Toyota will stop selling diesel cars in Europe this year

You can officially add Toyota to the list of manufacturers dropping diesel from their passenger car lineups. The brand has confirmed that it’s phasing out diesel passenger vehicles in Europe over the course of 2018, starting with cars like the Auris you see above — your only choices for the hatchback are a modest 1.2L turbo 4-cylinder or 1.8L and 2.0L hybrid solutions. The company will keep diesel commercial vehicles like the Hilux truck, Land Cruiser SUV and Proace van to “meet customer needs,” but that’s as far as it goes.

Toyota said the death of diesel was due to “strong customer demand” for hybrid versions of its cars. About 41 percent of cars sold through its European branch were hybrid models, while diesel represented “less than” 10 percent. This isn’t so much a bold move as it is a pragmatic one: if hybrids are on the rise (sales jumped 38 percent year-on-year) while diesel is almost a rounding error, why keep diesel around?

The automaker was going to face an uphill battle if it did try to keep diesel passenger cars on the market. Diesel was once Europe’s darling, but has been on the decline ever since Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal erupted in 2015. The backlash (combined with the rise of hybrids and electric cars) has been strong enough that Germany has given cities the all-clear to ban diesel motors from their streets. If Toyota didn’t bail on diesel in Europe, it risked making cars that no one wanted and might not even be legal to drive.

Not that the companies are entirely happy about it. They have to meet a European Union CO2 emissions target that has all of their cars matching or beating 95g/km by 2021, and that’s harder when their diesel emissions controls are more advanced than those on their larger vehicles with standard gas motors. Brands like Ford are considering price hikes on key models to help offset the cost of hybrids, which are sometimes sold at low profit margins or even a loss. Volkswagen chief Matthias Mueller is convinced that diesel will “experience a revival,” but that may be optimistic — it has a bad rap in Europe, and EVs may kill it off even if there is a resurgence.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.

Via: Automotive News

Source: Toyota

Popular Camera App ‘Halide’ Gains Portrait Mode Support, New Depth Effects

Popular camera app Halide, which provides iPhone users with more control when taking pictures with their iPhones, today received a major update that introduces several new features.

Photos with Portrait effects are now available in the Halide app, with Halide incorporating a mix of smart facial detection and point of interest detection to create Portrait mode photos with background blur effects.

Portrait Mode is combined with a new “Depth Peaking” feature that’s designed to show an outline of the camera’s 3D space when capturing a photo that uses depth effects. A new Portrait Preview mode will also show a preview of what Portrait effects will look like when turned on.

All depth-enabled photos captured with Halide can be viewed using a new 3D photo viewer, allowing users to “walk around and through” captured scenes to see depth in a new way.

On the iPhone X, Halide now offers support for the front-facing TrueDepth camera, offering a new set of depth tools for taking selfies with Portrait effects within the Halide app. The front-facing camera also supports Depth Peaking and can allow users to export depth maps to be loaded in other image editors.

In addition to these new features, Halide 1.7 offers faster photo capture times, better responsiveness, and a quicker startup time, along with new design features and support for opening photos in the Darkroom photo editing app with a single touch.

To celebrate the launch of the new version of Halide, the app is discounted to $2.99 for the next 48 hours. [Direct Link]

Tag: Halide
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Washington Becomes First State to Pass Its Own Net Neutrality Law in Defiance of FCC

Washington this week became the first state to pass a new law — House Bill 2282 — that restores and protects certain net neutrality rules, after the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in favor of repealing net neutrality nationwide late last year. Washington state’s new rules were signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee yesterday, and prevent internet service providers from blocking and slowing down content online (via The New York Times).

Many multi-state lawsuits began cropping up following the net neutrality vote in December, but this marks the first time that a state has directly gone against the FCC and enacted its own regulations on how ISPs are regulated within the state. Now, the Washington state law will go into effect starting June 6, 2018, barring ISPs from blocking websites, throttling speeds, or charging its customers more for faster speeds on select sites “in a way that benefits the broadband company and partner websites.”

