EPA findings should lead to caps on aircraft emissions

It’s no secret that aircraft contribute to harmful emissions like road-going vehicles, and the Environmental Protection Agency is one step closer to keeping that pollution in check. It recently finalized findings showing that some aircraft produce air pollution that contributes directly to climate change. As a result, the EPA is now free to set standards for aircraft emissions that help the US honor the Clean Air Act and, ultimately, its commitment to the Paris climate change agreement. While the US is already backing an international standard, this gives it the chance to demand tougher (or at least, more America-specific) requirements.

While the EPA is some distance off from defining its emissions targets, you shouldn’t expect a surge of electric aircraft as a result. As with the international standard, this is more about encouraging the development of slightly more efficient aircraft (such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787) than ushering in a complete revolution. Even so, that airplane makers will have to worry about US standards is important by itself — it could lead to lighter, sleeker aircraft with engines that are geared more toward eco-friendliness than raw power.

Via: Scientific American

Source: EPA (PDF)

Porsche will hire over 1,400 employees to build its electric cars

Porsche first unveiled its electric car, the Model E, last December as a luxury model fit to compete with Tesla’s Model S. 1,000 new jobs would be created to bring the concept vehicle to life, but today they increased the total to more than 1,400, likely to channel good press and move beyond its parent company Volkswagen’s emissions scandal.

Investing even more in the electric concept reflects a change in philosophy for the formerly combustion engine-only company. “You either take part in the digital change or you lose,” Porsche labor boss Uwe Hueck told reporters at a briefing today, according to Reuters. On top of the 1,400 employees dedicated to the Model E, an additional 350 digital experts will be hired to set up a unit to develop mobility concepts and uncover new business areas.

Porsche hopes to start rolling its electric cars out of its Zuffenhausen plant in 2019. While the company declined to specify production targets, Hueck did say that they would need to sell 10,000 units per year to make a profit.

Source: Reuters

Apple likely to push its booming services as iPhone sales decline

The smartphone market in the US is saturated, and Apple seems to be moving toward services as it struggles to sell iPhone units.

According to research from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, people are waiting longer to upgrade to the newest iPhone model. Nearly half of iPhone owners, for instance, are now waiting until their device is two years old or older to upgrade, whereas in 2013, only 34 per cent of iPhone owners would wait. This is clearly affecting Apple, as iPhone sales are falling, which caused the company’s first quarterly revenue drop in 13 years.

On 26 July, Apple posted second quarter results, revealing that things have only gotten worse. All of the company’s major hardware businesses posted declines for the 90-day period that ended in June. It posted an overall revenue of $42.4 billion, down 15 per cent compared with the same quarter last year. That’s partially due to iPhones sales dipping 15 per cent from the year-ago quarter – and Mac, iPad, and Watch sales tanked, too.

But not everything was doom and gloom for Apple in the second quarter. The company’s services segment saw revenue growth, with a 19-per cent uptick to $6 billion. Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Securities, told The New York Times that he estimated nearly one-third of Apple’s quarterly profits came from services, which includes App Store purchases, Apple Music subscriptions, and the iCloud storage business.

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So, as people find it difficult to justify iPhone upgrades, Apple’s services are for the first taking the spotlight, and that might push the company to better focus on the segment altogether. Keep in mind Apple’s weak results came at the end of its product cycle. It is expected to announce new iPhone models in September, so many customers are liking holding off until then.

Venmo opens up third-party app support to all

After allowing a limited number of customers to try out a special beta offering Venmo support with third-party apps in January, Venmo is now allowing all its users to pay for things in the same manner. In fact, starting tomorrow, July 27th, you’ll be able to use Venmo for a whole lot more.

The rollout includes ten new merchants, such as Poshmark, Boxed, Priv, Gametime, Munchery, Hop Market, Wish, Parking Panda, Dolly, Urgentil and Delivery.com. Not only will you be able to pay for your purchases in their entirety, but you’ll be able to split the bill with other buyers as well.

Venmo has been a favorite of Papa John’s customers to split the cost with others when buying pizza, but now that it can be used for additional purchases, it’ll likely be a service you’ll be hearing a lot more about in the future. According to Venmo, this is “just the beginning.” Check out the video below for a quick look at how making payments will actually work going forward.

Source: Venmo

5 things to know about Honor 8 in the U.S.

Huawei-owned Honor set to bring its A-game to the U.S. market.

Alongside a European launch in Paris later next month, it looks like the Honor 8 is headed to the United States, with an event scheduled for Aug. 16 in San Francisco. It’ll be the second Honor phone to hit the U.S., following the Honor 5X earlier in the year. That phone was a mixed bag, with sluggish performance, Android 5.1 out of the box and a smudge-prone, fingerprinty screen.

But the Honor 8 looks like a serious improvement, with flagship-class internals and build quality, backed up by a seriously improved software setup. So as launch day approaches, let’s come to grips with what you need to know about the Honor 8 in the U.S.

