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Despite all the intriguing new devices that Apple showed off this week, it’s never too early to start musing on what might be up the company’s sleeves next. As ever, you can glean a lot about the direction Apple is heading in by seeing what kind of things it is focusing on, especially when it’s rolling out new products with new capabilities. Features and technologies that we haven’t seen before can often point to places in which the company has invested significant time and energy—and, in many cases, it’s with an eye to more than just a single device. One of Apple’s great strengths, after all, is a “build once, deploy anywhere” mentality that lets the company bring the same features to many products. With the first event of 2021 behind…

The owner of a twin-engine trawler was concerned because one of his engines consistently had 10 pounds less oil pressure than the other. The engines were identical and had about the same hours. Why would there be a difference, and what was the correct pressure? Pump it up The process of efficiently converting fuel into mechanical energy requires precisely machined parts in close proximity, lubricated with a thin film of oil. This oil slows wear and helps cool hot parts. A geared oil pump gets that oil flowing from the sump throughout the engine the same way our hearts move blood throughout our bodies. As the oil moves through the parts and passages in the engine, pressure builds (measured in pounds per square inch, or psi, in the United States). If the pressure is…

THE NEW HAYABUSA In just its third iteration since being introduced in 1999, the new Suzuki Hayabusa has been brought up to date with new electronics, riding modes, quickshifter, combined braking, traction control, cruise control and more. The new bike will be available in Australia mid year for just $27,690, although demand is expected to outstrip supply for some time. “With high demand and limited supply, reservations for this highly anticipated motorcycle will be exclusively online via Suzuki’s Build and Order feature on suzukimotorcycles.com.au,” says the official information from Suzuki Australia. Firsts for the new model include an active speed limiter that allows the rider to set a maximum speed for the motorcycle and be safe in the knowledge they won’t exceed that speed. Changes to the bike have been partly forced on Suzuki…

Few vehicles sharing the same basic platform are better differentiated than the boxy, go-anywhere Bronco Sport and the urban-outfitted, lozenge-shaped Escape. Had these C2 platform-mates looked more similar, the former might have cannibalized the latter’s sales. Both are selling at or near capacity three years into the fourth-gen Escape’s model run, but Ford has toughened up softer-looking Escape’s visage and demeanor anyway. Most of the redesign comes courtesy of a bolder new hood, which sits atop a more deeply sculpted grille flanked by a pair of LED-outlined “four-eyed” headlamps. On upper trim levels, a so-called “coast-to-coast” LED light strip connects these headlamp DRLs, illuminating the gap between the hood and grille. A new fascia incorporating a faux skidplate completes the makeover. Other exterior changes are minimal: new 17-, 18-, and 19-inch…

“Everything we make is a gift. I love knowing that our chocolate is a real treat” It is an unlikely spot for a chocolate factory, café and shop: an old potato farm overlooking the Irish Sea, in the shadow of the snow-capped Mourne Mountains. And yet, here in Newry stands NearyNógs, Ireland’s first bean-to-bar chocolate maker (and Northern Ireland’s only one). “The whole factory smells of Christmas while we’re making our chocolate,” says Dorothy Neary, who founded the business with her husband Shane 11 years ago. Today, the youngest five of their 12 children slurp hot chocolate in the café, while the eldest dart between customers, offering matcha truffles hand-rolled to look like Brussels sprouts. The shop is also abuzz with people – many are stocking up on chocolate snowmen, fudge Christmas…

1 Samsung Odyssey Ark > £TBC > samsung.com > The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a great time to see some outlandish tech, and Samsung did not disappoint this year with its Odyssey Ark monitor. This display behemoth is a mammoth 55 inches across — more than double Apple’s largest 27–inch iMac — and uses a heavily curved screen to make using it a little more comfortable and immersive. Like the latest MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, the Odyssey Ark uses miniLED tech to ramp up the display quality and offer increased contrast and brightness. You can rotate the screen 90° into a portrait orientation, and thanks to its curvature and enormous wingspan, this makes the monitor loom ominously overhead — to the height of three 16:9 monitors stacked on top of each…

The Momentum M400 MxV Mono amplifier ($79,500/pair)1 is the latest iteration of Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems’ debut amplifier of 2011, the Momentum Mono amplifier. Weighing 95lb, it is smaller and lighter than its entry-level sibling, the more powerful, 125lb Progression M550 Mono amplifier ($47,500/pair), and is veritably dwarfed by some other monoblocks, including the flagship D’Agostino Relentless Epic 1600 (570lb) and the Karan Acoustics POWERa mono (231lb), which I reviewed last month. But if the M400 MxV’s rock-solid look and feel and its exquisite aesthetics—a sleek amalgam of silver and copper fronted by a power meter that glows green and radiates Rolex quality—are any indication, a helluva lot is going on beneath its showy exterior. Once I took a listen, I discovered sound so smooth and satisfying that the refrain…

