‘World Rally Championship 6’ in VR is full of off-road rage
Virtual reality makes everything better, right? Not so fast. I got a chance to play World Rally Championship 6 with an Oculus Rift and a bucking, hydraulic-powered racing rig with a steering wheel and pedals. As you’ll see in the video above, I spun out a ton and caught the VR sickness that’s been going around. That’s because with all the spinning I was doing, my eyes saw it, but my body didn’t feel like it was doing 360s. The result was me feeling sweaty and queasy after pulling the headset off. Oh, and I swore an awful lot too. Sorry Mom and Dad.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
Mini’s latest concept is the mood ring of cars
Mini has produced tight, efficient economy vehicles since its first car was introduced in 1959. But its parent company BMW has been exploring how differently cars will be used in the future with its concept cars. Unlike the luxury emphasis of its self-driving Rolls Royce and BMW models, the Mini entry in the Vision Next 100 line expands customization for multiple users, a clear benefit for a car-sharing ecosystem.
BMW/Mini is already testing car-sharing in London with its DriveNow program. Its ReachNow pilot program in Seattle is a slightly different, more exclusive Zipcar-style exchange for select drivers, but both pose the same challenge for the Mini concept car: creating a vehicle that appeals to all drivers but can feel customized for each.
Its translucent look is actually an unmodified neutral mode: for car-sharing borrowers or different drivers in the same household, the vehicle can change its exterior to give it a personal touch. As Autoblog points out, this is the same thing Mini’s parent company BMW showed off for its Next Vision 100 line at the NY Auto Show, and BMW has the tech for its external sensors to automatically ID drivers and re-skin as they approach. That kind of automatic sensing could extend to sensing the environment and changing suspension accordingly when driving on rougher roads.
The Mini Vision Next 100’s design brings other advances, like reducing interior clutter by doing away with instruments entirely, instead projecting that information on the windshield. But in the battle for future vehicles, it’s clear that BMW is investing in the Mini’s economy and customization while leaving the truly advanced self-driving innovations for its more expensive brands.
Source: Autoblog
Lexus software update gives new meaning to ‘car crash’
Last year, headlines made everyone fearful of hackers taking over cars on the freeway. Turns out the real menace to owners of connected cars are the loopy manufacturers themselves.
Toyota had to suck it up this week and admit to Lexus owners, who were going nuts on Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday, about why the climate control, radio, GPS, USB, Bluetooth, and other features suddenly stopped working for a range of 2014-2016 Lexus models. Or, their dashboard console would reset itself repeatedly.
The Lexus brand posted an oblique apology on Facebook and Twitter late Tuesday. But, like many big companies that can’t get their cyber-act together, it provided few details to furious customers.
@Lexus Also having intermittent problem with the center console USB outlet. Phone charges, stops, charges, stops.
— Duke of Cucamonga (@CucamongaDuke) June 8, 2016
The scant information, of course, had some people convinced it was the work of the government, jamming communications and sabotaging luxury car owners in dark deeds for the NSA. It didn’t help that Toyota spokesperson Cindy Knight told Bloomberg that satellite communications to Lexus GPS systems “had been disrupted.” One outlet even suggested it was a cyberattack on Lexus itself. (CrowdStrike: It was Russia!)
Others were sure it was hackers in balaclavas getting ready for their cameos on CNN at that conference in Las Vegas. Or, some sort of hideous tentacle porn malware, which would surely take over their cars and strangle and violate them with their seat belts like a terrible cyberpunk Cthulu come to life.
#Lexus #RX450h bad navigation system update, radio & nav system useless. Nice match for defective fuel tank sensor! pic.twitter.com/XFAR5orY5v
— Albert Koval (@kilauea88) June 8, 2016
No one knew what to do. On Twitter, some Lexus owners said that disconnecting the battery for a minute forced a system reboot, and that seemed to work.
@Lexus when can I expect a fix for the nav reset loop issue?! It’s a driving hazard with the screen constantly resetting in my line of sight
— Joshua Burda (@JoshuaBurda) June 8, 2016
Lexus said little more than it was “fully engaged and investigating this issue as a top priority.” Hey, at least they didn’t say it was a “sophisticated” attack.
