Vevo App Gets Redesign, Adds User Profiles and Curated Music Playlists

Music video platform Vevo has released a major update to its iOS app as part of a wider continuing effort to revamp the brand.

Users of the app can now create profiles to share their music preferences with friends, while an update to the main feed means videos play in zoomed portrait view in addition to landscape.

Machine learning has also been introduced to the app’s server back end, offering more intelligent auto-generated playlists based on what users are already listening to.

Additionally, the company has partnered with a handful of original content curators, like Stereogum’s Scott Lapatine and Rap Radar’s Brian “B. Dot” Miller, to serve new videos and playlists to users directly through the app.

Back in February, Vevo released its Apple TV app – also soon to be updated – in a move that attempts to pitch it as an MTV-like music video destination for the digital era.

The platform currently has 400 million active monthly users, over half of which view Vevo content through the brand’s mobile app.

Vevo is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

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Apple Stock Nears Quarterly High as Investors Prepare for Q3 Earnings Report

Apple stock enjoyed its biggest one-day rise since May on Thursday, following a brief dip as investors speculated on the company’s prospects in the run-up to its Q3 earnings call and the release of the iPhone 7 later this year.

Shares closed at $98.78, almost hitting their previous high since Apple reported its fiscal Q2 earnings, when the company’s stock fell below $100. Shares remain down 26% from its own record high close of $133 set on February 23, 2015.

The rise followed Wednesday’s blip after consumer research firm Kantar Worldpanel released data showing that Samsung is outselling Apple in U.S. smartphone sales.

In the three months ending in May, Samsung accounted for 37% of all U.S. smartphone purchases, with Apple at 29%. However, a closer look at the figures showed Samsung’s Galaxy S7 series accounted for 16% of sales in the same period, while the iPhone 6S series accounted for 14.6%, suggesting a much closer battle when it comes to flagship devices.

Outside the U.S., Kantar data revealed that Apple’s iPhone 6s and 5s were the top two best-selling phones in the U.K., followed by the Samsung Galaxy J5 and the iPhone SE.

In Q2 2016, Apple saw its first year-over-year revenue decline since 2003 along with its first ever drop in iPhone sales, and that downward trend is expected to continue into the third quarter of the year.

The company’s earnings announcement for the third fiscal quarter (second calendar quarter) of 2016 will take place on Tuesday, July 26.

Last week, industry research revealed that Mac sales experienced a slight year-over-year decline in the second quarter, dropping to 4.4 million from 4.8 million during the year-ago period. Apple fell behind ASUS to finish as the fifth-largest PC vendor by shipments worldwide.

Apple has not updated the MacBook Pro in over 400 days, with a refresh for its entire MacBook Pro line-up expected in the fourth quarter. The company is expected to unveil its new iPhones in the fall.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, iPhone 7
Tag: Kantar Worldpanel
Buyer’s Guide: Retina MacBook Pro (Don’t Buy)
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Lexus RX 450h review: An SUV-sized slice of Japanese futurism

When the Lexus RX 450h was delivered to our little terraced flat in London, it felt like we’d been handed a temporary house extension, albeit on wheels. For this SUV — the largest in the Lexus lineup — is one big, distinctive beast that can easily cater for a family of five, plus shopping and extras.

At this scale, however, it doesn’t care much for dinky on-road parking spaces. Conversely, it does care for city life: the “h” in its name designating its hybrid nature, combining a petrol engine with electric motor. So the RX 450h can handle electric-only EV city driving, giving it added eco points, while also boosting that 3.5-litre V6 engine as needed. It’s not a plug-in, though, so no sockets or trailing cables; it recharges through regenerative braking and recouping energy from the engine when plausible.

Unlike many of it competitors — and there are a lot, from the German Audi Q7, BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne, to the Swedish Volvo XC90 — the Lexus is luxe from the off, delivering oodles of tech and comfort without needing to tick a barrage of upgrade boxes. Sat behind the wheel all those surrounding buttons, dials and displays make it feel like navigating an eco spacebus. So is this slice of Japanese futurism the SUV to plump for?

Lexus RX 450h review: Design

In its fourth-generation guise the RX 450h is one good-looking beast, embodying the jagged, open-mouthed front grille appearance synonymous with Lexus’s modern design language. We would much rather the Premier model, as reviewed here, offered the same morphed metal honeycomb grille as the Sport edition, but that’s not the case — instead it opts for a more straight-laced and altogether happier-looking linear grille.

