BMW’s new 5 Series does CarPlay without the wires
BMW has recently unveiled the new 2017 5 Series saloon and with it, a whole host of technologies to improve the driving experience. Chief among them is the addition of Apple CarPlay, but the 5 Series is the very first car to deliver wireless CarPlay.
- What is Apple CarPlay and which cars support it?
Wireless functionality has been built into Apple’s in-car system since iOS 9, but car manufacturers haven’t installed it in their cars. To access the features at the moment, you need to plug your iPhone into the car’s USB port.
With the new 5 Series that will be a thing of the past, as your iPhone connects through BMW’s iDrive system and presents the familiar CarPlay interface on the car’s 10.25-inch touchscreen display. Everything is controlled via BMW’s iDrive Touch Controller, voice commands, gestures and by pressing on the touchscreen itself.
BMW’s infotainment system is capable of multi-tasking apps and services and also offers a split screen mode, which can be used with CarPlay, meaning for example, you can view car data on one side and Apple Maps on the other.
To keep the car wire-free, you can also have a Qi-based wireless charger installed in the 5 Series, and BMW will also sell you an iPhone 5 or iPhone 6 wireless charging case. Other technology highlights in the car include a head up display, assisted driving modes, adaptive cruise control and an optional Wi-Fi hotspot.
- BMW promises autonomous vehicles by 2021, partners with Intel, Mobileye
The new BMW 5 Series will be available from February 2017 with prices yet to be confirmed.
Audi’s all-electric vehicle line will be called the ‘E-Tron’
You won’t have a tough time remembering the name of Audi’s first electric vehicle, not when the automaker says the SUV will simply be called the E-Tron. That’s it — no model designation, no numbers, nothing else. The automaker told Autocar that it’s using the tactic it used back in the ’80s when it named its all-wheel drive the Quattro. “It is comparable to the first Audi Quattro, which was known simply as the Quattro,” Audi chief Rupert Stadler told the publication. “In the long term the name E-Tron will stand for a pure electric driveline structure.”
Audi used “E-Tron” for a couple of hybrids in the past, as well as for the premium R8 electric supercar that it recently killed off. What Stadler is saying, though, is that the E-Tron name will eventually represent a line of EVs. Clearly, the automaker is gearing up to compete with new and long-time rivals getting into the EV business, including BMW and Mercedes. Besides the SUV, which will be the first one to carry the name, Audi also plans to release a hatchback and a sedan (pictured below) under the line before the end of 2020.
[Image credit: Autocar]
Via: Autoblog
Source: Autocar
Apple may ditch traditional USB ports on the MacBook Pro
Apple reportedly plans to eliminate the UBC 3.0 and Magsafe ports on its next-gen MacBook, and kill the 11-inch MacBook Air altogether. That’s according to Macotakara, the Japanese rumor site that was among the first to predict the company would kill the traditional headphone jack on the iPhone 7. The site also claims that Apple will unveil a 15.4- and 13.3-inch MacBook Pro at an event sometime this month.
If the report is accurate, MacBook Pros will only pack USB Type C and Thunderbolt 3 ports. As with the new MacBook, you’d presumably charge it through the USB-C port and connect peripherals via Thunderbolt 3. That means you’d need some kind of USB 3.0 adapter, since the majority of storage and other peripherals still use the traditional standard. For the MacBook, Apple sells a $79 USB-C dock that gives you USB 3.0, USB-C for power and an HDMI connection.
The company will also release a new 13.3-inch MacBook Air, but discontinue the 11-inch model, according to the report. That lines up with previous rumors that Apple would kill the smaller Air model, since it has been made effectively redundant by the 12-inch MacBook. However, it also shows that it isn’t discontinuing the MacBook Air completely, as some feared.
The MacBook Pro will allegedly have an OLED touch bar and go on sale shortly after the event. That would be good news to MacBook Pro lovers who’ve been waiting a long time for a new model, assuming the report (based on a “reliable Chinese supplier”) is accurate. However, Macotakara said exactly the same thing in June, and the August launch it predicted didn’t happen.