Today we make history: Washington will be the first state in the nation
to preserve the open internet with our own #NetNeutrality law. The open internet lives on for Washingtonians. pic.twitter.com/3wsmAycWLN

— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) March 6, 2018

These actions are now technically legal under the repeal of net neutrality by the FCC, made official by its entry into the Federal Register in February and becoming nationwide law itself April 23, 2018. The law signed by Inslee is said to “immediately” put back into place consumer protections provided by net neutrality rules, and was “passed with broad bipartisan support in the state legislature.”

“Today we make history: Washington will be the first state in the nation to preserve the open internet,” Inslee said during today’s bill signing ceremony. “We’ve seen the power of an open internet. It allows a student in Washington to connect with researchers all around the world — or a small business to compete in the global marketplace. It’s allowed the free flow of information and ideas in one of the greatest demonstrations of free speech in our history.”

Besides Washington state, lawsuits and movements against the FCC have appeared in nearly two dozen states, with bills in each appearing similar to the one signed by Governor Inslee this week. Washington state’s law — and any others that appear in the future — are expected to end up in court, because part of the FCC’s rules passed under the repeal of net neutrality explicitly mentioned that states could not create their own rules.

Various tech companies also joined together in a lawsuit against the FCC filed on Monday, with Etsy, Foursquare, and Kickstarter among the companies banning together to fight the net neutrality repeal. Before the 3-2 vote in December, Apple was vocal against the potential repeal of net neutrality, emphasizing its stance in a letter last August that urged the FCC not to roll back the rules. Apple said this repeal could risk “fundamentally altering the internet as we know it today—to the detriment of consumers, competition, and innovation.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: net neutrality
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Google adds Disney parks to Street View

Last year Google revamped its Street View cameras to help us better map the real world, now it’s taken the technology to a much more magical land. From today, you’ll be able to explore inside 11 Disney Parks, getting an on-the-ground glimpse of all its castles, rides and attractions, including the captivating Avatar-themed world of Pandora. It’ll also definitely prove popular when the Star Wars area opens up next year. Now if only the imagery was available in real time, so we’d know whether to bother lining up for Splash Mountain or not.

Source: Google

Google backs its Bristlecone chip to crack quantum computing

Like every other major tech company, Google has designs on being the first to achieve quantum supremacy — the point where a quantum computer could run particular algorithms faster than a classical computer. Today it’s announced that it believes its latest research, Bristlecone, is going to be the processor to help it achieve that. According to the Google Quantum AI Lab, it could provide “a compelling proof-of-principle for building larger scale quantum computers.”

One of the biggest obstacles to quantum supremacy is error rates and subsequent scalability. Qubits (the quantum version of traditional bits) are very unstable and can be adversely affected by noise, and most of these systems can only hold a state for less than 100 microseconds. Google believes that quantum supremacy can be “comfortably demonstrated” with 49 qubits and a two-qubit error below 0.5 percent. Previous quantum systems by Google have given two-qubit errors of 0.6 percent, which in theory sounds like a miniscule difference, but in the world of quantum computing remains significant.

However, each Bristlecone chip features 72 qubits, which may help mitigate some of this error, but as Google says, quantum computing isn’t just about qubits. “Operating a device such as Bristlecone at low system error requires harmony between a full stack of technology ranging from software and control electronics to the processor itself,” the team writes in a blog post. “Getting this right requires careful systems engineering over several iterations.”

Google’s been vocal about its efforts in quantum computing for years — back in 2015 it proudly announced a breakthrough that showed huge potential for quantum algorithms, for example — but every other major tech company has a similar agenda. IBM is working on a general purpose quantum computer for business use, while Microsoft is also exploring the area. The race is certainly on for quantum supremacy, but as the Bristlecone research team writes, it’s “cautiously optimistic” that it’s going to win it.

Source: GoogleBlog

Google Maps Adds 11 Disney Parks to Street View

Google Maps’ Street View technology has been updated today to include virtual tours of 11 Disney parks for parents and children to explore in advance of a coming trip, or to rekindle memories of previous visits.

