This battery electric hatchback was the best thing at the Frankfurt auto show.
I've rarely had as much difficulty photographing a new car at an auto show press day than I had trying to get a good shot of the Honda e. It was always mobbed. [credit:
Jonathan Gitlin ]
FRANKFURT, GERMANY—Two years ago, Honda arguably stole the Frankfurt auto show with its Urban EV concept car. That delightful little electric car was reminiscent of Hondas past, like the N600 and S800, but updated for a carbon-free future. At the 2019 Frankfurt show, it went one better, revealing the production version called the Honda e (which starts at about €30,000 including incentives). And while others were swooning over the new Land Rover, this little battery electric car completely and utterly won my heart. And I think it's a crying shame it won't go on sale here in the US.
It’s not for everyone
Let's be clear about this to stem pages of complaints: I realize the Honda e is not a "one car does it all" solution. At just 153 inches (3,894mm) long, it's a very small car by US standards. Its lithium-ion battery pack is just 35.5kWh and provides a WLTP-calculated range of 138 miles (220km), so stop reading here if your commute to work is more than 50 miles each way. It's not even particularly fast, although it is rear-wheel drive, with either 100kW (134hp) or 113kW (151hp) motors as options and a 0-62mph (100km/h) time of eight seconds. And there are definitely no promises that it will go out at night and earn you money while you sleep.
No, this is a battery electric vehicle with a definite niche, for people who live in cities where journeys are measured in time rather than distance. A niche with BMW has tapped into nicely with the i3. And like the i3, I'm pretty sure that charming—some might say quirky—styling will go a long way in moving metal off forecourts.
The ECS Liva Z2 is a small fanless desktop computer powered by a 6 watt Intel Gemini Lake processor. First unveiled over a year ago, the little computer has been hard to find in the United States. But as spotted by FanlessTech, now you can pick up a ba…
The ECS Liva Z2 is a small fanless desktop computer powered by a 6 watt Intel Gemini Lake processor. First unveiled over a year ago, the little computer has been hard to find in the United States. But as spotted by FanlessTech, now you can pick up a barebones model with a quad-core Intel Celeron […]
The OxyContin-maker filed for bankruptcy as part of a proposed $10-$12 billion deal.
Enlarge/ Bottles of Purdue Pharma L.P. OxyContin medication sit on a pharmacy shelf in Provo, Utah, US, on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)
OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday night amid accusations from state attorneys general that its owners—members of the mega-rich Sackler family—are lowballing opioid victims in a proposed deal to settle around 2,000 lawsuits, mostly from state and local governments.
The bankruptcy filing is part of the proposed deal, which would lead to a company restructuring and a transfer of assets that Purdue says will be valued between $10 billion and $12 billion over time. That includes at least $3 billion from the Sackler family directly.
Purdue is estimated to have made more than $35 billion from OxyContin sales, and the Sacklers have an estimated family fortune of $13 billion, mostly siphoned from Purdue’s OxyContin profits.
OnePlus has picked September 26 as the official unveiling date for its next flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 7T. The company is hosting a "unique online reveal of the OnePlus 7T in North America" at 10:30am ET with a follow-up "OnePlus 7T Series Launch Event" happening in London on October 10.
OnePlus releases a new flagship smartphone about once every six months. March saw the company launch two models, the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro. The US lineup got a bit weird this year, with only the OnePlus 7 Pro launching in the US and the older OnePlus 6T continuing to be sold in the US in lieu of the OnePlus 7. Read through that first paragraph again and it seems like OnePlus is suggesting that it's sticking with the two-phone launch plan (the "OnePlus 7T Series"), and the cheaper OnePlus 7T will make it to North America this time (the "online reveal of the OnePlus 7T in North America").
The OnePlus 7 Pro is still the best Android phone on the market right now. The six-month-old phone's all-screen design, pop-up camera, and silky smooth 90Hz OLED display is something most manufacturers still can't match at any price point, and delivering it all for $670 makes it hard to consider any of the higher-priced alternatives in the flagship arena. The cheaper OnePlus 7, which, again, didn't come to the US, continued the design of the 2018 OnePlus 6T, just with the internals upgraded with a new SoC.