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Step around to the three-quarter view and Lexus’s design language continues, with jagged imprints and almost folded metal panels giving an aggressive stance. There are no unnecessary bulbous additions, even to the rear, which although softer in appearance than the front, still has aggy-in-appearance rear lights. It’s a distinctive overall look.

It’s the details that really sell it for us, though. Those daytime LED lights, part of the Premier model, are bright enough to show a glimmer even on the brightest of days. The indicators aren’t just boring flashing yellow bulbs either: their illumination motions from inside to out to show the direction of travel. We’re almost surprised that nobody rear-ended us after becoming wildly distracted by them.

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The biggest problem with our review model? Someone, somewhere, for some reason, paid £645 to add a “Copper Brown” paint of coat. No, brown isn’t the new black — it’s just brown and yawnsome, almost like a counterbalance to the modernity of this SUV’s otherwise enticing body shape. We’d rather have “Electric Yellow” or something, quite honestly — not that such a coat exists as an option direct from Lexus.

Lexus RX 450h review: Interior comfort

Step inside — and it’s a step in, rather than a step up like in a Range Rover — and the Lexus RX is a wonderful place to sit on cushy leather-clad seats. There’s even a three-level seat cooling system to cease any potential back sweats. Plus the stop/start keyless start button electronically slides the wheel down and into position, while automatically moving the seat forward for optimum pedal pressing. It’s like readying a spaceship for launch, not sitting behind the wheel of a car.

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In the back there’s a huge amount of legroom for passengers: we’ve driven plenty of distance with three 6-foot-plus family members on board without any problems. The seats follow the same comfortable configuration, and can be moved forward to allow additional for additional boot space length. Shame there’s no seven seat configuration whatsoever though, unlike a number of SUV rivals. And as this is a hybrid there’s not as much boot space as you’ll find in non-hybrid rivals.

Lexus RX 450h review: Tech in abundance

A 12.3-inch elongated centre screen above the dash dominates the driver’s peripheral edge of view, which can be used to present in split-screen form, should you want to view, say, consumption alongside a larger navigation screen. The side bar splits nav, media, phone, consumption and climate; there is also a deeper main menu, which adds car, info and setup options into the mix.

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It all looks great, but it’s actually a bit confusing and fiddly as heck to use. Lexus’s Remote Touch Interface means a mouse-like controller is used to tour around the screens. It’s terrible to use. Theoretically, it makes sense, but even after adjusting its sensitivity through the five available levels, we couldn’t find one with enough nuance. It’s a bit like driving one of those bikes where you turn left and it steers right; it just never feels right. All too often a centre option out of three would be bypassed for the other two, like a back-and-forth game of tennis with no winner. We’ve used the system a lot, having driven for around 10-hours non-stop over a long weekend, but despite getting more deft at using it we never came to genuinely like it.

But that’s not all. There are some other details that could be better handled. The need to dig into menus to sync Bluetooth is a pain; the doubling-up of physical and virtual climate controls seems unnecessary; the limited physical button controls — menu, up/down, and sometimes-it-doesn’t-do-anything back button — to navigate the system can’t bypass the mouse-like haptic controller; and for all its tech, some of the basic on board plastic dials don’t blend in with the otherwise high-tech appearance of the interior.

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However, the 15-speaker Mark Levinson audio system is stupidly good, delivering all the highs and lows you could want at considerable volume. Whether you’re into classical, rock or burbling bass, the full frequency range is covered — including sub bass that we didn’t know existed in some tracks. Add pseudo surround and it lifts things even further.

Lexus RX 450h review: Driving experience

At the controls, sat in comfort, ears filled with top-drawer tunes, and — ignoring that mouse-like controller — it’s a good start point to kick things into gear. The RX 450h’s auto box doesn’t run between gears in a straight-line fashion, which is a bit old skool in our view but works just fine, and once popped into “D” that electric-petrol combination is ready to roll.

Go light on the pedal and it does literally feel like rolling, too, with a near-silent gradual shunt away from stationary using the electric motor only. There’s a dedicated EV button to put it into electric mode, should you wish, for city driving. However, given the sheer size and weight of this SUV, it’s not especially happy to launch itself at speed using just electric power, so the petrol engine will kick in to combine and move things at greater pace if you press down that bit harder.

