Smart glasses make hands-free ‘Pokémon Go’ a reality
Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm. It’s not uncommon to see dozens of people walking around parks and city streets with their heads buried in their phones, trying to catch cute cartoon monsters. Unfortunately, doing so means you’re not keeping your eyes on the road, which has already led to a few accidents. But what if you could somehow play Pokémon Go while also paying attention to the world around you? That’s exactly what Recon has attempted to do by porting the popular game over to the Jet, a pair of Android-based smart glasses the company released last year. The setup isn’t perfect and it doesn’t work completely just yet, but even what I’ve seen so far provides an exciting glimpse at the next wave of augmented reality.
At Intel’s Developer Forum in San Francisco this week, I had a chance to try on a Jet to see the app in action. Since the Jet already has GPS, WiFi and a fully baked operating system, a Recon software developer by the name of Patrick Cho was able to move Pokémon Go over to it as a standalone app. The caveat here is that the Jet doesn’t have LTE, so you’ll have to figure out how to get WiFi if you’re out and about — an important consideration when playing Pokémon Go. Mine used a hotspot connection to a phone for its internet connection, so we were good there. Cho also had to reorient the Pokémon Go screen from portrait to landscape mode to accommodate the Jet’s 428 x 240 resolution display.
Pokémon Go, as seen on the Recon Jet
It took a while to get the app going. Since this is an unofficial port, it isn’t optimized for the Jet and feels quite sluggish in action. The app was also prone to stalling, and even crashed on me a few times. But it did work eventually. After a long loading time, I saw the familiar Pokémon Go interface appear in the Jet’s bottom-right screen. I immediately saw a map representation of the area surrounding San Francisco’s Moscone Center dotted with a slew of Pokéstops imbued with sparkling pink lures. It was a sight that would make any Pokétrainer happy.
Unfortunately, I was unable to catch any Pokémon due to the uncooperative app. But the proof of concept is there. Even though there’s no touchscreen, I could theoretically throw a Pokéball by swiping the temple on the right. A side button could be remapped to trigger a Pokéstop. And if you were armed with the upcoming Pokémon Go wearable that lets you snag monsters by simply tapping a button, it’d make capturing that elusive Dragonite that much easier. At the very least, I could see myself using the Jet to hatch a Pokémon egg just by walking around.
The Pokémon Go app launcher, as seen on the Recon Jet
I particularly appreciated that the game only took up a small corner of my peripheral vision. I could still see and interact with the world as I played the game. This way, I was able to track monsters and still be aware of my surroundings. Of course, the potential downside here is that the Recon Jet’s battery life likely isn’t long enough to withstand hours of play. But being able to play Pokémon Go without having to stare at your phone still sounds like a pretty great proposition to me.
The Jet has so far been used mostly for fitness applications like running and cycling, but Recon recently announced an enterprise partner program that will open it up to other uses too. The idea here is that the AR glasses could be used for work like field service or manufacturing. For example, workers could talk to a remote engineer as they’re fixing a problem or look up a user manual on how to fix electrical wiring right as they’re doing it. But the real purpose of opening the Jet up is to show how flexible it is as a hardware and development platform. And as I’ve seen with Pokémon Go, it’s a pretty great way to play augmented reality games too.
It’s difficult to see here, but this is a shot of the Pokémon Go screen on the Recon Jet’s tiny display
A Recon spokesperson said that if more time was spent on it and if Niantic joined in to help optimize the app, there’s potential for the experience to be much better. Recon isn’t the only company to think of this collaboration either. Osterhaut Design Group (ODG) ported an unofficial version of the app over to its R7 headset a month ago, while CapitolaVR created a demo of how Pokémon Go would look through Microsoft’s HoloLens headset. Still, the R7 and the HoloLens both sell for upwards of $2,000, while the Jet is available today for $500. Plus, Recon’s hardware has already been repurposed to play paintball in the form of the Empire EVS mask, so it doesn’t take much imagination to see how it could be adapted to work with mobile AR games too.
