Mayor of London wants a zero-emission transport system by 2050

London mayor Sadiq Khan has a wildly ambitious plan to make the English capital more environmentally friendly. In a draft “Transport Strategy,” which is now subject to public consultation, he suggests making London’s entire transport system zero emission by 2050. That deadline, of course, is a long way off, so Khan has outlined some stepping stones too. He wants all taxis and private hire vehicles to be zero emission “capable” by 2033, followed by buses in 2037 and all remaining road vehicles by 2040. “Transport emissions can blight the streets, harming human health and contributing to climate change now and in the future,” he says.

These measures would help the mayor to establish a “zero emission zone” in central London by 2025, ahead of a larger “inner London” territory by 2040 and a city-wide zone by 2050. “London must meet legal pollution limits as soon as possible,” Khan continues. “This requires an earlier introduction and expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone and making sure public services lead the way. Air quality and climate change are such pressing issues with such dire consequences that London should provide international leadership.” Strong words, especially when the capital’s population is expected to rise from 8.7 million to 10.5 million by 2041.

Khan has a larger vision, however, that involves the British public ditching automobiles altogether. He wants walking, cycling and public transport to make up 80 percent of London journeys by 2041. That’s up from the current total of 64 percent and equates to 3 million fewer car journeys each day. Such a shift would help the public to lead healthier and greener lifestyles, he says, and reduce instances of heart disease and cancer. To aid that transition, Khan is proposing an expanded network of cycle lanes in the city and refreshed ‘Legible London’ maps for pedestrians.

That’s the carrot — now here’s the stick. The Mayor of London says he would keep the city’s congestion charge “under review” and explore new ways to better penalise motorists in the city. One such method would be “new technology,” developed by Transport for London, that could measure distance, time, emissions and road danger for each journey in the city. A single, per mile charge could then be calculated based on these metrics and how the driver has contributed to overall congestion and pollution. “We have to make not using your car the affordable, safest and most convenient option for Londoners going about their daily lives,” he said.

Other measures include “liveable neighbourhoods” and “healthy routes,” which would provide safe, walkable spaces for citizens. The Transport Strategy also mentions car parking restrictions and expanded, secure cycle parking in all new buildings. It’s a big dream, and one that will no doubt be tweaked and reworked in the coming years. Khan is, after all, highly unlikely to be the Mayor of London in 2050. When someone else takes his place, they’ll likely arrive with new ideas about how the English capital can prosper. If you have any feedback about this particular vision, however, you can submit them as part of the consultation before October 2nd.

Source: Mayor of London

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Resigns

Uber founder Travis Kalanick has resigned his position as CEO, following a series of controversies and scandals that have recently dogged the ride hailing company.

Five major investors demanded Kalanick’s immediate resignation on Tuesday in a letter delivered to the chief executive, according to The New York Times. After “long discussions” with some of the investors, Kalanick agreed to step down, but will reportedly stay on Uber’s board and continue to hold the majority of voting shares. Kalanick recently took a leave of absence following the death of his mother.

Kalanick at LeWeb Paris (Image by Adam Tinworth)

“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” Mr. Kalanick said in a statement.

Uber’s board said in a statement that Kalanick had “always put Uber first” and that his resignation would give the company “room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber’s history.” An Uber spokesperson declined to comment further.

The ride-hailing service clearly hopes that news of Kalanick’s resignation will be perceived as a company reboot, as it attempts to revive its tarnished image following multiple controversies over recent months.

Just last month it was revealed that the Department of Justice is investigating Uber over its use of “secret” software that allowed its drivers to operate in areas where the company was banned or restricted. The so-called “greyball” software is said to have allowed the company to identify undercover officials and block them from booking rides, in order to prevent them from proving that Uber was operating illegally.

In April it emerged that Apple CEO Tim Cook threatened to pull Uber’s app from the App Store in early 2015 after discovering that it was secretly “fingerprinting” iPhones that used the app. Uber said it used the identification method to prevent fraud, despite knowing the tactic is a clear violation of Apple’s app privacy guidelines. The revelation came in a New York Times article detailing the ride-hailing service’s history of controversial business tactics.

Tag: Uber
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Swift Creator Chris Lattner Quits Tesla After Only Six Months in the Job

Swift creator Chris Lattner, who left Apple to become vice president of Tesla’s autopilot program, has parted ways with the electric car maker after just six months in the job.

