Month: May 2016

(credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Another online TV bundle could be hitting the market as soon as next year, and this one may have big TV networks behind it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Disney and 20th Century Fox are close to making a deal with Hulu to license channels and content for a new digital TV service that could be available in early 2017.

Disney and Fox are co-owners of Hulu, so it makes sense that they would partner up with the online streaming platform over the likes of Amazon or Netflix. The unnamed service would stream live TV from popular channels including ABC, ESPN, Fox, and the Disney Channel, as well as archived content from the networks involved. While the Comcast-owned NBCUniversal is also a co-owner of Hulu, it has not agreed to license any network content to the new service.

Reports also suggest that the service may include a "cloud-based digital video recorder" for watching previously aired shows on-demand. While no price information has been given, the service is expected to run about $40 per month to compete with similar TV bundles from companies like Dish's Sling TV ($20 per month) and Sony's Playstation Vue (starting at $30 per month).

(credit: BMW)

When we reviewed the BMW i3 back in 2014, the little rear-wheel drive city car left us quite impressed. However, the i3 has always had a couple of flaws in comparison with other electric vehicles out there; it costs too much and the range isn't very good, even if you go for the optional two-cylinder range-extending engine. It appears BMW has decided to address the latter issue, because from this summer the i3 will now come with a 33kWh battery in place of the current 22kWh unit.

Battery technology—and the amount of kilowatt-hours a dollar buys—keeps getting better each year. Certainly it improves measurably over the lifespan of a car, and the fact that BMW has seen this and bumped the battery spec for the i3 is a promising sign for the industry. That probably sounds like we're damning with faint praise, but technology now moves too rapidly for OEMs to stick their old cycles of refreshing cars every four years. If BMW wants to sell any i3s once the Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model 3 start shipping, a range boost is the bare minimum it needs to do.

The new battery is 50 percent bigger, so more than 100 miles (160km) should be possible on a full charge. The gas tank for the range extender engine will also grow by 25 percent; expect to stop for gas every 75 miles if you try road-tripping. These range tweaks should help boost the i3's appeal, but before long the Bolt and Model 3 are going to make people expect 200+ miles from their EV as a bare minimum.