Enlarge/ Wi-Fi connects the world together, but it's still quite complicated. (credit: Aurich Lawson)
Today, the Wi-Fi Alliance launched its Wi-Fi Certified 6 program, which means that the standard has been completely finalized, and device manufacturers and OEMs can begin the process of having the organization certify their products to carry the Wi-Fi 6 branding.
If you need a bit of a catch-up, Wi-Fi 6—aka 802.11ax—is the next generation of Wi-Fi. 802.11ax will, at least in theory, allow many more nearby devices to use the same Wi-Fi channels and frequencies without causing as much congestion and lag as Wi-Fi 5 (better known as 802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) do. That's the good news. The bad news is that very few of these benefits can be seen just from buying a Wi-Fi 6 router—you need most, if not all, of the devices in range (both yours and, ideally, any neighbors') to also support Wi-Fi 6 before you see the improvements.
802.11ax also mandates support for the WPA3 encryption and authentication protocol. WPA3 provides considerably better security for your Wi-Fi network than WPA2 did, and due to its adoption of Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), it will hopefully prove more robust toward future attacks as well.
Das neue Nex 3 von Vivo kommt wahlweise nicht nur mit 5G-Unterstützung, sondern auch mit einem auffälligen Display: Der Hersteller gibt den Anteil des Bildschirms an der Frontfläche mit 99,6 Prozent an. Möglich machen das ein stark gekrümmter Display-R…
Das neue Nex 3 von Vivo kommt wahlweise nicht nur mit 5G-Unterstützung, sondern auch mit einem auffälligen Display: Der Hersteller gibt den Anteil des Bildschirms an der Frontfläche mit 99,6 Prozent an. Möglich machen das ein stark gekrümmter Display-Rand und der Verzicht auf Knöpfe. (Smartphone, Android)
Through the Federal Court, Bell, Rogers, and Groupe TVA are hoping to obtain the first Canadian pirate site blocking order. The companies believe that website blocking is an effective way to deal with pirate sites but Internet provider TekSavvy sees things differently. The ISP describes the proposed measures as ineffective and inappropriate.
Pirate site blockades are gradually spreading across the globe. Thus far, Canada hasn’t joined the movement but that’s something Bell, Rogers, and Groupe TVA hope to change.
In June, the three companies filed a lawsuit against the operators of a ‘pirate’ IPTV service operating from the domain names GoldTV.ca and GoldTV.biz. The companies argued that the service provides access to their TV content without licenses or authorization.
Among other things, the rightsholders requested an interim injunction to stop the operators, who remain unidentified, from continuing to offer the allegedly-infringing IPTV service. This was granted last month, but despite the order, some of the infrastructures remained available.
This resulted in a new request from the media giants, which could potentially lead to the first-ever pirate site blocking order in Canada. Specifically, the companies are calling for an interlocutory injunction order that would require several Canadian ISPs to block GoldTV domain names and IP-addresses.
The request was discussed in Federal Court last Thursday and Friday. Since Rogers and Bell are also ISPs, the companies are also listed as respondents. Obviously, they didn’t object to their own demands. Similarly, there are no objections from Shaw, Eastlink, Fido, SaskTel, Telus, and Videotron either.
With input from some of the Internet providers, the rightsholders drafted a blocking order that they hope to have approved by the Federal Court. It lists several domain names and IP-addresses of the pirate IPTV service and allows for more to be added.
Domains and IP-addresses to be blocked
The blocking technology that’s described in the order is fairly straightforward. Domain names would have to be targeted through DNS blocking or re-routing, and non-shared IP-addresses would have to be blocked or re-routed as well. All ISPs would be permitted to establish their preferred methods, as long as they are effective.
Thus far there hasn’t been much opposition from ISPs. The only company that substantially objects to the proposed site-blocking scheme is TekSavvy.
In written comments to the Court, the ISP points out that the request comes at a curious time as Canadian lawmakers are reviewing the appropriateness of such measures, as part of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review. Issuing a precedential injunction before this review is complete would be inappropriate, TekSavvy argues.
Aside from leap-frogging the ongoing legislative process, the ISP also points out that the site-blocking measures violate net neutrality.
“The plaintiffs seek this Court’s assistance to implement a draconian remedy that runs directly counter to the legislatively established principle of net neutrality,” TekSavvy notes in its written comments.
