You can now check the traffic before you leave on TomTom MyDrive
The TomTom MyDrive application for iPhone and Android will now inform you if there is traffic congestion on your commute home or to the office, before you’ve set off.
MyDrive Traffic Checker is a new feature that has been added to the app for free. MyDrive has always given TomTom users the ability to work out their route on a smartphone before travelling, with supported TomTom devices even picking up that route in the car.
However, traffic checking adds an extra layer, enabling users to work out the best route without encountering heavy congestion.
“Based on feedback from our customers, we developed Traffic Checker for TomTom MyDrive. Now drivers will better understand when they need to leave the house, or the office, to get to their destination on time. We’ve finally solved the headache of the commuter dilemma,” said Corinne Vigreux, TomTom’s co-founder and managing director of consumer.
READ: TomTom MyDrive bridges the gap between smartphones and cars
TomTom MyDrive is a free app on iPhone and Android and is available from the iTunes App Store and Google Play respectively.
It works with a large array of TomTom Go devices, plus TomTom Rider and TomTom Trucker satnavs.
A device does need to have a data connection to receive the MyDrive data.
LG Action Cam livestreams over 4G, is 4K and works with YouTube Live
LG has announced an addition to its Friend ecosystem, the LG Action Cam. It is capable of capturing 4K video footage and also stream content to services such as YouTube Live over a 4G connection.
Its LTE connectivity will be dependent on partnered carriers – which are yet to be announced in the UK or US – but LG has revealed that it can also be used over a 3G network if required.
The camera has a 12.3-megapixel sensor and is also Wi-Fi enabled. It has Bluetooth 4.1 support and a USB Type-C port for good measure.
Video can be recorded in Ultra HD at 30fps, Full HD at 60fps, and 720p at 120fps for slow motion capture.
Live streaming is capped at 1080p in 30fps.
There is 4GB of internal storage, with a microSD card slot capable of expanding that by up to a further 2TB.
READ: The best action cam photos in the world: Jaw, meet floor
The processor details have not been revealed, but it does have 2GB of RAM.
The LG Action Cam is perhaps larger than some rivals on the market, at 35 x 35 x 77.9mm. It weighs 95g. The camera is also IP67 water and dust proof, able to be submerged to one metre for up to 30 minutes.
The 1,400mAh battery is capable of up to four hours of Full HD recording.
Global price and release details are yet to be confirmed, but it will be available in South Korea initially, hitting shops there in June.
You’ll need to pay for BBC iPlayer from 2017
The government’s white paper on the BBC Charter has been published and one of the stand-out changes will be the expected close of what is termed the “iPlayer loophole”.
Currently, people in the UK can watch BBC programming through BBC iPlayer for free, without having to pay the BBC licence fee. As of 2017 that will no longer be an option.
BBC iPlayer access will be covered by the annual licence fee, which currently stands at £145.50. From next year, those streaming shows but not paying could be prosecuted in the same way as those watching BBC shows on TV without a licence.
READ: BBC iPlayer to embrace Ultra HD as part of the Beeb’s ‘long term plans’
The white paper even puts forward the potential of securing BBC iPlayer access behind a membership log in, much like subscription services such as Netflix and Amazon Video. That way only those who have paid the licence fee can actually access it.
The government proposes that this will also benefit users when travelling to Europe on holiday, who will still be able to watch UK programming on a mobile device abroad through their log in. That’s currently not possible.
The white paper also states that the licence fee will rise over the next five years in line with inflation. It has been frozen since 2010.
Infiniti Q30 first drive: To infinity and beyond?
It’s unusual to introduce a car from a brand that some readers might not be aware of, but a quick straw poll of friends and colleagues suggests Infiniti isn’t a universally known entity. So the Q30, its compact premium hatchback, might not be at the forefront of your mind.
Today, perhaps more than ever, most of us buy a car on the reputation or our perception of its brand. With nearly half of new car buyers not even taking a test drive that’s a challenge for companies like Infiniti. You buy a BMW because of the way you believe it drives; a Mercedes because of its class and symbol of your prosperity; an Audi for its modernity, technology and the design of its interior. But why would you buy an Infiniti?
Well, Infiniti is Nissan’s premium brand, in the same way Lexus is to Toyota. It’s an established brand too: you might have only seen the name plastered on the side of an F1 car on telly recently, but the brand has been around in the US and Japan since the 80s. It only landed in the UK towards the end of the 2000s though.
Infiniti’s European range started with the Q50 — a mid-sized executive saloon car costing over 30K, and a brave choice alternative to the default 3-series or A4 — but now the Q30 is here and is likely to open-up the brand to a much wider group of customers, given its £20K starting price.
