Apple Watch 2 predicted for end 2016, bigger battery and GPS

The current Apple Watch was first announced almost two years ago so, in Apple tech cycle terms, it is due a refresh. And a senior, influential tech analyst has predicted just that.

Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities has issued a research note to investors in which he predicts Apple will release an Apple Watch 2 before the end of 2016. In addition, he thinks that the upgraded device will sport built-in GPS, a faster TSMC processor, barometer and better water resistance.

He also claims that the new device will likely have a larger battery, with more charge to keep the Watch powered longer between charges.

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In terms of design, he states that the new models will retain similar form factors to the last and will come in the same sizes: 42mm and 38mm. They will not have LTE connectivity, however, he says. They will still require connection to an iPhone for data and voice communications.

Kuo also predicts that a tweaked version of the current Apple Watch will also be launched this year. They will get processor and waterproofing bumps, but won’t come with the GPS or barometer.

Of course, as an industry analyst, Kuo is unlikely to have inside knowledge so this is all to be taken as a pinch of salt. But his experience in Apple predictions still makes his predictions noteworthy.

Kia Niro review: Say hello to my little friend

The word “Niro” makes us think of a few things: Robert de Niro in his classic film roles; strong black coffee; or some kind of futuristic city. It doesn’t immediately make us think of a car. But that’s about to change, for Korean car giant Kia has just put the Niro, its first ever electric-petrol hybrid, on sale in the UK.

Maybe our meandering brain wasn’t too far off the mark: Niro (well, “nero”) can be translated as meaning “strong”, which is certainly a bold statement of Kia’s intent in the ever-growing and highly competitive crossover market.

Indeed, having driven the Niro around the north and Newcastle for a day, does it have the strong characteristics that its name purports, or is it all pomp?

Kia Niro review: Design

The all-lower-case and futuristic-looking Niro logo made us think that this car would transport us to some kind of space-age futuristic Niro-land. But it doesn’t exactly. As five-door, five-seaters go, its design is like a wood pigeon in among the rock pigeons – that’s to say barely any more exciting looking than, say, the Nissan Qashqai, of which there are many – with just a few fancy feathers and electric motor smarts to help it stand out from the flock.

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To look at the Kia Niro is harmless enough, though. Its small-mouth grille and morphed Mini-like headlights – the LEDs in particular do give it an extra lick of specialness – serve a familiar, tried-and-tested aesthetic. It’s not trying anything wild like the Nissan Juke. And in its First Edition trim, as shown here, the Kia’s blue coat of paint helps it to look, well, entirely normal and predictable.

Step inside and, somehow, Kia has managed to clash an ageing on-screen user interface (we’ll get to this in more detail later) with some much smarter looking new driver dials, featuring bright colours and illumination, plus a dedicated driver’s screen. The newer parts of this make-up are great – helping get our minds to reach hypothetical Niro-land – but it simply feels mismatched in the wider picture.

The same goes for the interior as a whole: the textured plastic interior shell is dull, so Kia has decided to offset it with some glossy white plastic inserts in the First Edition model – the door inserts look like mistakes, while the dash and wheel highlights don’t exactly add desirable definition.

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However, the ride position is good. It’s high without feeling half way to the moon, there’s loads of room for your legs to casually slink about, including those of your passengers both up front and in the back seats. Which, ultimately, is where the Niro is at its most “nero”: there’s ample family space here, without the need to feel like you’re driving a van on wheels.

Kia Niro review: Drive

With some cars you can sit behind the wheel and after two minutes you’ve felt all that they’re going to give you. That’s the Kia Niro in a nutshell: it’s light and ultimately easy to drive. We found it too light and warbly on the steering, really, but it’s not going to be taxing for anyone to skirt around town in.

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The Niro’s pièce de résistance is, of course, its hybrid make-up, which pairs a 1.6-litre petrol engine with 32kW electric motor. It’s not a plugin – although that model will become available in the future – so you’ll need to regain battery charge from regenerative braking.

