Old MacBook Pro being killed to make way for OLED version?

Apple appears to be putting its older MacBook Pro laptops out to pasture, potentially to make way for the rumoured new model with an OLED touch panel.

According to sources of AppleInsider, and its own research, Apple has begun to stop shipping the old MacBook Pro without Retina display to its Stores. These older models, featuring spinning optical hard drives, have stopped appearing on shelves of Apple Stores in multiple US locations.

The last time this MacBook Pro was updated was back in 2012. Since then the new MacBook Pro with Retina has been the big push on Apple’s site, with the older model sat at the bottom of the list. Aside from the MacBook Air, all of Apple’s major hardware now features Retina displays.

By phasing out the older model Apple could be making space for a new flagship laptop. Rumours have suggested that a new MacBook Pro with Retina display is ditching the function keys in favour of an OLED display touch bar. The latest macOS Sierra software has backed these rumours with references to just such a device.

Apple is expected to refresh its MacBook line later in the year. Check the link below to see some amazing concept designs of what we might be able to expect from the new MacBook Pro with OLED.

READ: MacBook Pro OLED concept photos will make you want the rumoured feature more than ever 

Tesla Model S P90D review: If your robot chauffeur were a racing driver

Tesla has come a long way since the days of its humble Roadster beginnings, elevating electric cars into new heights of luxury and quality. But it has remained true to its sporty roots with cars like the Model S P90D.

Now that the Tesla Model X SUV and Model 3 fleet-style cars are joining the Model S, its role as all-rounder becomes more vague. Does that mean the Model S will become more luxurious? More sporty? More shocking perhaps?

The most recent P90D has had a facelift and some tweaks to keep it alongside the Model X. Much of its excitement comes from optional extras such as Bioweapon Defense Mode (no, really, its HEPA air filter is 100 times more effective than most normal cars, as part of the £2,600 Premium Upgrades Package) and Ludicrious Mode (which, for its £8,700 extra, gives the P90D added pep and a 0-60mph time of just 2.8-seconds).

The 2016 P90D we’re testing here comes with plenty of extras and, of course, Autopilot, which allows the car to take self-control to the next level. Having lived with the Model S P90D and all its technological extras, totalling more than £100,000, does this pure electric car warrant its BMW i8-equalling price?

Tesla Model S P90D: Design and build

The design of the Model S hasn’t changed a great deal since it first appeared in 2012. But as the saying goes: “if it ain’t broke…”.

One thing you’ll notice in real life, compared to pictures of the car, is that it’s large. Those front wheel arches are wide and the boot is huge, thanks to this being a generally big American car. But elegant big, not lumbering big.

Little touches, like the metal door handles that pop out when you approach, never get old. Now you can even set the car to only pop out the driver’s door handle as you approach. These software update additions are another great part of this car’s design, which promise to keep giving long after the new car smell has faded.

The exterior is sleek, with bulging rear wheel arches and surprisingly wide front wheel distribution, that help go some way to explaining how fast this car can pull away without wheel spin (Ludicrous Mode being the main reason, though). For an extra £1,300 you can get a double panoramic tinted glass affair with a middle strut, presumably for support, which brings in oodles of light. 

One touch of the boot button opens to the rear boot space – with seats down we put a large racing bike in, without even taking off the wheels, thanks to the 894-litre capacity. There’s even more storage in the front bonnet too, although on this All Wheel Drive model that’s a little less due to the front motor addition.

Pocket-lint

Inside the car everything feels premium with lots of leather and rich brushed metallic finishes. This model had a faux wood paneling which looks too shiny to be wood. The door handles and inner door lines are so subtle lots of people riding shotgun had to feel about to find them.

The seats are seriously comfortable too. They’ve got every kind of electric adjustment you could think of and, despite spending serious time in them, they didn’t get any less than totally comfortable. There is also a heated seat option.

