UK doctors say smokers should be encouraged to use e-cigarettes

If the British public needed reassurance that e-cigarettes are healthier than traditional smoking, a new report from Royal College of Physicians (PCP) has done just that. In a 200-page document, leading UK doctors have moved to quash the “increasingly common misconception” that vaping is dangerous and said that smokers should be “reassured and encouraged” to switch to e-cigarettes.

Although the long-term effects of e-cigarettes aren’t yet known, the PCP says that the likelihood of there being a “hazard to health” arising from sustained vapour inhalation is “unlikely to exceed 5 percent of the harm from tobacco smoke.” This mirrors a Public Health England (PHE) report that said that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than tobacco.

Doctors also found there was no evidence to suggest that e-cigarettes normalize smoking or serve as a gateway to regular tobacco: “None of these products has to date attracted significant use among adult never-smokers, or demonstrated evidence of significant gateway progression into smoking among young people.”

Smoking-related diseases cost the National Health Service (NHS) more than £2 billion (around $2.9 billion) each year, which equates to over 2 percent of its budget. It’s also the biggest avoidable cause of death and disability in the UK. While the PCP believes e-cigarettes make a “major contribution” to improve the lives of millions of people, there still needs to be “careful management and proportionate regulation.”

This might include the licensing of more vaping solutions — British American Tobacco’s e-Voke pen is currently the only e-cigarette prescribed by the NHS — and a possible EU requirement that all products undergo emissions tests that allow consumers to identify the best and cleanest products. It also means that most smokers will need to buy their own e-cigarettes, at least until more manufacturers decide to offer their products as “quit smoking aids.”

“The growing use of electronic cigarettes as a substitute for tobacco smoking has been a topic of great controversy, with much speculation over their potential risks and benefits,” says Professor John Britton, chair of the RCP’s Tobacco Advisory Group. “This report lays to rest almost all of the concerns over these products, and concludes that, with sensible regulation, electronic cigarettes have the potential to make a major contribution towards preventing the premature death, disease and social inequalities in health that smoking currently causes in the UK.”

Via: BBC News

Source: Royal College of Physicians

BBC and Netflix team up to remake ‘Watership Down’

The BBC and Netflix have teamed up to produce a new version of Richard Adams’ seminal children’s novel, Watership Down. The pair will “reinterpret” the story into a four-part animated mini series that’ll air in 2017 on the BBC in the UK and globally on the streaming service. The new production hasn’t scrimped on the cast, with heavy-hitters like James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, John Boyega and Sir Ben Kingsley voicing the main characters. It’ll be the third time that the novel has been adapted for the screen, firstly as a film in 1978 and then again for TV in 1999.

In fact, the film version has something of a reputation amongst the children of Britain who regularly saw it on Saturday afternoons. The novel’s brutal depiction of a series of rabbits trying to find a new home just before their warren is destroyed is crammed full of on-screen violence. The film didn’t shy away from depicting this, and one columnist for the Guardian described it as “the film that frightened me most.” According to the Verge, producer Rory Aitken said that the new version won’t “shy away” from the novel’s darkness, although it won’t be as scarring as the film.

This is the first time that the BBC and Netflix have put money behind the same production, but the BBC is no stranger to teaming up with other broadcasters. As well as its partnerships with various PBS stations in the US, it’s already co-funded three seasons of Ripper Street for Amazon Prime. The corporation has also signed numerous distribution deals to get its back-catalog of shows onto Netflix in the US and elsewhere. Most recently, the pair agreed to distribute the revived Top Gear that’ll air in opposition to Amazon’s homegrown rival with Jeremy Clarkson.

Via: The Verge

Google Releases Android TV Remote App for iOS

Google has released an iOS app that enables Android TV owners to control their television using their iPhone or iPad.

The app’s migration to iOS means that Apple mobile device owners now have the same ability to control the smart TV Google platform as their Android mobile-owning counterparts, so long as both television and iOS device share the same wireless network.

The iOS app features a D-pad in the center of the screen for standard remote control operation, while users can also input text or perform a voice search via Google Now, both of which should be a welcome alternative to using a standard remote handset to input to an onscreen keyboard.

Multiple remotes can be linked to an Android TV, meaning iOS device users can also take part in multiplayer games alongside users of standard gamepad controllers.