In an email statement, a Recon spokesperson said: “With further optimization, Pokémon Go on Recon Jet could very well be brought to market in the future.” Let’s hope it is.
T-Mobile Introduces $70 Unlimited Data Plan, But HD Video is $25 Extra
T-Mobile has introduced a new plan called T-Mobile ONE [PDF] that offers unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data for $70 per month. A second line can be added for $50 per month, while up to six more lines can be added for an additional $20 per month each. The total cost for a family of four, for example, would be $160 per month.
T-Mobile ONE has some caveats to consider. First, unlimited video is limited to 480p standard definition for all services, with unlimited HD video available for $25 per month extra per line. Additionally, tethering is limited to 2G speeds, with 5GB of high-speed tethering available as a $15 add-on.
T-Mobile’s existing Simple Choice plan with unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data costs $95 per month and includes unlimited HD video and 14GB of LTE tethering. The carrier also offers 2GB, 6GB, and 10GB of 4G LTE for $50, $65, and $80 respectively. It is unclear if these plans will be retired September 6 for new customers.
T-Mobile also clarified that, as with its Simple Choice plans, customers using the most data — specifically the highest 3 percent — may see their data traffic prioritized behind other users once they cross a threshold of around 26GB of data during their billing month. The carrier noted that throttling will only occur at specific times and places where there is network congestion.
The new plan includes usual T-Mobile perks such as Simple Global, Mobile Without Borders, Wi-Fi Unleashed, Stock Up, and T-Mobile Tuesdays. T-Mobile will also pay up to $650 in early termination fees to customers who switch over from AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint through its Carrier Freedom program.
T-Mobile ONE will be available for new postpaid customers on September 6, while new prepaid customers will be able to get the plan “in the future.” Existing customers have the option to keep the Simple Choice plans they have or switch to T-Mobile ONE. The plan costs $5/month extra per line without AutoPay enabled.
T-Mobile follows in the footsteps of new data plans from AT&T and Verizon.
Tag: T-Mobile
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The creator of Google’s self-driving car now works for Uber
Bloomberg has taken a look at Uber’s future in the autonomous vehicle world and uncovered a small, but important detail. The website is reporting that Uber has purchased Otto, the driverless freight truck startup that was launched a few months back. That news wouldn’t be interesting but for the fact that Otto was founded and staffed by former members of Google’s self-driving car team.
Anthony Levandowski was a prodigious Berkeley graduate who built a self-stabilizing autonomous motorcycle for the DARPA grand challenge. Shortly afterward he founded 510 Systems, a startup that Google bought to form the basis of its self-driving car project. Otto co-founder Lior Ron, meanwhile, was the head of Google Maps for three years before leading Motorola’s revolution after Google bought it.
According to Bloomberg, the deal was made in July, and could potentially be worth as much as $680 million. That’s a high price for a startup that’s less than a year old and has fewer than 100 employees, but there’s plenty at stake here. After all, a Google-owned and operated autonomous taxi service would, eventually, put Uber out of business. The website quotes CEO Travis Kalanick saying that producing a rival technology was “basically existential” for his company.
Rather than attempting to build a self-driving truck, Otto’s mission was to create a retrofit kit that could be bolted on to existing vehicles. This technology would only be used on highways, the simplest part of driving but the core component to hauling freight. Human operators would then take over for the complicated part, but could otherwise get a nap in the back of the cab.
Now, Otto’s platform will be used as a beachhead to get Uber into the trucking business as well as adapting Levandowski’s tech into its own self-driving cars.
Source: Bloomberg
Uber will offer free rides in its self-driving cars this month
After months of testing, Uber’s self-driving cars are ready to pick up their first passengers. Bloomberg reports that the ride-hailing company will allow customers in Pittsburgh to request one of its autonomous Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicles via their smartphone in the coming weeks, pushing it into territory that other major developers of self-driving cars have yet to fully explore.