All this is sat around the centre of attention: that bold 17-inch touchscreen display console, which complements the driver’s cockpit screen. Finished in metallic edging they look like windows into the future. But more about that below.

Pocket-lint

Tesla Model S P90D: Performance and handling

If you’ve ever been on a roller coaster ride that fires you out so fast your stomach turns, that’s close to what the P90D does to you.

When in Ludicrous Mode, from stationary, the 532bhp motor will hit 60mph in 2.8-seconds. Thanks to all the electric torque it accelerates like no other car. We’re almost amazed anybody can own one without having to pass a special driving test first. That or a licence to run theme park rides.

At any point there’s plenty of power ready to push you forward, which makes overtaking on single lanes an absolute doddle. Regenerative engine braking, which can be switched to stronger or weaker, can be so good you barely need to touch the brakes if you time accelerator pedal easing just right.

Pocket-lint

Handling feels solid, but you’re always aware that this is a big saloon-style vehicle for UK roads. It reminds us of an American muscle car, with plenty of straight line pull but not quite reassuring enough in its comfortable suspension to grip tightly into corners.

The power is intelligently delivered thanks to the All Wheel Drive system, so that the car just keeps holding on beyond where you think it can. So pushing the limits feels very exciting, but perhaps verging on dangerous in terms of the lack of human control. Of course if you’re pushing that hard you’re probably on a track and can learn those limits anyway.

When it comes to mileage the P90D is efficient (claims 316-mile range), albeit not quite as efficient as the standard 90D model (claims 346-mile range).

Pocket-lint

In the real-world we found a full charge listed as 255-miles. Since you’re likely only going to aim to charge at home or on Superchargers – free connectors that charge Teslas in minutes instead of hours; however, they’re rather rare – you will need to plan journeys around those stops, to avoid getting too close to that range limit.

In our experience that 255-mile measure was accurate though, even when using air conditioning and giving it the odd Ludicrous Mode speed burst. On hills that regenerative breaking helps to balance out the extra energy lost on the climbs, it seems.

Since those 120kWh Superchargers are ridiculously fast – a 30-minute top-up providesup to 170-miles of range; 75-minutes will fully charge the battery from dead – a quick stop won’t significantly affect journey times. Home charging is much slower, though, taking over 10 times longer (there’s a £1,300 High Power Charger Upgrade which ups the speed of charge, if you have a Type 2 wall box installed).

Pocket-lint

Tesla Model S P90D: Autopilot and electric features

Usually, we don’t delve too deeply into self-driving abilities on cars as they’re clearly advertised as a safety addition. Tesla, though, calls its system Autopilot. This system does what the others do, adjusting speed with adaptive cruise control and adjusting the wheel to stay in lane. But it goes even further.

When at speed on a motorway, a double pull of the autonomous driving stalk sets cruise at the speed limit and keeps the car in lane based on road markings. The display behind the wheel shows your car, using cameras to show surrounding vehicles (cars, vans and bikes), alerting you when objects or vehicles are close. It also shows the lane – the edges light-up blue when the Tesla is in control. There are also wheel- and cruise-control icons that light-up blue when activated.

This blue theme is simple but very clear and effective – it gives you a feeling of safety that helps you trust the car is working its magic. Slow to below 15mph in traffic and the car in front, also shown on the screen, lights up blue to show your Tesla is locked on and following, regardless of lane markings.

Pocket-lint

The active lane assist won’t steer above 90mph, but you shouldn’t be going that fast anyway, so no biggie in the UK.

The Tesla doesn’t make an alert noise and tell you to hold the wheel as much as some cars with similar features. It also doesn’t appear to do so based on time without hands on the wheel. Rather it seems to intelligently spot situations, like sharp curves, weak road markings, or more cars ahead, before alerting you to hold the wheel.

This makes it very easy to let go of all controls, or at least it ups the temptation. Don’t forget, law dictates that you’re legally driving a car, even if the car is “driving itself”. But leaning in the back to grab that drink that’s rolled under the seat is a very real possibility – just at your own risk, of course.

