Alfa Romeo Giulia (2017) review: An Alfa that doesn’t do clichés

There is a saying that, to be a true car fan, you must have owned an Alfa Romeo. But a Mito, and a Giulietta (the extent of Alfa’s range until now) hardly represent petrol-head nirvana. For Alfa fans, the Giulia has been a long time coming.

Its predecessor, the 159, went out of production in 2011. That car looked like a true Alfa, particularly from head-on. But a contemporary BMW 3-Series drove rings around it and was just better for everyday life. Most people bought a car from Germany instead.

The Giulia is different. After a dozen false dawns, one look down this car’s spec sheet is all you need to see that there might be reasons to choose this Alfa over the competition. Its rear wheel drive and technical setup suggests that it has been designed precisely to steal back those customers from BMW, who love driving and want something with a soul.

Given affection for Alfa, if the Giulia looks right and drives well, then it will find favour. That’s code for saying it’ll be forgiven other flaws. So has Alfa finally done it? Do the Alfisti have the modern car of their dreams?

Alfa Romeo Giulia (2017) review: A super chassis

For many years, if you wanted the car that’s fun to drive in this sector, you bought a BMW 3-Series. But in its current guise, the 3-Series’s star is slightly dulled. It needs optional adaptive dampers to shine, and can sometimes feel a little inert. Audi’s A4 prioritises comfort over dynamics. The Mercedes C-class is a curious mixed bag which sits somewhere between the two. Jaguar’s XE currently leads the class for dynamics.

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Which is good news for Alfa. Because having clearly studied the 3-Series recipe, Alfa’s engineers have produced a gem of a chassis. Our car was fitted with the Q2 differential as part of a performance pack, which nets adaptive dampers. You pay extra for these and we have no way of assessing how a Giulia without them might perform. But with them? The Giulia tops the class to drive.

It is a lot of fun to hurl around a twisty road. It is dominated by its rear axle, feeling very rear-wheel drive, but without snapping into oversteer every second corner. Traction is impressive, too.

The responsive 2.0-litre petrol engine and huge, Ferrari-like steering wheel paddles make the 8-speed automatic gearbox a joy to interact with. It feels keen. Alive with spirit. Italian.

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The Giulia’s ride is standout for its cosseting quality and those special dampers keeping body control well in check. The structure feels very stiff; it doesn’t flex around on a challenging road. And while the steering is spookily light at first, with a few miles of familiarity you realise it’s perfectly good – its quickness takes some getting used to, but it is what makes the Alfa feel so alert and keen to change direction.

So what’s the catch? Well, there isn’t one. We never expected to write this, but for the drive from Ribblehead up through Hawes and then down into Nidderdale (you should try it), we’d take a Giulia over an XE, 3-Series, A4 or C-Class. Bravo Alfa.

Alfa Romeo Giulia Super (200hp) review: Losing its distinction?

Having fixed the drive – the aspect of the experience that’s in recent years always been Alfa’s weak link – you’d expect the rest of this review to be full of lazy clichés about beautiful body work, suspect quality and dubious dealers. Hold your horses, though, because the rest of the Giulia picture isn’t quite as straight forward or perfect.

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It starts with the design. There is a tendency to hear the words “Alfa Romeo” and immediately think “beauty”. But while you wouldn’t call the Giulia ugly, get beyond the deep Alfa shield grille that crowns this car’s face and the Giulia isn’t actually that great a piece of car design. Cover the badge up, and it lacks distinction. Park a BMW 3-Series next to it, and you’ll be under no illusion which car Alfa’s designers were trying to steal customers away from. Dimensionally and in proportions, the Giulia is an almost exact 3-Series match.

The face of the car is slightly bizarre, with the lamps plonked in space, long and creating a bird-like face, pinching the surfaces surrounding them and with no real link to Alfas past – nor presenting a naked expression of high-technology likes an Audi does. The surfaces are soft, they lack tension or the sense of motion you’d expect in an Alfa, too. You may believe that beauty sits in the eye of the beholder, but we think that it’s a shame Alfa has lost its distinct, strong saloon look that both 156 and 159 embodied. No car designer we’ve spoken to rates this design.