‘Family Vault’ Lets Amazon Prime Members Share Free Photo Storage
Amazon today launched a new Prime Photos feature called “Family Vault”, which extends the unlimited photo storage that Amazon Prime subscribers get to their friends and family members (via TechCrunch).
For those unfamiliar with Amazon Prime, a $99 per year subscription includes free two-day shipping, unlimited streaming of movies, TV shows, and music, and unlimited photo storage, among other benefits. With the arrival of Family Vault, Prime subscribers can now invite up to five family members or friends to join their online account, where they can combine photos and each get another 5GB of storage for uploading videos and other files.
The thinking behind Family Vault is to allow close friends and families to see each other’s photos and videos in a single location, and be able to access them on their own devices, at no cost to those added by the Prime account holder.
The Family Plan announcement also ushers in some new search technology for Prime Photos users, including keyword-related searches for photos with a specific theme or subject (e.g. cat, wedding, beach, and so on) and a face-finding feature called “People”.
Amazon is also formally announcing a new low-cost photo printing service, with prints starting at 9 cents, with free shipping for Prime members.
Further details of all of the company’s newly announced features can be found on Amazon’s Photos minisite or through the Amazon Photos mobile app.
Tag: Amazon Prime
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Qualcomm announces first gigabit LTE device and network, 5G modem
The first gigabit LTE network will go live in Australia.
Qualcomm has announced that it is partnering with Netgear, Ericsson, and Australian carrier Telstra in delivering the world’s first gigabit LTE device and network. Telstra has worked with Ericsson in developing the gigabit-ready network, which will go live before the end of the year.
Simultaneously, Netgear is rolling out a mobile hotspot called the Mobile Router MR1100 that can hit gigabit speeds by leveraging 3x carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO, and 256-QAM modulation. The hotspot is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X16 gigabit LTE modem, and will work on Telstra’s network. Other carriers are also expected to start offering gigabit speeds over the course of the next 12 months.
Qualcomm has also mentioned that the next-generation Snapdragon 800 SoC will feature the X16 modem, making it compatible with gigabit-class networks. The SoC is expected to make its debut in the first half of next year.
Even though the X16 modem has gigabit connectivity, chances are you won’t be able to hit those speeds in the real world. In Qualcomm’s simulated testing, the company saw average speeds of 112Mbps to 307Mbps on devices with the X16 modem, going up to 533Mbps. That still translates to a significant increase over the current average of 19.61Mbps in the U.S.
Enabling real-world speeds in excess of 100Mbps allows for seamless access to cloud storage services, as well as immersive VR experiences in 4K.
Qualcomm is also launching the Snapdragon X50 5G modem, which works on the 28GHz millimeter-wave spectrum. The device supports 8x100MHz carrier aggregation to deliver 800MHz of spectrum, enabling download speeds of up to 5Gbps. Qualcomm will begin sampling Snapdragon X50 in the second half of 2017, with commercial availability slated for 2018.
Qualcomm rolls out the Snapdragon 653, 626, and 427
At its 4G/5G summit in Hong Kong, Qualcomm announced two new SoCs in the mid-range Snapdragon 600 series, the Snapdragon 653 and Snapdragon 626. For the entry-level tier, the company is rolling out the Snapdragon 427.
All three SoCs come with the Snapdragon X9 LTE modem, which delivers speeds of up to 300Mbps (Category 7) on the downlink and 150Mbps (Category 13) on the uplink. Also new is support for dual cameras and Quick Charge 3.0, as well as the Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) codec for VoLTE calls.
The Snapdragon 653 retains the octa-core CPU configuration of the 652, offering four Cortex A72 cores and four Cortex A53 cores. Qualcomm increased the frequency of the A72 cores to 1.95GHz from 1.80GHz in the 652, which it says will lead to a performance increase of up to 10%. The A53 clusters is still clocked at 1.44GHz. The 653 also retains the Adreno 510 GPU, which has seen an increase in frequency as well. Qualcomm has doubled the addressable memory, making the Snapdragon 653 compatible with 8GB of RAM.