By and large the Autopilot feature works flawlessly. But any mistake is enough to shatter your trust and remind you just how close to losing it you could be at any moment. We had a few moments when cars pulled into our lane, very closely, and we had to brake. Often the car spotted them and did that for us, but when really close it was as if they’d slipped in under the sensors while the car was focusing on the car in front. Of course we may have just been braking before the car was about to, but it felt too close for comfort either way.

Pocket-lint

The only other instance when Autopilot struggled was in a heavy downpour. But this was so bad we could barely see the car in front and were doing about 15mph on the motorway.

All in all the £2,200 extra charge for the Autopilot system seems well worth it. This, alongside the electric fuel savings, is a compelling reason to own a Tesla.

Tesla Model S P90D: Infotainment and extras

That 17-inch touchscreen and the cockpit screen make for a perfectly clear view of all the car systems. In our experience that touchscreen is more than clear enough to replace buttons perfectly. Since you’re often in Autopilot mode digging into menus and even typing Spotify track searches (Premium is included with the car’s free 3G connection) is safe enough as the car is doing a lot of the driving.

Pocket-lint

Along the top of the screen are app icons. Tap once to bring up the map, say. Then tap another like music and it’ll split screen with the map so you have both visible. Tap the music icon again and it’ll go full screen – a simple but really effective way to navigate menus where you can multi-task and never feel lost.

Everything in the settings section is clear and toggles on or off with simplicity, just like using your smartphone. This is effective for in-driving access to everything.

However, we’d like to see a little more depth to some options, and perhaps a little more personalisation. We can see why keeping things simple works, but being able to dig deeper into the car is surely the future of car modding? Oh, a faster browser wouldn’t go amiss either, as the provided one is pretty slow.

Verdict

Tesla is a luxury brand. Its cars are not cheap. Indeed, they’re not really even affordable for most. With plenty of options boxes ticked for this P90D review model it comes in at over £110,000. Which, if you’ve got such money to chuck around, might have you eyeing up the BMW i8 instead – sure, it doesn’t offer the same space by any means, but it’s an undeniably standout.

Still, such a price point is because Tesla doesn’t compromise. The P90D offers eyelid-flipping acceleration, space-age design (especially on the inside), digital menus that would make Apple swoon, heaps of interior and boot space, plus, of course, your own robot chauffeur in Autopilot.

If you’re thinking of buying one the only limiting factor, really, is range. But having done plenty of long-range journeys we can confirm that stopping for a quick charge is as easy as stopping for a toilet break – in fact it’s often one in the same. Thanks to silly-fast Supercharger charging times (if you can find one, given their relative rarity) you’ll have added 100-miles to the range in the time it takes to empty your bladder and grab a coffee.

Is the Tesla the all-electric car to go for? Well, you get sports car speed but not quite the handling. You get smart self-driving but it’s not quite fully autonomous (yet). You get beautiful menus but perhaps not enough depth or personalisation. Yet a software update could change everything.

So investing in the hardware now should mean you’ll be even happier in the near future. That’s more than a lot of other electric car manufacturers can say. And all this and we’ve not even mentioned the environment once.

Apple Stores offer new free coding courses for your kids, just in time for summer

Apple Summer Camp is a free three-day workshop for children that aims to help them learn coding. This year Apple is offering new Coding Games and Programming Robots courses to those that sign-up.

Apple has announced the new courses after revealing its Swift Playgrounds app for iPad. The app is aimed at teaching Apple’s own Swift code to children from ages 12 and up. The Summer Camp course is taught in Apple Stores and is aimed at 8-12 year olds wishing to learn coding basics.

For gaming and robotics Apple says: “Kids will learn visual block-based coding for games, applying logic skills such as pattern recognition and problem solving. Then they’ll use what they’ve learned to program their own robots to perform tasks, challenges, and much more.” This will mean using Tynker for block-based coding and Sphero PSRK for robotics.