Given the Niro weighs around 1.5-tonnes, however, that petrol-electric combination – which can deliver a combined total of 140bhp (dipping to 104bhp if there’s no battery charge) – means it only chugs along. Foot-to-floor sees a 0-62mph time of 11.1-seconds, which can really be felt in the real-world when it comes to overtaking – you’ll need a long straight, so we were often hesitant to pass some meddling doing-45-in-a-60-zone drivers.

There’s no dedicated electric (EV) mode, which might sound surprising for a hybrid, but in this configuration makes sense: the car is too heavy to pull away from any level of incline without kicking in the petrol engine. Realistically, the electric element is here to help lower emissions (its 88g/km CO2 on small wheels, 101g on larger 18-inch wheels of the First Edition) compared to an all-petrol equivalent.

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There is, however, a sports mode, activated by slipping the automatic gearstick to the right. It spruces up reactivity a touch, but ultimately doesn’t make a huge level of difference. It negates some of the eco-warrior positives, too. That auto box works very well though, with the Niro happily slipping between changes with deft smoothness.

Nia Niro review: Tech

In its First Edition form the Niro actually comes with plenty of decent tech. It’s got lane assist – including active lane assist, if you activate it from within the settings – and active cruise control, which we’ve let bring the car to a full halt without getting the fear (well, too much fear). This is becoming more and more standard in-car tech from all manner of companies, but it works well here as part of the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) package.

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To the centre dash there’s also the all-important 8-inch touchscreen, flanked by some traditional quick-access buttons and climate controls. The size is right, the positioning is fine (albeit a bit of a reach), but the user interface looks like its from Nokia’s Symbian phone days. It’s dated, and then some.

Yet the actual tech isn’t dated: there’s Android Auto available, which we duly plugged into via the USB port using our phone, to pump out some tunes through the eight-speaker JBL sound system (which has overly sharp top-end front and centre, but can be successfully tweaked with EQ controls and sounds rather good at volume).

Seriously, though, that user interface needs a revamp. With car companies delivering far better considered systems – from Volvo to Audi at the higher end, Renault and others for more affordable offerings – it’s only Ford’s setup that seems stuck in the similar dark-age design aesthetic.

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Kia has set out on the right path. Its new tech, new safety features and new, colourful driver dials – plus driver’s screen, which can be used to toggle through various visuals using a button on the steering wheel, from say sat nav to music – are all good. There are too many steering wheel buttons, too much plastic and an archaic looking user interface to match it, though, which makes for a mishmash finish overall. A capable one, but a mishmash nonetheless.

Verdict

Kia so often has a not-so-secret weapon: it makes highly affordable cars. With the Niro, however, the addition of the electric motor component might skew the apparent value for some buyers. The First Edition model, as reviewed, costs £26,995 (starting price in the range is £21,295).

All considered, it’s about on par with an equivalent specced-up Nissan Qashqai (which is petrol/diesel all the way, not hybrid). The Toyota Prius offers similar value and greater efficiency, but is altogether whackier looking.

That’s the rub of it. The Kia Niro might not be a full-on thrill ride to drive, and is more an exercise in box-ticking design than no-holds-barred futuristic concept, but is an easy to command and semi-green driving machine. It’s comfortable, practical, predictable and, therefore, we’re pretty sure you’ll see a heap of them on the UK’s roads in the near future. Well, if you’re eagle-eyed enough to even notice.

ESA plans to study the wind by shooting lasers from space

The European Space Agency plans to send two potent Aladin lasers into space next year, both aimed at studying the wind. It’s part of the ESA’s Living Planet program aimed at better understanding hugely influential natural phenomena, like magnetism and wind. This time, it’s concerned with the latter.
The project will study how winds work in order to improve weather tracking, scanning and gauging clouds, air and whatever else is up there in the sky. It’s all centered around atmospheric dynamics: thunderstorms, hurricanes, jet streams and worldwide air circulation. The setup involves lasers that will beam UV light at Earth. As this bounces off small particles and air molecules, the part that’s bounced back towards the satellite, collected and recorded in the telescope. As the satellite will be so close by, data can be delivered and analyses in near-real time — the work starts as soon as it’s up and working in space. The space agency has named the satellite ADM-Aeouls, after the keeper of the winds in Homer’s Odyssey. Even he didn’t have lasers though.