Service Life 13 months/23,539 miles Base Price $74,895As Tested $96,895 Average Fuel Econ 17.6 mpg Options Executive package ($4,100: remote engine start, soft-close doors, panoramic sunroof, head-up display), Dynamic Handling package ($3,850: active steering, M Sport brakes), Bowers & Wilkins sound ($3,400); Merino leather ($2,450); Drivers Assistance Professional package ($1,700: Traffic Jam Assist, Active Driving Assistant Pro), Luxury Seating package ($1,600: front ventilated and massaging seats), 22" wheels ($1,300); Cold Weather package ($1,200: front and rear heated seats, 5-zone climate control); Alcantara headliner ($1,000); leather dashboard ($850); trailer hitch ($550) Problem Areas None Maintenance Cost $0 (2x inspection, oil change; 1 in-cabin air filter) Normal Wear $0 3-Year Residual Value* $90,600 (94%) Recalls None *IntelliChoice data; assumes 42,000 miles at the end of three years. “BMW’s biggest boat isn’t bad, but it could be better.”William Walker With its 3.0-liter turbocharged I-6…

La belleza contenida y la armonía zen evocan emociones que pueden trasladarnos a un estado de calma y equilibrio. Son valores que bailan alrededor de la cultura japonesa y que definen los principios del diseño y la arquitectura nipona. Para acercarnos a estas dos disciplinas, la primera edición del Japan Desu reúne una serie de exposiciones y actividades en las que conocer el presente y el futuro del diseño en Japón. Descubriremos firmas como Nissan, en cuyos diseños se refleja la característica estética de líneas puras en torno a los principios del Wabi-Sabi: la sencillez, la imperfección, la belleza en lo sutil, la naturalidad, la gracia delicada, la libertad y la tranquilidad. Algo que también simboliza el nuevo Nissan ARIYA, un coche con alma japonesa en el que todo está pensado…

PROS • Return of the light, fun BMW coupe • Excellent I-4 and I-6 powertrains • Longer wheelbase improves second row CONS • Lacks some standard safety systems • Center console lacks storage space • Occasionally glitchy infotainment system 230i, M240i VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, RWD, 4-pass, 2-door coupe; front-engine, AWD, 4-pass, 2-door coupe ENGINE, TRANSMISSION 2.0L turbo direct-injected DOHC 16-valve I-4; 3.0L turbo direct-injected DOHC 24-valve I-6, 8-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 3,535 lb (50/50%); 3,876 lb (53/47%) WHEELBASE 107.9 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 179.0 x 72.4 x 54.8; 179.4 x 72.4 x 55.3 in ON SALE Now A slow clap for BMW bringing a new 2 Series to the lineup. There isn’t much appetite in this world for compact, playful sport coupes, yet here the 2 sits. It does more than that, though—while the second-generation car has grown, it remains…

PROS • Sharp handling • Practical hatchback body • Stellar fuel economy CONS • Too much Civic inside not to notice • No summer tire option • Road noise is an issue AUTO; MANUAL VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, FWD, 5-pass, 4-door hatchback ENGINE, TRANSMISSION 1.5L turbo direct-injected DOHC 16-valve I-4, cont variable auto; 6-speed manual CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 3,117 lb (61/39%); 3,040 lb (60/40%) WHEELBASE 107.7 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 185.8 x 72.0 x 55.5 in ON SALE Now The resurrected Acura Integra is an exceptional car when viewed within a vacuum. It competes against other small luxury cars such as the Audi A3, BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe, and Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class but costs far less and is much larger inside than all of them. The styling laid over the Integra’s hatchback shape might not be beautiful, but it is eye-catching with…

Windows 11 brings Auto HDR, first introduced on the Xbox Series X|S consoles, to the PC. The feature promises to make older titles look just as bright and vibrant as newer HDR-compatible releases without a major hit to performance. That’s sure to have PC gamers eyeing an upgrade to Windows 11. Is it worth making the leap? We’ve dug deep into Windows 11’s Auto HDR to find the answer. Here’s everything you need to know: the hardware you need to how to set it up, image quality comparisons with the feature on and off, and comparisons of how Windows 11’s Auto HDR compares to the version offered on the Xbox. Let’s dig in. HOW TO USE AUTO HDR Auto HDR is a standard feature of Windows 11 and is available when high dynamic…