We’re all about new fantastic points of view. Today Street View is going the distance, from California to Florida, to make Disney part of your world. Be our guest at 11 Disney Parks, and with Street View, anything your heart desires will come to you—castles, rides, attractions to infinity and beyond.

The Street View coverage takes in castles, rides and attractions around the various Parks, such as Florida’s Magic Kingdom Park and the Avatar-themed world of Pandora in Animal Kingdom. The feature currently only includes parks in the United States, but that may change in future, given Google’s recent efforts to expand its coverage of touristic landmarks across Europe and Asia through the service.

Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

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Hyundai’s Le Fil Rouge concept is the future of the automaker’s design

Not to be left behind in the concept car parade of the Geneva Motor Show, Hyundai unveiled its Le Fil Rouge EV concept. It’s bigger than you would expect from the Korean automaker, but also prettier.

While the automaker didn’t share anything about the performance of the car other than it’s an EV, the design of the vehicle is a good indicator of the future of Hyundai’s line up. The car is “the cornerstone of Hyundai design,” according to Hyundai VP of design SangYup Lee.

The interior is equally impressive with a wood-heavy wrap-around dash for the driver and passenger and a 21.5-inch panoramic display. Of course, a long dash goes great with a long car.

It’s unlikely this car will ever come to market, but if this is an indicator of what to expect from the Hyundai lineup in the future.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ launch in India: Everything you need to know

Samsung has launched the Galaxy S9 and S9+ in India just one week after their global debut at Mobile World Congress.

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S9 and S9+ at Mobile World Congress nine days ago, and now the manufacturer is launching both phones in India. This is the fastest we’ve seen Samsung’s flagships make their way to India, and the launch highlights Samsung’s commitment to win back the top spot from Xiaomi. We’ve seen that earlier this year with the Galaxy A8+, and the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are a continuation of those efforts.

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ will go on sale starting March 16 in India — the same day as the U.S — and Samsung is incentivizing the arrival of its latest flagships with several launch-day offers. Samsung is also launching its loyalty program, Samsung Rewards, in India. Here’s what you need to know about the Galaxy S9 and S9+ in India.

Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 platform in the U.S., but in India both phones will be featuring Samsung’s own Exynos 9810 instead. Samsung offers Exynos-powered models in most Asian markets, and there aren’t any major differences between the two platforms. In fact, both the Snapdragon 845 and Exynos 9810 are manufactured on Samsung Foundry’s 10nm node.

Samsung is offering both phones with 64GB of internal storage in the U.S., but Indian customers also have the option of choosing the 256GB storage variant. And while all three color variants are available at launch, you’ll have to go with the Midnight Black option if you’re interested in the 256GB model. Here’s a look at the hardware powering the Galaxy S9 and S9+:

It’s all about the camera

The highlight with the Galaxy S9 series is a new imaging module with adjustable aperture — the first in a phone. The camera module is present on both phones, and the Galaxy S9+ gets a secondary camera that doubles up as a telephoto lens, the same as the Galaxy Note 8.

Galaxy S9/S9+ price in India

The 64GB variant of the Galaxy S9 starts off at ₹57,900, the same price as last year’s Galaxy S8. Samsung is clearly looking to be more aggressive in India this year, and the pricing of the Galaxy S9 series highlights just that.

Here’s the breakdown of Galaxy S9 and S9+ pricing in India:

• 64GB Galaxy S9: ₹57,900 ($890)
• 256GB Galaxy S9: ₹65,900 ($1,000)
• 64GB Galaxy S9+: ₹64,900 ($1,015)
• 256GB Galaxy S9+: ₹72,900 ($1,120)

Several launch-day offers available

Like previous years, Samsung is rolling out a slew of launch-day offers to incentivize initial sales of the Galaxy S9 and S9+. The launch offers include a ₹6,000 cashback when picking up the phone via Paytm Mall. HDFC credit and debit card customers can also avail a ₹6,000 cashback when picking up the device.

