Month: June 2018

Enlarge (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Because Jaguar is only offering I-Pace drives in Portugal, we elected to accept a paid flight and 3 nights in a hotel (two in Portugal and then one at CDG because we had to wait for our return flight) in order to attend this event, rather than having to wait several more months to drive the vehicle.

The Jaguar I-Pace might just be the most significant new car we'll drive this year. It's an all-new, all-electric vehicle from the British automaker, the first installment of its ambitious plan to electrify the entire model range over the next few years. We first saw the I-Pace as a concept at the 2016 LA Auto Show. Now, less than two years later, the production version is ready, almost unchanged.

And this week, we've driven it—on the road, off-road, and even on track. It's not perfect (no car is), but make no mistake: it is very, very good. So good that Waymo—Google's self-driving program—has ordered 20,000 I-Paces to put into service as robocabs in the next couple of years.

Enlarge / Microsoft in Dublin, Ireland. (credit: Red Agenda / Flickr)

A report from Reuters suggests that Microsoft is looking to take on Amazon in the retail store space. Microsoft is reportedly working on technology that removes the need for cashiers and checkout lines in stores, similar to Amazon's technology already implemented in its Amazon Go brick-and-mortar store.

According to the report, Microsoft's technology tracks which items customers put into their carts. While it's unclear how far along Microsoft is in developing this technology, the company has reportedly shown sample tech to potential partners and has even talked to Walmart about implementing it.

The exact technology used in Microsoft's service isn't explained, but it may be linked to the company's new Kinect for Azure project. Detailed at Microsoft Build last month, this project builds on Kinect's current abilities and includes integrated computing power and a sensor package with a depth-mapping camera. It can be used to execute spatial mapping and motion tracking, which could come in handy when tracking customers' hands as they reach for items on shelves.

Enlarge (credit: Square-Enix)

LOS ANGELES—Just Cause 4 has the opportunity to take a video game franchise that has never quite hit its stride into the spotlight. 2015's Just Cause 3 was the franchise's best game yet, and though it had some major flaws, the basic ingredients were so fun, players could be forgiven for thinking just one more iteration would lead to "classic" status.

Just Cause 3's flaws were very notable indeed, especially on the PC. Performance and network issues severely hurt the experience on that platform when the game first launched. Low framerates (20 to 30 frames per second in high-intensity moments) were the game's Achilles' heel on the PS4 and Xbox One.

I played it on PS4, and for me at least, the sandbox mayhem and core gameplay loop were just too fun to get hung up on the framerate. Besides, it wasn't a game about precision; it was a game about seeing your hilariously ridiculous hair-brained schemes come to fruition in unexpected ways. It was part Grand Theft Auto, sure, but it was also part Garry's Mod or Kerbal Space Program. I was more bothered by the fact that the game's open world wasn't that deep, and it felt repetitive pretty quickly—probably a sign of a significantly smaller budget than something like GTA V got.