Mercedes GLC first drive: SUVving to consider

This is the Mercedes GLC. It’s Merc’s mid-sized SUV rival to the BMW X3 and Audi Q5. It’s a significant car for the brand, because this is the first time Mercedes has had a car of this size, in this class, available in the UK. The old, square-rig GLK was a left-hand drive market only car.

Based on the new C-Class, the GLC is a significant 4.75-metres long, making it not only a good chunk bigger than its rivals, but liberating a really well proportioned cabin and big boot (550-litres since you asked, which is about 60-litres more than a C-Class estate).

And all that space is probably one of the reasons we’d bet you’re about to see loads of GLCs on the road. For just a couple of grand more than the equivalent C-Class estate, you can have an SUV which gives you more space, a commanding driving positioning and something that looks more modern and sporty.

The GLC is therefore in an enviable position in this class. It’s brand new, whereas its key rivals, the Audi Q5 and BMW X3, are ancient. Does it take advantage?

Mercedes GLC preview: Premium Plus

Jump into that spacious interior and things start off well. The modern Merc interior is a truly premium-feeling item. It’s blingy and showy in a way Mercs didn’t use to be (and in the eyes of some, still shouldn’t be) but the overall feeling of quality and sense of where your money has been spent is far more apparent than in a Q5 or X3. It leaves a Discovery Sport interior feeling like a farm vehicle. But it means that, conversely, you won’t be wanting to get muddy boots everywhere in here.

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Of course, this premium feel is contributed to significantly by £7,800 of options that were thrown at our test vehicle. Inside, if you’re going to go ticking options boxes, the one you really need to know about is the Premium Plus package. It’s a chunky £2,995 option, but as with many of these types of things in the premium classes, it bundles together much of the stuff you both want and need.

Premier to that is the all-important Comand Online Media and Nav system with 8.4-inch screen, touch pad, voice control, speed limit assist, traffic services and emergency call. But you also get a panoramic roof, a 590W, 13-speak Burmester stereo system (which sounds the business), memory and electric adjustability function for the front seats, keyless go and ambient interior lighting.

Mercedes GLC preview: Diesel do nicely

We drove the GLC in 250d AMG Line spec. That means it comes with a 2.2-litre, 201bhp diesel (a lower and higher power version are available). The AMG is more expensive and more showy than SE spec — if you want a demure GLC, save money and go with the SE.

But in the Designo hyacinth red paint and with optional 20-inch AMG multi-spoke wheels, the GLC does look special — striking on the road, much less angular and fussy than the last generation of Mercs, and not without a level of elegance that we reckon is befitting of the brand. Of course, those you’re behind (and your neighbours) will be in no doubt as to what brand you’ve bought, thanks to the massive 3-pointed star mid grille, and the pixel-effect grille texture.

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The powertrain makes light work of shifting this 1.8 tonne SUV thanks to that 201-horsepower and exactly 500nM of torque (from just 1,000rpm), all running through Merc’s new 9-speed auto gearbox (yes you read that correctly). Sure, it never feels fast, but nor do you ever really feel the need for more power. Reaching 60mph takes 7.6-seconds, and the GLC 250d overtakes well.

Only the slightly rattly, shrill diesel sound should make you consider a step up to the 350d V6 unit. Although the diesel noise is relatively well suppressed inside — it’s only when you step out of the GLC with the engine running that you’re reminded it’s quite a coarse and loud unit.

Mercedes GLC preview: Down the road, not a track

Out on the road, the GLC hustles quite well. You always appear to be doing 10-15mph more than you expect, but the body roll which is often an issue with SUVs like this is kept relatively well in check.

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Only the ride spoils things. Generally it’s firm and well judged, but on the rougher roads — as you’ll find all too often in the UK — it occasionally gets rather crashy and out of sorts. Blame the 20-inch wheels and AMG-line suspension; an SE on 19s is doubtless more Merc-like. Overall, it’s refined and pleasant to both drive and ride in the GLC.

However, we can’t comment on the car’s off-road ability as we didn’t get the chance to test it out, but despite 4 wheel-drive (4matic in Merc speak) the 20-inch wheels and low-profile tyres would rule out much off-roading beyond more than a gentle field, in this particular car.