The ISP doesn’t believe that the blocking measures will be very effective either. There are plenty of workarounds available, for example. The company further notes that it’s unclear whether GoldTV causes any harm and adds that the rightsholders have plenty of other options to go after the service.
For example, they could target the sites through less invasive measures. By contacting its payment provider or hosting company, for example, or going after the Canadian domain name registry.
“[The plaintiffs] ask this Court to deputize TekSavvy and other ISPs to protect the plaintiffs’ profits against some hypothetical (and unknowable) erosion from GoldTV’s services, yet they have not taken some of the most basic self-help steps open to them,” TekSavvy notes.
Overall, the ISP sees website blocking as a draconian measure. While it seems fairly small and directed at a small service that’s no longer widely available, Teksavvy fears that granting the order will open the floodgates to much broader blocking requests.
“If the plaintiffs were successful in obtaining a site-blocking order in this case, there is no question that they would use it as a precedent to obtain other site-blocking orders, whether in respect of copyright infringement or otherwise.”
“TekSavvy could be faced with hundreds and even thousands of websites to block and monitor, exponentially increasing the costs of operating and maintaining a site-blocking system and overwhelming TekSavvy’s capacity,” the company adds.
As such, Teksavvy asks the Federal Court to dismiss the motion. It’s the only third-party company that has done so. Fellow ISP Distributel also objected to the proposed language in the motion, but its complaint only deals with how ISPs are compensated for their efforts.
The Wire Report notes that the Federal Court gave all parties until Wednesday to come to an agreement on the language of the proposed order. It’s clear, however, that TekSavvy is not coming aboard.
After the hearings, the Federal Court will eventually have to decide whether to grant the blocking order or not. That’s expected to take a few more weeks.
—
A copy of the proposed blocking order, which may be changed going forward, is available here (pdf). TekSavvy’s written responses are available here (pdf) and a copy of the affidavit of Paul Stewart, TekSavvy’s VP of Technology, can be found here (pdf).
Infinity Ward still tinkering with ideas, including an enemy-free mini-map.
Enlarge/ How am I supposed to see around that tank like I have X-ray vision without my mini-map?
After years of annualized releases, you might think the basic elements of Call of Duty—like the user interface and heads-up display—would be pretty standardized by now. But this weekend's PS4 beta test for the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been generating controversy thanks to its off-again, on-again, changed-again relationship with the mini-map.
Activision announced back in August that Modern Warfare would be the first game in the franchise since 2007's original Modern Warfare to get rid of the mini-map in multiplayer. It was a bid to add more "realism" to the game, and the game's beta test this weekend was most players' first chance to see how that change affected the multiplayer showdowns. Without a mini-map to give players quick situational awareness, many pros found the new Modern Warfare felt too slow and cautious.
"No Minimap in Call Of Duty = Everyone on the map playing turtle," FaZe Clan CoD pro Austin "Pamaj" Pamajewon tweeted about the move. "We need Minimap. Ain't the same." Matthew ‘Skrapz’ Marshall echoed the same sentiment in a short video rant (NSFW audio): "What is this? 98% of my gameplay is the fucking minimap! I can’t even play pubs! CoD needs it bro. Bad idea."
The Vivo NEX 3 is a smartphone with high-end specs including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, support for up to 12GB of RAM, triple cameras (including a 64MP primary camera), 44 watt fast charging, and it will be available in 4G and 5G variant…
The Vivo NEX 3 is a smartphone with high-end specs including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, support for up to 12GB of RAM, triple cameras (including a 64MP primary camera), 44 watt fast charging, and it will be available in 4G and 5G variants. But the phone’s most noteworthy feature is probably the display […]
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. ‘Dark Phoenix’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’. ‘Aladdin’ completes the top three.
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.
RSS feed for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.
Das neue Nex 3 von Vivo kommt wahlweise nicht nur mit 5G-Unterstützung, sondern auch mit einem auffälligen Display: Der Hersteller gibt den Anteil des Bildschirms an der Frontfläche mit 99,6 Prozent an. Möglich machen das ein stark gekrümmter Display-Rand und der Verzicht auf Knöpfe. (
This week we have three newcomers in our chart.
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