“Chris just wasn’t the right fit for Tesla, and we’ve decided to make a change,” Tesla said Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Lattner followed Tesla’s statement with a post on his Twitter account announcing his interest in available roles for a “seasoned engineering leader”.

The parting of ways will come as a surprise to some observers, given Lattner’s previous standing at Apple and his stated enthusiasm for a new challenge. Back in January, Lattner told MacRumors how much he loved writing code at Apple, and that leaving had been a “very difficult decision” but ultimately he was “ready to move onto something else” and the prospect of working on Tesla’s Autopilot team was “irresistible”.

Turns out that Tesla isn’t a good fit for me after all. I’m interested to hear about interesting roles for a seasoned engineering leader!

— Chris Lattner (@clattner_llvm) 21 June 2017

However, as noted by WSJ, Lattner is just the latest departure in an recent exodus of talent from the program, which has been under increasing pressure from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to develop an autonomous car system, with a company target to demonstrate a car that can drive itself by the end of 2017 inching ever closer.

The program has also faced questions about the safety of the proposed technology, following a fatal crash last year in Florida involving a Tesla equipped with a semiautonomous system, which assists drivers during tasks like steering, braking, and changing lanes.

Lattner’s hiring in January coincided with the departure of Autopilot program director Sterling Anderson. Tesla sued Anderson after he tried to create a competing startup, but the lawsuit was settled in April.

Tag: Tesla
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OnePlus 5 launch: What happened and can I watch it again?

OnePlus has just announced its latest flagship phone. It offers an experience like that of many of today’s flagship smartphones, except – as usual – at a much lower price. 

The phone was unveiled via YouTube and Facebook Live in a fairly low key, roughly one hour long announcement. Here’s everything you need to know about what happened. 

• OnePlus 5 review: The flagship-killer’s coming of age
• OnePlus 5: Release date, hardware specs and everything else you need to know
• OnePlus 5 vs Apple iPhone 7 vs iPhone 7 Plus: What’s the difference?

When was the OnePlus 5 launch event?

The OnePlus 5 launch event took place at 12pm EST (9am PST/5pm BST) on Tuesday 20 June. It was a pre-recorded announcement streamed live internationally. 

In addition, the company will be holding pop-up launch events in many major cities, including London, New York, and Berlin, on 20 June and 21 June. The phone will be shown off to a live audience at each of these events. Check out OnePlus’ website to RSVP your spot.

Can you re-watch the OnePlus 5 event online?

Yes. Here is the OnePlus 5 launch stream, which you can re-watch right here:

What happened at the OnePlus 5 launch?

Unlike most other phone manufacturers, OnePlus only concentrates on building one product at a time. Specifically, this is normally a high-end smartphone that doesn’t cost as much as the competition. This year is no different. Only one device was shown off during the launch event. 

The OnePlus 5 is the latest in this lineup and it features Qualcomm’s most powerful processor yet. This 2.45GHz Snapdragon 835 chip is paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. This chipset isn’t just more powerful, it’s also more efficient than before, as is the type of RAM used. This means you get the same (if not better) performance from the 3,300mAh battery than what was delivered by the OnePlus 3T’s 3,400mAh cell. 

OnePlus

On the back, there’s a dual camera made up of one 16-megapixel f/1.7 camera and a 20-megapixel f/2.6 camera. These combine to produce background blur on portrait mode photos and also enable a quick 2x zoom without losing much detail. It also has EIS (electronic image stabilisation) to reduce blur when you’re moving and shooting. There’s also a new Pro mode, which includes a horizontal reference line and a histogram. 

Like the previous two models, the OnePlus 5 has a 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display, this time coated in Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Undoubtedly one of its best features, however, is the Dash Charge technology which can deliver enough charge in 30 minutes to get you through a full day. 

It’s available in Midnight Black and Slate Gray, with 128GB and 64GB storage respectively. The lower capacity grey model is £449, while the higher spec black model is £499. It’ll be available to buy direct from OnePlus from June 27, and will also be on the high street, through O2’s retail stores. 

Lenovo’s pro workstation is as light as a MacBook Air

It’s not just laptops that are getting downsized thanks to next-gen graphics chips and processors. Lenovo has unveiled a new workstation, the P320 Tiny, with a discreet professional GPU and Intel Core i7 chip, all in a box that weighs the same as a MacBook Air (2.9 pounds). Users won’t be suffering for performance, as it features an Intel Core i7-7700T max CPU, NVIDIA Quadro P600 GPU, up to 32GB of DDR4-2400 RAM and 2TB of maximum storage, via a pair of M.2 SSD slots.