The bad news for Infiniti is the compact premium hatchback class is awash with default choice cars. So should you try a Q30 over a Mercedes A-Class, BMW 1-Series or Audi A3? We went to its Stockport dealership to find out.
Infiniti Q30 first drive: Mini Merc
Before jumping into the car, it’s worth pausing a moment to consider the context of Infiniti’s dealer footprint. The company currently has just 14 dealerships or “centres” in the UK — which sounds like a petite footprint, but they’re well spaced and in the big city locations (Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bristol, Birmingham, London, Cambridge, etc). Unless you’re far into the sticks, chances are there’ll be one not millions of miles from your front door.
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Plus the brand plans to expand that number quite aggressively in the near future, and service centres are being assigned alongside Nissan dealers too. Although we suspect you won’t need to take it back to the dealers much. This is a Japanese brand after all — backed by technology from Nissan and Mercedes (more on that shortly) — so we’d bet on an Infiniti rarely going wrong. And given Infiniti only found just over 2,000 buyers in the UK in 2015, chances are if you visit a dealership you’ll have the team at your beck and call.
The Q30 itself is a small, slightly high-riding hatchback car. It’s based on the same platform as the Mercedes A-Class, and what might surprise when first jumping into the cockpit is that Infiniti is using the Mercedes gauge cluster, indicator stalks, steering wheel buttons and a few other bits of switchgear wholesale. Nothing wrong with that, as the Merc kit is high quality and easy to use. With the exception of the single wand wiper/indicator stalk which is over-loaded with functions — two stalks are better than one guys, come on.
Infiniti Q30 first drive: Uphill struggle?
Nonetheless, the good news continues when you get out on the road because whereas the baby Merc plays a fake sporty vibe which dictates the ride be hard and crashy, the Infiniti has bespoke-tuned suspension and has been setup to be much more languid. Net result: the ride is much better and suits this type of car.
You’ll not struggle for space inside either. Don’t expect Nissan Qashqai levels of practicality — the Q30 isn’t a crossover — and the exterior cladding belies a ride height and seat position that’s just a fraction higher than a normal car. But the boot has 368-litres of space, which is more than an A-class or BMW 1-Series, plus those in the back don’t get too raw of a deal.
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The Q30 is available in — take a deep breath — SE, Premium, Premium Tech, Business Exec, City Black and Sport trims. We drove what’s likely to be the best-selling Premium Tech trim — LED lamps, leather seats, powered front seats, rear view camera, keyless entry, 7-inch touchscreen, but no standard nav — in the smallest 1.5 diesel engine format.
Kicking off at a £21,500 in SE trim, the Q30 sounds reasonably price. Because it is, well, until you realise you can get the Merc A-Class for £21,815. The Infiniti is better equipped and has more room inside but we can’t help feel that this relative unknown is going to face an uphill struggle when punters can park a Merc on the drive for basically the same amount of cash.
Infiniti Q30 first drive: Engine options
Our Premium Tech, 1.5 diesel manual car gets out of the car park for £26,430 — but you’ll probably want to add the InTouch Navigation system which brings DAB radio and traffic sign recognition, at a heady £1,400. Our advice? Go for Business Executive grade instead — it runs to £25,080 in 1.5 diesel format, but you get the Nav included while losing the back-up camera and keyless entry.
The 1.5 diesel engine is familiar from various Nissans, Renaults and Mercedes models. On paper it sounds a bit weedy at 109bhp, but it’s got a very wide torque band, runs in a linear — rather than peaky — manner and (for a diesel) sounds sweet and quiet.
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The Q30 covers the 0-60mph run in around 12-seconds in this setup, which sounds slow in the modern lexicon, but in practice proved absolutely fine on the road — it kept up fine in the cut and thrust of Cheshire traffic, with enough oomph out on the Derbyshire hills to deal with bumbling tractors.
A brief drive in the Mercedes-sourced 2.2 diesel suggests that while it’s got a good slug more power, you trade-off in terms of refinement: it’s a noisy, ageing engine and unless you’re desperate for more power we’d stick with the 1.5.
However, the manual gearshift is a bit long-throw. And if you want to go fully relaxed, there’s a 7-speed auto available on some models which might be worth a look, as well as 1.6 and 2.0 turbo petrol options and four-wheel drive availability.
Infiniti Q30 first drive: Tech basics
The InTouch Navigation system in the Q30 proved easy to use, with both a touchscreen and a rotary controller. Some deep menus are a bit odd and graphics aren’t that modern, but it’s easy to get your head around and didn’t get us lost.
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We’d personally choose to avoid the “liquid copper” colour scheme of the cars in our photos, but in some ways it goes with a key vibe of this small Infiniti, which is being slightly different to the crowd.