Mercedes GLC preview: Taking Comand

The GLC gets the C-Class’s on-board technology suite, with the Premium Plus pack meaning you get the full Comand media system. Without it, and standard, you get a 5.5-inch display of lower resolution, and a Garmin Map Pilot system — which we didn’t get to try.

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Comand works well, once you get used to it. Like BMW’s iDrive and Audi’s MMI it’s easy to learn: you control what’s on the screen via a tunnel-mounted control wheel, touchpad and associated buttons. We’re least familiar with this system of the three mentioned, but it still works well with no nasties in the way of confusing menus. What appears on screen is generally high-resolution and the graphics are clear — particularly in the gauge cluster. We jumped in and were straight away able to pair a phone, make a call and follow the navigation system.

First Impressions

Overall, then, there’s much to like about the Mercedes GLC. To get the true measure of it, we’d like to spend longer with one and try a couple of alternative versions — but short exposure here suggests that the 250d engine and AMG Line trim might be the sweet spot of the range, if you’re happy with a firm ride and conversely don’t need to play racing driver.

Beyond the Premium Plus pack the GLC well equipped — with standard reverse camera, DAB radio, power-boot operation and a truck load of safety kit, which you can dial up to full “we’ll stop you crashing” with a £1,695 Safety & Security Pack.

At £39,595 standard, and £47,370 as tested in 250d 4Matic AMG Line form, the GLC is priced to compete directly with its obvious Audi and BMW rivals. And it does a good job at achieving its goal.

Drunk too often? The BACtrack wearable will let you know

BACtrack Skyn is a new wrist-based wearable that can measure the level of alcohol in your blood. It’s smart enough to know if you’ve been drinking too much, without being invasive.

The wristband won’t require you to breath all over it, like lots of current breathalysers, it also won’t be as expensive. This uses a sweat sensor to analyse your ethanol perspiration and gives a readout of alcohol levels.

The alcohol analysing wearable isn’t primarily designed to offer drive or don’t drive readings. Rather it’s been created to help offer a more accurate reading of alcohol consumption, over longer periods of time, to doctors. The Skyn won’t be able to offer real-time data as readings are taken from being worn for a minimum of 45-minutes. So don’t expect to have a quick check before jumping behind the wheel.

BACtrack was the winner of a US government competition by the National Institutes of Health called Wearables Biosensor Challenge. The result is a hefty prize of $200,000 dealt out to BACtrack for the Skyn wearable.

“The blood alcohol monitoring devices used in legal and medical circles are big and bulky, like a ball and chain for the ones using it,” said Keith Nothacker, president of BACtrack. “We wanted to make something people would want to wear.”

Hopefully this tech will improve for even faster readouts in the future and be affordable for all.

READ: DrinkMate has your BAC: The smallest breathalyzer in the world

Best sports watches 2016: The best GPS watches to buy today

While wearables and smartphones are offering more ways to track health than ever, there’s still a place for the powerful and accurate GPS sports watch.

Sports watches are actually learning from the new kit and becoming smarter. Plenty now go beyond GPS location tracking and heart rate monitoring, offering smart notifications from a connected phone too. Designs and builds are also improving with plenty offering looks good enough to leave the watch on all the time.

Then there’s battery life, this is always a tough one with GPS but dedicated sports watches are becoming longer lasting than ever.

So we’ve rounded up the best of the bunch that we have seen in the flesh or reviewed to help you decide which is the one that will accompany you on your path to a fitter, healthier self. We will be updating this list as we review more watches throughout the year.

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6/ Garmin Epix

If you’re venturing out into the wild there are few items more important to take than the Garmin Epix. This is a tough, smart and long lasting workhorse that’ll locate you, with a map, pretty much anywhere on the planet.

Thanks to offline maps all you need is a GPS signal and you’ll be able to find yourself in relation to trails, points of interest and even data like sunset or storm warnings.

Track metrics like pace, distance, speed and more which can all be viewed on the watch of connected smartphone with Garmin Connect app – making it easy to share your adventures with the world. You can even allow other to live track your movements if you’re feeling particularly worried about where you’re venturing off too.

Since the battery lasts for weeks, or days of constant GPS use, you won’t have to come back in a hurry either – unless you’re running from a bear of course.

READ MORE Garmin Epix review

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5/ Fitbit Surge

Fitbit is traditionally a company that’s been all about activity tracking. With the Surge it’s moved into GPS sportswatch territory. It’s a decent size, offers smart notifications, tracks multiple sports and has a built-in heart rate monitor.