According to reports, drivers affected spanned from California to Massachusetts. Among other things, these customers “complained of being stuck hundreds of miles from home without the benefit of GPS, or of being stuck in Southern California freeway traffic without air conditioning.”
The afternoon statement by Lexus on Twitter was light on details. But Lexus Communications Specialist Laura Conrad told Security Ledger that customers need to bring their cars to a Toyota or Lexus dealership so the service department could do a “forced reset and clearing of the errant data from the system.” Basically, the equivalent of turning it off and on again.
This doesn’t bode well for what could happen with driverless cars. Who do you call when it’s jamming an intersection, endlessly rebooting? Or things like Tesla’s Autopilot, which drives the car for you. At least if that particular luxury car drove itself into a fire hydrant because an update gave your car the automotive equivalent of Heartbleed, you could give Elon Musk a hard time about it on Twitter.
The good news? This week’s borked Lexus update wasn’t critical to immediate vehicle safety because it was for the specific systems related to climate, GPS, and entertainment. But Tesla is one automaker who has moved to software updates that control the whole vehicle, which introduces a whole host of concerns.
Lexus emailed a statement to Security Ledger which reported:
“Errant data” sent by a third party that provides traffic and weather data service was “not handled as expected” by the Enform software that runs the center display on 2014-2016 model year Lexus and 2016 model year Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles, the company said in an emailed statement.
So thanks to something sketchy with a third party in Enform’s app suite, which includes everything from Yelp to Facebook and I Heart Radio, one update crashed the entire center console for all drivers who paid for the privilege of Enform.
In addition to the constant resets, drivers also lost roadside assistance, emergency assistance, stolen vehicle location and Enform’s vehicle and service alerts “delivered on demand.” Its mobile app lets you lock and unlock doors, and start the car, so we can suppose those “features” may have been “down” too.
Great, so now we have to worry about buggy, unvetted third party updates in our cars. Next they’re going to tell us to carry a paperclip in case our car stalls. That is, until someone realizes that cars are now going to have to come equipped with CTRL-ALT-DELETE buttons.
And won’t that be fun.
Blue Origin will livestream its next launch on June 19th
Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight outfit Blue Origin has kept their first three New Shepherd rocket launches under wraps in the past, only posting videos and announcements after the the booster safely returned to Earth. But for its fourth test flight, the company will be streaming the whole thing live from its West Texas launch facility.
New Shepard launch set for Sunday at 10:15 am ET. Live webcast starts at 9:45 am ET at https://t.co/WTXblOKlvk #GradatimFerociter
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 17, 2016
The unmanned test launch happens Sunday, June 19th at 10:15 AM ET, and the livestream starts half an hour earlier at 9:45 a.m. Expect this latest launch to include even more drama that the last three, as the team plans to intentionally crash land the crew capsule in order to observe how things might unfold under catastrophic conditions. In this case, that means a faulty parachute and, probably, a crew capsule smashing into the Texas desert.
“On this upcoming mission we also plan to stress the crew capsule by landing with an intentionally failed parachute, demonstrating our ability to safely handle that failure scenario,” Bezos wrote in an email announcement last month. “It promises to be an exciting demonstration.”
The livestream will be available on BlueOrigin.com
These were our favorite games, hardware and toys from E3 2016
Another year, another massive, exciting E3 showcase. The biggest names in the video game industry brought out their newest games and hardware, including two console announcements (and controllers) from Xbox and a ton of fresh games from PlayStation with an emphasis on VR experiences. There was no sign of Sony’s new PlayStation 4, but that was just fine.
Engadget’s E3 crew spent the week running around the show floor and convention halls, collecting all of the most important news and interviews. And playing some games, of course. OK, playing a lot of games. Don’t hate — check out the above video for our our favorites from E3 2016.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
Razer’s OSVR headset is still a work in progress
When Razer announced the latest version of its HDK (“Hacker Development Kit”) virtual reality headset, it positioned it as a competitor to premium devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. On paper, that’s very much true: the HDK 2.0 has a 2,160 x 1,200 low-persistence OLED panel, a 110-degree field of view and a 90Hz refresh rate. It also has a low price of $399, which is way less than the Rift’s $599 and Vive’s $799 (both headsets come with accessories that go a way to explaining the price difference).
