Red Cross Land Rover Discovery can dispatch a drone to save lives

Jaguar Land Rover has announced a bespoke version of its Land Rover Discovery vehicle designed to help save lives. The Project Hero edition has been made for the Austrian Red Cross and can even dispatch a search and rescue drone from its roof.

The drone and vehicle combined are finely tuned to reduce response times to disasters. The drone is roof-mounted and comes with a fully integrated landing system. It features self-centring and magnetic retention technology that enables the quadcopter to land on the Land Rover even when it is moving.

It also has a camera so live footage can be sent to emergency response teams, aiding in the advent of landslides, earthquakes, floods and avalanches. The teams can view a disaster from a safe distance before deciding what action is needed.

• Range Rover Velar: A tech packed 4×4 for a new generation

“Project Hero is the optimum combination of enhanced capability and innovative technology. We hope to help the Red Cross save lives in emergency situations,” said John Edwards, Jaguar Land Rover’s special operations managing director.

The vehicle itself is based on the 3.0-litre engine version of the latest Discovery. Other enhancements include a heavy-duty sliding floor in the rear load space, a segregation panel behind the rear seats, LED lighting to aid night vision and power supply points that can accept multi-regional plugs.

Project hero is also equipped with multiple frequency radio equipment.

Nintendo is back! Switch sells faster than SNES, N64 and Wii

After the dismal sales performance of the Wii U, many speculated that it could be the demise of Nintendo as a hardware manufacturer. But while these are still early days, initial sales reports of the Nintendo Switch point to the opposite.

It is claimed that the first weekend sales of the Switch are better than any other console in the Japanese gaming giant’s history.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is also the biggest selling launch game, even beating Super Mario 64. Bundled games, such as Wii Sports and Nintendo Land, don’t count.

• Nintendo Switch review: Return of the king?
• Nintendo Switch: Price, specs and everything you need to know
• All the Nintendo Switch games: Launch titles and every game for 2017 revealed

The claims come from New York Times journalist Nick Wingfield, who tweeted that he received information during an interview with US Nintendo boss Reggie Fils-Aime. They are based on North American sales and, as Wingfield said, are more notable because the “Switch launched in March, rather than [the] holidays”.

2. Fri-Sat sales for Nintendo Switch exceeded first 2-day sales in Americas for any system in Nintendo history. Next biggest was Wii.

— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017

It didn’t quite break Nintendo’s UK record for first two days sales though, which is still held by the Wii, but the company did sell 80,000 Switch consoles in the country, twice as many as Wii Us in the same time period.

Zelda was also outperformed in the first week of sales by PS4 hit Horizon Zero Dawn. However, Zelda only officially came out on Friday 3 March, Horizon had the previous four days to register additional sales.

We’ve had a few false dawns for Nintendo consoles in the past, after all, the GameCube did well initially, but considering the critical response to the hardware and amazing reviews for Breath of the Wild – ours included – things are definitely heading in the right direction.

Dell XPS 15 (2017) review: The best 15-inch laptop in its class

Windows laptops have a bit of an identity problem. Everyone knows about MacBooks, but a lot of people who ask us for advice don’t even know where to start when looking to Windows after seeing the latest MacBook prices.

The Dell XPS 15 is that place to start. It has a solid claim to the title of “ultimate Windows 10 laptop”, with a large screen, decent gaming chops and a design that – while a bit more serious than Apple’s style – has a luxury edge.

Is this near-bezel-free laptop the ultimate choice?

Dell XPS 15 review: Design

• Small footprint relative to screen size thanks to InfinityEdge
• Aluminium lid with carbon fibre-reinforced keyboard surround
• 2kg weight, 17mm thickness

There’s just one reason to be put off: despite being one of the smallest 15-inch laptops going, we wouldn’t want to carry this particular XPS around every day.

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If you’re after that kind of portability, take a look at the Dell XPS 13 instead. The larger 15-inch laptop’s main aim is to give you the sort of power that makes having another computer completely unnecessary. Unless you want to play The Witcher 3 at 60fps with all the graphics maxed.