The Android TV app is a free download for iPad and iPhone from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Android
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Indian Government Approves Single-Branded Apple Retail Stores

The Indian government is set to approve Apple’s request to open its own retail stores in the country and exempt the company from its domestic sourcing policy for foreign businesses.

Apple currently has no wholly-owned stores in India and sells its products through a number of distributors. Back in January, the company sent an application to the country’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for approval of several planned Apple retail outlets.

According to The Times of India, a committee led by DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek will this week recommend exempting Apple from a state ruling that requires single-brand foreign stores to source at least 30 percent of their goods from domestic suppliers.

“The committee has found that the company’s products are cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art,” said sources familiar with the matter. “It has recommended to exempt them from the local sourcing norms.”

The source’s wording is significant, since under the rule, restrictions may be waived for retailers selling “state-of-the-art” and “cutting-edge technology” if local suppliers are unavailable. Since Apple manufactures most of its products in China, the precondition had thus far been an issue for the company as it tries to make headway into the Indian retail market.

Last summer, Apple announced its Authorized Mobility Resellers program in India, which focused on opening 500 retail store locations across 12 cities in the country. Apple CEO Tim Cook has praised India’s business environment and stated that the company is putting more energy into the country, which has the third largest smartphone market in the world with over 200 million users, despite only one third of the population being smartphone owners.

Tag: India
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Intel Wants to Replace 3.5mm Headphone Jack With USB-C Audio

Intel this week announced plans to usher in the adoption of an analog audio USB Type-C connector that would replace the standard 3.5 millimeter analog jack and eventually be capable of digital audio transmission (via Anandtech).

The plans were announced during the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) in Shenzhen, China, where the semiconductor manufacturer set out its project to develop USB Type-C Digital Audio. Intel remained vague about the digital conversion, but set out broad aims to update the USB Audio Device 2.0 protocol specifications to include up-to-date audio features, while simplifying discovery and improving power management, with plans to release the revised specification in the second quarter this year.

Intel hopes that the improved USB-C audio specification would eventually amount to a standardized connector replacement and eliminate the traditional audio jack from laptops, smartphones and tablets, eventually ushering in a transition to fully digital audio.

From a consumer perspective, this could mean higher-quality audio output, more remote control possibilities on headsets, potential biometric health data tracking (such as in-ear heart-rate monitoring), and supplied power for features like active noise-cancelling without the need for dedicated batteries.

The news comes amid iPhone 7 rumors suggesting Apple will look to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack on its future mobile devices, however speculation gravitates towards Apple replacing it with a proprietary Lightning port capable of transmitting audio. With no headphone jack, wired headphones would connect to the iPhone 7 using its Lightning port and Bluetooth headphones would connect wirelessly.

Either way, given that LeEco already offers smartphones with USB-C-only audio, and JBL sells noise-cancelling USB-C headphones, the 3.5mm audio jack appears to be nearing the end of its life in the consumer technology market.

Tags: Intel, USB-C
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Google Maps App Gains Travel Times Widget and Direction Sharing

Google Maps for iOS was updated with a number of new features yesterday, including a Notification Center widget for commuters on the move and an in-app option for sharing directions.

The new Travel Times extension for Google’s popular iOS maps app allows users to quickly check a live travel time estimation to their home or work with a simple pull down of the Notification Center.

The widget includes a toggle for switching between driving and public transit times, but only functions if users have saved their home and/or work addresses in Google Maps’ Settings menu. Tapping on either destination in the Notification Center starts direction navigation from the user’s current location.

Other additions in the new version of the app include the ability to share directions via the three-dot icon in the top right of the map navigation screen, and a new setting that allows users to select the unit measurement for distance shown during navigation.

Lastly, users now have control over Google Maps’ color scheme, with a night mode toggle as well as an “Automatic” setting that transitions between day and night mode depending on the time of day.

Google Maps is a free download from the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google Maps
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Sony records huge net profit in 2015 even as mobile sales decline

Sony has announced its earnings for the financial year 2015, and the vendor has recorded its largest increase in profit since 2007. Net profit increased by 666.7% to ¥304.5 billion ($2.7 billion), and operating profit shot up 329% to ¥294.2 billion ($2.6 billion). The spurt in profits is due to continued demand for the PlayStation 4, with the games division witnessing an 84.3% increase in operating income to ¥88.7 billion ($785 million) and a 11% increase in sales netting ¥1.5 trillion ($13.2 billion).