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A twist-dial to the centre tunnel, say above the EV mode button, can switch between eco, normal/custom, sport and sport+ modes, which tweaks how the car handles — although not by as much as you might think. The electric motor is always operational, whichever mode you choose. It’s more the characteristic of the drive that’s changed. Overuse the sport modes and it’s easy to deplete the battery reserve, however, which will mean full EV mode becomes unavailable — and as there’s no plug-in charging facility, it may be some time before ample charge has built up again.

This Lexus could hardly be accused of being super-fast, given its 7.7-second 0-62mph and top speed of 124mph, but in the real-world such figures become superfluous. Cruising along speed bumpy backroads and the RX 450h ate up speed bumps and pot holes like they didn’t exist thanks to its air suspension. Hitting the speed limit down the M4 motorway, with the radio off, and there’s only the tiniest amount of wind noise, making for a quiet and calm cabin.

Cornering, as you might expect from a vehicle over 5-metres long and almost 2-metres wide, is rather soft, and the turning circle akin to a private bus. Hardly a surprise, as that’s the case with most SUVs, and one of the reasons Audi offers an optional feature to improve the turning circle of its Q7, for example.

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Economy is cited as 51.4mpg, which our driving — a mixture of short haul town and long haul motorway driving, using various modes — couldn’t even nearly achieve, returning around the 31mpg mark and depleting the battery over the motorway stretch of driving.

Lexus RX 450h review: Cruising altitude

So everything is soft and floaty; a bubble-wrapped drive that, ultimately, is all about comfort. And the RX 450h succeeds there, no problems, but takes things one step further on the tech-driving front with its cruise control options.

Using its front radar detection system, the click of a button activates Adaptive Cruise Control, detecting cars in front and maintaining a safe distance (which can be user defined between three distances — although everyone will always choose the closest possible setting, given how far it is). It even has active braking so will bring itself to a full stop in a traffic jam and, assuming the vehicle isn’t stationary for more than a couple of seconds, continue to drive itself along after.

It’s great to have both feet firmly on the ground, nicely rested, when doing a 3-hour jaunt from London to Cheltenham. This is about as self-driving as cruise control gets right now, much like Audi’s Traffic Assist system, with the Lexus actually being gentler and more effective on the braking by comparison.

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The Lexus also has Lane Departure Alert and Lane Keep Assist, activated by pressing the correlating button on the steering wheel (it’s a two-in-one). These act more as an advisory system, checking and visually confirming the car is in lane, providing a minor shunt back into lane if you begin to drift, while activating the vibrating steering wheel if you cross a lane without indicating. Again we’ll compare to Audi’s latest tech here, which has Active Lane Assist that will fully steer the car for you — being the more advanced and impressive option by a long shot (but, as we found in the Audi Q2, a mode too far that we simply switched off).

There’s other tech to assist the drive. The head-up display (HUD) being a primary point, always in visual field of view to provide speed, cruise, sign readings and other active feedback. It’s easy to read in all conditions without feeling like an interference — and if you’d rather have it off all it takes is the press of a button.

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When not going forwards, you’ll praise the tech gods for implementing not only a rear camera, but also a top-down 3D visualisation setup that models the car’s position in among its surroundings, making for a great park assist feature. Even the mirrors electronically angle themselves downwards to get a better look at kerbs, for accurate parking.

Shame this visual system isn’t active when jostling between forward drive and reverse gears while parking, though, as its continued presence would be most useful, as we found out: a sticking-out kerb stone caught us while making adjustments going forward, and grazing 20-inch alloys against stone is never a good look (sorry Lexus).

Verdict

The Lexus RX 450h is a lesson in comfort. This SUV glides down city roads and motorways with ease thanks to its petrol-electric engine/motor combination, surrounds you in tech to make the whole experience even more comfortable — ignoring the horrible-to-use mouse-like controller system, anyway — and has enough distinctive exterior style points to stand out from the crowd.

The Premier model, as reviewed, might sound horribly expensive at a whisker under the £60k mark, but in reality that’s on par with the Volvo XC90 and potentially less cash than a specced-out Audi Q7 (the e-tron hybrid model is anticipated to start from £65k — far more than the entry-level RX “SE” model).