The design of the 2017 version of the XPS 15 is just like that of the one we reviewed last year. It’s smooth anodised aluminium on the top and bottom, but carbon fibre-reinforced plastic inside.

This is what gives it that more business-y edge, although the carbon fibre finish does have a kind of pinstripe-suit glamour to it.

The other part that tells you this isn’t a laptop for people who just want to watch cat videos while pretending to work is its size. At 2kg and 36cm wide, the Dell XPS 15 is not that slight or light.

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However, it is slim and light given what is packed inside. The big selling point of the XPS 15’s style is that is fits a 15.6-inch screen into an unusually narrow frame, because there’s barely any screen bezel surround. As a result the camera ends up below the screen (which a bit odd) but when even most of the retirees we know moved over to using video calls on their phone years ago, it’s no biggie.

The Dell XPS 15 ends up an inch narrower and an inch less tall than something like the HP Envy 15. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but this takes the bulk factor away from full-size laptops.

While Dell is trying to modernise the traditional laptop, it hasn’t done so with any gimmicks. The hinge opens to a normal extent rather than flipping all the way around (there is the XPS 2-in-1 if that’s your thing), and only the top-end version has a touchscreen.

The XPS 15’s connections list reads like a greatest hits of all the sockets we’re after in a laptop too. There are two USB 3.0s, a full-size HDMI, full-size SD card slot and one of the newer USB-C 3.1 plugs that just about no new laptop in 2017 should be without (not that many of us will have the capacity to use it for a while).

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There’s also a Kensington security port and a little five-LED indicator that tells you the battery level when you press the button beside it. If you want mote connectors, Dell sells a desktop dock too.

Dell XPS 15 review: Display

• IPS LCD with 1080p and 4K resolution options
• 4K version has a touchscreen and advanced colour
• Pro-grade colour customisation (4K model)

Back to the more interesting stuff: Dell sent us the very top-end version of the XPS 15, the one with a 4K-resolution screen. It’s so sharp you have too get uncomfortably close to see even a hint of pixellation.

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What really sets the XPS 15 apart from its rivals, though, is the quality of colour. This display has pro-grade colour saturation, the kind you might see in monitors that cost almost as much as this laptop.

Fresh out of the box this makes tones look incredibly vivid – flat-out oversaturated to the eyes of screen snobs. However, a little app called Dell PremierColor lets you change this too.

You can calibrate the XPS 15’s screen to a whole host of colour standards: DCI-P3, sRGB, Rec.709, Rec.601 and Adobe RGB. Don’t worry if you don’t know what they all mean as you can flick through them all in about 10 seconds to see which you like the look of the most. For those tuning to certain TV standards, however, that’s a big benefit for precision purposes.

This deep-diving into colour profiles means the Dell XPS 15 is one of the few laptops design and photography pros should consider.

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The display contrast isn’t quite as good as the colour, as you can see the black level isn’t perfect from about 50 per cent brightness and up, but it’s still solid. And while the display is glossy, it can go bright enough to use outdoors.

Dell XPS 15 review: Performance

• Quad-core Intel Core i7 or i5 CPU
• 2133MHz DDR4 RAM
• SSD storage up to 1TB

What cements the Dell XPS 15 as something that could be used by those with serious computing needs is the power available on tap. Most popular laptops these days have Intel Core CPUs, but the dual-core U-series kind. These are great little chipsets, but have nothing like the power of a desktop processor.

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Our Dell XPS 15 has an Intel Core i7-7700HQ, which is a quad-core CPU. That doesn’t just mean it’s twice the power either, as these HQ-series brains are able to draw up to three times the power of the dual-core Core i7.

It’s simply a lot, lot more powerful than anything significantly slimmer. You might not notice the difference if all you’re going to do is write emails and noodle about online, but those who, for example, edit video for a living (or as a hobby) will appreciate this extra grunt.