We tried on the HDK 2.0 for a quick game, and weren’t completely sold own the experience. Despite those lofty specs — numerically on par with both the Rift and Vive — the display didn’t match the quality of those in either of the more established sets. That said, it did offer a clear advantage over PSVR, which is to be expected given the improved resolution it offers.
Our social media editor Mallory Johns donned the HDK 2.0 for a play season of Redout, an F-Zero-esque space racer. Mallory’s been around the VR block, with hours of playtime logged on the Vive, Oculus, PSVR and Gear VR, but despite the 90-frames-per-second refresh rate, she found the experience nauseating, thanks in part to the lenses not playing well with her short-sightedness.
In terms of build quality, the HDK 2.0 feels very much a generation behind. It’s comfortable to wear, thanks to its lightness, but it’s more comparable to Oculus’ Crystal Cove headset rather than the finished article. There’s also the issue of compatibility. Valve supports the HDK (and OSVR in general) through Steam, so technically anything the Vive can run HDK can as well. But with only a tiny infrared tracker, and no dedicated motion controls. This is a problem that can be solved in the future, or with third-party add-ons, though.
Being a little rough around the edges is to be expected — OSVR is an ongoing project, and this is a development kit — but if you were looking for something comparable to the Vive or Rift in terms of quality on a budget, don’t expect the HDK 2.0 to be without compromise.
Mallory Johns contributed to this report.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
Apple and Microsoft reportedly vetoed a rifle emoji
Like it or not, emojis are permeating our vocabulary and fast becoming one of the primary ways people communicate. But if you were looking to convey your thoughts on rifles or hunting, you’re out of luck.
Unicode, the organization that oversees and selects emojis across platforms, has removed the rifle from a list of potential additions to the emoji library. According to Buzzfeed, that decision “was led and championed” by Apple, a member of the Unicode Consortium with voting rights.
Buzzfeed’s sources said Apple told the consortium it would not support a rifle on its platforms and asked that it not be made into an emoji. Other tech titans like Microsoft and Google are also voting members of the consortium, and none of them appeared to have any objections to removing the glyph. Microsoft was even said to have spoken up against the additon as well.
The rifle appeared to be part of a proposed Olympic-themed set of emojis that included medals, boxing gloves, goal nets and drums. Most of these other items have been approved and added to the most recent version of the Unicode standard, which now includes different skin tones and professional women.
Source: Buzzfeed
Apple’s ‘Apps for Earth’ Campaign Raises More Than $8M for World Wildlife Fund
Apple and the World Wildlife Fund this week announced that the recent “Apps for Earth” promotion has raised more than $8 million in proceeds to support the WWF’s conservation work.
The Apps for Earth promotion, timed to take place to celebrate Earth Day, ran from April 14 to April 24 and saw dozens of apps offering special in-app purchases with 100 percent of the proceeds going directly to the World Wildlife Fund.
Many of the participating apps, which included titles like VSCO, Trivia Crack, Hearthstone, and Angry Birds 2, heavily promoted the fundraiser, even going so far as to change app icons and graphics during the time that it ran. Apple itself updated the theme of the App Store’s front page to highlight the promotion, displaying environmentally conscious messages and themed categories.
THANK YOU! $8 million raised through @AppStore’s #AppsforEarth will advance conservation! https://t.co/zEqygxYJUx
— World Wildlife Fund (@World_Wildlife) June 15, 2016
Apple has twice partnered with the World Wildlife Fund, and in addition to the app fundraiser, Apple in 2015 began a multi-year project with the WWF designed to protect up to 1 million acres of responsibility managed working forests in China.