While that won’t give you the pure gaming graphics horsepower of an NVIDIA GTX 1080, users will get a pro-level card that has better compatibility with certain 3D and CAD programs. That’s not to mention the attractive storage and memory options that best most laptops.

Despite the tiny size (1.4 x 7.1 x 7.1-inches) the P320 Tiny also has a surprising number of ports, including six USB 3.0, front audio ports, gigabit ethernet and six, count ’em, display ports (four mini-DisplayPort and two DisplayPort).

Some sacrifices must be made for such a tiny device, and in this case, it’s the fact that the power supply is outside the PC in the form of a brick. However, that still frees up space on the desktop, and the relatively low price makes it a prime candidate for FX, 3D and CAD-oriented companies looking for relatively cheap artist workstations.

The P320 Tiny starts at $800, though the top configuration with the Intel i7-7700T CPU, max 32GB of RAM and maxed out M.2 storage is probably at least double that. Lenovo says the product is available now, but I’m not seeing it yet on its US store.

Source: Lenovo

ZTE Axon 7 Mini: Everything you need to know

Update: The ZTE Axon 7 Mini now has Android 7.1.1.

It wasn’t that long ago that ZTE debuted the Axon 7, a handset that smartly married desirable hardware with an affordable $400 price point. It took on such smartphone juggernauts as Samsung, Apple, LG, and HTC — and against all odds, emerged successful beyond ZTE’s wildest estimations. The Axon 7 has been in and out of stock since June.

That’s helped cement the Beijing, China-based ZTE become a veritable player in the smartphone market. But the company has broader ambitions: It’s angling to rank among the world’s top three smartphone makers by 2020. And it thinks an even cheaper derivative of the Axon, appropriately dubbed the Axon 7 Mini, will hasten it toward that endgame.

ZTE’s is a common enough strategy: Sony has released smaller, midrange smartphones under its “Compact” brand that generally accompany its flagship devices. Samsung, too, has historically released miniaturized versions of its top-end Galaxy phones, as has Huawei. But typically, the “mini” label denotes compromise: Cheaper, smaller companion devices are generally less capable, at least on paper, than their larger counterparts.

In the Axon 7 Mini’s case, though, it’s quite the opposite, and you can read all about why at our full review.

Specs

The ZTE Axon 7 Mini is extremely similar to the original ZTE Axon 7, both in terms of looks and design, and when it comes to the specs under the hood. You’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, which is coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It also has a MicroSD card slot, so you can expand upon the storage if you so choose.

On the back of the phone, you’ll find a 16MP rear-facing camera with an f/1.9 aperture and phase detection autofocus, while the selfie camera sits in at 8MP. The AMOLED display on the phone comes in at 5.2-inches, and has a resolution of 1920 x 1080. The battery capacity sits in at 2,700mAh.

On the software side, the phone has finally been updated to Android 7.1.1 — so users should update their phones, and if you’re thinking of buying this phone rest assured that you will be able to use Android 7.1.1.

Where to buy it

The ZTE Axon 7 Mini can be purchased in the United States through ZTE’s own online store, where it costs $300 and is available in platinum gray. Amazon also sells the Axon 7 Mini for $300.

A gold version is exclusive to Best Buy during its first couple months of availability, where it’s normally priced at $300. However, between December 4 and December 10, Best Buy will sell the gold Axon 7 Mini for only $200, or the platinum grey version for $250. We’d call this an absolute steal, so if you’re already tempted by the Axon 7 Mini, don’t wait to pick one up.

In the United Kingdom, Carphone Warehouse carries the gold Axon 7 Mini exclusively, where it’s sold for 250 British pounds without a contract, or for free with a 24-month contract that starts at 17.50 British pounds per month.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick has stepped down as CEO

Why it matters to you

The company will now be intent on steering a steadier course following months of criticism.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick has resigned as CEO of the ride-hailing company.

Kalanick decided to step down on Tuesday night following intense pressure from five major investors, the NY Times reported.

News of the 40-year-old founder’s departure follows mounting criticism over the way the company has been conducting its business, and comes just a few days after the funeral of his mother who died in a boating accident at the end of last month.

It’s believed that Kalanick will stay on as a member of Uber’s board of directors. It’s not clear at this stage who will lead the company.

In a statement seen by the NY Times, Kalanick said: “I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight.”

According to reports, Kalanick’s decision followed a revolt among shareholders who told him earlier on Tuesday that new leadership was required for the company to move forward.

