Month: July 2016

As the first-ever Android phone from BlackBerry, the BlackBerry Priv was an interesting experiment. BlackBerry tried to go super-premium with a $700 phone, but the design, build quality, and specs couldn't back up the price tag. Now, BlackBerry is back with its second Android smartphone, the BlackBerry DTEK50. Rather than worry about the design and build quality itself, BlackBerry has taken the TCL Alcatel Idol 4 and given it a new back plate. The result is a $299 "BlackBerry" that features Alcatel's hardware and Blackberry's software.

The specs are nearly identical to an Alcatel Idol 4. The DTEK50 has a 5.2-inch, 1080p display (424 PPI), an eight-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon 617 (four 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53s and four 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53), 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage with an SD card, and a 2,610 mAh battery. The rear camera has a 13MP sensor with a dual-LED flash, while the front sports an 8MP sensor. The USB port makes the device seem a tad dated: it still has a MicroUSB port instead of the newer, reversible USB Type C port. The one spec difference we see between the Alcatel Idol 4 and the DTEK50 is that the Idol 4 is clocked a little higher: 1.7GHz versus 1.5GHz.

The device has no keyboard—it's just your regular cheap slab phone with dual front-facing speakers. The rear has a new back piece with the all-important BlackBerry logo and almost looks like it's made out of rubber. The Idol 4 did ship with an extra side hardware button, which BlackBerry has turned into its trademark programmable "convenience" key. Other than that, the "Blackberryness" is going to come in the software and security side. Blackberry is promising a secure boot process with a hardware root of trust and "rapid" security patching.

It’s drizzling as I roll into the south-west London suburb of Surbiton, and every so often the automatic wipers on the Mini John Cooper Works I'm driving spring into life to sweep drops of water from the screen. It’s early, and the town is barely awake yet. But even as the pavements start to fill with Suburbiton commuters bustling between newsagents, big-chain coffee shops, and railway station, one part of the town remains empty and ignored. Yet that’s the place I’ve come here to see.

The new generation Mini JCW is named after the man whose vision and no-nonsense organisation created the Cooper racing cars that changed the face of Formula 1 motor racing in the 1950s, and the Mini Coopers that livened up 1960s circuit racing and rallying. So I’ve come to Surbiton—where the Cooper Car Company was based—to find the building that was the original works. From there I’ll head off in search of the greatest of the JCW’s distant ancestors.

First, to find the place where it all started. The Mini’s infotainment controller is on the console between the front seats, where the big rotary control is easy to reach and operate. Navigating the main mode buttons nearby is less easy; until you memorise the position of each one, you have to look down to choose between media, radio, phone, and nav. All set, the Mini navigates me precisely through the thick Surbiton traffic to the junction of Hollyfield Road and Ewell Road where the Cooper works stands. And it’s a bit of a disappointment.

It seems Ars readers are not ready to welcome our new IoT overlords. (credit: peyri)

AT&T has agreed to lead an "industry strike force" to limit robocalls, just a couple of months after its CEO claimed there's just about nothing it can do to block unwanted calls.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in May that his company doesn't have "permission" or "the appropriate authority" to block robocalls, even though the Federal Communications Commission clearly stated last year that carriers have the "green light" to offer robocall-blocking services to cell phone users. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler last week urged carriers to "offer call-blocking services to their customers now—at no cost to [consumers]," and AT&T has dropped its previous reluctance in response.

In a post titled "Answering the call on robocalling," AT&T Senior VP Bob Quinn yesterday said that Stephenson will chair the new "Robocalling Strike Force, the mission of which will be to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions to abate the proliferation of robocalls and to make recommendations to the FCC on the role government can play in this battle."

Screen grab of the resuable rocket panel discussion. From left: Dan Dumbacher, Gary Payton, Doug Bradley, Ben Goldnerg and Tom Markusic. (credit: AIAA/LiveStream)

The US government and some of its major aerospace contractors have tried to tackle the problem of reusable rockets and spacecraft for several decades, from the DC-X to the space shuttle, with mixed success. Even after spending hundreds of billions of dollars on these technologies in development and flight costs, neither the government nor its traditional aerospace contractors have mastered the art of flying vehicles to space, recovering them, and turning them around for new missions quickly and at low cost.

During the last half year, however, both SpaceX and Blue Origin have begun to demonstrate these capabilities. Although much work remains to be done, Blue Origin has already flown a suborbital rocket four times, in relatively short order, with low turnaround costs. And SpaceX has recovered five orbital rockets at land and sea and expects to refly at least one of them later this year.

Monday evening in Salt Lake City, some aerospace industry officials sat down to discuss this new development. The panel at an American Institute Of Aeronautics And Astronautics forum on propulsion had a provocative title, “Launch Vehicle Reusability: Holy Grail, Chasing Our Tail, or Somewhere in Between?"