Apple Summer Camp will also “teach children to make films by storyboarding ideas, shooting video and creating an original soundtrack,” says the company. There will also be the chance to create interactive books with illustrations and sounds. At the end of the three-day course the “campers” will be given a chance to show off their work in the Apple Summer Camp Showcase.

The Camp is being pitched as a way to get children interested before moving on to the Swift Playgrounds coding app which they can use on an iPad at home. This will arrive on iOS 10 later in the year.

The Summer Camp courses for England run as follows: 

Week of July 25    – Coding Games and Programming RobotsWeek of August 1 – Stories in Motion with iMovieWeek of August 8 – Interactive Storytelling with iBooks

You can check out the Summer Camps near you via the source link below. Find out more about the Swift Playgrounds app in the read link.

READ: Apple Swift Playgrounds app: Here’s how it teaches kids to code on iPad

Misfit Shine 2 gets Speedo swim tracker upgrade, but you’ll have to pay

Misfit has announced that its wearable fitness trackers are going to get upgrades for swim tracking, but owners will have to pay for the privilege. It is also launching the hardware as a new version called the Misfit Speedo Shine 2.

Unlike most fitness trackers, that add features with software updates for free, Misfit is charging $10 for owners of the Misfit Shine 2 and Ray to get the upgrade. It’s essentially just a firmware update that uses the algorithm already in its Speedo Shine and now the new Speedo Shine 2 models.

The update comes to coincide with the 2016 Olympics in Rio when, presumably, viewers will get the swimming bug and could be in need of a tracker for the wet.

The Misfit Speedo Shine 2, at $120, will be able to track daily activity, swimming including lap counting, plus sleep. The unit also features a vibration motor and multi-coloured lights for alerts and reminders. There is also a count down swim timer that vibrates when the elapsed time has been reached. The button can double as a music remote, selfie trigger, presentation clicker and more when used with a connected smartphone.

The Misfit Speedo Shine 2 is available now for $120 and the update is out via in-app purchase for $10 for those owners of a Shine 2 or Ray.

Misfit

READ: Vi is the world’s first AI personal trainer, and she’s in Harmon Kardon HR headphones

John Oliver’s Brexit takedown won’t air in the UK until after EU vote

As Britain gears up to vote in the EU referendum later this week, broadcasters are constantly working to ensure their coverage remains impartial. One such company is Sky, which has this week been forced to delay the latest instalment of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight HBO show. Why? Because it contains a 15-minute diatribe on why the UK should remain part of Europe.

Instead of airing the programme after Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic on Monday night, like it does usually, Sky has pushed it back until 10:10pm on Thursday, just after the polls close. Social media users are up in arms about the decision, but in reality, Sky appears to be playing everything by the book.

Sky’s decision allows it to adhere to Ofcom rules that come into effect during elections and referendums. “Sky have complied with the Ofcom broadcasting restrictions at times of elections and referendums that prohibit us showing this section of the programme at this moment in time. We will be able to show it once the polls close have closed on Thursday,” a Sky spokesperson told Engadget.

In March, the regulator warned broadcasters that they’d need to take care when covering May’s local elections and the subsequent Brexit vote. Section Five (which focuses on Due Impartiality) and Section Six (covering Elections and Referendums) of Ofcom’s Code contain guidelines that are designed stop companies like Sky from influencing the public vote. Satirical content is allowed on UK TV networks during these times, but Oliver’s delivery is very much political opinion based on facts, rather than straight humour.

That hasn’t prevented some Twitter users from speculating that Sky owner Rupert Murdoch might have something to do with the decision. While British newspapers The Sunday Times and The Sun, both owned by Murdoch’s News UK, have pledged support to the Leave campaign, The Times editors (who represent the weekday edition) have backed Remain. Murdoch himself has remained silent over his personal stance.

