Mini Cooper S Works 210 first drive: Pocket rocket lite

Some may have feared for Mini when BMW rolled in and took this British icon and modernised it, but spend 10 minutes on any major road and you’ll know that the public adoration for the Mini hasn’t abated.

With the John Cooper Works super-charged version tearing up roads and the Cooper S trailing not far being, Mini has introduced another hot model, the Cooper S Works 210. You guessed it, the 210 refers to the bhp, as this car neatly slides into the space between these two models.

And what a space to wiggle into, as this is Mini is a whole lot of fun to drive.

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Mini Cooper S Works 210: A JCW exterior

The Cooper S Works 210 may look familiar as it rolls out wearing the John Cooper Works body kit, meaning that more aggressive front, sills and other detailing around the body, including that meaty rear spoiler hanging off the back hatch door. It cuts a meaner profile than the 3-door Cooper S, although it’s the same car underneath.

Around the back the twin central exhaust from the John Cooper Works Pro Tuning Kit is fitted by the dealer, which brings that lift from the 192bhp of the Hatch. There are some external differences from the John Cooper Works model, with the S badging staying in place, which we rather like. The Cooper S is a great car and paired here with sportier styling, it’s a great overall result.

With this model, however, all that bodywork is standard, as are the black 17-inch JCW wheels.

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Mini Cooper S Works 210: A Cooper S interior

Slip into the interior and things are perfectly Cooper S-like, carrying all those funky features that makes the Mini stand apart from so many conventional cars on the road. We’ve been running quite an affection for the Mini interior for some time. With a number of smaller cars offering interiors that lack quality or imagination the Mini stands out as distinctive. The central roundel housing the display stands out, while the driver display focuses on what’s important – speed, with rpm and fuel bracketing this central display. 

With space being at something of a premium, you could say that things are a bit spread out: the controls for the BMW-based infotainment system falls between the seats – hardly in your peripheral vision – and the armrest will block your access to some controls when down, but adds plenty of comfort on longer journeys. But there’s heaps of character: it’s more fun than the Fiesta, higher quality then the Fiat 500.

There’s a hint of Golf GTI with the trim on the seats on our review model, giving a patterned finish on some of the cloth trim, but there’s still a good smattering of John Cooper Works detailing on the treadplates and with the funky Bluetooth exhaust controller, that will let you switch to track mode and make the car much louder.

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Those seats come as part of the Chili trim pack, and there’s a full range of accessories that you can opt to add to your Mini to make it yours. 

Mini Cooper S Works 210: On the road

Thumb the central start/stop toggle and the 210 will spring to life. Thanks to that exhaust this is a noisier Mini, not to the antisocial levels, but with enough of an acoustic performance to put a smile on your face. It’s also a car that feels right when you drive it harder, hitting those higher revs as you speed along. 

The Cooper S Works 210 has a firm ride, but carries with it that attribute that brings fun to this little car: it drives like a go-kart. The steering is immediate, the front of the car darting under your controls as you keep it tight around those small country roads. There are several driving modes and flipping to sport mode weights up the steering a little and gets you set for a racier drive, but it’s perfectly fun in normal mode too, and fast enough off the line.

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Paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, there’s plenty of range in each of the gears, so the Mini is forgiving and easy to drive, with things precisely clicking into place as you skip up and down the range. Mini hasn’t yet official revealed what the performance stats are for this car, but that hardly matters to your average driver, although we do that that CO2 emissions sit at 136g/km.

What’s important is that the 210 is great fun to race around winding roads, nippier than the Cooper S, cheaper and just as good looking as the John Cooper Works. The Mini Cooper S Works 210 is exactly what you expect it to be and that’s a good thing.

One of the advantages (at the time of writing), is that you can order yourself a Mini Cooper S Works 210 now and get it soon, but if you’re after the John Cooper Works Mini, there’s more of a waiting list. 

Starting at £21,690, the Mini Cooper S Works 210 is available now.

First Impressions

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Cozmo preview: The Anki robot friend that can do so much

Anki has made a name for itself with its robotic cars that combine Scalextric style real world racing with videogame challenges and augmented reality weapons.

At a time when toys-to-life may have peaked and a number of businesses are looking for the next big toy-game crossover, Anki has steadily carved a strong niche. But this week sees the release of a different product from the same minds. It’s is launching its Cozmo robot on the US and with that we get a closer look at the company’s robotic aspirations.

Cozmo looks like a Pixar character in toy form. It fits in the hand and can move around with caterpillar tracks. It has a small lifting arm at the front and two big eyes on its OLED face. A front facing camera can see the world, detect obstacles and recognise faces.

To describe the little robot by its physical attributes is to miss the point though. Power Cozmo up and immediately it feels different to other robotic tech toys. It’s actually a little unnerving at first as Cozmo trundles off its charging dock, looks up to see your face and then says your name.

Of course, this is a simple trick that many toys can pull off. However, spending more time with Cozmo reveals there is more going on here than meets the eye. Rather than a series of pre-programmed actions that players can trigger with a button press or voice command, Cozmo moves seamlessly from one action to another without the need for intervention.

This A.I. character is driven by different requirements that lead to novel interactions. For example, his need for human contact leads him to spot and identify any faces in the room. Once this is satisfied he then get’s on with other tasks. But should his interaction level drop too much he stops what he’s doing to look up and check you are still watching.

It’s a simple interaction, just one of many that convince children that there is a genuine character behind Cozmo. He’s not simply an automaton that simply responds to commands.