Dell tricked-out our review sample with a massive 32GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive, the sort of spec you’d have to spend serious cash to get hold of. We’ll have to presume the lower-spec SSDs will be of the same quality because this one is incredibly fast, reading data at over 3,000MB/s.

The XPS 15 is also one of the best-looking, and quietest, laptops capable of some proper gaming. It has an GTX 1050 graphics card inside, which is an entry-level model in the current Nvidia series lineup.

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You won’t be able to play many games in 4K on this thing, but it can handle console-grade ones at 1080p with the settings cut down to around mid level. In other words, don’t buy it just for gaming, but it’s a great sweetener if you like the to play the odd game on your downtime.

Given how powerful the Dell XPS 15 is, it’s almost bizarrely quiet. Most quad-core laptops emit an obvious whir no matter what you do, but this one is virtually silent until you make it do something taxing. And even then it’s still pretty quiet.

Dell XPS 15 review: Battery life, keyboard and trackpad

• 56Wh battery for up to 6.5 hour normal use
• Stereo speakers

It’s a masterfully-made machine, with battery life being yet more proof of this. You might expect a laptop like this to last five hours between charges, tops. However, we’ve had it last six and a half hours without trying.

Sure, this doesn’t set any records, and won’t get you through a full day’s work. But remember the XPS 15’s CPU is designed to use a lot more power than the chipsets of the skinny and light kind that might last eight or nine hours. Plus it has a 4K screen. And discrete graphics. All things considered, it’s good stamina.

The battery life indicator on the side comes in extra-handy given you probably want to make sure there’s enough in the tank before you leave the house/office.

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Dell has essentially kept all the good bits from last year’s model, but updated some of the parts inside. For example, the keyboard is still a bit like a MacBook one before MacBook keyboards were squashed with a 1,000-tonne weight, and the trackpad is an incredibly smooth rectangle of textured glass. There’s nothing too exciting going on in either of those: no fingerprint scanners or pressure-sensing extras, but both parts are a pleasure to use.

The trackpad isn’t floaty feeling, while the keyboard is well-defined without making much noise as you type. As you’d hope given the price, the keyboard has a backlight too. It can be set to two different intensity levels.

Finally, the speakers don’t let the Dell XPS 15 down either, although they don’t set any new standards. They have a full-warm tone, for laptop speakers, but their treble could do with a little more zing.

Verdict

In the last few years laptops have polarised. We see plenty of high-end gaming laptops that will give you back-ache if you carry them around for too long, and a lot of ultra-slim ones that trade away some power for portability.

The premium 15-inch laptop is a rare specimen, and the Dell XPS 15 is the best you can get right now in this category. It’s cheaper than a MacBook but has the same quality of parts at its core.

If you’re after a laptop that can do pretty much anything and don’t need the slimmest, lightest machine in the world, then you’ve found it right here in the XPS 15.

Alternatives to consider…

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Apple MacBook 15

We don’t know many people who bought one recently, but the MacBook Pro 15 lives on. The version closest to the XPS 15 we’ve reviewed is the one with the OLED touch bar, which starts at £2,349. It’s incredibly expensive, and has a graphics card worse than the Dell. But if you have piles of money lying around it’s still undeniably lovely.

Read the full review: MacBook Pro with Touch Bar review: A touch of brilliance or totally brainless?

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Asus ZenBook UX501

As we write this, Asus hasn’t yet updated the UX501 to feature Intel’s 7th gen processors, so for a cut price 15-inch option this is a safe bet. Sure, the Asus doesn’t have the advanced design of the XPS – it’s bigger, bulkier and has a much more reflective screen – but it’s a decent laptop all-rounder and has a smart brushed aluminium finish, too.