So @LastWeekTonight with @iamjohnoliver, where he makes a case for Remain on Rupert Murdoch-owned Sky, has been moved to Thursday, 11.45pm.

— Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) June 21, 2016

While John Oliver’s 15-minute segment attempts to explain Brexit to a US audience, the clip has circulated widely via YouTube. At the time of writing, the programme has passed 3.25 million views on YouTube and 4.2 million views on Facebook, ensuring that many who will tune into the Sky Atlantic broadcast will have already watched it via alternate means.

“Here is how I feel about the EU: it is a complicated, bureaucratic, ambitious, overbearing, inspirational and consistently irritating institution, and Britain would be absolutely crazy to leave it especially because, if it stays, it can reap all the benefits while still being a total dick about everything,” says Oliver during the segment. “And that is the British way.”

Hyperloop One team dreams of connecting Europe and China

Hyperloop One has teamed up with the city of Moscow and a local company to explore bringing the Hyperloop to Russia. The trio will investigate how and where such high-speed transportation can be integrated into the country’s existing transport network. Since Moscow itself has a population of 16 million people, cheap, quick and reliable mass transit is always worthy of further study. But the wider picture is that Hyperloop One views this as the first step on building a new high-speed freight link between Europe and China.

As co-founder Shervin Pishevar explains, Hyperloop could form the backbone of a “transformative new Silk Road: a cargo Hyperloop that whisks freight containers from China to Europe in a day.” That would reduce shipping times from weeks (as it currently stands) and lighten the load on container ships. It helps, too, that the local company Hyperloop has partnered with is, essentially, the ideal company to actually build the system out.

Summa Group is an investment and construction conglomerate that can probably knock out a passable Hyperloop without any outside help. For instance, it already owns Russia’s largest sea port, three different construction companies and a logistics company. Then there’s the fact that it’s already got its own oil-and-gas plant and experience of building oil pipelines — sealed metal tubes that travel large distances across the country. Given that Hyperloop will also rely upon the same technology, such expertise will come in very handily indeed.

Computers learn to predict high-fives and hugs

Deep learning systems can already detect objects in a given scene, including people, but they can’t always make sense of what people are doing in that scene. Are they about to get friendly? MIT CSAIL’s researchers might help. They’ve developed a machine learning algorithm that can predict when two people will high-five, hug, kiss or shake hands. The trick is to have multiple neural networks predict different visual representations of people a scene and merge those guesses into a broader consensus. If the majority foresees a high-five based on arm motions, for example, that’s the final call.

The algorithm is also useful for determining when objects are likely to appear. If a character reaches into a microwave, for instance, it may decide that a coffee cup is likely to come out.

The technology isn’t ready for prime time. The algorithm was only right about 43 percent of the time when predicting affection (versus 71 percent for humans), and it’s only really effective based on what it sees a few seconds ahead of time. People can frequently tell what will happen further in advance based on subtler cues like dialogue and facial expressions.

If CSAIL can refine its technique, though, there are wide-ranging implications for robotics and other AI-guided tasks. You could make automatons that know how to respond to human interactions, such as drawing the connections between friends or catching someone who’s about to fall. Security cameras could deliver alerts based on the actions they see, too, such warning a company that you might need an ambulance. In short: AI is about to get better at understanding the implications of what it sees, not just the immediate conditions.

Source: MIT News, (PDF)

ICYMI: 3D-printed, autonomous bus starts shuttling people

Today on In Case You Missed It: Local Motors is testing a self-driving, electric mini-bus that lets passengers communicate with the bus about the weather and where they’re located as they are shuttled from one part of town to another. The bus was conceived just a few months ago but is already running in Maryland. The company plans to bring more buses to other cities, like Copenhagen and Las Vegas, soon.

Meanwhile bone conduction headphones are being reimagined to be more wearable, with both a sunglasses option and helmet version up for grabs online. We also wanted to show you video of the robot badminton player because it’s pretty amazing. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.