Looking at our 15-strong 2023 Car of the Year field, it’s apparent we’re witnessing the form’s decline. Our field is not only smaller than in recent years but also more “foreign.” The Detroit Three sell a total of 10 cars between them. Add Tesla and Lucid into the mix, and that number balloons to a whopping 13. A decade ago, the Detroit Three alone sold upward of 30 car models. This year’s COTY field featured just one American car. But what if we’re looking at the car’s decline the wrong way? What if we’re being colored by recent biases? What if the traditional car—typically a three-box design with a distinct hood, body, and trunk—was a historical anomaly? Was the SUV’s rise inevitable? Looking back at the bestselling vehicles of the past 100…

Many enthusiasts consider OLED the best display quality. You’ll find OLED in LG TVs, Apple’s new iPhones, and a long list of smartphones and tablets from Samsung. If you want to enjoy OLED on a PC, however, your options are limited. A small handful of laptops, like the Dell XPS 13 and Samsung Galaxy Book, offer an OLED display. A few OLED monitors exist, but most are massive screens designed for use in a living room, not on a desk. Why is this true? And will it change anytime soon? OLED DESKTOP MONITORS DON’T EXIST BECAUSE (ALMOST) NO ONE CAN MAKE THEM Desktop monitors are popular among PC enthusiasts but, compared to other markets for displays, they’re a small market with small margins. As a result, companies that produce OLED panels place a focus…

Steve Jobs’ impact was so significant that it’s difficult to find the words to describe his influence on business, technology, and society, even 10 years after his death. It’s hard to narrow down the products released under his watch to a list of just five. But we tried anyway. Here’s our list of the most memorable products released during Steve Jobs’ tenure with Apple. Also note that Apple has posted a film, Celebrating Steve, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jobs’ death. 1. APPLE II Everyone remembers the Mac (see item two on this list), but the Apple II was the first product that really got Apple going as a business. The first mass-produced computer by the company in 1977, the Apple II (pictured) succeeded the Apple I, which was not a…

Is the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq for real? This head-turning, all-electric superluxury sedan is longer than the brand’s Escalade SUV and priced in a stratosphere Cadillac has long only dreamed of returning to. To wit: Pricing will start above the $300,000 threshold, but customers can easily add up to $100,000 more via customization, all but guaranteeing no two owners have the same exact car. The mere fact Cadillac is producing the Celestiq is nearly as surprising as the vehicle itself, which fulfills a longstanding desire to build a proper flagship. An idea became a vision, then a concept car, and now a fabulous final-form four-door that brings to life almost all the gee-whiz features envisioned along the way. The Celestiq has an estimated 600 hp and 640 lb-ft of torque, a 0–60…

At this year’s WWDC, Apple lifted the lid on the next generation M-series chip: M2, which extends the remarkable features of M1, with industry-leading power efficiency, a unified memory architecture, and custom technologies that unlock a whole host of possibilities for the Mac. INTRODUCING THE M2 CHIP Apple changed the game for the Mac when it announced the M1 chip in 2020, and since the launch of the first MacBook Pro and Mac mini, we’ve come a long way. Alongside the launch of the M1 Pro and the M1 Max, we’ve recently seen the launch of the first M1-powered iPad, and the M1 Ultra, which offers professional computing performance for the next generation of videographers, coders, and professionals. The M1 was built on the architecture of the A14 chip used for the…

Let’s face it, using acrylic paints and finishing products — like weathering powders and washes — is different from using enamels, oil paints, or lacquers. You can produce similar effects, but the processes and methods vary slightly. However, once you have them down, you can use water-based acrylics on anything, from armor to sci-fi models and everything between. In 2008, I won the Gunpla World Championships using only acrylics and went on to win multiple other awards afterward. During that time, I continued to develop my process and came to fall in love with Acrylicos Vallejo paints — to the point that I use them almost exclusively. That isn’t to say you can’t apply my techniques with other acrylic paints, but you’ll have to modify your approach to suit the brand.…

Chloë Grace Moretz should be on the road. She stars in two major films being released this year, so there’s a lot to promote. But since the pandemic has halted regular life, she is stationed at her home in Los Angeles, which presents her with a couple of new realities: being at her abode (this is the longest stretch ever) and having loads of free time. From age 5, Chloë has spent most of her life traveling or on a set. Since she can remember, her days have run on a rigid schedule planned to the hour. Then, poof, her routine suddenly dismantled, and Chloë became unmoored. “In the beginning it felt nice to take a break. I thought it might last for a few weeks. Then it became very real…

It’s okay for your children to get involved as much as they want. Graham Snook explains, ‘Sometimes my daughter Ella, nine, will want to help on board; other times she’d rather be down below with a book or the iPad. If it’s raining, she’ll snuggle up under the spray hood and grin back at me. Sailing is as much her time as it is mine.’ Having jobs on board is important, says Abi Kavanagh. ‘Underway, our children, need something to “do”. The sense of responsibility helps them feel part of the team. Our girls are seven and five; they helm, keep lookout, zoom in and out on the chart plotter. They are learning basic navigation. Last summer our eldest planned our route and piloted us from Portsmouth into Bembridge, which kept…