Revenue was down 1.3% to ¥8.1 trillion ($71.6 billion), which is largely attributed to falling sales in the smartphone segment. Sales from the mobile division declined by 20% as Sony took “a strategic decision not to pursue scale in order to improve profitability.” Revenue from the mobile division was at ¥1.1 trillion ($9.7 billion), with an operating loss of ¥61.4 billion ($544 million).

Sony’s image sensor division also failed to live up to expectations, posting an operating loss of ¥28.6 billion ($253 million) on account of a ¥59.6 billion ($528 million) impairment charge. Sony’s imaging sensors are used in most flagships available today, and the manufacturer was setting its sights on this division for long-term growth. That doesn’t look likely anymore, as Sony is now forecasting a decline in demand for its camera modules.

In the camera division, operating profit rose 72.7% to ¥72.1 billion ($638 million), with revenue declining by 1.7% to ¥711.2 billion ($6.29 billion). Sony was able to offset the declining revenue by focusing on the high-end models in the camera segment.

Sony is also postponing its quarterly earnings forecast to May following recent earthquakes in Kumamoto, where the vendor has a semiconductor plant and imaging sensor production facility.

Philips rolls out an awesome app update for its Hue lighting

Philips has rolled out an update for the official Hue lighting app on both iOS and Android. This latest release completely revamps the experience with a brand new UI. As well as much-needed design improvements, the Philips Hue app has also received some new functionality, making the release a welcomed one to pump some life back into the official app.

The design and layout refresh now organizes connected bulbs by room to make it even easier to quickly configure specific lights. You’ll now be able to enter commands to control all the Hue lighting throughout your home at once. A handy addition is called “Routines”, which is essentially a timer for Hue lighting that will toggle connected bulbs depending on the time of day. An example would be a wake-up routine that would gradually modify the color of bulbs to emulate a sunrise.

The color matching feature of the app has been upgraded to automatically pick out the five most vibrant colors from any provided sample and create a customized lighting setup. More than 16 million colors and every shade of white light can be selected from to create your perfect scenes. While it’s possible to further tweak any given scene, it’s a vastly improved system over what was previously available. Home & Away provides peace of mind by controlling lights automatically to turn them off when you’re away from home and back on when you return.

Give the app update a download and let us know how you’re getting on with 2.0 in the comments.

LeEco LeSee preview: See what all Le fuss is about

The star of the Beijing Auto Show isn’t a Volkswagen, or a Porsche, or a Mercedes. It’s something most people have never heard of before: the LeSee, a car from LeEco (formerly LeTV).

You might be thinking, “so what?”. But this car is significant for a number of reasons, so we went hands-on in Beijing to get a closer look at China’s latest exciting car.

We say “went hands-on”, the truth being we simply couldn’t get near the LeSee, because every time we went to look at it, we had to battle through crowds 10-deep — which tells you all you need to know about how interested the Chinese are in this car. They’re interested because it comes from a company that over the past few years has become a massive player in the electronics and media sector in China, rivalling the likes of Xiaomi, in a bid to become the “Chinese Apple”.

Pocket-lint

LeEco’s CEO is a man called Jia Yueting, and while the world is looking at Apple and Google to disrupt in the car space, they might be looking in the wrong direction. Yueting is worth billions, and he’s already backing Sino-American start-up car brands, Faraday Future and Atieva. The latter hasn’t show its hand yet, but Faraday’s FF-Zero concept caused a huge stir at this year’s CES (read our hands-on preview, link below) and it is working on a series of autonomous production cars, to be built in a Tesla Gigafactory-like operation in Nevada. Apparently the guys behind it, also designed LeEco’s latest.

READ: Faraday Future FFZero1 concept preview

What we know about that LeSee is that mother brand LeEco sees the car as an important part of the future digital landscape. With cars likely to become autonomous in many markets — the LeSee can move autonomously, up to 130mph — you’re going to often be doing different things in the car, other than actually driving.

The company would very much like your car to be part of its wider media-electronics portal. So the LeSee’s steering wheel is unlike others — it’s sort of solid, with digital elements and retracts in and out of the dashboard.