Read the full review: Asus ZenBook UX501 review: Plenty of pros with a handful of lows

New York Times reporters’ tweets will appear in its paper edition

The pages just inside the print edition of The New York Times had previously been used to list corrections and article summaries for later stories. Last week, the newspaper announced a shakeup that redesigned A2 and A3 into landing pages featuring noteworthy facts from the day’s stories, historical headlines from the paper’s past and behind-the-scenes looks at its journalistic endeavors. But the new front section will also include a first for the Gray Lady: Featuring its reporters’ tweets in newsprint.

The paper’s intro section will also spotlight the most popular online posts, but including tweets is about more than relaxing the walls between the newspaper’s digital and tangible versions. It’s showing that tomorrow’s stories are broken right now on Twitter — and that the NYT reporters’ accounts are part extensions of the paper, part outlets in their own right.

As Recode points out, reporters like the organization’s White House correspondent Maggie Haberman are augmenting their own coverage and even publishing stories that don’t appear in print, online or in the NYT app. Eventually, those tweets will likely find their way into the latter formats. For now, they’ll pop up on A2 and A3 alongside other tantalizing snippets enticing you deeper into that day’s edition of the paper of record.

Via: Recode

Source: The New York Times (press release)

A San Francisco startup 3D printed a whole house in 24 hours

San Francisco-based startup Apis Cor built a whole house in a Russian town within 24 hours. It didn’t repair an existing home or use prefabricated parts to make that happen — its technology’s secret lies in 3D printing. The company used a mobile 3D printer to print out the house’s concrete walls, partitions and building envelope. Workers had to manually paint it and install the roofing materials, wiring, hydro-acoustic and thermal insulation, but even those didn’t take them that much time.

The result is a 400-square-foot house that’s around as big as a standard hotel room. It’s no mansion, but it could be a good choice for people who prefer tiny homes. Apis Cor says the whole house set it back $10,134, with the door and windows eating up the largest part of the budget. That sounds about right for a tiny home, though that amount doesn’t seem to including the cost of the land itself.

The company has uploaded a video of the process you can watch below. It even shows what the interior looks like with appliances, including a curved TV that fits the house’s curved wall, provided by Samsung. If Apis Cor does start 3D printing houses, owners can choose any shape they want and even choose to make one larger than this compact abode.

Via: The Daily Dot

Source: Apis Cor

Apple Pay Launches in Ireland for KBC, Ulster Bank and Boon Customers

Apple Pay became available in Ireland this morning, marking the 14th country to accept Apple’s payments service.

Visa and MasterCard holders that bank with KBC and Ulster Bank can use Apple Pay in the country, and the service also works with the Boon prepay system. Apple Pay is available to all customers with an iPhone SE, 6, 6s, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, or an iPhone 5 or later when paired with the Apple Watch.

Apple Pay can also be used within apps and on the web with an eligible iPhone, iPad, or MacBook Pro with Touch ID. Apple Pay can be set up using the Wallet app on all supported devices.

Participating retailers in Ireland include Aldi, Amber Oil, Applegreen, Boots, Burger King, Centra, Dunnes Stores, Harvey Norman, Lidl, Marks and Spencers, PostPoint, SuperValu, and more, with a full list of participating retailers available on the Ireland Apple Pay website.

Along with Ireland, Apple Pay is available in U.S., UK, China, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, and Spain.

Taiwan is next on the list to get Apple Pay, with seven banks in the country having recently obtained permission from the Financial Supervisory Commission to offer the payments service.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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Apple Adds Apple Pay Details to Italian Website Ahead of Launch

Apple has updated its Italian website with an Apple Pay page, confirming its introduction in the country is close at hand.

Last month, Apple added complete translations of Apple Pay support documents to its Italian and German regional websites, indicating the launch of the mobile payment system in those countries is just a matter of time.

Today, for Italy at least, that launch appears one step closer, with the “arriving soon” web page listing UniCredit, Boon, and Carrefour Banca as participating banks.

Also today, Apple Pay launched in Ireland, making it the 14th country to accept Apple’s mobile payments service.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Italy
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Android Pay is now live in Belgium

Android Pay is slowly becoming available in more markets around the world.