Alfa Romeo Giulia (2017) review: Interior success

But step inside the Giulia and things improve, markedly. The interior has much greater distinction than the exterior. The neat integration of the display screen into the dashboard, the high quality (optional) tan leather of our test car and the driver’s seat going really low all create a positive impression. The driving position is fine, too. What did we say about it not all being Alfa clichés, eh?

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It’s not perfect though. Details are a weak point: the gear-lever appears to be a cheap knock-off of BMW’s design; the indicator stalks appear taken from a Fiat Tipo; and the infotainment system is a crib of BMW-meets-Mercedes (this isn’t a bad thing, however).

Then you thumb the steering-wheel mounted starter button and curl your fingers around the leather wheel, feel the glorious aluminium paddles that wouldn’t look out of place in a Ferrari and you think, yes, this car does actually feel special.

Alfa Romeo Giulia (2017) review: Doing enough?

But this isn’t all about emotion. Many of us still want an Alfa, right up to the point where we’re walking into the BMW or Audi dealership to sign up to one of their cars, because we know it makes more sense and think they’re just a less risky, more reliable choice.

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But the little things that used to make people take against Italian cars are mostly gone in the Giulia. The driving position is absolutely fine. The steering wheel adjusts up and down, and in and out. The centre tunnel doesn’t intrude into your leg space or badly offset the pedals. The boot is about the same size as a Jaguar XE’s. There’s space in the back for adults, plus car seats fit in. And in our week with it nothing went wrong or fell off (we had to mention it, because there will be plenty of readers wondering).

But it serves as a point to say that the Giulia has quite clearly been given a significant amount of developmental love, and while there are one or two iffy details and finishes, that’s true of its competitors too. And there is little here that we can see the sensibly minded taking against, or becoming significant reasons to avoid buying a Giulia.

A word on options here. Alfa is learning from the Germans, to such an extent that – like most test cars we get from BMW, Audi and Merc – this Giulia had over £10K worth of options thrown at it. Aside from the aforementioned Performance Pack for the drive (£1,950), the Lusso pack (a chunky £2,750) feels like the most significant, because of how much it contributes to the nice interior feel. It brings the full leather seats and wheel, dashboard and door caps, a choice of walnut or (as our car) silverwood dash inlays, heated seats, and a 7-inch digital cluster display.

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Options on our car that we could probably live without include the driver assistance pack (£950; rear camera, auto highbeam, blind spot detection), yellow brake callipers, run-flat tyres, and Harmon Kardon audio. But the Climate Pack (£250) gets you extra vents, air-con glovebox and usefully nets you two extra USB ports. And the 18-inch wheels should be standard, but you’ll need to find £750 for these. Be careful in the options list, as the Giulia isn’t cheap. At least you can get Alfa Red for free, although our car’s Montecarlo Blue paint scheme (£650) does suit the car.

Alfa Romeo Giulia (2017) review: The right tech approach

But Alfa has really cleaned up its act and nowhere is this better exemplified than in the Giulia’s approach to in-car tech implementation.

Up until now, Alfa’s interfaces have been slot-in jobs supplied by TomTom and typically just flat-out painful to use. Now, the Alfa and its suppliers have developed a system which works in much the same way as BMW iDrive. The 8.8-inch U-connect display also has a few of the elements of Mercedes-Benz Comand thrown in too, and is controlled by a rotary knob next to the gear-shifter. It’s fair to say that if you’re used to either BMW, Merc or Audi MMI systems that you’ll feel right at home in the Giulia.

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The system could use a little more colour, but the menu layout, the clarity of phrasing and labelling and the steps you go through to connect a phone or programme the sat-nav are similar to others at this level. Once you’re familiar with the rotary controller’s nudge left-right and up-down, scroll around, and press down methods, it’s very easy to use.

