Twist crams most of the world into a single charging adapter

An all-in-one travel charger for your mobile tech.

Travelling to another country and realizing that single travel charger you brought isn’t nearly enough for your phone and watch and tablet may be the ultimate First World Problem to some, but the truth is travelling with multiple international chargers quickly fills your travel bag. UK chargers are much larger than US chargers, for example, and the adapters don’t help a ton.

Twist is an interesting new solution that is especially useful for anyone who travels between multiple power systems, but it’s also not bad if all you want is a good 4-port USB charger.

The concept is fairly simple. You have a big white barrel capable of outputting 20W/4A across 4 USB ports, with a twisting mechanism in the center that allows you to switch between US, Europe, and UK charging pins. You can also tweak the US charging pins so they match the Australian format.

The only thing stopping me from using this every day is how big it is compared to a traditional US charging adapter, but it’s absolutely earned a spot in my travel bag due to how light and simple it is.

For $40 on Amazon, you’re getting what you pay for. This is a little more expensive than some of the manual 2-port adapters, which is to be expected. It’s unlikely to be something you use every day, but as someone who travels with a lot of USB tech this is a welcomed way to save space in my bag.

See on Amazon

ICYMI: Crowdsourcing the space poop problem

Today on In Case You Missed It: NASA and HeroX are asking for help from the public to try to create a bathroom that can be used for up to six days, inside space suits. Previously astronauts have worn diapers during missions in space suits, but that’s only a short-term solution that won’t work for the US goal to get to Mars. You can read more about the request here.

Meanwhile, we took a deep dive into physics with the news about a far-off star’s magnetic field and how it may have proven the theory of Quantum electrodynamics. If you’re interested in the first art installation created in space, you can find out more here. The Russian resupply mission that failed is here.

Whatever you do, tell your tech friends about the Internet Archive’s efforts to duplicate itself, just in case something goes terribly wrong with the Trump Administration. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

ESA will fund ExoMars 2020 despite Schiaparelli’s demise

The ExoMars mission will live on despite the Schiaparelli’s lander unfortunate mishap. At a meeting in Switzerland, European Space Agency’s member countries have agreed to set aside €436 million ($464 million) to make ExoMars 2020 a reality. That’s the second part of the mission that arrived on Mars this year, and it aims to land a rover on the red planet in 2021 to drill into the Martian surface and extract samples from various depths.

The agency has loads of work ahead, especially since Schiaparelli was designed to demonstrate and test out the rover’s landing system. As you know, it unfortunately crashed before touching down and even went missing for a while. Jan Worner, ESA’s director general, says he’s very confident his team can do it. “We need to work hard because it’s not only some rover, we have the payloads from different sources — all of this has to pack together. It’s not an easy thing, but we are confident that we will succeed.”

According to TechCrunch, $362 million will come from both ESA and its mission partner Roscosmos, but the European agency has to provide the remaining amount. As a result, ESA had to cancel one of its projects: the Asteroid Impact Mission, which was supposed to slam probes against an asteroid to see what would happen.

Via: TechCrunch, New Scientist

Source: ESA (1), (2)

Six amazing all-electric motorcycles

Zero-emissions cars are popping up left and right, but motorcycle design has been a little late to the game. Yet, all-electric motorcycles and are zooming down the streets in increasing numbers. With varying engine sizes, charging times and driving ranges, each new electric motorcycle that hits the market offers something unique. From far-out futuristic designs that look like something Batman would ride to bikes that could have driven off a Star Wars set, cutting-edge electric motorcycles have broken the early trend that suggested EVs ought to look like dorkier versions of their fossil fuel counterparts. Other electric motorcycles target ambitious performance standards — from blistering top speeds to longer driving ranges and even some fun features like built-in LED effects.

