Month: February 2016

BARCELONA—Monday at MWC has been a weird one for Sony. Aside from announcing its Xperia Ear—a Bluetooth headset-cum-virtual assistant—alongside the likes of a wearable 360-degree camera, and a quirky laser-projecting robot, it also unveiled a new set of Xperia phones, dubbed Xperia X.

Not only do the Xperia XA, Xperia X, and Xperia Performance arrive just six months after the Xperia Z5 series was announced—a lightning quick product cycle I'd hoped Sony would have dropped by now—it's chucked arguably the most beautiful design features into the budget-focused Xperia XA, not its top-tier phones. Like I said, this has been a weird day for Sony.

Still, if you are on a budget and need a new phone, there's nothing else quite like the Xperia XA. It features a polycarbonate body and near edge-to-edge 5-inch display that looks absolutely gorgeous. Coupled with the symmetrical top and bottom sections and light Sony branding, the XA has an austere look that would be right at home on a top-tier handset. Plus, the edge-to-edge screen makes the XA far smaller than your typical 5-inch device. If anything, it's much closer to the feel of Apple's old iPhone 5, which only had a 4-inch screen. It's light, too, at 137 grams, making it effortless to use with one hand.

China's space agency displayed a mock-up of the proposed rover at the 2014 Zhuhai Air Show. (credit: defence.pk/cirr)

China appears to be moving forward with its Mars ambitions, as a key space official has confirmed that work is continuing toward launching an orbiter and lander by 2020 or 2022.

“We are aiming to use the launch window of 2020," Dr. Wu Ji, director-general of the National Space Science Center in Beijing, told the website gbtimes. “If we miss that window, it will be 2022. So it is quite urgent.”

There has been discussion about the mission for several years, but the new report provides some additional detail about science payloads for both the orbiter and lander, including a ground penetrating radar. China also appears to be interested in further investigating the possible presence of methane and its implications for extant life on Mars.

(credit: Wired UK/Shuttershock)

Linux Mint forum users, and anyone who downloaded and installed a copy of the 17.3 Cinnamon edition on Saturday have probably been compromised by hackers and need to take action immediately, the distro's creator has warned.

Clem Lefebvre, confirmed in a blog post that the "intrusion" had taken place over the weekend. He said: "Hackers made a modified Linux Mint ISO, with a backdoor in it, and managed to hack our website to point to it."

He added that the resultant malware infection had only affected ISOs downloaded from the Linux Mint site on Saturday, February 20. "As far as we know, the only compromised edition was Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition," Lefebvre said. However, by Sunday it was a different story, with Linux Mint confirming that its forums database had also been targeted in the hack of its systems.

(credit: IFCAR)

Volkswagen is reportedly being called to make restitution for the recent diesel emissions cheat scandal, which has severely clouded the car giant's reputation.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has asked VW to produce electric vehicles in its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag (via Google translate). The car maker has also apparently been told to develop a network of charging stations.

However, the EPA and Volkswagen were tight-lipped about any such plans. VW told Reuters that its talks with the regulator were continuing. But the company declined to comment on specific details when quizzed.

As it dawns on smartphone makers that—after years of healthy upgrades—consumers are perfectly happy with their existing phone, they've started to pile on the features instead. LG has its wacky upgradable G5, Samsung has its Gear VR headset, and Sony... well, it's got the Xperia Ear, a Bluetooth headset-cum-virtual assistant that it hopes will take away the need for everyone to keep pulling their smartphones out of their pockets.

You can take calls with Xperia Ear, send messages, get the latest traffic updates, and it'll even send you directions using GPS (via the phone it's paired with). None of that is particularly innovative as such, but the Ear's USP is the way its packaged up into a neat, and arguably more reliable package that your traditional virtual assistant along the lines of Siri or Google Now. For instance, when a call comes in and you pick up the Ear, it has a proximity sensor that automatically answers the call and flings it to your earlobe.

If you're stuck for the perfect cupcake recipe or want to know who invented the Burrito (sorry, I have the MWC hunger), the Ear can find that stuff out too via voice activated Internet searches. Again, this is functionality most people already have access to via their phone, but Sony hopes that by removing the need to pull out their phones altogether, and instead reach for the Ear, people will won't be quite as shut out from the outside world.