1. It’s essentially a Huawei P9

The Huawei P9 never made it to American shores, so the Honor 8 might be the closest thing (relatively) mainstream phone buyers get to experiencing the Chinese firm’s latest hardware. On the outside, the differences are plentiful, but internally the Honor 8 is almost a carbon copy of the P9. There’s a Kirin 950 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a unique dual rear camera setup, combining a color sensor and greyscale sensor for improved contrast, as well as depth-based after-effects.

It’s unclear whether the Honor 8 will benefit from the Leica-branded image tuning of the P9 — widely considered to be an exercise in branding, for the most part — but the underlying hardware appears to be the same.

Elsewhere, a 3,000mAh battery, USB Type-C connectivity and QuickCharge support add up to a capable collection of smartphone hardware — albeit hardware relatively unfamiliar to buyers in the United States.

2. Kirin in the U.S.?

In China (and, we’d expect, in Europe), the Honor 8 runs a Kirin 950 processor, made by the Huawei-owned Hisilicon. It’s a speedy high-end chip that we’ve seen in action in the Huawei Mate 8 — as well as being closely related to the Kirin 955 in the Huawei P9, which is essentially the same processor at higher clocks.

But we’ve yet to see a Kirin-powered phone sold directly in the U.S., for a whole mess of reasons relating to national security and Huawei’s alleged ties to the Chinese government. And it’s not clear what besides Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 would make a suitable replacement for the SoC. (Snapdragon 652 is architecturally similar, but based on a far less power-efficient 28nm process.) So it’d be a big deal if Kirin did finally come to U.S., both for future Honor handsets and Huawei in general. It could, perhaps, open the door to more powerful Huawei phones like the P and Mate lines making it to American consumers in the next year.

3. Expect the best EMUI yet

Huawei’s Android-based EMUI software has been a mixed bag. Some questionable design decisions, such as weird colored icon backgrounds combined with frequent software bugs and a frustrating notification system. As of the latest EMUI version however, things are starting to look up.

Like the Honor 8, the Huawei P9 comes with EMUI 4.1, based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. EMUI 4.1 is a big deal because it’s slowly chipped away at all the broken things about Huawei’s software, and even corrected design and aesthetic quibbles in recent updates. The Honor 5C, for instance, no longer forces old Google app icons on its users. (Hallelujah!) Slowly but surely, Huawei’s software is making progress.

4. Competitive pricing

The Honor 8’s Chinese price comes in at the equivalent of around US$340. There’s no guarantee the U.S. price will directly match that of the Chinese model — in fact, taxes and shipping costs will almost certainly push it higher — but it at least gives us a baseline to work from.

Regardless, we’re looking at what should be a sub-$400 phone with hardware broadly in line with many of 2016’s flagship phones. Unlike the Honor 5X, this is no watered-down mid-ranger, despite its likely price point.

5. Dual cameras

Huawei has previously used the Honor brand to experiment with crazy camera features, but these often haven’t made it to devices in the West (the sole exception was 2015’s Honor 6 Plus). This time around, the Honor 8 looks to have inherited the Huawei P9’s dual-camera setup, which uses two Sony sensors in tandem in an effort to produce sharper pics with better contrast. Along with that you’ve got dual-LED flash and laser autofocus, and a wealth of software-driven effects (including fake bokeh!) from the Huawei camera app.

Initially the Huawei P9’s camera produced mixed results, particularly in low light. However successive software updates have improved things significantly, and while it’s not going to beat the Galaxy S7 in a head-to-head fight, it’s impressive in its own right.

That kind of camera performance in a sub-$400 smartphone could be a big deal, and a much needed differentiator.

We’ll learn more about the Honor 8’s U.S. debut at the launch event on Aug. 17, so stay tuned!

MORE: Honor 8 preview

BlackBerry DTEK50 hands-on: Stuck in neutral

BlackBerry’s second Android phone, the DTEK50, has a vexing name and a lack of star appeal. But it’s also cheap.

I have been fielding radio interviews since mid-2013 about the inevitable demise of BlackBerry’s smartphone business, and each time since then I say, “Sure, this may be it,” and each time I am left wondering whether the company’s stubborn tenacity is its blessing or its curse.

In the DTEK50, BlackBerry may have finally solved the solution to its hardware profitability problem: a low-stakes handset based on the reference design of an existing product, the Alcatel Idol 4, with a software experience that brings the Priv’s impressive amalgam of near-stock Android and a homegrown app suite to a price more palatable to the average IT manager.

Hardware impressions

At first glance, this is an Alcatel Idol 4 — yes, the still-unreleased cheaper version of the Idol 4S — with slight changes, particularly to the phone’s back. A 5.2-inch 1080p LCD display covers the phone’s otherwise-uninteresting front, and it is, like the rest of the hardware, adequate but largely unimpressive. Colors are vibrant, and white balance, which can be adjusted through the settings, is slightly too warm out of the box. Thankfully, BlackBerry decided to set the phone’s DPI — the amount of content shown on the screen — fairly high, which is a nice change fro the average device in this price range.