THE rapid progress in artificial intelligence in recent months is partly due to training on vast data sets of text and images, scraped for free from the internet. Although automated web scraping by search engines has been accepted by website owners for decades, the economic shift being brought about by AI has triggered a rethink. At a basic level, search engines offer an exchange to website owners: let us scrape to compile the information and serve useful results, and we will send traffic your way in return. But scraping for AI changes this equation, hoovering up text or images while providing nothing for website owners, who have to pay the server costs of being scraped. As a result, a war on scraping has begun. Twitter owner Elon Musk has threatened to sue…

1. Aperitivo hour These sturdy but stylish glasses would be ideal for Italian-style spritzes. The coloured tinted bases add to their charm. Colourful cocktail glasses, £42 for four, roseandgrey.co.uk 2. Hug in a box The Tartan Blanket Co’s contemporary takes on the Scottish weave are good for winter snuggles or spring picnics. They include throws made from recycled wool and fibres saved from landfill (alongside luxe lambswool and cashmere). Opt for a gift box and add a mug and cosy treats for full comforting effect. Recycled wool blanket, from £40 (gift box items extra), tartanblanketco.com 3. What’s your handle? For the interiors lover (or a friend re-doing their kitchen), Yorkshire Foundry’s cabinet handles are a beautiful finishing touch. Hand-crafted in aluminium and brass, the nature-inspired range includes citrus halves, broccoli florets, sinuous chillies and our favourite, the…

There aren’t many companies like Axopar. Its rise has been rapid and, since the arrival of the 28 in 2014, it has gone from a producer of super versatile outboard powered sportsboats to a fully fledged lifestyle brand with expansions and partnerships sprouting up all over the place. Then there is the man behind the brand, Jan-Erik Viitala, who co-founded it, having had a hand in XO, Aquador and Paragon (hence the name, an amalgamation of all three) and even now is fastidiously fiddling at launch events, affixing decals to the boats himself and ensuring the Axopar mats on the quayside are perfectly aligned. It’s who he is and this obsessiveness offers a glimpse into what goes into designing a new Axopar. Given that the 45 is the largest boat…

AT A STEEL PLANT IN LULEA, SWEDEN, WORKERS MAKE the world’s most essential construction material the old-fashioned way: piling iron ore and coke, a kind of coal-derived fuel, in a huge blast furnace, heating the mixture to enormous temperatures, and then “tapping” the cauldron of molten metal, which sends a stream of white-hot pig iron—and showers of sparks—spilling out along a sluiceway. But less than a mile away, the plant’s owner, SSAB, is piloting a less dramatic steelmaking process at a new facility. “It doesn’t look that spectacular,” says Martin Pei, executive vice president and chief technology officer at the Swedish steelmaker. “You don’t see very much either, because it’s all automatically controlled.” It’s spectacular in a different way, though. Traditional blast furnaces emit huge amounts of CO₂. But SSAB’s HYBRIT pilot…

I received a text from a Porsche PR person: “Hey, Jonny. We have something coming up I think Reggie Watts might be interested in: Meeting the guys who developed the Mission R concept race car and going for a ride in it.” Long story short, Porsche was conducting a press launch for notable influencers and had its corporate sights for the American influencer wave on Reggie Watts. (Watts, if you don’t know, is a musician, comedian, and band leader/de facto co-host for The Late Late Show with James Corden.) I’d met Watts three months earlier when he was our guest on the first episode of our future of the automobile podcast/vodcast, The InEVitable. Two things from that experience will always stand out to me. One is that after he left the studio,…

We don’t blame you if you think to yourself, “Here we go again; MotorTrend is about to laud yet another 911 GT3.” We also won’t apologize, because few cars deserve the consistency of praise given to the latest 911 GT3 range, from the standard GT3 that won our 2022 Performance Vehicle of the Year award to the next-level-and-then-some GT3 RS we drove for the first time recently (January 2023). Now we’ve taken a 2022 911 GT3 Touring with a manual transmission to our testing grounds to see how the “least extreme” version gets on with its job. The wing delete is the only significant performance-altering change between the GT3 and GT3 Touring models, thanks to the aerodynamic downforce lost by replacing the large, fixed version with an active rear spoiler and…