Tags: App Store, World Wildlife Fund
Discuss this article in our forums
MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Pad & Quill ‘Everyday Developer Carry Kit’ Package
In celebration of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Pad & Quill, the maker of premium MacBook, iPhone, and iPad cases and other accessories, is generously offering an ‘Everyday Developer Carry Kit’ package where one winner can choose a briefcase bag, iPad case, iPhone case, and an Apple Watch band from the company’s entire product line-up.
Pad & Quill offers several briefcase bag styles. The Briefcase and Large Briefcase can both accommodate laptops up to 15 inches, with the latter offering 25% more room than the former. Both are made of full-grain American cowhide and waxed canvas, featuring solid nickel hardware, internal dividers and pockets, leather handles, and a 25-year warranty. The Briefcase retails for $295 while the Large Briefcase retails for $365.
For iPads, Pad & Quill offers something for every model. For the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, there’s the $139.95 Oxford Leather Folio case (see our review) that’s made from a single piece of American full-grain bridle leather with a built-in stand and room for the Apple Pencil. For the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, there’s the $89.95 Contega Thin Case with an archival-quality linen cover, built-in stand, and elastic band closure.
For iPhones, Pad & Quill’s most popular options are the Luxury Pocket Book for the iPhone 6/6S that features a Baltic birch cradle and saddle leather cover, and the Woodline Case for the iPhone 6/6S Plus that’s made of hardwood around an Aramid polymer core. For the Apple Watch, there’s the Lowry Cuff band (our review) for 42mm models, and the Classic Leather Band for both 42mm and 38mm models.
One winner will be chosen. The winner can select one briefcase bag, one iPad case, one iPhone case, and one Apple Watch band.
To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter your email address. Your email address will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and provide prize shipping information. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.a Rafflecopter giveaway
This contest will run from today (June 17) at 12:00 pm Pacific time through 12:00 pm Pacific time on June 24. The winner will be chosen randomly on June 24 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address. The prize package will be shipped to the winner for free.
Pad & Quill is also offering $10 off any purchase of $39 or more for MacRumors readers for a limited time. Please enter code Apple10 at checkout to get the discount.
Tags: giveaway, Pad & Quill
Discuss this article in our forums
Beoplay A1 Review: This Bluetooth Speaker Sounds Even Better Than It Looks
Last month, B&O PLAY announced the Beoplay A1, the latest portable Bluetooth speaker in its family of luxury home audio products. B&O PLAY is a brand subsidiary of Danish high-end audio and video manufacturer Bang & Olufsen, known for its principled attention to design (which some say inspired Apple).
We decided to take a look at the A1 ultraportable speaker to see if the device justifies its $249 price tag, which places it at the premium end of the Bluetooth speaker market.
Design
Taking the A1 out of the box, the first thing that strikes you is the compactness of the unit relative to its weight. At about 1.3 pounds (600 grams), it’s not the lightest ultraportable speaker by any means, but its beautifully minimalist ‘hockey puck’ design feels disarmingly slight, partly thanks to designer Cecilie Manz’s decision to embed the power, volume, play/pause, and pairing controls around the rim, with the attached leather strap adding a touch of surfer appeal.
The polymer base has a suede-like finish that ensures the 2-inch (51 mm) tall A1 sits happily on most surfaces, and its 5-inch (133 mm) diameter means it’s possible to grasp the grilled dome from above and pick up with one hand. The unit sits snugly in the larger pockets of a raincoat, but trying to fit it in a light jacket pocket may present more of a challenge.
A tiny pinhole on the rim of the A1 designates the speaker’s microphone, used for conference calling when the device is connected to a cellphone. There’s also a 3.5 mm mini jack port and a USB Type-C charging port, with a Type-C to Type-A charging cable included in the box.
The A1’s solid aluminum casing certainly feels like it could take a few knocks, but its smooth finish is bound to attract scuffing and dents if you bash it about or throw it in a backpack with other hard objects.
“Every scratch tells a story”, reads the B&O PLAY website, in a valiant attempt to market inevitable imperfection as a product feature. But many customers will take pride in looking after premium gear they’ve paid top dollar for, so the lack of a protective pouch at this price point is a disappointing omission.