Now that other GPS watches also offer notifications for calls and messages, the unique pull of Fitbit’s expertise is lessened. Also the fact its altimeter proved inaccurate in our tests didn’t help. It does however offer the good looks of an activity tracker with a comfy elastomer strap, clear app platform and excellent touchscreen monochrome display.

The Surge offers constant heart rate monitoring, which we found to be a few beats off the gym machine. It’ll also track activity and sleep. All that translates to a battery that’ll last about four days with moderate use. In GPS mode you’ll be lucky to get five hours out of the wearable.

There may not be as many metrics as the established watches, nor the ability to personalise screens, but at £199, it undercuts the big boys and offers a cheaper way for newbies to get a GPS sports watch.

READ MORE Fitbit Surge review

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4/ TomTom Spark

TomTom GPS tracking is well known for in-car navigation. It’s been cramming that down into sports watches since the Cardio and in this latest generation has managed to get even more into a smaller package.

The TomTom Spark features a built-in heart rate sensor along with accelerometer for all day activity tracking and sleep monitoring. It’ll track pretty much anything, from cycling to gym workouts if you want and it’ll work with a chest strap for those that want super accurate heart rate data.

The watch, rather uniquely for a GPS watch, offers 3GB storage for music which it can play directly to connected Bluetooth headphones. It’ll also offer voice coaching over the headphone connection so you don’t even need to look at your wrist.

The TomTom MySports app collates all your training data for access anywhere. All that will set you back just £190.

READ MORE TomTom Spark first impressions

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3/ Polar V800

Polar has traditionally been a running watch brand focused on heart rate. With the V800, the company has integrated GPS while sticking to chest strap connected heart rate monitoring. 

This model is better looking than any Polar device before it, with a metal finish and buttons plus a super comfortable strap.

The V800 also has added smart notifications as well as activity tracking. The metallic finish looks like a day-to-day wearable and the battery life is decent at 13 hours of training time and a month in activity tracking mode. This also tracks sleep and offers inactivity alerts.

The Polar Flow app pulls all the data together in a large community where you can be competitive. Snap one up with heart rate sensor for £355.

READ MORE Polar V800 review

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2/ Garmin Forerunner 630

Garmin has been about since 1989 and has been specialising in GPS tracking ever since. The Forerunner is the flagship running watch model which has evolved over the years to the current Forerunner 630.

The result of all these years of work is a running watch that’s smaller and more attractive while also offering longer battery life, more smart functions and running metrics than ever before.

The Forerunner 630 can manage 16 hours of constant GPS enabled tracking or up to a month with notifications from a connected smartphone. So getting texts, WhatsApps, emails and call notifications while out allows this device to act as a smartwatch too. It will track daily activity using its accelerometer, as well as track heart rate or things like cadence using ANT+ sensors and it is good for up to 5 ATM of water resistance.

Smart running metrics that the Forerunner 630 offers include lactate threshold estimate, recovery time, vertical oscillation, ground contact time and plenty more. All that should add up to a very accurate way of varying training and seeing the effects on performance. This is all saved to the cloud-based Garmin Connect app, which can be viewed on a phone or computer, anywhere.

The Forerunner 630 is like a do-it-all combination of GPS sports watch, activity tracking wearable and smart notification centre all rolled into one slim and attractive package. Not bad for £330.

READ MORE Garmin Forerunner 630 review

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1/ Garmin Fenix 3

The Garmin Fenix 3 is for the adventurer who wants a rugged multisport watch that’ll also deliver notifications.

On top of GPS, smart notifications and a look that’s good enough for day-to-day use, the Fenix 3 adds deeper waterproofing. This beast will be good for 100 metres depth and also has a new colour display plus an EXO antennae built into the frame for better and faster GPS and GLONASS accuracy.

The Fenix 3 is also able to handle multiple sports like hiking, skiing, cycling and more, plus there’s the option to create your own with any layout of data fields you like. Navigation is also key here with waypoint routes programmable that offer vibrations and an arrow to keep you on track.

Extras like Running Dynamics, Recovery Advisor and activity tracking make this a seriously complete package, whatever the sport. Garmin says it’ll last six weeks in watch mode, 20-hours with GPS or 50-hours with UltraTrac GPS.