This is underlined by that way Cozmo moves and responds to his environment. Gone is the slow and steady gait of other toy robots; Anki’s creation is fast, responsive and vocal. He’s animated using tools historically used for animated films or videogames, only here rendered in cogs, gears and motors rather than pixels.

This all comes together during some of the more intense interactions – often while playing some of Cozmo’s games. Take Quick Tap for example, where Cozmo challenges you to tap a cube faster than him when the lights match. It’s a common enough mechanic but one that finds added intensity and subtlety through Cozmo’s sneaky personality.

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He will make eye contact, say things and even pretend to tap the cube in an effort to put you off. Even on the easier levels it’s a tough ask – particularly if you are easily distracted by tiny Pixar-esque robots.

The biggest challenge to Cozmo’s success lies in communicating what families get for the higher price ($179.99 when it hits the US this month). This is about the same as the Force Band controlled BB8, although of course Cozmo doesn’t have a blockbuster movie character to hang his hat on.

Get Cozmo out the box and on the living room floor and its clear where the fun is, but in the box he looks similar to other robotic products. Anki’s response to this so far has been with their Cozmoments series of videos that show the character in different situations. These might appear to be animated videos but are in actual fact very close to the experience Cozmo delivers in the home.

First Impressions

With Cozmo we see a new phase in the trend of combining toys and video-games. With toys-to-life game makers like Lifeseekers and Infinite Arms looking to bring those experiences to tablets, Anki comes at things from the other direction.

Its toys are brought to life with games and electronics that keep the action firmly in the real world rather than just augmenting what’s on the screen.

These are still early days for Cozmo, but with an SDK available to enable the public to take advantage of Anki’s robotic smarts it’s already looking like the must have tech toy of the year.

Cozmo is out in the US on 16 October, priced at $179.99 (£147).

Astronomers spot a tiny dwarf planet beyond Pluto

Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea have another possible candidate to consider for their dwarf planet squad. A team of researchers have discovered the new, tiny candidate deep within the Kuiper belt, 8.5 billion miles from the sun. It’s officially called the 2014 UZ224, because they first spotted it in 2014 — the reason we’re only hearing about it now is because it took two years to confirm its existence.

UZ224 is only 330 miles across, much smaller than Ceres (590 miles in diameter) that’s officially known as the smallest recognized dwarf planet. In fact, team leader David Gerdes told NPR that he expects astronomers to argue that it’s a bit too small to be classified as one. The decision is ultimately up to the International Astronomical Union, though, which you might know as the group responsible for Pluto’s demotion.

The celestial body is also so far away from us, it takes 1,100 Earth years to complete a single journey around the sun. Due to its size and the possibility that it could be third most-distant object in our solar system, its discovery is nothing short of impressive. It all started years ago when Gerdes challenged some of his undergraduates to find new objects lurking unnoticed in the images taken by the Dark Energy Camera. That’s the same instrument installed on a telescope on top of a 7,200-foot mountain, designed to observe how galaxies and supernovae move. Scientists are hoping that the data it gathers can help them understand dark energy, a mysterious force that’s hypothesized to be the cause of the universe’s continued expansion.

The instrument captures the same small patches of the sky on cam roughly once a week. Theoretically, the team would only need to compare photos of the same patch taken at different times. But since the camera only takes photos “roughly” every week, and there’s a huge number of celestial bodies out there, the researchers had to develop a program that can detect moving objects in the images.

Gerdes and his team are now working to find the Neptune-sized Planet Nine, and this discovery could help them achieve that goal. After all, the movements of other objects (like the UZ224) in the Kuiper Belt could help them figure out where to look for what could become Pluto’s replacement.

Via: Space, The Washington Post

Source: NPR, Minor Planet Center

Apple Previews Redesigned Flagship Regent Street Store in London

Apple today invited journalists to London, England to preview its redesigned Regent Street store, set to open this weekend. Dozens of images have been shared on Twitter and other websites, providing us our first glimpse at the revamped location that’s been under construction for more than a year.

The lower level of the redesigned store (Sebastian Anthony via Twitter)
Apple Regent Street now features Apple’s next-generation retail design, previously seen at its flagship Union Square location in San Francisco, including wide, open spaces with indoor trees, sequoia wood tables and shelves for displaying products, a large 6K video screen, and light boxes extending the length of the ceiling.

Two new side staircases lead to a second level (Ian Betteridge via Twitter)
The location now has a Genius Grove, a section at the center of the store designated for customers to receive support side-by-side with Geniuses under the canopy of local trees. This area is able to accommodate more customers than a traditional Genius Bar commonly found at Apple’s other retail locations.

Apple’s new Regent Street storefront (Nick Dines via Twitter)
In line with remodeling plans filed last year, the storefront is no longer adorned with four Apple logos in each window, but rather a large, white flag with the Apple logo. The central glass staircase has been removed, replaced with two new side staircases that lead to the second level with more product displays and workshop space.

Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts was on hand to preview the new store, designed by Foster and Partners, the award-winning architecture firm behind Apple’s upcoming Campus 2 headquarters and Union Square retail location. Apple Regent Street will open its doors to the public on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. local time.

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The second trailer for ‘Rogue One’ is here

Disney has dropped the latest trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, showing more of the main characters and building on details revealed in the last one. The film — which arrives on December 16th — is set in the time before the original 1977 film, as the rebels seek the Death Star plans. Felicity Huffman’s character, aided by Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, is actually looking for her own father, who is “critical to the development of the super-weapon.” There’s a more eye-candy, too, including an AT-ST walker, more ships, a better look at Darth Vader and … well, just watch it already.