BMW Motorrad VISION NEXT 100

Leave it to BMW to create an electric motorcycle fit for the world’s most popular superhero. The self-balancing BMW Motorrad VISION NEXT 100 is an all-electric, zero emissions ride that looks like it was designed for Batman himself than your average biker, with a sleek, matte black frame and futuristic style. Unveiled last month in Los Angeles, BMW’s newest electric motorcycle features a triangular design similar to the luxury automaker’s previous bikes, but this time it is comprised mostly of carbon fiber and polished aluminum. The Motorrad’s ability to stand on its own aids in the ride’s stability and safety — BMW is even suggesting that riders can go without a helmet. While we wouldn’t recommend that approach, BMW created a smart visor for the rider to wear, which replaces both the windshield and rearview mirrors while enabling the rider to access navigational data and other information on bike performance.

AP Works Light Rider

The world’s first 3D-printed electric motorcycle came hot off the presses earlier this year. Light Rider was created by APWorks, a subsidiary of Airbus, and the fully electric bike boasts a 37-mile range and a top speed of 50 miles per hour. The prototype sports a frame that looks more akin to an alien skeleton than a standard cycle, and it weighs only 13 pounds — around 30 percent less than the average e-bike. With the motor and all its wiring hidden inside the casing, this bike looks like something straight out of a science fiction film. Only 50 of these futuristic high-end bikes will be created, and each will be sold for a whopping $56,000.

Concept Honda Chopper

A few years back, someone created a concept motorcycle that would get the attention of any Stormtrooper in its vicinity. The Honda Chopper stems from the mind of designer Peter Norris, who typically works in video games. The Chopper concept calls for a different approach to motorcycling, and Honda seems like the carmaker that might be able to get away with a launch of something this wild. With electric motors mounted right on the wheels, the Chopper has a lower center of gravity than the standard motorcycle, which lends to its stability and handling. No word on whether Honda R&D is actually considering production on such a thing, but the concept is pretty intriguing.

Johammer J1

The Johammer J1 electric motorcycle has promised to do what none before could deliver: 125 miles of all-electric range on a single charge. The bike is able to exceed the energy storage capacity of the average e-bike thanks to a larger, enclosed compartment for its larger batteries. Manufactured in small quantities in Austria, the Johammer J1 runs on high-density batteries created specifically for this all-electric cycle. The e-bike initially sold for $31,860.

Voxan Wattman

Upon its release in 2013, the Voxan Wattman was known as the world’s most powerful electric motorcycle, thanks to its 12.8kWh battery pack. The all-electric motorcycle can go from zero to 60 mph in a mere 3.4 seconds for a quick, emissions-free getaway. Perhaps one of its best features, though, is that the battery can be fully charged in about half an hour – and that gives the bike a range of around 111 miles. Launched as a concept bike, the Voxan Wattman was primed to take on the motorcycle market, but the company dropped the project after it was plagued by a host of complications.

The Tron Lightcycle

In 2011 Parker Brothers Choppers created the Lightcycle: an all-electric motorcycle that doubles as a moving light show. Outfitted with an array of LEDs, the Lightcycle is capable of traveling as fast as 100mph and has a 100-mile driving range after just 35 minutes of charging time — but its makers insist that isn’t the point. The motorcycle’s contoured frame and wheels are all lined with glowing LEDs, which accent its hardened steel frame, and a carbon fiber and fiberglass body. Driving an emissions-free chopper like this at night would be a sure-fire attention-getter in any urban environment.

Final Fantasy XV review: An unmitigated treat for RPG-lovers

Dragging a revered games franchise into a 21st century landscape of open-worlds and instant action must be a thankless, even scary task – particularly when that franchise emerged in the late 1980s, hit its peak in the 1990s and had as its centrepiece a turn-based battle system.

But that’s precisely what Square Enix has attempted with Final Fantasy XV – generally known as FFXV – and near-miraculously, it has come up with an exemplary reinvention of the role-playing classic.

In common with modern RPG peers like the Witcher and Elder Scrolls games, Final Fantasy XV boasts an open-world (which is huge and packed with activities and side-quests), as well as a real-time battle system (although there’s an unnecessary sop to those forever wedded to turn-based systems of yore in the form of Wait Mode, which lets you pause the action and plan your approach).

FFXV review: What’s the story?