Media connectivity for Spotify and Apple music both worked fine and the Giulia didn’t lead us down farm tracks or send us off on strange routes. What’s more, it was quick to respond and never froze during our week with it.

We applaud Alfa for moving away from the touch-screen route, as this system’s far safer to use on the move.

Alfa Romeo Giulia (2017) review: A true Alfa at heart?

The one element we’ve deliberately avoided up to this point is the engine. Our Giulia came equipped with a newly developed, 2.0 turbo-petrol engine, producing 200hp. It sits in the range alongside two 2.2-litre diesels (one making 150hp, the other 180hp) and a just-launching 280hp petrol Veloce model. There’s the scorching 510hp QV, too, which is a different beast altogether.

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An Alfa’s engine is its heart, responsible for much of the emotion of the drive. And unfortunately this petrol engine isn’t one of the company’s greats, in terms of stirring your emotions or creating sounds to thrill you.

Where it has winning quality is in its responsiveness. For a turbo-charged engine it is very lag-free and keen to respond to throttle inputs. And while it’s a pale character compared to a Busso or even a T-spark of old, compared to other contemporary four-cylinder turbos, it is not without a voice – emitting a subtle rasp as you climb through 3,000rpm.

It’s quick, too. It feels very good for its 200hp, and a 0-60mph time of 6.6 seconds is really respectable.

What it’s not (indeed the Giulia isn’t in general) is particularly refined. It’s on a par with a 3-Series, but a significant way behind the new Audi A4. And our most significant disappointment with this engine centres on how strangled it feels in the upper rev range, notable because Alfas are supposed to be cars you enjoy revving. But there’s not much enjoyment to a rev-limit that cuts in softly, as you reach 6,000rpm.

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We achieved fuel economy in the low 20mpg range, perhaps accounted for by the fact we were bound to the city and thrashes out into the country during our week with it. On a motorway run, expect better returns, as the 8-speed auto gearbox means the Giulia cruises at low revs.

Verdict

There are numerous ways we can judge the Giulia. Its development team had a thankless task, because everyone who cares passionately about the brand, has a view on what a new Alfa should be.

From our perspective, it is a true Alfa because it is a car to be frustrated by, and thrilled by, too. But this time, the frustrations are small enough to live with. If you’re a company car buyer, you can also discount our petrol engine whinges because you’ll probably be buying a diesel anyway.

And if there is a true surprise, it is this. Here is a modern Alfa that you can genuinely buy with your head, on merit. Many won’t even consider it based on the company’s past reputation, which is a shame because Alfa now has a car capable of standing toe-to-toe with highly evolved German premium brand competition. Whisper it, but the Giulia even outpoints them in some areas, including critically, the way it drives down a winding road. We wish it looked more distinct, but for the most part, we’re pleased to say, welcome back to the game, Alfa Romeo.

China’s ‘elevated’ bus was a scam after all

Remember that Chinese public transit experiment running an elevated bus over 300 meters of track along a major roadway? Unfortunately, the test site started gathering dust as “financial problems” and other suspicious setbacks reportedly set in months after the oddball vehicle’s unveiling. But now it’s official: Chinese authorities believe the whole thing was a scam and have started investigating (and arresting) accordingly.

Yesterday, Beijing police announced they’d opened an investigation for alleged illegal fundraising into the folks behind the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB), as it was called. They’re holding over 30 people connected to the capital-raising platform Huaying Kailai, which raised funds from individual investors for the bus. The police are attempting to recover funds from the firm; According to the Southern Metropolis Daily paper, 72 investors have filed suit against the company, which raised 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) by October 2016, two months after the bus’ publicized test debut in the port city of Qinghuangdao.

Suspicions had already been raised even by last year’s end. The design firm Autek was still owed millions for its work on the bus, while the test track laid dormant months after its August 31st permit deadline, after which TEB was supposed to pack it up to clear the roadway. Last week, the port city’s government decided it had had enough and ordered the tracks demolished and the test bus moved to a nearby parking garage. It seems the dream of an odd elevated bus-tram gliding over commuter traffic is likely at a final, actual end.