According to the report, Uber won’t be sending its cars out alone. A human supervisor will sit in the driving seat, as required by law, “with their fingertips on the wheel.” A second person will be sat in the front passenger seat, taking notes on a laptop while cameras inside and outside the vehicle record everything that happens during the ride. Customers won’t be expected to pay for their journey in Uber’s XC90s, at least to begin with, which may help put nervous riders at ease.
Pittsburgh serves as the ideal environment for Uber’s autonomous trials. The city is home to its Advanced Technologies Center (ATC) and local authorities have already approved the testing of its self-driving fleet. When the do hit the road, only a handful of cars will be available right away, but Uber has struck a deal with Volvo to take delivery of 100 vehicles by the end of the year.
With Ford announcing yesterday that it intends to have fully autonomous cars on the road within five years, Uber is moving swiftly. It wants to be out ahead of its rivals with its own tried-and-tested solution, not a ready-made one from a car manufacturer that could one day eat its lunch.
Source: Bloomberg
Whyd is a colorful take on voice-controlled wireless speakers
Just two years ago, Whyd was trying to mix up the music streaming world, with a service that let you collect tracks from around the internet, and put them in one place. Today, it’s moving into hardware with a multi-room wireless speaker. Don’t worry, if you were into its aggregation service, (as you likely know) it wasn’t killed, but made open source earlier this month. Starting today, though, the Whyd brand will live on as a multi-room speaker system.
Before we get to the features, let’s talk about that design. The egg-like form, and bold colors are striking for sure — if Ikea did wireless audio, it might look like this. The speaker uses four 40mm drivers to pump out sounds in 360-degrees, and there’s a shiny glass touch-sensitive button on top so you can control your music with gestures.
Physical controls are old news though, right? Whyd thinks so, and has given the speaker Amazon Echo-like voice control. Using what looks like fairly natural voice commands — “Play my morning playlist” the demo video shows us — you won’t even need to lay a single greasy digit on that polished peak. Five beam forming microphones also promise that you’ll be heard wherever you are in the room.
As is par for the course these days, two speakers can be linked to make a stereo pair. You’ll of course be able to pipe music to the Whyd speaker from a number of sources, including WiFi, Bluetooth, GoogleCast and AirPlay as well as streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Sound Cloud, Tidal and Google Play. There’s also an Android and iOS app that will put all these options together in one place.
Perhaps Whyd’s most ambitious feature is its price. At $500, that puts it squarely agains the very capable Sonos Play:5, the streaming stalwart’s flagship speaker. If you’re more about the voice control, Amazon’s multifunctional Echo costs just $180. If you’re an early bird, you can shave a solid $200 off the Whyd, bagging one for $300 — either way, you’ve still got a little while to think about it, as the speaker won’t ship until this fall.
Source: Whyd
AMD crashes Intel’s party: Powerful Zen CPUs are coming next year
A block away from Intel’s Developer Forum in San Francisco, AMD brought together a select group of media and analysts to make one thing clear: Its long-awaited Zen processor actually exists, and it’s on track to ship early next year for desktops. Surprisingly, the company is aiming directly at the high-end PC gaming market, whereas its last few chips appealed more to budget builders.
“Our focus is on high-performance CPUs and GPUs,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said, as she listed off the company’s most recent accomplishments. Those include building the chips powering both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (as well as the One S and the upcoming Project Scorpio), and delivering a surprisingly powerful $200 video card in the Radeon RX480.
Beaming like a proud papa, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster listed off what makes the Zen processor so special: It’s built from the ground up with a focus on “performance, throughput and efficiency.” Using a 14nm FinFET (3D transistor) architecture, AMD’s engineers have increased the chip’s performance by 40 percent, compared to their last-gen hardware, all the while making it more power efficient. AMD has also finally implemented Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT), which lets Zen’s cores run multiple threads at the same time (basically, its own version of Intel’s HyperThreading).