The Snapdragon 626 also sees a 10% increase in performance from the 625 thanks to a bump in CPU clocks on its two Cortex A53 clusters to 2.2GHz from 2.0GHz. The 626 comes with Qualcomm’s TruSignal antenna boost technology, which is designed to improve signal reception in congested areas.
The Snapdragon 427 features the same quad-core 1.4GHz CPU as the 425, but benefits from the X9 LTE modem and TruSignal antenna tech, as well as dual ISPs.
The Snapdragon 653 and 626 will be available before the end of the year, while the Snapdragon 427 will be making its way to consumer devices early next year.
Qualcomm-powered 5G devices may arrive in first half of 2018
As we saw back at MWC, 5G trials are already well under way around the world, and such efforts are recently boosted with support from the FCC plus the EU. Verizon has stated that it’s aiming to implement 5G at some point in 2017, but today, a mobile chip giant has given us a more specific time frame. At the Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong, the company announced its very first 5G modem, the Snapdragon X50, which will support download speeds at up to 5 Gbps — a super impressive number considering that we’ve only just started tapping into the Gigabit space with 4G LTE, let alone the more common 450 Mbps, 300 Mbps or even just 150 Mbps download speeds on our phones these days.
Furthermore, we’re told that X50-powered devices “are expected to be available during the first half of 2018.” The timing makes sense as the finalized 5G standard should arrive in the same year, and operators like Verizon will certainly be needing test devices soon — especially since it’s been trialling the 28 GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) band which is what the X50 will support initially (on top of 4G LTE). That said, Qualcomm does stress that this modem is designed for early 5G deployments, in the sense that it’s leaning more towards the experimental soft rollouts. There’s also no word on the specific type of devices — be it mobile routers or smartphones — that the X50 will land on, so don’t expect to hear any flagship product to be announced with this chip any time soon.
The whopping 5 Gbps download speed is achieved by using a generous 800 MHz bandwidth in the mmWave spectrum. While it’s true that such a high frequency is limited by its penetration range, such modems and cells will make use of MIMO antenna technology with intelligent beamforming and beam tracking to bounce signal off walls, in order to go around obstacles. It’ll be years before we go fully 5G so early deployments will likely have limited coverage, but don’t worry, as the X50 can seamlessly switch between 5G and Gigabit LTE, so long as it’s paired with a Snapdragon processor with an integrated Gigabit LTE modem — like the X16 announced earlier this year. Such a boost in connection speeds will let us look forward to new use cases in the mobile world — real-time augmented reality plus virtual reality, super high quality multimedia content, instantaneous cloud computing applications, you name it.
Watch DARPA’s autopilot system fly a turboprop plane
It’ll likely take a long time before DARPA’s autopilot system flies military planes on its own, but this latest demonstration proves that it works. Aurora Flight Sciences, the aviation company that’s developing the technology for the agency, has successfully tested it on a Cessna Caravan turboprop aircraft. Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System or ALIAS is comprised of a robotic arm and a tablet-based user interface with speech recognition, among other components. When installed on a plane, it acts as the co-pilot in charge of flying the aircraft — its human companions can chill and spend their time keeping an eye on the weather or looking out for any potential threats.
This is the technology’s third demonstration in merely a year, following two test runs on a simulator and a Diamond DA-42 plane. But Aurora isn’t done yet: the team is currently installing it on a helicopter for its next round of testing. If you want to see how a system like ALIAS flies a plane, watch the tech and its human companion pilot a Cessna in the video below.
Source: Aurora Flight Sciences
Australia gets first dibs on Gigabit LTE network and router
We’re still years away before 5G fully goes live, so for now, Qualcomm continues to build on top of current 4G LTE technology to bridge the gap. The latest development on this end is the launch of the Netgear Mobile Router MR1100, which is the first mobile device to feature Gigabit LTE connectivity thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X16 LTE modem. If all goes well, the lucky folks in Australia will be the first to use this device, as it’ll be launched on world’s first Gigabit LTE network courtesy of Telstra and Ericsson. According to Qualcomm’s announcement at its summit today, Telstra will be launching its new speedy service “in the coming months,” which means it could be this year or next year.