If you’re looking to pick up the phone on Airtel, you’ll be able to do so by paying just ₹9,900 upfront followed by monthly payments of ₹2,499 for 24 months. Those on Jio can get an annual plan for ₹4,999 and get a terabyte of data.

Sales kick off March 16, pre-orders now live

Galaxy S9 and S9+ pre-orders are now live on Flipkart and direct from Samsung India, and the phones will be making their way to hundreds of thousands of retail stores across the country later this month.

What do you think of the Galaxy S9/S9+ in India? Let me know in the comments below.

See at Flipkart

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X: Metal and glass sandwiches
• Galaxy S9 vs. Google Pixel 2: Which should you buy?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Honor View 10 vs. Xiaomi Mi Mix 2: Battle of the beauties

The Honor View 10 and Mi Mix 2 are two of the best-looking affordable flagships around.

These days, you can pick up a phone for around $500 that offers a feature-set similar to that of traditional flagships like the Galaxy Note 8 or the more recent Galaxy S9. Xiaomi has excelled at doing this over the years with its Mi flagships, and Honor has caught onto the trend as well.

With the Honor View 10, you’re getting a phone with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit, 18:9 display, dual rear cameras, and a 3750mAh battery. Meanwhile, the Mi Mix 2 is one of the most evocative phones available today, thanks to its ultra-thin bezels and ceramic chassis. With both devices available for around that $500 price point, it’s time to find out which phone delivers the most bang for your buck.

Honor View 10 vs. Xiaomi Mi Mix 2: Specs

What the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 does better

When it comes to design, there are few phones that come close to the Mi Mix 2. The ceramic back coupled with the thin bezels up front make the device stand out, and Xiaomi’s build quality and attention to detail is right up there with the best that Samsung has to offer.

The first-gen Mi Mix featured a piezoelectric transceiver for making calls, but the Mi Mix 2 comes with a standard (and more user friendly) earpiece. Xiaomi carried out similar changes to the rest of the design as well — the Mi Mix 2 doesn’t have the same screen-to-body ratio as its predecessor, but the 5.9-inch panel makes it more conducive to one-handed usage.

The Mi Mix 2 has a gorgeous ceramic body with razor-thin bezels at the front and global LTE bands.

Under the hood, the Mi Mix 2 is running the Snapdragon 835 chipset along with 6GB of RAM, which makes it one of the fastest phones in the market today. There isn’t much to separate the Mi Mix 2 from the Honor View 10 when it comes to raw hardware, as the latter is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 970, its latest and greatest mobile SoC.

But one area where the Mi Mix 2 wins out is LTE connectivity. Although the phone isn’t officially sold in most Western markets, it comes with global LTE bands (over 40 in total). That means you’ll be able to use the Mi Mix 2 on most carriers around the world without any problems, and that’s a big deal.

See at GearBest

What the Honor View 10 does better

Both EMUI and MIUI are primarily aimed at a Chinese audience, and as a result they’re heavily customized to make them stand out in both brands’ home market. MIUI, in particular, has become bloated and laden down with features over the years, and while Xiaomi optimized the UI to speed up animations and generally improve the user experience with MIUI 9, it still feels cumbersome.

Meanwhile, Huawei has been making a dedicated effort to pare back the amount of customization in EMUI. The interface isn’t quite there yet in terms of resembling pure Android, but at least EMUI 8.0 is built on top of Android 8.0 Oreo — Xiaomi is still stuck on Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

EMUI 8.0 comes with Oreo out of the box, while the Mi Mix 2 is still running Nougat.

The Honor View 10 has a hybrid SIM card tray that features a microSD slot, so if you’re looking to extend the storage on your phone, you can slot in a 256GB SD card. The Mi Mix 2 has dual SIM card slots as well, but the secondary slot doesn’t double up as a microSD slot. Other design wins

With a thickness of 7mm, the Honor View 10 is also thinner and lighter at 172g than the Mi Mix 2 in spite of packing a larger battery. Coming to battery life, you’ll easily get a day’s worth of charge from both devices, but the 3750mAh battery edges out the 3400mAh unit on the Mi Mix 2. Both MIUI and EMUI offer battery saving features that maximize battery efficiency, and overall the Honor View 10 has marginally better battery life.