As a slice of Japanese futurism, the RX 450h gets a bundle of things right, but it’s the imposing competition that make its minor slip-ups all the more costly (seriously, that mouse-like controller system is just a no-go). Despite its high points, we’re not convinced this eco spacebus gives Lexus enough edge over its Scandinavian competition, with the German competition putting a good run in too. Even though its Japanese styling will, frankly, turn heads all the more readily.

‘Pokémon Go’ Debuts in Italy, Spain, and Portugal as Rollout Continues

The European rollout of smash hit Pokémon Go continued today with App Store launches in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, joining the U.K. and Germany where the game debuted in the last couple of days.

In the U.S. alone, players on iOS are spending about $1.6 million each day on in-app transactions within the game, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower. Of those IAPs, 30 percent of the revenue earned goes straight in Apple’s pockets.

Nintendo shares jumped nearly 10 percent to a six-year high on Friday as the retro-styled title became more popular than Twitter just one week after its launch in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

“When you look at the way it’s becoming a social phenomenon in the U.S., the rally is understandable even though it’s not clear yet how much it will boost profits,” markets analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama told Reuters.

“People still remember the time when the Wii and the DS became a hit and boosted Nintendo’s shares,” he added, referring to the company’s popular game consoles – one of which Nintendo has announced will be returning to stores around the world on November 11 in the form of the ‘NES Classic Mini’.

Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System arrives on 11/11 w/ 30 games included! https://t.co/yN2sJmjxDf pic.twitter.com/1BmIHbldbn

— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) July 14, 2016

Meanwhile, in yet another Pokémon-related incident, two men fell down a 75ft cliff in Encinitas, California, yesterday as they tried to catch nearby virtual creatures. One of the men fell 50ft while the other reportedly fell all the way to the beach below.

According to FOX affiliate local news, rescue crews used a rope to reach one of the men, but despite the large fall neither of them suffered serious injuries.

Direct link to Pokémon Go on the Spain App Store.
Direct link to Pokémon Go on the Italy App Store.
Direct link to Pokémon Go on the Portugal App Store.

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Hozelock Cloud Controller Kit review: Watering your garden via an app

We can control our music, our heating, our lights, even the vacuum cleaner via our phone, so why not the outside tap?

In steps the Hozelock Cloud Controller, a device that fits to your outside tap and then can be controlled either via an app on your phone and scheduled to water the lawn and flowers.

The obvious question is do you really need an app-controlled water tap?

Hozelock Cloud Controller Kit review: Two-part design

The Hozelock Cloud Controller comes in two parts: a hub that sits inside and connects into your home router; and a flow control device that connects to your tap.

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The former is a small black box that’s easy to install indoor by your router – you just need to make sure you have a spare Ethernet socket on the back of your router and a spare power socket to plug it into. It doesn’t need to be based near the tap at all, as it acts as the main controller.

The flow control device is a large black and grey box that sits in-between the tap and hose attachment. It’s battery powered (via two AA batteries), comes with a simple connector button and a further manual control button to turn on the tap without the need for the app for either 10, 30, or 60 minutes.

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Hozelock Cloud Controller review: Watering your garden via an app

The Hozelock app is simple to look at, but easy to use. Being connected to the internet means you can control the tap from anywhere in the world rather than just in your house (handy if you are on holiday), but also have it jump into action based on pre-set schedules. Ideal for watering the garden based on, say, sunrise or sunset. You can even have different schedules for different days.

Scheduled watering systems are nothing new, but the Hozelock system is more intelligent as it can source additional information, such as the weather. If it’s not been raining for a set amount of time or there’s been a hot spell then the app will let you know and you can make temporary adjustments accordingly (without changing the overall settings permanently).

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If you still find yourself needing to water the plants or grass outside of the 10 different daily scheduled watering times available to set, then you can press the “Water now” button within the app to override everything. The app allows you water between one and 60 minutes and you get a countdown timer so you can see what’s happening and how long remains.

For real green-fingered users, it’s possible to control up to four units via the one app, with different schedules available for each.

Hozelock Cloud Controller Kit review: Possible negatives

Connecting a tap to the internet really does give you a huge amount of granular control, but won’t be for everyone. Especially at the £115 asking price.

