners. Under the streaming service’s roof, CrowdAlbum will continue to work on products for artists. In fact, it already lends a hand to over 1,000 performers and venues in the US, including Lil Wayne, Diplo and Fall Out Boy.

Source: Spotify

Undersea robots find key clue to a mysterious shipwreck

Robots just helped shed light on a maritime tragedy. The US Coast Guard, National Transportation Safety Board and Woods Hole Oceanographic have used both an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and a fiber-controlled craft to find the voyage data recorder of the El Faro, a cargo ship that sank near the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin last October. That’s no mean feat when its remains are 15,000 feet deep, and the recorder is roughly the size of a coffee can. The recovery should not only help explain the exact circumstances of the El Faro’s final moments, but provide some closure to the families of the 33 crew members that lost their lives.

Source: NTSB, WHOI

Apple deserves the benefit of the doubt — for now

Even though Apple warned us the decline was coming, yesterday’s news that iPhone sales dropped for the first time ever was still noteworthy. Correspondingly, Apple’s revenues dropped for the first time in 13 years, and investors responded as you’d expect. The company’s stock dropped from just over $104 at the market close to $96 when the markets opened this morning. And it’s not just a blip either: Apple is forecasting another decline next quarter.

It’s the end of a historic steak for what’s still the most valuable company in the world. And despite how Wall Street is reacting to the news, it’s important to remember that Apple’s dominance remains unchallenged. The company made more revenue in the last quarter than Google and Microsoft combined. Put simply, every company in the world would kill for the “problems” Apple is having right now.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth asking what’s next for Apple. Despite the company’s historic success, it’s not immune to the challenges plaguing the rest of the industry. IDC today said that worldwide smartphone growth has flattened, and Apple has indeed felt that pain over the last two quarters. Earlier this month, IDC also reported that worldwide PC shipments declined 11 percent, though Apple’s Mac and iPad sales saw an even sharper decline this past quarter. Short of finally slapping a touchscreen on a MacBook, there’s not a ton the company can do that’ll grow sales. Meanwhile, iPad sales have slid for nine consecutive quarters now.

Apple isn’t doomed, but given an increasingly saturated smartphone market and continued weakness in the PC industry, how the company will return to growth isn’t exactly clear. The Apple Watch is making money, but it’ll be tied to the success of the iPhone for the foreseeable future and it’s ultimately still a luxury accessory. The billion-plus Apple users that are growing the company’s services business is a success story, but it’s a product category nonetheless dependent on hardware.

As is often the case with Apple, it’s helpful to think about emerging technology as a guide to what the company might tackle next. After all, its biggest hits are usually refinements of existing product categories. Virtual reality is perhaps the most obvious place for the company to turn. CEO Tim Cook said on Apple’s earnings call in January that he didn’t think of VR as a niche and felt it was “really cool and had some interesting applications.” A few days later, the Financial Times revealed that the company has a huge, secret team working on augmented and virtual reality projects.

“In terms of VR, I don’t think it’s a niche. It’s really cool and has some interesting applications.”

It remains to be seen if VR will be the next significant hardware category that Apple breaks into. The Oculus Rift has just finally gone on sale, and it’ll be a while before we get a sense of whether mainstream users will be willing to shell out several hundred dollars for VR devices and compatible content. But all of the company’s rivals, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft, already have a stake in VR. It’s possible that Apple believes it’s a fad that won’t lead to sustainable financial success, but Cook’s public comments would suggest otherwise.

Other categories that Apple could enter in a bigger way include autos and the smart home. While I don’t see Apple releasing its own car any time too soon, there’s a lot more it could do beyond CarPlay in terms of its software partnership with automakers. A system that didn’t require you to jump back and forth between CarPlay and the car’s default interface would be a good start. And with the smart home landscape cluttered, overly complex and relatively unproven, an Apple home security setup could make a lot of sense. Cameras, locks and lights that work well with your iOS device and Apple Watch could give Apple its first foothold in home automation.

Whether it’s VR or some other product category we haven’t thought of yet, it’s clear that the pressure for Apple to find another unqualified hit is going to start mounting soon. A few years ago, there was similar chatter that Apple was stagnating, an opinion that I felt was rather foolish. Apple launched the iPod, iPhone and iPad in the span of 10 years, all while refining the Mac to make it far more competitive than it was at the beginning of the century.

That’s a pretty impressive run, and the idea that the company will drop iPhone-level hits every couple of years is not realistic. The surprising success of Apple’s services business, now its biggest product category behind the iPhone, will help buoy the company in the interim. But Apple is first and foremost a hardware category, and it’s now been years since the company has had a new hit on its hands; the iPad business hasn’t proven to be a sustainable driver of growth, and it’s probably fair to call the Apple Watch a “hobby” at this point. It’s too early to say that Apple is in trouble, but if we check in again two years from now and Apple hasn’t found a new hardware success story, the company’s outlook could look a lot different.

Google takes you on a 360-degree tour of the Sydney Opera House

It’s never been easier to visit historic places around the world, at least virtually. And now, thanks to a partnership with Google’s Cultural Institute, the Sydney Opera House is letting people take a 360-degree video tour of its iconic arts center. The experience, which is roughly nine minutes long, features a performance from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and views of different areas around the location. It’s perfect for those of you who haven’t been to the Sydney Opera House, especially if you’re hoping to go one day.

Via: Mashable

Source: Sydney Opera House (YouTube)