VAST numbers of copyrighted books appear to have been memorised by ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4, posing questions about the legality of how these large language models (LLMs) are created. Both artificial intelligences were developed by private firm OpenAI and trained on huge amounts of data, but which texts make up this training data is unknown. To find out more, David Bamman at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues looked at whether the AIs were able to fill in missing details from a selection of almost 600 fiction books, drawn from sources such as nominees for the Pulitzer prize between 1924 and 2020, and The New York Times’s bestsellers lists over the same time period. “Whether large language models are infringing copyright is a question that court cases will decide” The…

Intel’s 11th-gen Rocket Lake chip won’t hit shelves until the end of March, but an unexpectedly early review of a retail Core i7-11700K labels the chip as power-hungry and unable to surpass AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X in many tests. The review, written by respected CPU expert Dr. Ian Cutress of Anandtech.com, was based on a Core i7-11700K that is presumably one of the hundreds of CPUs accidentally sold a month before launch by a German retailer. Benchmarks of the chip have been making the rounds ever since, but Cutress is the first experienced journalist to publish a review. Cutress stepped carefully in his story, avoiding mention of any information he had already been given by Intel under embargo during regular briefings for the chip. He said he informed Intel that he had the…

In 1998, Steve Jobs introduced the first iMac, and it revolutionized the personal computer—not to mention giving new life to a struggling Apple. The iMac was a big hit, but after four years, Apple needed to update the computer. The updated iMac not only had to usher in new technologies, but also had the daunting task of proving that Apple’s design innovation wasn’t a fluke. So in 2002, Apple introduced the iMac G4, and the firm again turned the market on its head. And in doing so, it created the greatest Mac it has ever made. Here’s why it still holds up two decades later. THE DESIGN WAS TRULY UNIQUE Very early on in its history, Apple was known for making all-in-one computers. While most people associate all-in-one with the iMac, the Lisa,…

The fact that you and everyone you know will receive spam and scam emails (and texts) for as long as they live should be added to the famous Ben Franklin quote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Spam is constant and ever present, and you likely have a few hundred messages sitting in your spam folder as you read this. The very fact that we even need to have a spam folder tells us there’s a problem. However, you are a savvy inbox navigator and a seasoned connoisseur of Nigerian missives. The problem is, someone in your family is decidedly not. Maybe it’s your mother or father, an uncle, or even a step-relative. Here’s some advice to keep them safe. ALWAYS KNOW (AND…

A new operating system incompatible with older hardware—that’s surely another MacOS announcement, right? Not this time. Windows users could soon find themselves in the same boat as Apple fans: Following close behind the official announcement of Windows 11 was the reveal of much stricter hardware compatibility (see page 7) for Windows 10’s successor. Unlike previous generations of the operating system, Windows 11 tacks on tougher security requirements, like the presence of a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 and the ability to use Secure Boot. In a mild surprise, Microsoft has already named specific processors that are cleared for the next era of Windows. Much remains to be explained—such as the criteria for getting the green light, though we’ve sniffed out some strong clues about processor security features—but for now, if you’re curious whether…

Microsoft has published its hardware requirements for Windows 11, adding strict new security requirements for its next operating system. Here’s what you’ll need to run Windows 11 when Microsoft releases it in the fall. Microsoft will release Windows 11 by holiday 2021, so you’ll have ample time to prepare. Microsoft is working with PC makers to develop Windows 11–ready PCs, and you may be able to upgrade to Windows 11 for free with your existing PC—provided it meets the minimum hardware requirements. Fortunately, if your PC doesn’t meet those requirements, you’ll have several years to replace it, as Windows 10 will be supported until 2025. New Windows 11 PCs will also ship this fall. We’ve updated this story to note that Microsoft has published a multipage document listing the detailed hardware requirements…

Mathematics has never been my strong point and I blame my lack of numeracy to assess depths for secondary ports on my Secondary Modern education. But there is another way, of course, even on a boat without an echo-sounder. Even on a boat without an echo-sounder, heading for a short-cut over a sandbank on a falling tide, in a rising wind while sailing solo. It is the sapling. Mine is a very strong… twig. Sycamore, I think, picked up in woodland after a coppicing exercise and taken back to my shed where I measured and marked a depth gauge in feet along its length. At each mark I cut around the young bark with a knife, peeled it away and used white undercoat to paint a ring. Now, armed with my blind…

NBC | Law & Order: Organized Crime A decade later, Christopher Meloni is back on the beat DRAMA “In the nation’s largest city, the vicious and violent members of the underworld are hunted by the detectives of the Organized Crime Bureau.” So, with the regrettable use of alliterative v’s, goes the spoken intro to this new chapter of the Law & Order franchise. Organized Crime marks the return to NBC of Christopher Meloni, costar of Special Victims Unit’s first 12 seasons. His homecoming is an event that, along with Oprah Winfrey’s interview of the Sussexes and Grey’s Anatomy’s parade of resurrected characters, proves that the networks still know how to create moments of buzzy TV. With his irresistibly strong falcon profile, Meloni once again plays short-fused Elliot Stabler. Reeling from the death of…