“We have to be faster, we have to be more agile, we have to be more creative, because we’re the smallest player,” Papermaster said. Digging a bit deeper into the technical details, AMD says it increased Zen’s instruction scheduler by 1.75x and execution resources by 1.5x, added an 8MB L3 cache, and also implemented a larger shared L2 cache. Altogether, Zen should push around five times the amount of bandwidth to its core than AMD’s previous Excavator design.
So what does all that mean to you? Basically, you can expect the company’s Zen chip to be better at massive processing tasks (think 4K video and gaming, as well as VR), and easier on laptop battery life. It sounds like the sort of leap in performance AMD needs to better compete with Intel in high-end computing, but there’s still much we don’t know. Zen’s thermal profile, which would tell us just how efficient it actually is, remains a mystery. And naturally, AMD isn’t ready to talk about final clock speeds or pricing just yet. Papermaster says more technical details will be divulged at the Hot Chips conference next week.
AMD’s first product based on Zen will be an 8-core, 16-thread desktop chip called Summit Ridge, which will run on the new AM4 platform and will support DDR4 memory and “next-gen I/O.” But the company also hopes Zen will help it get back into the lucrative server market with “Naples,” a 32-core, 64-thread behemoth. AMD also expects to see the new chip design reach embedded computers in the future (mostly due to its increased power efficiency). Surprisingly, the company’s engineers are already hard at work on its followup platform, Zen+, Papermaster revealed.
To give us a sense of Summit Ridge’s performance, AMD pitted it against a Core i7-6900K, Intel’s top-of-the-line 8-core chip (which currently sells for around $1,100), using the Blender rendering benchmark. With both chips clocked at 3Ghz, the Summit Ridge machine managed to finish rendering a scene around half-a-second faster than Intel’s processor. AMD had to downclock its competitor from 3.2GHz to make the fight fair, but the benchmark as still a notable win. We also saw Summit Ridge, together with AMD’s R9 Fury X, playing Deux Ex: Mankind Divided in 4K with smooth frame rates (of course, we weren’t told the exact FPS figure).
You can expect Summit Ridge to hit the market in the first quarter of 2017, while Naples will launch in the second quarter. And if you’re aching to get Zen in a laptop, keep an eye out during the second half of next year (the company announced its latest batch of laptop chips back in May). Despite its progress with Zen, AMD will surely have competition from Intel, which is expected to debut its seventh-generation Core CPUs this fall.
Uber Will Begin Picking Up Pittsburgh Users in Self-Driving Cars This Month
After years of planning, and testing phases over the last few months, Uber this month will begin allowing customers in Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from within its ride-hailing app. As noted by Bloomberg, “no automotive or technology company has yet achieved” the public launch of a self-driving service, passing rivals Google, Tesla, and Ford, who have so far only performed tests in the field.
Uber’s new program isn’t entirely “driverless,” however, since the company is still placing trained engineers in the driver’s seat, “as common sense and the law dictate,” to oversee each trip and ensure the passenger’s safety. There will also be a co-pilot in the front passenger seat to take notes while the test trips take place, and everything will get recorded by cameras inside and outside the vehicle “so that any glitches can be ironed out.”
On the passenger side of things, once users hail the specially modified Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicles, they’ll see a tablet computer in the backseat that comes stacked with information to tell them that they’re in an autonomous vehicle and educate them on exactly what’s happening. Although unspecified, it appears that riders won’t know they’re being paired with a driverless car while in the Uber app, but the ride will be free of charge “for the time being.”
According to Uber’s engineering director Raffi Krikorian, “the goal is to wean us off of having drivers in the car, so we don’t want the public talking to our safety drivers.” The company also thinks the new technology could greatly cut down on the cost of trips for riders, which it sees as a major opportunity. Still, there are hiccups in the system the company has to fix before all of this progress can happen.
On a recent weekday test drive, the safety drivers were still an essential part of the experience, as Uber’s autonomous car briefly turned un-autonomous, while crossing the Allegheny River. A chime sounded, a signal to the driver to take the wheel. A second ding a few seconds later indicated that the car was back under computer control. “Bridges are really hard,” Krikorian says. “And there are like 500 bridges in Pittsburgh.”