Kalanick, who founded Uber in 2009, reportedly received the demand by letter while in Chicago. After several hours of discussions, he finally agreed to leave the top job.

While Uber has always faced plenty of criticism about how it conducts its business, matters appeared to take a turn for the worse earlier this year when a former employee made allegations of a company culture where sexual harassment and gender discrimination was rife.

Keen to clean up its act, the company conducted an investigation into its workplace practices, which culminated in the firing of 20 employees and the release of a report last week that recommended Kalanick play less of a major role in the business.

In response to the report, Uber’s founder began an indefinite leave of absence before finally resigning on Tuesday.

Besides concerns about its workplace culture, the company is also embroiled in a legal battle with Google spin-off Waymo over the alleged theft of autonomous-car tech. It’s also facing a probe by the Department of Justice following accusations that it used secret technology to hide its vehicles from officials in some cities where attempts were being made to cut down on the service.

Uber’s investors will be hoping new leadership will set the company on a steadier course free of controversy, and we’ll update this article as soon as we hear more about how it plans to move forward.

Flic Hub takes Shortcut Labs’ smart button to a new level by bypassing phones

Why it matters to you

Flic buttons turn any home into a smart home. The new Flic Hub allows those smart features to be accessed by anyone within the home.

Earlier this year, Shortcut Labs released the Flic smart button. It’s a “do anything” button that allows users to control the apps on their phone at the simple touch of a button. Now, it’s taking the idea a step further with the Flic Hub.

By connecting with up to 64 Flic buttons, the Flic Hub is designed to discreetly add complex online functionality within the home or workplace. Previously, the buttons needed to work through a smartphone, but the Hub completely bypasses phones. This allows multiple users to use the buttons for a variety of activities such as turning on smart lights like the Philips Hue, placing a food order, or controlling the music.

Within the smart home industry, the most successful innovations are ones that are easy to use regardless of how tech savvy someone is. With the Flic Hub, the whole family can operate the buttons even when the user’s phone is not present. Through a combination of single, long, or double presses, Flic buttons can control just about any smart device. Smart lights can be switched on or off. Buttons can connect to Spotify,  and Samsung Multiroom, Sonos, or Bose Soundtouch audio systems to control music around the house. Flic can also be used to control heating, order pizza, as a doorbell, and much more. If there’s an app for it, chances are it can be accessed with the Flic button.

“We’re seeing real momentum behind the smart home movement and there’s a defined and clear opportunity in establishing the smart workplace, too,” says Flic co-founder Pranav Kosuri. “The Flic Hub is designed to take all the elements that make the Flic button so great — its ease of use, simplicity and time-saving qualities — and completely untether people from their phones with their everyday tasks to make them more accessible regardless of age or technical ability.”

In the workplace, Flic Hub brings even more convenience. In a restaurant, it can be used by customers to order a beer or request the bill. At a care facility, patients can easily call for help or dim the lights on their own.

You can preorder the Flic Hub through its IndieGoGO campaign starting today. Prices start at $49, with shipments expected in October.

OnePlus 5 accused of cheating in benchmarks, Carl Pei responds

XDA accuses OnePlus 5 of manipulating benchmark scores to gain a 5% performance boost.

Earlier this year, the folks at XDA Developers found that the OnePlus 3T and Meizu Pro 6 Plus were cheating at benchmarks, activating a “performance” mode as soon as a bnechmark test was initialized to eke out a favorable score on testing apps like GeekBench.

With the OnePlus 5 now official, the company is once again under fire, with XDA claiming that units that have been sent out to reviewers manipulate benchmark scores.

With the OnePlus 3T, the company specifically targeted benchmark apps, boosting the CPU frequency when it detected that a particular benchmark was running:

Last time around, OnePlus introduced changes to the behavior of their ROM whenever it detected a benchmark application was opened. Such application names were explicitly listed by their package IDs within the ROM in a manifest that specified the targets.

Then, the ROM would alter the frequency in relation to an adjusted CPU load — our tools showed CPU load would drop to 0% regardless of obvious activity within the application, and the CPU would see a near-minimum frequency of 1.29GHz in the big cores and 0.98GHz in the little cores.

The publication notes that time time around, the cheating is much more “blatant:”

The OnePlus 5, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast — it resorts to the kind of obvious, calculated cheating mechanisms we saw in flagships in the early days of Android, an approach that is clearly intended to maximize scores in the most misleading fashion.