Via: The Verge

Source: Quartz

Tech Hunters: How the Walkman changed the way we listen to music

Today, billions of people have access to portable music, mostly thanks to smartphones. The world’s music catalog is at our fingertips thanks to Spotify, Apple and Amazon’s online store, but it’s not always been that easy. It wasn’t until 1979 that music lovers could finally get their hands on a true portable player: the Sony Walkman.

Even though Sony wasn’t the first to introduce magnetic cassette technology, the Walkman was the device that made it popular. The introduction of the Sony Walkman TPS-L2 allowed consumers to carry their pre-recorded tapes — which were normally bound to car stereos or home music centres — and place them inside a stylish 14 ounce, bluish-silver player with big buttons that could be strapped to their belt.

Initially, Sony believed it could sell 5,000 units a month, but it smashed all expectations by shifting more than 50,000 in the first two. Fast forward to 2010 and the Japanese electronics giant had sold 200 million of the things, with cassettes easily surpassing vinyl record sales on the way.

Although the Walkman brand is still alive today, thanks to an updated range of digital music players, it was at its most popular in the 80s and 90s (so much so that the word “Walkman” entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1986). It’s a design classic that revolutionised the world of music, at least until Steve Jobs reinterpreted it for the modern age. Julia Hardy hits the audio highway to find out what a good Walkman can cost now.

Tech Hunters is a 10-part video series that uncovers the devices we were once obsessed with, looking at how they disrupted the tech industry, and what they’re worth today. From the pocket pet obsession with the original Tamagotchi, to mix-tapes and Sony Walkman, Tech Hunters explores the audio, visual, interactive and transport innovations that have shaped today’s culture.

Upcoming Moto Mod could add a 360-degree camera to your phone

Motorola’s Moto Z Mods have quite a bit of promise to turn your phone into pretty much anything, including a gamepad, a walkie-talkie, and even a mobile Alexa station. The company has been pushing these pretty hard lately, holding hackathons that produced some pretty innovative add-ons and promising at least 12 of these new peripherals each year. At a small event in Ghana, West Africa, Motorola showed off a few new Mods, including a 360-degree camera, two Marshall-branded audio Mods and a DirecTV Mod, which seems to come with a Chromecast-like HDMI stick to plug into your HDTV. The presentation also included a DSLR Mod, along with a rotatable, GoPro-style action cam Mod.

Motorola Mods attach with magnets to phones in the Moto Z family, like the slim Z2 Play. You simply attach any Mod to the phone to get the specialized features. Current Mods include battery packs, JBL SoundBoost speakers, micro-projectors and cameras. As for the new peripherals, Motorola declined to comment. We can only assume that the Mods shown off at the Ghana event are still at the conceptual stage since the only physical Mod in the spokesperson’s hand was the 360-degree camera Mod. Still, that 360-degree camera and attachable DSLR module look pretty great; maybe they will make their way to retail here in the US soon.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: TechDroider

What’s on TV: ‘Castlevania,’ ‘Snowfall,’ ‘Candy Crush’

It’s a holiday week, but if you’re up from people setting off fireworks early, you can check out six new comedy specials on Netflix Tuesday morning as part of The Standups, with Deon Cole, Beth Stelling, Nate Bargatze, Dan Soder, Nikki Glaser, and Fortune Feimster. Then, later this week the service drops season one of its animated Castlevania series, as well as the most recent season of CW’s iZombie. FX is premiering Snowfall, its crack cocaine era drama from John Singleton, while Hulu drops season one of Pure. The most unusual debut, however, is probably the new Candy Crush game show on CBS. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• The Boss Baby (VOD)
• iZombie (S3), Netflix (7/5)
• Song to Song (4K)
• Drone
• The Zookeeper’s Wife
• Pompeii
• The Comedian
• An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
• The Boy and the Beast
• Windows
• Lego Worlds: Classic Space Pack DLC (PC, Xbox One, PS4)
• SpeedRunners (PS4)
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Absolution DLC (PS4)
• ACA NeoGeo Metal Slug 2 (Switch)
• Toby: The Secret Mine (PS4)
• Shephy (Switch)
• Save the Ninja Clan (PS4)
• That’s You (PS4)