Uber’s cars haven’t had any fender benders since they began road-testing in Pittsburgh in May, but at some point something will go wrong, according to Krikorian. “We’re interacting with reality every day,” he says. “It’s coming.”
Apple itself was the source of multiple self-driving automobile rumors, beginning last year, but ultimately it’s believed that the company’s first foray into the vehicle industry most likely won’t be autonomous, with further generations down the line more likely to include the technology. All the same, over the summer it was reported that Apple is taking a “two-prong approach” to the Apple Car, focusing more heavily on creating its own autonomous driving system rather than the hardware manufacturing of the vehicle itself.
You can read Bloomberg’s full report on Uber’s autonomous vehicle launch in Pittsburgh right here.
Tag: Uber
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Best cheap cases for OnePlus 3
What’s the best cheap case for OnePlus 3?
The OnePlus 3 is an inexpensive phone, but you of course still want to protect it. That being said, you might want to match what you spent on the phone to what you’ll spend on a case, relatively speaking.
So, if you’re not in for the expensive, bulletproof cases, then opt for one (or all) of our favorite cheap cases for the OnePlus 3. Cheap doesn’t have to mean bad!
- TUDIA slim-fit Heavy Duty Extreme
- Spigen Rugged Armor
- Love Ying Crystal Clear Ultra
- OnePlus Protective Cases
- Cruzerlite Bugdroid Circuit case
- Ringke Fusion
TUDIA slim-fit Heavy Duty Extreme
Even though you’re opting for an inexpensive case, that’s no reason to skimp on protection. The TUDIA slim-fit Heavy Duty Extreme comprises two layers: an inner layer of shock-absorbing TPU and an outer layer of hard polycarbonate.
You have raised edges around the front of your phone to protect the screen when you place it face-down, and you’ve got a raised edge around the camera lens so that you won’t be taking photos of just cracks any time soon.
This case’s cutouts are quite precise, so you won’t have to worry about taking it off to charge or take photos, and it fits snugly, making that TPU inner layer more effective.
The Heavy Duty Extreme comes in matte black, metallic slate, mint, and rose, so choose one to match your style.
If you want an expensive case feel with great protection for around $13, then the TUDIA Heavy Duty Extreme is the case you want.
See at Amazon
Spigen Rugged Armor
Spigen just makes great cases. I’ve had an used quite a few of them and they always fit just right. The Rugged Armor case is the perfect blend of solid protection and a slim fit that doesn’t add much bulk or weight to the OnePlus 3.
Some cases, especially those with polycarbonate backs, can be slippery to hold, but the Spigen Rugged Armor case is made entirely of soft TPU, with a textured feel that’s easy to hang on to.
The inside of the case has a spiderweb design, which disperses impact around the entire case, and each corner employs Spigen’s “Air Cushion technology,” which leaves a pocket of air between the phone and the case, again in order to disperse impact. If you’ve ever dropped a naked phone on its corner, you’ll understand why this is very important.
If you’re looking for solid protection and a non-slip, textured phone case, then the Spigen Rugged Armor is a great way to go.
See at Amazon
Love Ying Crystal Clear Ultra
If you’d like to add a little pizzazz to your OnePlus 3 — but not too much — the Love Ying Crystal Clear Ultra series of cases is a great minimalist option for something inexpensive yet effective.
These Love Ying cases are made of soft TPU and protect your OnePlus 3 from dirt, dust, scratches, and bumps. These are the most rugged cases but will protect your phone from everyday wear and tear.
Coming in mint, purple, clear, and pink, they add a lovely translucent color to your phone, so you can appreciate its design while adding a splash of personality.
Be aware that TPU can turn yellow over time, due to the way it absorbs sunlight, but that shouldn’t be for quite a while, so grab a few of these cases (they’re only around $7) and enjoy!
See at Amazon
OnePlus Protective Cases
Manufacturers may not make the coolest cases for their phones, but they at least usually fit pretty well. That being said, the OnePlus Protective cases from OnePlus are cool as hell!