One notable Q30 quality is how the trim level really impacts on the looks. While this model has quite a luxe feel, a Sport model in a darker colour and on big, dark alloys has a much more masculine, aggressive look.
First Impressions
While nothing stands-out as class-leading — and we’re sure you’ll end up having to answer the “you drive a what?” question a million times at dinner parties and in the office — it’s hard not to like the Q30.
It’s a relaxing, nice place to spend time. It doesn’t have the classlessness of a VW Golf, the driving bite of a BMW 1-Series or the interior perceived quality of an Audi A3. But it rides better than a Mercedes A-class, so if you like to be different it proves a novel alternative which might be worth a look.
Boeing’s space taxi won’t be ready until 2018
Ever since the US retired the space shuttle, it’s relied upon Russian rockets to get crews to and from the International Space Station. 2017 was meant to be the year that both SpaceX and Boeing restored some hometown pride, but the latter’s now had to bow out. GeekWire is reporting that the aerospace firm’s space taxi, the CST-100 Starliner, won’t be ready for manned spaceflight until 2018. That means that not only is NASA’s timetable going to have to change, but SpaceX is left as the agency’s only hope. If Elon Musk can keep the Dragon’s development program on schedule, then his company is virtually guaranteed to win the new space race.
There’s something not quite right at Boeing, and its efforts towards building new ways to get into space are suffering. Last month we reported that the ULA, a satellite-launching partnership Boeing has with Lockheed Martin, was edged-out of an Air Force GPS contract by SpaceX. Rumors then began to surface saying that the company simply couldn’t compete with SpaceX on price. The GeekWire report confirms that Boeing will slash around 4,000 jobs with even more being considered for later on in the year. Which, as you all know, is a sign that everything’s going just peachy.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: GeekWire
BT to stream Champions League and Europa League finals on YouTube
BT will broadcast coverage of both the UEFA Champions League and Europa League finals for free on YouTube. The company confirmed today that it will show both matches on BT Sport TV channels across Sky, Virgin, YouView and Freeview, but will also give streamers the opportunity to view the action via the official BT Sport YouTube channel.
It comes after BT admitted it was considering whether to extend its coverage to Google’s streaming service. BT Sport operates a paid subscription for all of its sporting programmes, which includes Champions League and Europa League games, but was forced to provide free coverage as part of UEFA’s conditions after snatching TV rights from terrestrial broadcaster ITV.
In its press release, BT also confirmed that EE “will launch a new BT Sport offer to millions of its customers” in the coming months. Details are scarce but the company says that it will be available to customers on EE’s 4G pay monthly plans ahead of the new Premier League season.
With TV figures rumoured to be on the low side, BT appears to be shifting its strategy to engage with customers on as many formats as possible. It already delivers coverage via TV, apps and its website, but getting younger users to engage on YouTube and bringing on board the UK’s biggest mobile operator will only serve to improve its metrics.
Source: BT
Vodafone’s own-brand handsets are new, not very improved
Vodafone set a new benchmark for own-brand phones with its Smart Ultra 6. The handset is actually a fiver more expensive now than when it launched almost a year ago, and yet it’s still one of the best pound-for-pound devices available in the UK. The problem with setting benchmarks, though, is that you also set expectations — expectations that the next cycle, starting with the Smart Prime 7 released today, are measured against. At £75 on pay-as-you-go, the new handset is as easy on the wallet as the Prime 6 that came before it. The problem, though, is that the Prime 7 barely counts as an upgrade.
It’s not that the Smart Prime 7 is a bad phone. Despite being an all-plastic affair (available in black/silver or white/gold) and quite light at 128g, it’s a sturdy, well-built device. You get a 5-inch, 720p display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable storage (only 4 gigs are for you), the latest version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, 8- and 5-megapixel cameras, 4G and NFC. The quad-core 1.3GHz Snapdragon 212 at its heart isn’t the fastest processor around, but it’ll handle everyday tasks with relative ease and get you through an Asphalt 8 race on low graphics settings.
For £75, that’s an agreeable enough rap sheet. But compare it to the year-old Smart Prime 6, which can also be had for £75, and those numbers start to look less appealing. In fact, the Smart Prime 7 is almost identical to its predecessor, apart from its newer version of Android and a better front-facing camera. Fair enough — not every new generation needs to blow the last out of the water — but then why does the Smart Prime 6 actually possess the more powerful, quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor?
And therein lies the problem with the Smart Prime 7: In that one respect, it’s a step back. That said, it still represents pretty good value for money. Pay-as-you-go alternatives at the same price are limited, though O2 is selling the slightly better-specced Alcatel Idol 3 for a discounted price of £80 right now. The Smart Prime 7 is also available for free on contracts starting at £16 per month, but Sony’s Xperia M4 Aqua, LG’s G4c and Motorola’s Moto G are the same price, not to mention similarly competitive phones/contracts at other providers.