But the best news is that it does all that without also jettisoning Final Fantasy’s unique and very Japanese vibe. And a potentially confusing one if you don’t know the ins and outs of what Final Fantasy is all about.

• Final Fantasy XV: Everything you need to know

Final Fantasy XV’s action starts in Insomnia, capital of Lucis in the world of Eos. You play Prince Noctis, heir to the throne of Lucis, preparing to embark on a carefree road-trip in order to hook up with his betrothed, Lady Lunafreya of Tenebrae, which will end in their marriage and cement a peace treaty with the Empire of Niflheim.

Noctis jumps in his flash royal car, the Regalia, with his three mates Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto. Gladiolus provides the muscle, the British-accented Ignis likes to cook, and Prompto is a keen photographer.

But soon, the slightly brattish foursome face a rude awakening: the Empire launches an attack on Insomnia, killing Noctis’s dad King Regis and stealing the Crystal, which is an incredibly powerful artefact placed under the care of the Kings of Lucis.

A massive, rambling quest ensues in which Noctis acquires his kingly powers, engages in various skirmishes with the Empire and its leading characters (who at times – suspiciously – appear to offer assistance to Noctis’s party) and overcomes countless hurdles as he attempts to make his way to the island city of Altissia.

Square Enix

That’s where Lunafreya awaits with the ring that will power up the Crystal and will perform a dangerous mission designed to bring Noctis the blessing of one of Eos’s six gods. From there, fully powered up, he will head to Niflheim and take on the Empire.

FFXV review: Missions, side quests and Chocobo

Story-wise, Final Fantasy XV offers everything that Final Fantasy devotees crave: its narrative is convoluted, full of twists, turns and changes of pace. It’s a modern epic.

Plus this time around, there’s a ridiculous wealth of things to do away from the main storyline. Including classic RPG dungeoneering, as Noctis battles through to tombs containing weapons that only a Lucian king can wield, as well as more mundane tasks such as bounty hunts and fishing.

Square Enix

If you want, you can jump on a Chocobo and ride randomly around the countryside, or carry out quests for people you meet in the game’s various cities.

FFXV review: Turn based or real-time battle?

Final Fantasy XV’s battle system, too, preserves the DNA of equivalents from old Final Fantasy games, yet for the first time feels sufficiently modern to avoid alienating those weaned on the likes of The Witcher.

Noctis has four weapon-slots, and switching between weapons is key. His special kingly weapons consume HP when he uses them, so it’s sensible to equip him with one normal weapon, so he can also wield magic in the form of elemental flasks (which basically operate as freezing, electrifying or flaming grenades).

Square Enix

When taking on groups of enemies, you can simply hold down the attack button and cycle through enemies, switching weapons for chain-effects, and carefully avoiding incoming attacks with a side-stepping Guard move. Or you can take a more carefully timed approach with your button-presses.

Manoeuvring yourself to get behind enemies under attack from another party-member brings a damage boost, and you can trigger special attacks from party members once you’ve been fighting for a while and a bar powers up.

But Noctis’s key attack is his Warp-strike, which allows him to teleport to designated points, then fly in with a devastating blow. You can also cycle from enemy to enemy with Warp-strikes, and the technique offers a great means of recovering from damage yet still delivering frequent major attacks.

A way into the game, Noctis acquires another attack which brings all of his kingly weapons into play at once, but it takes a long time to charge up, so you generally preserve it for key moments, such as finishing off bosses.

Square Enix

The battle system may sound complex, but in practice, it isn’t especially so. It’s certainly more understandable than Final Fantasy’s old turn-based systems, and leaves you feeling much more in control. When you nail a string of attacks, it’s vastly satisfying, and using all the attacks of which your party is capable at the right times requires a pretty strategic approach.

FFXV review: Skills tree

Elsewhere, Final Fantasy XV impresses in many ways. Eos looks amazing – the Venice-like Altissia, for example, has benefitted from some stunning environmental design – and it’s a classic fantasy-world, full of endearing little quirks, lore and surprises.