You have five different case materials to choose from: Sandstone, Karbon, Black Apricot, Rosewood, and Bamboo, and they’re all made from the materials after which they’re named, mixed with kevlar (except sandstone – it’s polycarbonate)! First off, who’s ever even heard of Black Apricot, let alone had a phone case made out of it? Second, these cases are very lightweight and snap on easily, protecting the back and sides of your phone from bumps and scratches.
The top and bottom of the your OnePlus 3 are left open, so you don’t have to worry about the cutouts being precise or not and removing the case is that much easier.
The cases range in price from $19.95 (Sandstone) to $24.95 (the rest), which is quite inexpensive when you consider what other phone manufacturer’s charge for proprietary cases.
If you want a case that’s unique, made of something other than TPU, silicone, or polycarbonate, and rather stylish, then grab one from OnePlus. It’ll fit your phone well and you know people are going to ask you about it!
See at OnePlus
Cruzerlite Bugdroid Circuit case
Cruzerlite’s Bugdroid Circuit case is a quirky and fun TPU case that features the Android Bugdroid (of course, he’s Lloyd here at AC) on the back, with a sort of circuit board pattern. It’s a great case for diehard Android fans and folks who are looking for a lightweight case that won’t fatten up their OnePlus 3 too much.
This case comes in black, blue, clear, green, orange, red, smoke, and teal, so you’ll be able to find one that matches your personal style.
As far as phone cases go, this one is a pretty run-of-the-mill TPU shell, but the design is really cool and the softer cases are better for shock absorption. Plus, they’re only around $10, which is why they’re one of the best cheap cases you can find for the OnePlus 3!
See at Amazon
Ringke Fusion
The Ringke Fusion offers versatility in its design, with soft TPU around the edges and a hard polycarbonate back, expertly protecting your OnePlus 3 from all manner of scratches, scuffs, and bumps.
The clear back of the case means you get to admire the metal composition of your phone, but if you so choose, Ringke sends along a DIY template (basically a piece of cardboard) that helps you shape photos or images that you print out so that they fit perfectly in your case. Boom, you have a custom phone case design that you can switch out as often as you like!
You have your choice of two edge accents: Crystal View or Smoke Black.
The Ringke Fusion starts around $12 and is perfect for anyone looking to bridge the gap between a rugged case and a minimalist case.
See at Amazon
What’s on your phone?
What inexpensive case did you pick up for your OnePlus 3? Was it worth it to go the cheap route? Sound off in the comments below!
OnePlus 3
- OnePlus 3 review: Finally, all grown up
- OnePlus 3 specs
- OnePlus 3 vs. the flagship competition
- Latest OnePlus 3 news
- Discuss OnePlus 3 in the forums
OnePlus
Don’t miss your chance to get a Nextbit Robin at its lowest price yet!
Right now you can grab an unlocked Nextbit Robin for just $199 at Amazon, the lowest price we’ve seen yet for the phone. The Robin features a 5.2-inch display covered by Gorilla Glass 4, as well as 3GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board storage. Nextbit also offers 100GB of cloud storage to where the phone seamlessly backs up your apps, photos and more without you needing to do anything.
This deal is only good for today, August 18, so you won’t want to wait long to place your order. Which color will you pick? Let us know in the comments.
See at Amazon
Mini John Cooper Works review: Mini by name, maxed-out by nature
The Cooper Car company was founded in Surbiton in 1947. Charles Cooper and his son John began building racing cars that eventually changed the face of F1. In 1961, John Cooper conceived the first faster-and-tuned Mini, which dominated rallying in the 1960s. The rest, as they say, is history.
Cooper is a name that became synonymous with Mini, and in 2000, John’s son, Michael Cooper, founded John Cooper Works, which made racing tuning parts for the reborn, BMW-built Mini. In 2008, BMW bought the company outright and now the John Cooper Works Mini is built in the Mini factory in Oxford.