$449, sony.com.au There’s no doubt that Sony has a strong pedigree when it comes to premium noise-cancelling audio, with both its WF-1000X and WH-1000X product lines dominating their class (true wireless in-ear headphones, and wireless over-ear headphones respectively). With the WF-1000XM4, Sony has upped the ante once more, introducing an entirely new ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) processing chip, along with a redesigned earbud, and the results are stunning if somewhat pricey. Design As Sony has reliably done for past 1000X product launches, the WF-1000XM4 is available either in Black or Platinum Silver – both classy and understated colours with brassy, metallic trim that provides a subtle counterpoint to the matte and uniform tone of the plastic. This trim is most prominent in the cylindrical microphone housing protruding from each earbud and is seen again on…

There’s a new amplification technology in town, which purports to take Class-D concepts to a new level, with negligible distortion, extraordinarily low noise, load-invariant response, exceptionally clean clipping, low losses and high efficiency, while delivering 400-watts of power without even getting hot. It comes from Purifi, in Denmark, which has named the technology ‘Eigentakt’, which is German for ‘self-clocking’. We’d exercise our usual caution with such remarkable claims, but what makes us more inclined towards credence in this case is NAD’s rush to adopt it, and also the team that’s behind it. The three listed co-founders of Purifi Audio are Bruno Putzeys, Lars Risbo and Peter Lyngdorf — a pretty illustrioustrio. MEET THE TEAM Bruno Putzeys is a Belgian engineer who spent a decade at Philips working on switching amplifier technologies before striking…

Craig, there’s been a Mayday, you have to get up,’ whispered nine-year-old Dorothy, almost apologetically, through the half-open door to my cabin. I mumbled incoherently while fumbling blearily for clothes. It was 0900. I’d only finished my watch at 0730ish and had been asleep for about an hour, but a Mayday is a Mayday. We were smack in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, some 10 days into my first transatlantic crossing as crew aboard Magic Dragon of Dart – a 1994-built, 55-foot Oyster owned and skippered by Rod Halling and his wife, Jane. Also aboard were Rod’s daughter from a previous marriage, Lizzie, a competent dinghy sailor, along with Dorothy, and four-year-old twins, Peter and Vera. A real family affair. We were sailing with the 2021 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), the…

Buyers of rugged laptops, sturdy systems designed to be bolted to first responders’ dashboards or dropped onto rocky ground, make a distinction between “semi-rugged” and “fully rugged” notebooks—machines rated to survive a fall of three feet versus six feet, say, or pouring rain versus a high-pressure hose. Its maker calls the Durabook S14I ($3,004 as tested) “one step above semi-rugged,” meaning it’s not the most bulletproof laptop you can buy, but it’s still formidably tough, versatile, and well-equipped. The S14I hits a sweet spot for users whose work takes them (and their gear) into harm’s way. The only thing keeping it from an Editors’ Choice award is its mediocre battery life. You’ll definitely want to fill its modular bay with the available second battery pack instead of the DVD drive…

There is a lot to tell about this project. In essence, it was a huge sculpture job centred around a very well known and much loved 150-year-old oak tree at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. On December 27, 2019 there was a catastrophic collapse of the entire tree. This sort of collapse is extremely rare and was exacerbated somewhat by the cabling so often done around the world to support big trees in unnatural environments. The RBGV now has a newer system called dynamic cabling which allows the big branches to move more naturally. The White Oak Project is the brainchild of the Gardens’ dynamic Landscape Architect Andrew Laidlaw and is unique in the world. Although it was a catastrophic event, the way that the tree collapsed was ironically beautiful. From…

If you think the electrification wave is limited to mainstream automakers, wait until lawmakers run out of new internal combustion engines to tax. We’re not saying gasoline-burning classic cars will be banished, but there’s no guarantee they won’t gradually become tougher and tougher to own and operate. Converting a classic car to battery electric power is already a thing, whether inspired by prescience or mechanical frustration. Want to breathe modern life into your baby? Here’s a selection of some of the big-gest names in the EV conversion biz. Chevrolet eCrate (chevrolet.com/performance-parts/electrification) You might need to get used to saying “crate motor” instead of “crate engine.” Chevrolet unveiled plans for a range of electric crate motors and batteries for hobbyists, cleverly called “eCrate,” falling right in line with GM’s ongoing push toward an…