Google has rolled out Android Pay in Belgium, making it the tenth country in the world to receive the digital payments service. Belgian users will be able to pay at over 85,000 retail locations with Android Pay, including Carrefour, McDonald’s, Media Markt, H&M, and more. The service also allows customers to checkout within apps, and is supported by Fancy, Uber, Deliveroo, TransferWise, Hotel Tonight, Vueling, and more.

To get started, you’ll need to add a Visa or MasterCard credit card from BNP Paribas Fortis, Fintro, or Hello bank!, with Google stating that debit cards will be supported shortly along with CBC/KBC cards. Android Pay is available on all phones running Android 4.4 KitKat and above, and relies on NFC for payments. If you have a qualifying credit card, you can get started with Android Pay by downloading the app from the Play Store.

Sonos Debuts New ‘PLAYBASE’ Home Theater Speaker

Sonos today announced the PLAYBASE, its newest speaker designed for home theater sound systems. According to Sonos, the PLAYBASE is a thin, powerful speaker that sits under a television set to offer enhanced sound for TV shows, music, and movies.

The PLAYBASE measures in at just 58mm tall, but it includes 10 drivers (six mid-range, three tweeters, and one woofer) for what Sonos says is great sound. Design wise, it’s meant to meld into a home’s decor, with a polycarbonate body that features clean lines, no visible seams, and 43,000 holes for a transparent grill.

“We have built a product that can not only handle the complexities of home theater – delivering open and natural sound, clear dialogue, and immersive bass that fills the room – but also fits perfectly in any home environment,” said Giles Martin, Sound Experience Leader at Sonos. “The challenge with PLAYBASE was upholding the desire for it to be beautiful from all angles without compromising any of our design, acoustics or engineering principles. We were obsessive in our approach and decisions, resisting every urge to pack anything in here that wasn’t needed, and custom built everything else to find the perfect fit – it’s our thinnest, most beautiful speaker yet.”

PLAYBASE is specifically meant to be used with TVs that sit on furniture rather than those that are wall mounted. It includes two cords and connects to other Sonos speakers for a whole house sound solution. Like all Sonos products, it can be used with more than 80 music services.

Sonos will begin selling the PLAYBASE on April 4, 2017. It will be priced at $699 and it will be available in black or white to match any home decor. Existing Sonos owners will be able to pre-order the PLAYBASE starting today.
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Sonos PlayBase preview: Super-slim sound

Sonos doesn’t launch a new product every month, or even every year, but when it does, they always seem to be worth the wait. Enter its latest speaker, the PlayBase, which joins the PlayBar in the home theatre line-up.

The PlayBase is designed to slide underneath your TV rather than mount on the wall like the PlayBar and it’s a beautiful looking device. Here are our first impressions.

Sonos PlayBase preview: Design

Sonos has some fabulous speakers in its portfolio, especially the newer ones, but the new PlayBase is by far the sleekest of the lot.

The PlayBase measures 720 x 380mm and it is just 58mm high, making it the slimmest speaker offered by Sonos. The company said the aim was to allow it to “disappear into the home” and the new device certainly achieves this with no unnecessary details.

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The top of the PlayBase is smooth to touch, and super flat, allowing for a TV and its stand to sit firmly on top, while the rounded corners of the PlayBase give an overall softer and consequently lovely finish.

There are no apparent joins anywhere on the PlayBase, delivering a seamless look with clean lines that makes the speaker seem as though it has been created from a single sheet of material.

All the internals are wrapped within a glass-filled polycarbonate exterior to ensure vibrations are kept to a minimum and the speaker can withstand the weight of TVs up to 34kgs, but despite being plastic, it really doesn’t look it. Instead, the PlayBase has a premium and considered finish that would fit in most homes.

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Like the redesigned Play:5, the PlayBase has capacitive touch controls at the top and the Sonos tag is positioned at the front of the speaker in the centre within the acoustically transparent grille. This grille is made up of over 43,000 holes (apparently, we didn’t count) and like the Play:5, the Sonos tag also has very small holes drilled into it to ensure the sound isn’t compromised.