So is the fastest, highest performance stock Mini you can buy worth the extra outlay?
Mini John Cooper Works review: Re-defining the pocket-rocket
Agile, small, nimble and powerful: the Cooper-tuned Minis have always possessed qualities that simply made them put a smile on your face. Small enough that they felt pocketable but with performance that made it feel like a rocket, the fast Minis defined the term pocket rocket.
Pocket-lint
Thing is, the 2014 refresh of the Mini ushered in a new platform shared with BMWs. So this third-generation new Mini (codename F56) is no longer a small car. At 3.8m long and 1.7m long, it’s a bit of a bruiser.
Despite those growing dimensions it still achieves pocket rocket status though. The John Cooper Works – or JCW as it’s usually referred to – is one of the most fun-to-drive cars we’ve driven all year. It begs to be taken by the scruff of the neck at any given opportunity and thrashed down your typical British back road.
There are a few factors in the mix that make it a giggle to drive. First up is the engine, which is a fizzy, powerful thing. It’s BMW’s 2.0-litre turbo unit, and we know from driving it in other BMW products that it’s an excellent engine. It suffers from little turbo lag, pulls hard from low down, revs out happily to its 6,500rpm limit, and makes a decent noise while doing it.
Any gear, any situation, press the throttle and the Mini thrums forward. But stick it in 6th gear, trog along the motorway at 70mph and it’ll return 40mpg (maybe more). Its 0-62 marker is 6.3-seconds – but it feels faster. Rumour on the internet has it that these 2.0-litre BMW turbos tend to make rather more than the 228bhp that the company claims.
Pocket-lint
Most importantly given the price lift over the regular Cooper S, the JCW feels like a more significant performance step forward than the figures suggest.
Mini John Cooper Works review: Maximum go cart feel
Minis have never been just about their engines and power. Far from it. The Mini’s wheel-at-each-corner stance, low weight and keen handling are the things that have made them feel like pocket rockets.
Mini is even playing on this factor with its latest mode selector, which in sport mode pings up a “maximum go kart feel” message on the centre screen. Twee though that might sound, get the JCW in sport mode on the right road and it does feel like a go kart, responding keenly to your every input (the steering rack is fast) and feeling like the car is pivoting around you.
Pocket-lint
The front of the car is keen to turn in and, generally speaking, sticks like glue to the road thanks to the electronic differential and some sticky Dunlop tyres. It’s perhaps not as keen as some mechanical differential-equipped rivals, and in damp conditions you can provoke understeer – where the front of the car pushes wide of your intended line. There’s fun to be had in lifting the throttle and getting the whole car to tighten its line when this happens, turning you into a corner. Agile is the word that comes to mind – and it’s helped out by the adaptive dampers which were optionally fitted to our test car.
The JCW has stiff suspension, which we suspect might get tiresome on some poorer British roads in its standard form. The adaptive dampers offer adjustability, though, meaning you can have the engine in sports mode, but the dampers in comfort (softer), and they make the ride more than tolerable. It is annoying the dampers are an optional extra though. But at just £240 they aren’t overly pricey and are an extravagance worth having.
Joining in the fun is the sports exhaust system – which is amusingly boisterous. The regular Cooper S Mini will occasionally throw in a pop when you back-off the throttle having revved the engine out. Do the same thing in the JCW and it sounds like someone’s thrown a load of (admittedly quiet) firecrackers out the back. We’ve been talking about this characteristic on a lot of performance cars recently, and remarked that it can get tedious. Somehow, though, it suits the Mini’s character and – because it’s still not hugely loud and doesn’t do a show-off wake-the-neighbours routine at start up from cold – it feels less anti-social overall.
Pocket-lint
One factor we think contributes to the JCW’s go-kart feel is the slick, smooth 6-speed manual gearbox. Mini launched the car with an autobox only option, reckoning more than half of buyers now go for this, but as of the end of last year, you get a manual gearbox as standard. With that autobox a £1,365 option, and definitely removing a level of fun factor from the car, we’d stick with the manual. It’s no hardship.