PTP Audio Solid9 Thank you, Herb Reichert, for another great Gramophone Dreams column and for taking the time to try our PTP Audio Solid9 turntable. Like Art Dudley before him, Herb has clearly understood what we are trying to achieve. We hope our products stop their owners listening with an audiophile ear, to have them suddenly realize that a whole record side has passed and all they did was enjoy the music. With Herb, that seems to have worked perfectly. Our turntables are built around a few key vintage Lenco components. Around these character-defining parts, we have done a lot to refine that character and secure its soul, creating something well beyond what a standard or modded Lenco can achieve. We are grateful that Herb agrees with our work. Peter Reinders, OwnerPTP Audio Miyajima Kotetu I want…

The core task for every antivirus utility is to exterminate any malware infestations that took root before its installation and then maintain vigilance to prevent any further attacks. Some products stick to those essential activities, while others, like ESET NOD32 Antivirus, go quite a bit beyond them. Among other bonus features, NOD32 includes a Host Intrusion Prevention System, a scanner for your PC’s firmware, and an elaborate device control system. It scores well in most tests, both lab tests and our hands-on tests, but it did turn in a few poor scores. In addition, some of its advanced features may be too complex for the average user. PROS: Some excellent scores from independent labs. Some good scores in our hands-on tests. HIPS component blocks exploits. Comprehensive device control. CONS: Poor score in…

A sadly common question for Mac 911 since the start of the pandemic was how to deal with someone’s online accounts and data stored on computers and mobile devices after they’d died. In most cases, preparations have to be made to provide this sort of posthumous access. Apple added an option in late 2021 called Digital Legacy that lets you set up your iCloud account in such a way that you can make it a simple task for appointed people to retrieve specific data, like photos and contacts. But a reader recently asked the inverse question: How can data be locked away forever in the event of a death? Some people have secrets; others are intensely private; others wish to be forgotten. The author Franz Kafka burned an estimated 90 percent…

PROS • Slick EV integration • Crushingly normal, unlike most EVs • Channels core BMW traits CONS • Eco-minded tires can be loud • Awkward ingress/egress • Limited center-console storage space eDRIVE40; M50 VEHICLE LAYOUT Rear-motor, RWD, 5-pass, 4-door hatchback; front- and rear-motor, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door hatchback MOTORS, TRANSMISSIONS Brushed synchronous electric, 1-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 4,708 lb (45/55%); 5,012 lb (48/52%) WHEELBASE 112.4 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 188.5 x 72.9 x 57.0 ON SALE Now Look at the BMW i4, then look at a current BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe. The two four-door hatchbacks are virtually identical, their shared platform flexible enough to support both electric and gas-powered models. Cover the i4’s badges, and it’s tough to identify as an EV—save for the lack of exhaust pipes and its blocked-off kidney grilles. Typically, gas cars converted to EVs don’t feel…

MAKING ECO-FRIENDLY decisions can be tricky. We each need to do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we also need to wear shoes and clothes and maybe brush our teeth. Luckily, more and more companies are putting sustainability first—or at least not last—making some of our purchasing decisions a little easier. Here are a few of our favorite products that deliver performance without too much pollution. Bureo Ahi → Discarded plastic fishing nets are a big threat to ocean wildlife. California- and Chile-based Bureo takes those nets out of circulation by turning them into recycled products like sunglasses, clothes, and skateboards. The Ahi is its performance cruiser, designed in collaboration with Carver Skateboards. Carver’s patented trucks let you pump the skateboard and feel like you’re surfing on land. $195 MEDEA GIORDANO…

FORTY-TWO countries or territories have been certified as malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO). This has largely been credited to the use of bed nets, insecticides and efficient diagnoses and treatments for the parasitic condition. But with climate change creating new breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes and the roll-out of an effective vaccine being too expensive for many countries, malaria elimination worldwide isn’t straightforward. An estimated 247 million cases and 619,000 deaths from malaria occurred in 2021, of which at least 95 per cent were in Africa, where children under 5 are the most at risk. In 2020, malaria transmission was occurring in 85 countries. The WHO certifies a country as malaria-free if no cases have been contracted there for at least three years and it shows it has the capacity to…

1 HARDY HYBRID Cockwells has launched the first of its new generation Hardys after buying the brand last year. And it’s a diesel electric hybrid. The boat is a Hardy 42, a timeless well-proven model, around 30 of which have been built over the past 18 years. Previous owner Windboats started the build by laminating the hull and superstructure but the remaining 70% of the work has been completed by Cockwells at its Mylor Creek facility in Cornwall. The hybrid installation is based around a single 440hp Yanmar diesel engine, rather than the usual twin set-up, with a 20kW electric motor linked to a 22kW generator and a 48V 400AH lithium-ion battery bank providing an additional source of clean, quiet power for the single shaft and propeller. The generator either runs the…