While there are no governor switches when a user enters a benchmark (at least, we can’t seem to see that’s the case), the minimum frequency of the little cluster jumps to the maximum frequency as seen under performance governors. All little cores are affected and kept at 1.9GHz, and it is through this cheat that OnePlus achieves some of the highest GeekBench 4 scores of a Snapdragon 835 to date.

XDA’s OnePlus 5 unit scored 6,700 in GeekBench’s multi-core benchmark, which is slightly more than the 6,653 posted by our Xiaomi Mi 6, which is also running a Snapdragon 835. The publication says that with the cheating mechanism enabled, OnePlus is able to eke out a 5% uptick in performance in the multi-core benchmark on average.

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei weighed in on the issue on Reddit, stating that the OnePlus 5 treats benchmarks the same way it does resource-intensive games:

We have made it so that when running benchmark apps, the phone performs the same as when running resource intensive apps such as 3D games. We also fully activate our chipset in other parts of OxygenOS, for instance when launching apps to make the launch experience faster and smoother.

We are not making it easier for the chipset to perform, for instance by changing to a lower resolution when detecting a benchmark app. We are not changing the performance of our chipset, for instance by overclocking it.

When users run benchmark apps, which I agree aren’t a useful proxy for real life performance, we believe that they want to see the full potential of their device without interference from tampering. That’s what we’ve unlocked.

Every OEM has proprietary performance profiles for their devices, I appreciate that we have a tech enthusiastic following, but feel free to have a look around. 🙂

OnePlus will have the same build available on consumer devices, with Pei noting that anything otherwise would in fact be considered cheating. With the Snapdragon 835 running full-tilt during intensive games, there is a likelihood of the phone overheating, to which Pei said that the OnePlus 5 will “turn itself off before it gets too hot,” and that it has better thermal management from previous generations.

The fact that OnePlus has been caught gaming benchmarks for a second time is disappointing, particularly when there’s absolutely no need to do so. Even without artificially-inflated benchmark scores, the OnePlus 5 is one of the fastest devices available in the market today.

And although a small number of users continue rely on benchmarks for purchasing decisions, synthetic benchmarks aren’t an accurate representation of a device’s real-world performance. As our own Andrew Martonik noted in the Android Central review of the OnePlus 5, the phone is fantastic:

The OnePlus 5 is fantastically fast and smooth in everything I use a smartphone for, right on par with my experience using a Google Pixel XL for several months now. And based on how smooth my OnePlus 3 and 3T have been over time, I don’t expect this experience to slow down in the future.

What’s your take on the latest OnePlus 5 scandal? Are you convinced by OnePlus’ explanation? Let us know in the comments below.

OnePlus 5

• Complete OnePlus 5 review
• Reviewing our first OnePlus 5 photos
• OnePlus 5 vs. OnePlus 3: Should you upgrade?
• OnePlus 5 specs
• The latest OnePlus 5 news
• Join the discussion in the forums

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The OnePlus 5 will be available exclusively from O2 in the UK

OnePlus has just announced the OnePlus 5, which we’ve given a full five-star review. The phone offers many flagship specs and features, including a dual camera, but for a fraction of the price of its competitors.

• OnePlus 5 review: The flagship-killer’s coming of age

If you want to get yourself OnePlus’ latest device, you can either head to the company’s own website, or head down to your local O2 store or to the website, as the high-street retailer will be the exclusive stockist in the UK.

O2 will be stocking both the Slate Grey version with 64GB of storage, or the Midnight Black version with 128GB. Both are available to pre-order now and anyone who does so in the first week will get 30GB of data with their tariff and a £9.99 upfront cost. The 64GB model will cost £49/month while the 128GB will be £51.

O2 will be also be hosting a series of in-store events at its Birmingham Bullring, Oxford Street and Manchester Arndale stores on 22, 23 and 24 June respectively. At these events, customers will be able to get hands-on with the new phone, receive support, win goodies and enter a competition to win a OnePlus 5.

OnePlus 3T owners on an O2 Refresh tariff will be pleased to know they can pay off the remainder of the phone section of their plan to trade up to the OnePlus 5. O2 will even give up to £80 to anyone who trades their OnePlus 3T in.

Magnus McDonald, Director of Product and Category Management at O2 said: “As the only high street retailer in the UK to sell the OnePlus 5, we’re proud to be continuing our relationship with OnePlus and bringing our customers OnePlus 5”,

“Demand for the OnePlus devices has exceeded all our expectations and we’re excited to see how successful our partnership with OnePlus can be as we continue to move forward”.