Tuesday

• The Standups (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Casual, Hulu, 3AM
• The Words that Built America, HBO, 7PM
• Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, NBC, 8PM

Wednesday

• Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
• Little Big Shots, NBC, 8PM
• Kingdom, DirecTV Audience, 8PM
• Hood Adjacent with James Davis, Comedy Central, 9PM
• The Carmichael Show, NBC, 9PM
• Snowfall (series premiere), FX, 10PM
• The Auto Firm with Alex Vega (series premiere), Velocity, 10PM
• Blood Drive, Syfy, 10PM
• To Tell the Truth, ABC, 10PM
• Lip Sync Battle, Spike TV, 9:30 & 10PM
• The Ultimate Fighter, FS1, 10PM
• Catfish, MTV, 10PM
• Younger, TV Land, 10PM
• Cleverman, Sundance, 10PM
• Broadchurch, BBC America, 10PM

Thursday

• Boy Band, ABC, 8PM
• Hollywood Game Night, NBC, 8PM
• Battle of the Network Stars, ABC, 9PM
• Big Brother, CBS, 9PM
• The Wall, NBC, 9PM
• The Tunnel, PBS, 9PM
• The Ultimate Fighter: Finale weigh-in, Fox Sports 1, 10PM
• Zoo, CBS, 10PM
• The Mist, Spike TV, 10PM
• The Night Shift, NBC, 10PM
• The Gong Show, ABC, 10PM
• Queen of the South, USA, 10PM
• Party Legends, Viceland, 10:30PM
• Comedy Knockout, TruTV, 11PM

Friday

• Castlevania (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Degrassi: Next Class (S4), Netflix, 3AM
• Pure (S1), Hulu, 3AM
• Cirque Du Soleil: Luna Petunia (S2), Netflix, 3AM
• Killjoys, Syfy, 8PM
• Masters of Illusion, CW, 8PM
• The Ultimate Fighter (season finale), Fox sports 1,9PM
• Erik Griffin: The Ugly Truth, Showtime 9PM
• Dark Matter, Syfy, 9PM
• Wynonna Earp, Syfy, 10PM
• Playing House, USA, 11 & 11:30PM

Saturday

• Doubt, CBS, 8 & 9PM
• Turn, AMC, 9PM
• In an Instant, ABC, 9PM
• Orphan Black, BBC America, 10PM
• Tour de Pharmacy, HBO, 10PM

Sunday

• F1 Austrian GP, CNBC, 7:30AM
• SW17 – Sharktacular 2017, Discover, 8PM
• Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
• Celebrity Family Feud, ABC, 8PM
• Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, 8PM
• Candy Crush (series premiere), CBS, 9PM
• The Defiant Ones (series premiere), HBO, 9PM
• Power, Starz, 9PM
• Claws, TNT, 9PM
• Grantchester, PBS, 9PM
• American Grit, Fox, 9PM
• Fear the Walking Dead (summer finale), AMC, 9PM
• The Nineties (series premiere), CNN, 9PM
• One Night Only: Alec Baldwin, Spike TV, 9PM
• Unsung: Wyclef (season premiere), TV One, 9PM
• Talking Dead, AMC, 10PM
• Prime Suspect (season finale), PBS, 10PM
• Kevin Hart Presents, Comedy Central, 11PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM
• Talking Dead: Fear Edition (summer finale), AMC, 11PM
• Legends of Chamberlain Heights, Comedy Central, 11:30PM

(All times listed are ET)

SpaceX’s capsule ‘re-flight’ is a space travel milestone

SpaceX just took one step closer to making reusable private spacecraft seem entirely ordinary. The company has confirmed that its previously used Dragon capsule splashed down on the morning of July 3rd, making it the first commercial spacecraft to re-fly to and from the International Space Station. There wasn’t a lot of drama involved (the biggest challenge was getting the vessel into orbit), but that’s arguably the point — it’s supposed to be a non-event.