Square Enix

You can set the Regalia to drive automatically from point to point (or fast-travel at the cost of a few Gil, the game’s currency). You can even shop for crucial potions while driving. Chocobo are constantly available to rent, and Noctis’s fishing mini-game is pretty tidy. Camping at designated sites is rewarded too: you can only level-up when resting, and Ignis cooks status-boosting meals.

You also earn Ascension Points (AP) with which to buy new skills and uprated stats for the entire party: the skills tree is absolutely massive, but sufficiently well organised that you soon get to grips with it.

As Final Fantasy XV moves towards its climax, the chapters become shorter and opportunities to meander around off the beaten track become fewer, but the narrative compensates by becoming ever more epic.

Square Enix

By any standards, Final Fantasy XV is a very long game – even if you speed-run just the main elements, you’re looking at well over 20 hours of gameplay, and the cornucopia of side-missions and quests available easily doubles that. Like all the best open-world RPGs, it’s the ideal winter game, in which to immerse yourself for weeks rather than venturing outside into the real world.

FFXV review: The perfect modern version?

To argue that Final Fantasy XV is perfect, mind, would be idiotic. Firstly, there will be those who stubbornly prefer the format of older iterations; secondly it has flaws which never quite become deal-breakers, but which do sometimes niggle.

In the more manic battles you sometimes have to work the camera furiously (particularly when seeking a Warp-point), and occasionally the cut-scenes and dialogue lapse into tweeness (a common failing of Japanese games). One of the later boss-battles, too, is surprisingly lame (although plenty of others are satisfyingly tricky and exhausting).

Square Enix

There’s a slightly baggy feel to its open-world at times, too, as you often find in games with a lot of underlying systems churning away. Plus we found the odd glitch, such as a feedback loop when Ignis was trying to turn the Regalia around and got stuck against a barrier, necessitating reverting to the last save (frequent saves are a must).

But there’s nothing you feel you can’t live with given the game’s ambition and scale.

Verdict

It’s fair to say that Final Fantasy XV had a rather troubled inception. It was first trailed in 2006, as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and originally mooted for the PlayStation 3. Yep, all that time ago. 

Then Square Enix decided FFXV would become the basket into which it would put all its eggs and, a full decade later, it finally emerges as an instalment of the franchise which has the tools, lore and heft to inspire similar devotion to the likes of the classic Final Fantasy VII.

FFXV also leaves Final Fantasy, as a franchise, utterly refreshed and ready to do battle with rival RPGs in the future. For Square Enix, it represents the biggest punt in the company’s history. But that punt has paid off. For FFXV is an unmitigated treat for RPG-lovers.

Apple Tells NHTSA That Companies Entering Auto Industry Should Get the Same Rights As Establishment

Last week, Apple wrote a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration telling it that “new entrants” to the auto industry should get the same rights as the established companies in the industry, reports Venture Beat.

Apple points out that established car manufacturers do not have to pursue exemptions to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards when attempting to test cars on public roads due to the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. New entrants in the auto industry, like Google and others, are not granted the same right under the FAST Act.

The Cupertino company argues that the best way to maximize safety benefits for autonomous vehicles, ensure fair competition and encourage innovation is for the NHTSA to amend policy to state that seeking exemptions isn’t necessary for internal development vehicles on public roads.

The other half of the letter, which is dated November 22, addresses the Federal Automated Vehicles policy and a proposed data sharing program. “Apple agrees that companies should share de-identified scenario and dynamics data from crashes and near-misses,” the letter says. “Data should be sufficient to reconstruct the event, including time-series of vehicle kinematics and characteristics of the roadway and objects.” Apple also points out that data sharing should not come at the expense of privacy, and that companies should invest resources to protect the “individuals’ fundamental right to privacy.”

In October, it was reported that Apple was abandoning its car plans “for now.” After numerous layoffs and reassignments, the remaining members of the Apple Car team were said to be focusing on autonomous systems. Dozens of employees are also working on a car operating system in Canada. The letter was signed by Apple VP of Product Integrity Steve Kenner, who used to be Ford’s Global Director of Automotive Safety. It’s not known when Kenner joined Apple, as his LinkedIn still lists Ford as his employer.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
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