Mini John Cooper Works review: Mini by name, maxed-out by nature
So, pocket-rock status in-tact, you’ll be wondering how much Mini want for the JCW. This model starts at £23,155. It’s a lot of cash for a small car, but you’re not buying size here – you’re buying a lot of powertrain hardware, a high-quality object and a premium experience.
Nowhere is this more apparent than when you step into the interior, which – like all the new Minis we’ve tested – feels very high quality, particularly in the areas you regularly touch, such as the steering wheel. Materials and finish are up at Audi levels, and the bucket seats, finished in a fetching red and grey Alcantara for the JCW, really set things apart from the other, less powerful Minis.
Pocket-lint
You can get nice and low behind the wheel, which sits in a snug but not tight driving position. It’s those seats that hug you tight in the corners and are very comfortable over long distances.
However, the boot space is still weeny, but you can get a couple of adults in the back of a Mini these days. And if you need more space, Mini offer JCW versions of the 5-door Mini, Clubman and Countryman.
The bigger question is how to keep the purchase price in the £20K bracket. Like all Minis, it’s worryingly easy to drop the best part of £10K on options on the JCW – and indeed our test car had been through just such a process.
So max out to your heart’s content, but if you want the performance but don’t fancy the queasy price tag, what are the must-haves? The good news is that engine, gearbox and most powertrain and chassis-related bits that make the JCW a hoot are standard. The key option our car had was the aforementioned adaptive dampers, at £240.
White or red paint is free, and suits the car great, but our car’s 18-inch wheels are a £740 option. Don’t worry if you don’t fancy them – we’re sure the ride on 17-inch standard wheels would be nicer still. The racing seats are standard, and you can choose how much you want to spend on trimming them in different colours and leather finishes.
One option to add (as ever with any Mini) is the Chili Pack. It’s a chunky £2,400 option, but the good news for those financing their Mini is that it helps residual value, so should only add £30/month or so to the typical deal. It includes the bigger wheels, and the leather/Alcantara seat trim, plus on-board computer, climate control, a lighting pack, auto lights and wipers, and extended stowage.
Pocket-lint
Many will want to add the Media pack too (£1,400), which brings a widescreen sat nav system (from BMW, which works very well), enhanced Bluetooth (streaming, multiple phone connections), and connected services. You can max this outwith the £2,400 tech pack and get all this plus a Harman Kardon sound system, reversing camera and a head up display (HUD), too.
Stick to Chili and Media pack, and you’re looking at a £26,955 Mini John Cooper Works. Yep, it’s not cheap, but then you drive the car and it feels worth it.
Verdict
Mini’s proposition asks you to make a fundamental decision: are you happy disconnecting the price you pay for a car, with how physically big it is? If you’re of the old school view that the fat end of £30K really ought to buy you a very sizeable car that seats five and takes their luggage in comfort, then we suspect you’ve stopped reading well before now.
Because Mini offers BMW technology in a small package that’s beautifully appointed, but not exactly cheap. With the John Cooper Works version, you get all this plus performance to embarrass much bigger cars, which can always put a smile on your face and feels perfectly optimised for British roads.
Is this more fun than a much cheaper Ford Fiesta ST? Does it offer as much value and performance as a far bigger VW Golf R? The objective answer – looking at on-paper figures – is no. And if you’re bothered about the ultimate cost of the car in purchase price or monthly finance deal – or being able to transport you and three friends or family around – then the Mini is probably not the answer either. But despite this, the JCW has terrific appeal – and we suspect many will love it. It’s a more bespoke, special-feeling object than any city car-sized Fiesta, Clio or such. Yet it’s even more fun. And it feels much less like a normal, bland-box than a Golf, too.
We suspect John Cooper (senior) would have been very proud indeed at the way BMW is continuing his legacy. After our week with with the Mini JCW, we’re still smiling about – and missing – the presence of this mini yet mighty car on the driveway.
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