The Honor View 10 also has a Neural Processing Unit that automatically optimizes camera settings based on the scene you’re shooting. The AI features are limited right now, but with Huawei increasingly looking to machine learning as the differentiator, we could see a lot of headway in this area later this year.

See at Honor

Which one’s right for you?

Both the Mi Mix 2 and Honor View 10 field top-notch hardware combined with features that make them stand out in this space. In the case of the Mi Mix 2, you get a gorgeous ceramic back with slim bezels up front. The Honor View 10 features a more utilitarian aesthetic with antenna lines at the top and bottom and an aluminum frame, but the phone’s dual cameras and AI features give it a leg up.

Overall though, you’re getting much more value with the Mi Mix 2. The phone comes with global LTE bands, and the design looks much more premium when seen against the Honor View 10.

See at GearBest

Nissan’s debut Formula E design is inspired by the Doppler effect

It’s hard to believe that Nissan, which sold more EVs last year than Tesla and every other automaker, has yet to race in Formula E. However, Nissan announced late last year that it would become the first Japanese automaker to join the electric-racing circuit for the 2018-19 season. Now, at the Geneva Motor Show, it has unveiled its season 5 Formula E car with a striking “Doppler-effect” color scheme and all-new powertrain package.

The new Gen 2 Formula E cars for next season represent the biggest shift in the circuit’s technology yet. Battery capacity will increase from 28 mWh to 54 mWh, letting drivers complete a race without changing to another car as they’ve been forced to do so far.

“We just launched the Nissan Gen 2 Leaf, which has increased battery range and power, same as the Gen 2 Formula E car for season five,” Nissan global-motorsports director Mike Carcamo told Engadget. “We’re really excited about season five, because it really brings out the next step forward in electric racing.” As before, Formula E will supply all teams with the same carbon-fiber chassis. The manufacturers can then install their own electronics, inverters, gearboxes and motors to gain a competitive edge. Most essentially for branding, they can get creative with the livery or paint scheme.

The Gen 2 cars look like no other formula car, with a futuristic, Blade Runner-esque vibe. That’s part due to the aerodynamics. In place of a rear wing, a venturi flares out over the back wheels. It’s there mainly to reduce drag, as Formula E cars don’t require the massive downforces needed on much faster F1 racers.

You might also expect a Nissan race car to be white and red, but the look of the Gen 2 EVs inspired the design team to try for something a little more… intimidating. As such, it sports black, white and patterned grays, with red only appearing on the accents.

Nissan has zero experience in Formula E despite its rich motorsports history, so it’s hard to say how the car will do. But just sitting there, it looks like it’s going about 300 miles per hour. The texturing and gradients, Nissan said, were inspired by the sonic pulse created by the Doppler effect.

“At first glance, the season five Formula E car looked to our design team like an EV-powered supersonic bird in flight,” said Nissan’s senior VP of global design, Alfonso Albaisa. “Formula E racers are virtually silent, with explosive speed bursts. Thus, naturally, we turned to Doppler when designing the livery.”

We’ll have to take their word for that, but for the powertrain, Nissan drew on its experience with the Leaf for Formula E, particularly when it comes to range. “One of the main factors and important aspects of Formula E racing is energy usage and efficiency,” said Carcamo. “And a lot of that experience can be put to use on the race track. At the same time, the harsh environments of racing will help develop future road cars as well.”

As with any racing endeavor, however, Nissan’s venture into Formula E is mainly a way to draw eyeballs to its brand and “intelligent mobility” technology. And the urban-based circuit provides the ideal way to promote the Leaf, which packs both EV and self-driving tech.

“The heart of cities where Formula E operates is where mobility solutions are most necessary,” Carcamo said. “Highlighting those issues, bringing them up and also showing […] the fun part about EVs is something that Nissan is really excited to share with its fans.”

Click here to catch up on the latest news from the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.