Via: Popular Mechanics

Source: ESA

Skully ends its dreams of making augmented reality helmets

If you thought that Skully’s plan to crowdfund an augmented reality motorcycle helmet was overly ambitious… unfortunately, you were right. After years of delays and several weeks of grave financial trouble, the startup has informed backers that it’s shutting down. Simply put, the company had run out of cash — it had been scrambling to raise some temporary funding, but that fell through. TechCrunch sources claim that Skully had even been trying to sell itself to Chinese tech giant LeEco. However, it reportedly alienated investors following number of disputes over a possible sale, manufacturing hiccups and executive spending.

Don’t expect a refund from Skully itself. The company is filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and that doesn’t require a plan for repayment (which would be Chapter 11). If you’re out the $1,499 it cost to get a Skully, your best shot right now is to buy communication gear from Fusar, which is offering equivalent credit for its own smart helmet tech.

The shutdown is a not-so-subtle reminder of the inherent risks of crowdfunding. Despite what some creators say in their crowdfunding pitches, you’re not pre-ordering a product when you make a pledge — you’re providing financial support in the hopes of maybe, possibly getting something down the line. And producing an advanced, expensive niche product like an AR motorbike helmet only increases the challenge, since it involves both additional work and the support of a smaller customer base. Crowdfunding companies can offer production help or even insurance, but they can’t guarantee that you’ll get exactly what you paid for.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Indiegogo

Orkut creator intros a social network based on your obsessions

Google might have axed Orkut a couple of years ago, but the social network’s spirit is living on. Its namesake Orkut Büyükkökten has launched Hello, a follow-up social service that tries a unique angle to reel you in. Rather than compete directly with giants like Facebook, it has you choosing ‘personas’ (such as clubber, geek, photographer or traveler) that reflect your interests. You can browse those personas to find like-minded fans, and an algorithm helps tailor both your friend suggestions and your news stream.

As VentureBeat points out, though, Hello isn’t about conventional status updates. Instead, the focus is on images (you can add backgrounds, filters and text) and comments, with Miitomo-style rewards (such as coins and “expressions”) for participating on a frequent basis.

It’s hard to say whether or not this will work. Although Hello isn’t trying to directly compete with the heavyweights, it still has to fight against inertia and convince you to join another network. When Facebook has over 1.7 billion active users, it’s almost certain that like-minded hobbyists are already there. Why make the leap? With that said, Orkut also cultivated a massive following in Brazil that stayed loyal throughout most of the service’s existence. Hello doesn’t need to pull in a huge number of members to be successful — it just needs to cultivate a sufficiently large, close-knit group that has enough reasons to stay.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Hello, Orkut

FTC vows to crack down on sponsored internet posts

The FTC’s settlement with Warner Bros. over poor disclosure in sponsored internet posts was just the beginning. The Commission tells Bloomberg that the government is planning a crackdown on paid posts that will require both stars and advertisers to be much more explicit when telling viewers that it’s a paid piece. A disclosure through a social hashtag or a below-the-fold YouTube description won’t be enough — the FTC wants celebrities to reveal their endorsements up front, and to mention them in videos. There’s “no effective disclosure” if people don’t see it, the agency says.

It’s not clear whether or not advertisers and the internet famous will respond quickly to FTC pressure. While many of them are willing to include disclosures, some either don’t like the buzzkill effect of in-video notices or are convinced that buried disclosures are okay so long as you genuinely like the product. And how do you squeeze a notice into a short Snapchat or Vine video? Online celebs will have to be frank about paid posts some point, but they’ll both have to figure out the logistics and adjust their mindsets.

Source: Bloomberg