The grille also features a staggered pattern in order to hide the internals of the PlayBase better, while the holes of the grille are five different sizes from the front to the sides of the PlayBase to allow for better ventilation of the woofer.

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At the left of the PlayBase is the pairing button, while the rear has the connection ports in an inset moulded section, hiding the power cables as much as possible. There is an Ethernet port, optical audio input and a power supply at the rear, with the PlayBase requiring a broadband connection, power and a TV with optical audio output in order to work. Yes, like the Playbar there is no HDMI which some might not be overly thrilled about.

The PlayBase is available in black and white colour options, like the Play:5, Play:1 and the SUB, but our favourite is definitely the white as the PlayBase’s design details are more apparent on the lighter option and therefore more striking, presenting the attention to detail put into the design of this new device.

• Sonos PlayBar review

Sonos PlayBase preview: Features

The Sonos PlayBase connects to the Sonos platform wirelessly, like the rest of the Sonos line up. This means you’ll be able to control it via the Sonos app, or select partner apps, like Spotify, and you’ll have access to over 80 music services.

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It also means that you’ll also be able to control PlayBase using your voice later in 2017 when Amazon Alexa compatibility appears, though Sonos has yet to detail an exact date for this feature.

As the PlayBase is a TV speaker as well as another Sonos multi-room speaker though, you’ll also be able to control volume via your TV remote and it will send TV sound to other Sonos speakers in your setup. For example, you could group your Play:5 in the kitchen to the PlayBase in your living room in order to hear the football or Strictly Come Dancing while cooking.

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The Sonos PlayBase also has the same features as the PlayBar, including Dialogue Enhancement, which enhances vocal clarity and Night Mode, which tones down the bass during loud action scenes. The PlayBase is also compatible with Trueplay, which is a software feature that adjusts the sound of the speaker to the specifics of the room.

• What is Sonos Trueplay and how does it work?

Sonos PlayBase preview: Sound quality 

The Sonos PlayBase features ten class-D digital amplifiers, along with a ten-driver speaker system comprising six mid-range drivers, three tweeters and one woofer, all of which have been custom designed for the PlayBase.

Sonos claims the result is a sound stage that is much wider than the speaker itself, which our experience suggested was indeed the case. We heard the PlayBase on its own, as well as in a 5:1 setup with a SUB and two Play:1’s and both were very impressive.

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Naturally, there is more significant bass when the SUB is involved but the PlayBase is more than capable on its own, filling the room with sound. We listened to a Beyonce track, a Radiohead track and an unproduced track and the ranges were clear on all three, with excellent sound and good bass.

We also watched the Jungle Book to test the home theatre capabilities rather than just the speaker functionality and the dialogue was very natural and crisp. A clear distinction between the crickets and the child in one particular scene could also be heard, despite them having a very similar frequency.

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We will of course test the PlayBase in a less controlled environment when we have it in for review, but based on our first experience with it, we were impressed with it in both music speaker terms and as a home theatre speaker.

• Sonos tips and tricks: Get the most out of your multi-room system

First Impressions

The Sonos PlayBase is a beautifully designed speaker that offers an option for those that don’t have the luxury of a wall-mounted TV, or for those that would rather have their TV on furniture.

It delivers excellent sound quality from our initial experience with it and it looks fabulous thanks to its super-slim body and seamless finish.

It isn’t the cheapest sound base on the market and the decision to use optical instead of HDMI is certainly questionable, but the PlayBase has the advantage of being part of the Sonos system, allowing those who already have speakers to gain the full package.

The PlayBase is a have your cake and eat it kind of speaker, being both a music speaker and a TV speaker and in terms of design, it blows the Playbar away. In fact, we might consider taking our TV back off the wall. We will bring you our full review in the next couple of months.

• Which Sonos speaker is best for you?