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The biggest issue we ran into wasn’t with the Cloud Controller, but our tap. It leaked, so it’s worth checking yours before you purchase a device that will require it to be on all the time. A bit of water leakage while you water the garden manually is always expected, but this system leaves your tap on all the time, 24/7.

The other issue is that the flow control device only talks to the hub every 20 minutes (mainly to conserve battery life), so asking the system to “Water now” can mean a longer delay than you might expect – giving you the feeling that it’s broken. 

Verdict

If watering your prized petunias is important to you then the Hozelock Cloud Controller could be just the thing to have you winning Britain in Bloom in no time. Whether you’re at home or away, its schedules and weather monitoring are simple but effective.

The only thing stopping most people will be the £115 price tag, ruling out a lot of people that are more than happy to walk to the tap and simply turn it on.

This is the 2TB Xbox One S to pre-order right now: Gears of War 4 Limited Edition

No matter how sexy we thought the new Xbox One S was when we saw it at E3 2016 in Los Angeles we’ve just seen a model even more drop-dead gorgeous.

Yes, it costs more, but the Xbox One S Gears of War 4 Limited Edition is the bees knees. Not only does it have a custom look, designed in blood-red, battleworn and with Gears 4 motifs all over, it comes with a few added extras that more that justify its loftier price point.

The Gears 4 edition 2TB Xbox One S costs $449 in the States, which is only $50 more than the launch edition white model. It is also coming to the UK, so we expect to see an equivalent price for it soon.

As well as the console, you also get full game downloads for both the Xbox One and Windows 10 versions of Gears of War 4 – thanks to Xbox Play Anywhere. In addition, you get early access to the game on 7 October (it officially comes out 11 October) and the Gears of War 4 Season Pass.

• Xbox One Gears of War 4 Elite Controller: The best gamepad just got even better
• Xbox One S preview: Thinner, better PS4 beater
• Xbox One S: Release date, specs and everything you need to know
• Xbox One S vs Xbox One: What’s the difference?

That latter add-on, which would cost you extra normally, includes the exclusive Vintage VIP Pack, permanent access to future multiplayer maps, six additional Gear Packs, early previews to upcoming modes and much more.

Not bad for an extra $50.

Sadly, the bundle does not come with the Gears of War 4 Xbox One Elite Controller, which we saw at E3. That will have to be added separately if you really want to complete the collection. As will an additional JD Fenix Limited Edition Wireless Controller, which is also being sold separately for $74.99.

The pack comes with the Crimson Omen Controller, which is also sold separately for those who don’t want the console itself.

The Gears 4 2TB Xbox One S bundle is now available through pre-order and will ship from mid-September. The all-white, launch edition Xbox One S will be available from 31 August. Both versions have a 40 per cent smaller body size than the standard Xbox One, the power pack built-in, HDR video and gaming abilities and 4K output for Netflix, other streaming services and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback.

Ford’s new robots can build cars, make coffee

This new robotic technology could be a big help to assembly workers and offer more design freedom. Ford Motor Company announced today its early testing of a new type of assembly line robot that were co-developed with German robotics company KUKA Roboter GmbH with the intention of assisting human line workers. Two of these three-foot-tall machines are in use at the Cologne, Germany factory, where they assist human workers to install shock absorbers on Ford Fiestas. These workers would have originally had to juggle the shocks and tools to install them, but now the robot helps them position and install the parts.

The robots feature technology that senses where the person is and will stay close by for assistance. This also allows them to make sure they don’t maneuver in such a way that could injure the person. In addition to heavy lifting, Ford notes the robots can even be programmed to make coffee as well as other delicate tasks. Ford also explains that these robots can lead to safer, faster and higher quality vehicle assembly, as well as making the process easier for employees.

Although the robots are only in use at the Cologne factory, they may end up in other locations in the near future. According to Kelli Felker, Ford’s manufacturing and labor communications manager, the company is also looking at how they could be implemented at North American factories.

Of particular interest to car enthusiasts is something Karl Anton, Ford of Europe’s director of vehicle operations, said. He explained that this technology could “open up unlimited worlds of production and design for new Ford models.” He didn’t elaborate on specific ways these robots could affect car design, but if designers and engineers don’t have to compromise for the physical limits of human workers, it would seem they would have much more design freedom.

Related Video:

Source: Ford Europe (YouTube)