1 SONY ALPHA 7R V • £4,000, sony.co.uk It’s time to make two bold and controversial statements. One, the quality of Sony’s recent camera output now places it directly next to Canon and Nikon in pro cameras’ upper tier. Two: the DSLR is dead. Mirrorless sensors open up new possibilities, and manufacturers are only now scratching the surface of what’s possible. Right now, the Alpha 7R V is utterly remarkable for its AI subject detection engine, which utilises deep learning to pull off what Sony calls ‘next-generation autofocus’, able to not only accurately pick out subjects in frame but to analyse their pose to ensure the 7R V never locks onto a foreground finger. Five years down the line? The entire mirrorless market will be brainier than your cat. The Alpha 7R V also…

BY THE TIME THE sun sinks over the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, Rekha is struggling to sit still. Twisting her plastic bangles, the 34-year-old mother of two checks her phone to make sure she hasn’t missed a call from her 12-year-old son, who was due home 30 minutes earlier. Rekha wanders outside to peer through the front gate, anxiety sketched all over her face. “This job is too dangerous,” she says, frowning. “Every morning I say goodbye and I pray, ‘Please Allah, send him home tonight.’” Rekha has cause to worry. In the 18 months since her elder son Rafi started work in a local glass factory, he’s returned home bruised and bleeding more than once. One afternoon, he severed the soft skin of his palm with a sharp blade intended…

ERASE AN ENCRYPTED MAC VOLUME IF YOU DON’T NEED ITS CONTENTS MacOS offers a number of drive encryption options. With a Mac with a T2 chip built in, the startup volume is always encrypted. On other Macs, enabling FileVault encrypts that volume. (On all Macs, FileVault provides additional protection for a powered-down Mac, too.) You can also select a drive in the Finder, Control-click it, and choose Encrypt drive name, setting a password of your choosing. If you forget that password or were given or purchase a drive that’s encrypted, you might think you’re at a dead end. However, as long as you don’t need the data on the drive, you can still erase it using Disk Utility: 1. Launch Applications → Utilities → Disk Utility. 2. Select the volume or drive in the…

YEARS AGO, I heard reports of amateur astronomers glimpsing a huge emission nebula in our galaxy, cataloged as IC 1396. Deep astroimages showed an expansive, complex nebula in Cepheus, about 3° in diameter on the northern side of the brightest visual band of the Milky Way, above Cygnus. Being a huge fanboy of all things that shine with the dim glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen ions, I had to see it! Based on years of success observing faint, challenging galaxies, I confidently aimed my telescope towards Cepheus, eagerly anticipating visions of a grand nebulosity. But the best I could manage was the faint impression that something was there. I was sorely disappointed. Frustrated, I dismissed other observers’ written reports as wishful thinking. As it turned out, the fault was my own.…

Whether scratchbuilt or sourced from the aftermarket, there’s detail inside and out in these scale replicas. FSM shot them at the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society (AMPS) International Convention in Sumter, S.C., and talked to the builders about what makes their models special. MICHAEL’S VIGNETTE depicts a British army vehicle that has blown an engine seal while on patrol in Afghanistan and is under attack by Taliban fighters. The basis for the scene is HobbyBoss’ 1/35 scale Land Rover, which Michael updated to 2008 standards with Accurate Armour’s R-WMIK TES(T/H) conversion set. “The upgrade was practically a replacement!” he says. “The rear body, frame, wings, seats, machine gun and its mount, rear gear basket, sand channels, front GPMG mount and weapon, wheels, and roll cage were all replaced.” Other new parts included…

Figure skating is often the most solitary of pursuits. It was even more so for Keegan Messing in a season overwhelmed by the effects of a global pandemic. That feeling of separation is rather routine for Messing, but it was enhanced even further when COVID-19 tore through the 2020-2021 skating season. Messing, who trains in his home state of Alaska with long-time coach Ralph Burghart, was thousands of miles away from any of his Canadian teammates for more than a year. Keegan Messing’s arrival in Sweden came at the end of 24 hours of travel and three flights, which took him through Seattle, Washington and Amsterdam. But he was not complaining. Messing welcomed the opportunity to reunite with his friends and teammates in March at the World Championships in Stockholm. It had been so,…

At a recent board meeting, the CIO of a major global corporation led a wide-ranging discussion about the tools and practices needed to fortify the company’s data and systems against breaches. The board encouraged heightened investment and vigilance, then moved on to its next agenda item, a financial committee presentation leading to a board vote on acquiring shares to consolidate ownership in an enterprise in which the company held a minority stake. To the surprise of the CIO, who was still in the room, there was no discussion of cybersecurity, even though the acquiree was operating in a region where cyber breaches and criminal hacking were endemic. Happily, the CIO’s fortuitous presence enabled a proper discussion of the impact of the decision on the company’s cyber-risk profile, and a change…