All that adds up to a princely price of £370. There is also a Fenix 3 Sapphire HR with wrist heart rate tracking and scratch resistant sapphire screen for £470.

READ MORE Garmin Fenix 3 first impressions

This self-healing material could solve many wearable woes

The physical limitations of existing materials are one of main problems when it comes to flexible electronics, be it wearables, medical or sports tech. If a flexible material breaks, it either stays broken, or if it has some self-healing properties it may continue to work, but not so well. However, a team from Penn State have creating a self-healing, flexible material that could be used inside electronics even after multiple breaks.

The main challenge facing researchers led by Professor Qing Wang, was ensuring that self-healing electronics could restore “a suite of functions”. The example used explains how a component may still retain electrical resistance, but lose the ability to conduct heat, risking overheating in a hypothetical wearable, which is never good. The nano-composite material they came up with was mechanically strong, resistant against electronic surges, thermal conductivity and whilst packing insulating properties. Despite being cut it in half, reconnecting the two parts together and healing at a higher temperature almost completely heals where the cut was made. The thin strip of material could also hold up to 200 grams of weight after recovering.

Unlike other healable materials, the boron-nitrate nanosheets the Penn State team used are unaffected by moisture, meaning it could also be used in high humidity environments like the shower. “This is the first time that a self-healable material has been created that can restore multiple properties over multiple breaks, and we see this being useful across many applications,” said Qing Wang. “We need conducting elements in circuits but we also need insulation and protection for microelectronics.”

Via: Phys.org

Source: Penn State

India successfully tests first tiny reusable space shuttle

India’s space agency is celebrating today after successfully launching and recovering RLV-TD, a prototype reusable space vehicle. The craft was launched at 9:00am local time and rose 43 miles into the air before gliding back down, making a safe landing in the Bay of Bengal. As promising as it sounds, the test craft won’t be offering any passenger launches just yet, since it was a seven meter long scale model. Still, now that India has demonstrable proof that its shuttle design works, it could set its sights towards becoming a space power like the US, Russia and China.

A seven meter scale model of a shuttle may sound a little silly when Elon Musk’s flinging full-size rockets into the sky, but there’s logic here. India’s space agency is famously frugal, with the five-year reusable shuttle project believed to cost as little as $14 million. It’s not the first time the country has shown up its rivals with its low-budget smarts, either, having put a satellite around Mars in 2014 for just $72 million. By comparison, the budget for the film Gravity was closer to $100 million — so a real Indian space mission cost less than a fake American one.

A reusable spacecraft is considered the holy grail for spaceflight entities who are looking to cut the costs of getting off the planet. NASA, ULA, SpaceX and Blue Origin are all working on reusable rockets as a long-term replacement to the space shuttle, which was cancelled in 2011.

Launch of India’s first indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD is the result of the industrious efforts of our scientists. Congrats to them.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 23, 2016

One of the reasons that India has been able to punch well above its financial weight in the space race is due to its considered approach. Rather than practical experiments, the country spends plenty of time scouring data from other countries space missions. That way, it can identify errors that entities like NASA and Roscosmos made previously and find shortcuts around them.

Via: Space Daily

Source: BBC News, NDTV

More Alleged iPhone 7 Images Emerge, Now With Protruding Camera

Another photo has emerged this morning on Weibo allegedly showing a genuine iPhone 7 rear case (via 9to5mac).

The latest claim shows a bevelled, protruding camera hole, which contradicts rumors that the next-gen iPhone due in September will have a camera flush with the case.

The camera is also positioned closer to the upper left corner of the chassis than in previous iPhones, while the hole for the lens appears to be larger than that found in the iPhone 6s, suggesting a potentially upgraded camera module.

The photo also appears to show the expected redesigned antenna lines which restrict the bands to the edges of the device. The poster also included images of screen cable components which appear different to equivalent parts in the iPhone 6s.

The alleged leak follows a Weibo post last week which claimed to show a dual-camera module, possibly for the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus, alongside memory chips in 16GB, 64GB, and 256GB sizes, suggesting a higher storage variant for Apple’s next flagship phone and the continuing availability of the lowest capacity tier.

As always, without confirmation readers are advised to take these leaks with a grain of salt, but they do at least offer an idea of what components may be circulating in the supply chain.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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