Month: September 2017

Volkswagen

I was alerted to this rather awesome-looking Volkswagen California XXL camper van by our policy editor and chief Ars van aficionado David Kravets. Based on the VW Crafter, this is a 21st-century descendent of the iconic VW bus (aka the Bulli/Camper/Kombi/Transporter/Type 2). It's also perhaps the ultimate expression of car camping, short of one of those Russian things that are a spinoff of the armored personnel carrier.

Under the hood is a Euro 6-compliant TDI engine, pneumatic suspension, and a Haldex all-wheel drive system, but that's pretty boring compared to the rest of this tricked-out ride. For one thing, the rear section has been stretched to provide room for a proper-sized bed, big enough for two adults to sleep comfortably.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft's IT-focused Ignite conference—the one that to many of us is still more familiar as "TechEd"—starts on Monday. In a shake-up from the normal routine for these things, the opening keynote will be a short, one-hour affair, in which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will present the company's vision for the future. This will be followed by three separate technology keynotes running in parallel.

We'll be liveblogging the vision keynote at 9am Eastern time on Monday September 25 to learn about Microsoft's goals for cloud computing, machine learning, and how it plans to deliver on its stated (and rather wordy) goal of "empowering every person and every organization to achieve more."

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Fitbit has a lot riding on its new $300 Ionic smartwatch. Analyst reports suggest the smartwatch category will continue to grow over the next few years, and Apple and Google already have well-established devices and operating systems. Being one of the top players in the wearables game, Fitbit is unlikely to build a device that runs Android Wear (much less watchOS), so it designs its own devices from the ground up. The Ionic is Fitbit's serious attempt at a smartwatch, far more so than the $200 Blaze that came out last year. Running Fitbit OS, the Ionic combines the most crucial fitness features with what Fitbit believes to be the most crucial smartwatch features.

While testing the Ionic, I asked myself two main questions: does it provide the best fitness experience for the price? And does Fitbit thoughtfully incorporate smartwatch features into a primarily fitness-focused device? It does—but there may be better solutions out there.

Design

It was hard to be excited when the first images of the Ionic leaked months before its debut. Those images confirmed many of our worst fears: Fitbit stuck with the core design that influenced the Blaze fitness watch, which is chunky and unattractive at best.

Enlarge

T-Mobile USA and Sprint are getting further along in merger talks and are "close to agreeing [to] tentative terms on a deal," Reuters reported today, citing anonymous sources.

A merger would join the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the US, leaving the country with three major nationwide carriers including Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

Sprint owner SoftBank of Japan would "own 40 to 50 percent of the combined company, while T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom will own a majority stake, two of the sources said," according to Reuters. A deal is expected by the end of October if the negotiations don't fall through, the report said.