The achievement is promising for the space industry at large. When companies like SpaceX can reuse both rockets and capsules, that promises to dramatically lower the cost of each mission. They can fly more often, or accomplish missions without straining tight government budgets.

And that’s a good thing for NASA, since it virtually depends on SpaceX for ISS supply missions like this. The Dragon is the only resupply spacecraft that can return a healthy amount of cargo to terra firma, and NASA probably doesn’t want to pay through the nose just to recover experiments in a timely fashion. This latest flight is bringing back studies on how microgravity affects the heart and stem cells, as well as research into a drug that can overcome bone loss for astronauts. Lower-cost flights could enable more of these experiments, or at least help justify their existence.

Good splashdown of Dragon confirmed—completing first re-flight of a commercial spacecraft to and from the @Space_Station.

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 3, 2017

Source: SpaceX (Twitter)

Tencent tackles mobile game addiction with time limits for kids

In the face of public pressure, Chinese internet giant Tencent is limiting play time for younger users of its hit mobile game Honor of Kings (dubbed Strike of Kings in the west). Starting Tuesday, anyone under 12 will be restricted to one hour of play per day, and those between 12 to 18 will be allowed two hours game time.

The controls are being put in place to appease teachers and parents, who are concerned about how addictive the game has become. Kings has become a smash hit since launching in 2015, and is now China’s most popular game, with 163 million monthly users, as of May. Of that figure, Reuters claims that around a quarter — 40.1 million — are under 19.

Gaming and internet addictions have long been hot topics in Asia. In 2014, HBO documentary Love Child tackled the subject by examining the case of a South Korean couple whose addiction to an MMORPG resulted in the death of their infant daughter. Additionally, both China and Japan have set up respective detox boot camps to treat web addiction among teens.

Earlier this year, Tencent implemented real-name registration for Kings’ users to prevent kids circumventing its rules. The company also set up an anti-addiction system that would ban players who spent too much time in the game.

Tencent is the leading mobile games developer in China, where the industry is expected to rake in $14.6 billion in revenue this year. The Chinese conglomerate made approximately RMB 10.7 billion ($1.55 billion) from mobile games in the fourth quarter of 2016, thanks in part to its purchase of Supercell, maker of Clash of Clans.

Source: EyeShenzhen

Windows 10’s ‘Timeline’ feature won’t arrive this fall

Microsoft’s anticipated Timeline Windows feature won’t be included in the Fall Creators Update. Timeline, revealed at Microsoft’s Build developer conference in May, was expected to be a part of the update, but Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore said today that wouldn’t be the case.

Like Apple’s Handoff, Timeline lets users pick up work where they left off from different devices. Start a project on your laptop and you can finish it on your phone without any file-transferring hassle. But unlike Handoff, which is limited to Apple devices, Timeline will let users switch between Windows 10, iOS and Android devices.

In a tweet, Belfiore said that Timeline definitely wouldn’t be in the Fall Creators Update, but that Microsoft was planning for the feature to be included in insider builds shortly afterwards. He went on to add that it wasn’t delayed, it just wasn’t ready in time and that timing had never been specified at Build.

Correct. Timeline won’t be in the Fall Creators Update. We’re planning for it to be in early insider builds shortly after FCU is out.

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) July 3, 2017

The Fall Creators Update is expected to begin rolling out in September. The Windows 10 feature update is expected next March.

Via: The Verge

Source: Joe Belfiore (Twitter)

Pain-free patch uses dissolving microneedles to deliver your yearly flu shot

Why it matters to you

Microneedle patch is a pain-free alternative to needle-and-syringe immunization, that can also be used anywhere.