More: BlackBerry DTEK50 specs

The phone costs $299, and it feels like it: Aluminum chamfers and a rubberized textured back are highlights, but its near-weightlessness is not an asset. Still, the back does not creak like its Priv predecessor (which cost nearly three times as much), and despite the gimmicky nature of the front and back being offset from the bezels to mimic layers, there is a solidity to the chassis that I appreciate.

Unfortunately, the DTEK50 inherited a now-standard negative trait of Alcatel’s recent product lineup: a power button located on the top left, which is sure to vex the vast majority of the right-handed user base.

Even worse, where the power button exists on most phones — right side middle — is a convenience key that, after unboxing the phone, I depressed like an idiot for 10 seconds before realizing it didn’t power on the phone. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen such a button on an Android phone — Samsung’s Galaxy S Active line famously added one a few years ago — but BlackBerry hopes that you’ll use this one to quickly open its Hub, or its Calendar, or — mercifully — BBM.

Around back, you’re looking at a 13MP rear camera, which doesn’t have the same pedigree as the Priv’s 18MP shooter, but upon first impression the DTEK50 exhibits a fair approximation of what a $300 phone in 2016 offers. A full review will reveal specifics, but at least BlackBerry’s camera app has received considerable performance improvements since the Priv’s debut last year.

The phone costs $299, and it feels like it.

The DTEK50’s spec sheet is largely identical to that of the Alcatel Idol 4, which means its middle-of-the-road inclusions are somewhat mired by a quickly-aging Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor and 16GB of internal storage (which is, thankfully, expandable via microSD). In its announcement, BlackBerry hedged against the naysayers by claiming that the phone’s 3GB of RAM will keep things running smoothly over the long haul, but after a few minutes tapping away on the company’s first-party keyboard, it’s clear the phone is severely underpowered.

Software impressions

First, the good news: the DTEK50 runs Android 6.0.1 with the very latest security patch from Google (July 5th, as of writing), which is considerably more encouraging than some upcoming phones asking twice as much.

I have gone on the record as being a fan of BlackBerry’s Android apps.

If you’ve used the Priv, the software experience is the same: a powerful home screen that in many ways resembles a hybrid of Google Now and Action Launcher (in a good way), and a bevy of first-party apps that I can only describe as excellent. I have gone on the record as being a fan of BlackBerry’s Android apps, from the Hub, which has improved considerably since last year, to its minimalist calendar and notes apps. And all of these apps are updated directly from Google Play, a means of distribution that BlackBerry has utilized often.

Then there’s DTEK, the phone’s branding namesake, the foundation for BlackBerry’s claim of “the world’s most secure Android smartphone.” While the average consumer may balk at BlackBerry’s intention to sell this directly through distribution channels like Amazon, the real sales volume is going to come by bundling the phone alongside BlackBerry’s suite of enterprise management tools like BES 12. DTEK (the app) puts a friendly face on a narrative that BlackBerry is desperate to convey to potential customers: Android may be secure, but with this phone you’ll never have to worry about being compromised again.

The Accessories

Of course, with every BlackBerry phone, there are the accessories. I got to try three cases that will be available alongside the phone when it launches on August 8: the Smart Pocket; the Smart Flip Case; and the Hard Shell. There will also be a Swivel Holster, because of course there will be.

All three cases are well-made and, between $24.99 and $34.99, in line with what you’d pay from Otterbox or Incipio.

The Bottom Line

At this point, I’m cautiously optimistic about the state of BlackBerry’s device business. John Chen has said again and again that he has no qualms shutting down the whole project if it fails to turn a profit, though he stubbornly keeps pushing back that due date. And while this is certainly a BlackBerry phone in name, we’re expecting a more traditional keyboard-sporting Android device by the end of the company’s fiscal year, which could take us into early 2017.

As for the DTEK50 itself, it appears to be a decent phone that will likely be severely hampered by an underpowered processor. I hope to be proven wrong by the time I write the review, but I doubt it.

More: BlackBerry DTEK50 pre-orders have begun, ships August 8 for $299

See at BlackBerry

Star Trek in real life: Best Starfleet gadgets and toys you can buy

Trekkies have a lot to be excited about right now.

A new film, Star Trek Beyond, just opened in cinemas across the world, and CBS recently announced at San Diego Comic-Con the name of its upcoming TV series based on the Star Wars franchise, along with giving us a first look at the new Discovery starship that will grace the show. Star Trek: Discovery is the name of the 2017 CBS All Access series, and it is set to debut in January.

As for Star Trek Beyond, it premiered on 22 July in the US and was directed by Justin Lin and written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. It is the thirteenth Star Trek film and the third installment in the reboot series, following Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto reprised their roles as Captain Kirk and Commander Spock, respectively.

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For hardcore Trekkies, the new film, TV show, and starship are a dream come true. So, to help them savour the moment (and possibly go where no man has gone before), Pocket-lint has compiled a gallery full of Star Trek-themed gadgets and toys, including everything from cosplay-worthy TNG pajama sets to a Bluetooth-enabled Original Series communicator.

That’s right – say it with us: shut up and take my money!

Click here to browse the gallery.