Powering on the unit and holding the pair button saw it show up instantly in both iOS and OS X Bluetooth screens. The connection was made without a hitch, and didn’t drop out as long as the speaker remained within a reasonable range. There’s also a convenient button on the unit indicated by a circle icon that reconnects the speaker to the last paired device.
The Beoplay iOS app is a free download that works with all of the company’s speakers and can be used to upgrade their firmware. You can also use it to pair two A1 speakers with each other and enjoy true stereo separation, but there’s no facility to connect the units to a larger multi-room setup.
In addition, the app lets you play with a handful of ‘Tonetouch’ EQ presets designed for the A1, or you can manually adjust the EQ using a graphical pad divided into concentric quadrants, titled ‘Warm’, ‘Bright’, ‘Excited’, and ‘Relaxed’. They do make an audible difference, but in the end I left the EQ in the neutral position, preferring the A1’s default sound signature.
Sound Quality
Placed on a desk or even on the floor, the A1 disperses sound in all directions with surprising confidence and ease. Its wide angle of projection is actually slightly disorienting at first, and had more than one person entering the room wondering where the speaker was hidden even though it was sat in plain view.
The A1’s 3.5-inch aluminum driver and 0.75-inch tweeter (powered by two 30-watt class D amps) effortlessly reproduced Jim Morrison’s baritone wail and Krieger’s expansive freeway riffs throughout The Doors’ L.A. Woman, while a few tracks from Django Django’s eponymous album soon had the coffee table rattling with a clarity and detail I’ve not heard before in a speaker of this size.
Switching to some dub techno and dialing up the internal amp to peak power (2×140 watts) using the A1’s onboard controls, easily overrode the source device’s maximum output, but it was almost impossible to induce distortion at high volume, thanks to the responsiveness of B&O’s proprietary digital signal processing.
That inevitably puts a limit on the output of the A1, and it’s not the loudest Bluetooth speaker on the block, but it can easily exceed comfortable listening levels in a medium-sized living room, and it does sound consistently lovely, especially in the midrange.
Achieving decent audio separation at this scale is no easy feat, but the A1 dealt with jazz and classical genres with considerable aplomb, with only a handful of deep double bass notes going missing in instrumental tracks from time to time, which is totally forgivable for a unit of this size and frequency response (60-24,000Hz).
I took the A1 out to the garden during a family barbecue and its detailed sound remained just as confident, carrying especially well when hung from a nearby wall via its leather strap, giving it great projection across the lawn.
I used the A1 at average volume each afternoon over the course of a week, testing it in a variety of scenarios – in the kitchen (it’s dust and splash resistant), in the park, placed on a desk in a meeting room – with the unit drawing admirers on several occasions.
On the fifth day of use the unit’s LED light flashed to indicate the battery was approaching its last 10 percent of power. It still lasted the rest of the afternoon though, and when I charged it via the supplied cable, the A1’s 2,200mAh battery reached full capacity in under 100 minutes. Given what I’d put it through, the advertised “up to 24 hours” charge didn’t seem all that far fetched.
Bottom Line
Overall, the A1 is an extremely impressive-sounding Bluetooth speaker with looks to match. Its thoughtful, stylish design easily places it above speakers like the cheaper UE Boom 2, but its audio output is equally attention-grabbing, and beats its most likely premium rival, Bose’s popular SoundLink Mini II.
Achieving bass-rich clarity and sonic detail from such a small unit is a remarkable achievement, and coupled with its balanced dispersion and decent battery life, the Beoplay A1 really does live up to the tired old adage that you get what you pay for.
Pros
- Compact and stylish premium-grade design
- Rich, balanced sound and excellent dispersion
- Impressive battery life at medium volumes
- Fast charging time
Cons
- Not the loudest Bluetooth speaker
- Splash-proof, not waterproof
- No carry pouch supplied in the box
- Pretty expensive for an ultraportable
How to Buy
The Beoplay A1 costs $249, is available in mossy green or silver (‘natural’), and can be ordered on the B&O PLAY website.
Note: B&O PLAY provided the A1 speaker to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.
Tags: review, Bang & Olufsen
Discuss this article in our forums
AIVAnet 