There are plenty of reasons why needle-and-syringe immunization isn’t great — ranging from the difficulty of self-administering it to, well, the fact that some people hate being stuck in the arm with a sharp bit of metal. Fortunately, it seems like the folks at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have come to much the same conclusion. With these issues in mind, they’ve developed a new experimental Band-Aid-sized flu patch that could one day replace your annual flu shot by way of dissolving microneedles.

“Collaborators at GA Tech have been working on a microneedle patch (MNP) for vaccine delivery for many years,” Dr. Nadine Rouphael, professor at the Emory University School of Medicine and first author of the study, told Digital Trends. “The microneedles are tiny and dissolve within the superficial layers of the skin. The goal of the technology is to be safe, effectively deliver vaccines, and be simple to use.”

In a trial of 100 patients, the pain-free patch was concluded to be safe for use in humans, while also carrying out its use case of generating the right antibody response to fight flu. In the aftermath, more than 70 percent of patch recipients said they’d prefer a patch-based vaccination to a traditional injection, or even a nasal spray, when getting future vaccinations.

The fact that the patch can be used anywhere is one of the things that makes it so exciting. In the recent study, a subgroup of subjects had to administer the vaccine themselves, and were easily able to do so. Considering that the World Health Organization estimates that between 250,000 and 500,000 people die from influenza each year, a technology like this could help treat people who might otherwise not travel into a flu clinic for whatever reason.

“Since the MNP completely dissolve, leaving no sharp waste behind, and does not require refrigeration, it makes it very attractive for self administration outside healthcare settings,” Rouphael said.

Next up, Rouphael said the goal is to carry out studies in different populations and different vaccines. “This summer Micron Biomedical — the manufacturer of the patch — and Emory University will be conducting MNP placebo studies in kids,” she said. “Micron Biomedical, GA Tech and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), with funds from the Gates and Melinda Foundations, will [also] be testing the patch for measles, rubella, and inactivated polio in 2018 to 2019.”

Between this and the various early warning technologies researchers have come up for tracking the spread of flu, hopefully we’re getting closer to being able to avoid the sneaky influenza virus whenever it rears its ugly head.

Reader poll: How are you keeping your gaming PC cool?

As we swing fully into the summer months, the weather is starting to heat up, and that makes cooling a gaming PC trickier than normal. Intake fans are pulling in warmer air than they’re used to, and may even be pushing your room up to above-average temperatures thanks to formidable exhaust. We’re struggling with the same issues in our homes and test lab, so we’re wondering how you keep your PC cool when it starts to heat up outside.

How are you keeping your gaming PC cool during the summer?

— Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) July 3, 2017

The first option is also one of the simplest. More fans, or better fans, can often mean better airflow, although that isn’t always true. Your case may not have enough intake vents to actually experience a noticeable reduction in operating temperatures. Even with plenty of ventilation, adding more fans may not create enough pressure to actually improve airflow or lower heat buildup. In that case, you may have to take more aggressive options.

That often involves liquid cooling. Whether it’s an all-in-one cooler with a closed loop for your CPU, or a complex series of hard-lined tubes and extra radiators, liquid cooling doesn’t just improve performance temperatures, it can also keep a system consistent through exterior temperature fluctuations. It’s becoming cheaper than ever to include liquid cooling in a gaming rig, and it’s an excellent choice for keeping cool.

Another option is to simply use central air conditioning or a window AC unit to keep the whole room cool. It’s not the most direct answer to the problem of high CPU and GPU usage generating a lot of heat, but it’s certainly an effective one, assuming you don’t mind paying a bit extra on your power bill for the month. Plus you’ll just be a nerd — and not a sweaty nerd.

Finally, there’s the easy way out. Just don’t worry about it! Hardware is generally capable of running upwards of 80 degrees Celsius without issue, so if the weather isn’t too extreme when you are, there’s no need to stress about it. That said, there may be some adverse effects that come about through apathy, the largest of which is that important components like the GPU and CPU may have to throttle, or hold back on speed, in order to keep cool enough to stay within recommended temperatures.