Pocket-lint

The interior features a number of digital displays — a high passenger side dash interface, a floating centre-screen tablet, and digital displays built into the exterior surfaces and the rear seat zone. We say “zone” because you could hardly call the rice-paddy-field-inspired contours in the rear area of the car “seats”. But they do show us that LeSee is bothered about its Chinese heritage (it doesn’t just want to ape western approaches), and it’s following the Chinese way of putting much greater emphasis on the comfort and experience of those in the rear of the car.

While most brands looking at autonomous driving are trying to hide their sensors, we liked that the LeSee had stuck a kind of antenna in the middle of its glass roof, which flashed and strobed when in the autonomous mode. But perhaps while the interior is a wild, digitally focused design, we found the most intriguing thing about the car to be the well resolved, yet distinct exterior design.

The LeSee is about the size of a Porsche Panamera. And we mention that car because it’s the one which the LeSee’s roofline is most similar to. But the LeSee is sleeker, less hunchback. It features clean surfacing which is punctuated by break-aways for the A-pillar (which becomes the door surround) and the sill. Just enough variation to keep things interesting.

Pocket-lint

The front and rear aspects are similar too: a big, closed-loop lamp graphic, no grille and those hologram-style digital animations just visible if you look closely enough.

It’s a concept, though, so what it previews in reality is open to debate. But Yueting is ambitious and powerful and there’s a will here to get things done in a much quicker way than we would in Europe. So don’t expect to have to wait for long before LeEco makes its next move. We’re fascinated to see what that is, and whether one of China’s richest billionaires can truly disrupt the 100-year old car market…

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

Porsche 718 Cayman preview: Firing on all (four) cylinders

Twinned with the new 718 Boxster that we drove a couple of weeks back, Porsche’s new model offensive continued at the Beijing Auto Show with the launch of the 718 Cayman. The hard-top coupe twin version to the Boxster’s drop top, the 718 Cayman holds no huge surprises for those paying attention to what Porsche has been up to recently.

This means, bar potential future special models, the Cayman loses two cylinders compared to before — this is now a turbo-charged four-cylinder zone. The Cayman comes in two specs: standard and S. The standard car uses a 2.0, four-cylinder engine, producing 300 horsepower; the S kicks out 350bhp from 2.5 litres. Interestingly, the Cayman for the base Chinese market runs just 250bhp.

All engine options are more torquey than the earlier model, meaning the Cayman will feel quicker and quite different to before: you won’t need to rev the nuts off it to make serious progress any more. Whether or not that’s a bad thing will depend on your driving disposition. Still, with the optional PDK auto gearbox and sport chrono pack, the base Cayman can run 0-62mph in 4.7-seconds, the S in 4.2-seconds. That’s seriously fast for a mid-range sports car.

Pocket-lint

As with the Boxster, most of the Cayman’s exterior panels are redesigned and the details — most notably things like the lamps — get a new design with a greater emphasis on showing off technology. The Cayman has always been a pretty car, with this redesign sticking to Porsche’s “evolution over revolution” philosophy. Although we think it just looks a little fussier than before, which is a shame.

The more welcome news comes in the interior. The Cayman was previously behind-the-curve in-car tech gets a bump with the same equipment seen in the Boxster and the new 911, too. That means a thin, hollowed-out steering wheel that feels great in your hands, and — so long as you tick the Sport Chrono pack option (our advice: do) — you get Porsche’s new mode selector wheel to twist between normal, sport and sport+ modes. And in cars equipped with the PDK, the sport response button in the middle, which you hit for a 20-second hit of “everything the car can give you” fromthe engine, gearbox and suspension.

Thankfully, Porsche now fits its PCM, navigation and communication system as standard. With it you get bluetooth, 150W sound package plus and a touchscreen that’s got a glass surface which supports multi-touch operation. You still need the Connect module option to get Apple CarPlay, USB and real-time traffic info, plus support for the Porsche App. After Sport Chrono, this is probably the second box that we’d tick.

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Expect to pay around £50k for a lightly specified Cayman. Noteworthy is the fact that it’s now cheaper than the equivalent Boxster; Porsche has flipped the pricing strategy of the models to align them with the rest of the car industry, meaning you now pay extra for the convertible.

The 718 Cayman is available to order now. It goes on sale in Europe and the UK in September 2016.

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