The Smart Prime 7 isn’t the only new own-brand handset Vodafone launched today. The 3G-only Smart First 7 has also made its debut, with specs that more or less attest to its £25 price point. We’re talking a quad-core 1.3GHz processor, a 3.5-inch (480 x 320) display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of expandable storage, a 2MP camera and Android 5.1 Lollipop.
Again, though, the older Smart First 6 (also £25) actually has a superior display on paper, even if it does lag behind in the performance department. However, you only need to look in the direction of EE’s 4G-ready Rook — which is now only £20 on pay-as-you-go — to see where your money would be better spent.
LG’s GoPro rival can stream direct to YouTube
LG has made an action camera that can live stream to YouTube (or anywhere else) without a phone or WiFi. The LG Action CAM LTE (clearly, hours spent on the name) has onboard 4G to beam video direct to the web. The camera itself looks like an elongated GoPro Hero4 Session (the frame it’s hanging from in the picture looks almost identical). Unlike GoPro cameras, though, LG’s Action CAM has built-in GPS and motion sensors — much like the Garmin, or TomTom action cameras. This means you’ll be able to record where your footage was taken, gather metrics or easily find video highlights later.
The Action CAM’s 12-megapixel sensor shoots 4K/UHD at 30 frames per second (fps), 1080p at 60fps and for extra slo-mo, there’s a 120 fps option at 720p. If you’re hoping to make use of the cellular livestreaming, then you’re limited to 720p at 30 fps. That cell connection isn’t the only way to get video out of the camera though. The Action CAM supports memory cards up to 2TB, and there’s built in WiFi and Bluetooth too (plus good old USB of course).
LG says the Action CAM is part of its “Friend” line of accessories, which it launched in Barcelona earlier this year with the LG G5, although there are no specifics about how it actually fits in with the rest of the line (especially as it doesn’t need to borrow the phone’s data connection). It’s likely that you’ll be able to use a handset as a viewfinder though. The Action CAM is also waterproof to one meter for 30 minutes without a case, so you’ll definitely not want your phone with it then (we also imagine this hinders livestreaming).
On paper, the Action CAM seems to offer more features than most of its rivals. GoPro cameras don’t have motion sensors, and there are very few with livestreaming built in right now. GoPro gets around this by native support for Periscope, but that still requires you have your phone within WiFi reach. We can’t tell you if this makes LG’s camera a worthy rival just yet, as we have no idea about price, data costs and even where it’ll be available beyond South Korea next month, followed by the US and Europe later.
Source: LG
Google Set to Announce Amazon Echo Rival, Codenamed ‘Chirp’
Google is working on a standalone hardware device that will integrate the company’s search and voice assistant technology, reports Recode.
According to sources, the product is said to be similar to Google’s smart home enabled OnHub wireless router and is set to compete against the likes of Amazon’s Echo.
OnHub wireless router (Image: Google)
Google declined to comment on the rumor, but the project, said to be known internally as ‘Chirp’, is expected to be officially announced at next week’s Google I/O developer conference, where voice search and intelligent personal assistance are to take center stage alongside the company’s latest forays into virtual reality.
In 2014, Google acquired connected device company Nest, which reportedly had its own designs for an Echo competitor running Google’s search technology, but scrapped the plans because of concerns over consumer privacy.
After launching the Echo over a year ago, Amazon announced in March two new additions to its lineup of voice-controlled smart hubs that house the company’s personal assistant, Alexa.
Tags: Google I/O, Amazon Echo
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Microsoft to Kill Off Sunrise Calendar iOS App on August 31
Microsoft is set to merge its team of Sunrise Calendar app developers into its Outlook team, in a move that signals the end for the popular standalone calendar app (via The Verge).
Sunrise Calendar was designed by former Foursquare engineers and won many fans for its ability to seamlessly integrate with various online services and incorporate social networking and event information from Google Calendar, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Microsoft acquired Sunrise in February 2015 in a deal rumored to be worth around $100 million. The company subsequently announced plans in November to merge Outlook and Sunrise into a single app. That plan appears have come into effect and Sunrise will be removed from the App Store in the “next few days”, says Microsoft, with the app’s online backend services to cease functioning altogether on August 31, 2016.
Microsoft has gradually been introducing features to its Outlook email and calendar app, and recently added Facebook, Evernote, and Wunderlist support. Skype for Business and OneNote integration are expected to follow soon, while Touch ID support was added in March.
Microsoft Outlook is available as a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Tag: Microsoft Outlook
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