For the rest of us outside of Down Under, we’re told that many more mobile devices — especially smartphones — will come packed with the same connectivity in the very near future, as the next-generation Snapdragon 800 series processor will integrate the same awesome X16 LTE modem, as teased by President of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Cristiano Amon on the stage.
The exec added that the development of Gigabit LTE is both a natural progression and also complementary to 5G — as in the two technologies will co-exist for at least several years. With the company’s upcoming X50 5G modem designed to work alongside future Gigabit LTE-enabled Snapdragon processors, we can expect mobile download speeds between 1 Gbps and 5 Gbps to be the new standard for a good while. Let’s just hope the carriers will be ready in time.
Angela Ahrendts Talks Concepts Behind Next-Generation Apple Stores at Most Powerful Women Summit
Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail, was the opening speaker for Fortune’s annual Most Powerful Women Summit, speaking a little about the next-generation Apple retail stores, her vision for Apple’s physical presence and more.
Ahrendts started the evening by talking about her background and how Apple CEO Tim Cook recruited her, mentioning that she originally tried to convince Cook she wasn’t right for the job. Ahrendts said that her big pitch for Apple was to integrate Apple’s retail and online stores and turn the company’s physical prescence into a bigger part of the communities they operate it. Cook, much to her surprise, loved the idea.
She said that she believes that “the bigger the company, the bigger the obligation” of that company to do something other than rake in profits. One of the things on her agenda was education, so Ahrendts planned on a next-generation of Apple retail stores that could function as something more than retail stores.
The new next-generation store designs are the culmination of that vision, featuring a town square concept that’s focused less on selling things and more on enriching lives. She notes that the retail side of the company tries to hire candidates based on their empathy and compassion so that they can enrich lives rather than salesmanship. For instance, Apple wants to teach kids things they can’t learn in school, which is why the retail stores will start hosting Swift programming lessons for kids, teachers, and parents.
The lessons, which are currently available for teachers at Apple Union Square in San Francisco, will slowly roll out to next-generation stores by next year. Kids, teachers, and parents will be able to attend Apple retail stores and learn to code for free three times a day. Currently, Apple provides educational camps for kids during the summer.
Another driving force behind the next-generation stores was making the retail spaces represent the products better. “How do we make it so the best of Apple can come together in one place?” Ahrendts said they asked as they designed the new stores. Their solution was to map out everything people did on their devices and integrate them into the stores, which meant a larger focus on the liberal arts.
Ahrendts said that she’s always been in a believer of Steve Jobs’ “technology married with the liberal arts” philosophy, and that she wanted to increase the presence of liberal arts in the stores. She explained the new Creative Pro position at Apple retail locations is the liberal arts equivalent of the Genius, and that the two are equal in terms of importance. Creative Pros are supposed to help you figure out what to do with your Apple product, which could range from photography lessons to coding to learning how to make movies or music.
Another way of integrating the liberal arts with the retail stores is turning the stores into community centers. “On the weekend you’ll see an artist sketching things or a guy playing a guitar,” Ahrendts said. The goal is to help foster human experiences that draw people out of their digital bubbles. The town square concept also extends to naming. The accessory-laden “avenues” represent avenues bordering a town square, while the giant screens are called “forums” because they act as a hub for many activities.
Finally, Ahrendts said she considers the retail store the biggest product Apple has. Employee retention is also strong, with Ahrendts saying they have an 87 percent retention rate, better than the average retail retention rate of 20 percent. The company plans to have 95 next-generation Apple stores open by the end of the year.
Ahrendts has been the head of Apple’s retail efforts since 2014, when she left her job as CEO of Burberry to join the Cupertino company. Earlier this month, Ahrendts had her title shortened from Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores to just Senior Vice President of Retail, reflecting Apple’s new vision of tightly integrating its online and retail efforts. Similarly, Apple dropped the “Stores” from Apple store branding in August, reflecting a more singular experience as well as Apple’s efforts to turn the store into more than retail outfit.
Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Tag: Angela Ahrendts
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