Hasta La Gadget!

The Polestar 5 will be cut from a different cloth than its predecessors when it launches at the end of 2024. Polestar announced on Tuesday that its upcoming electric performance sedan will ride atop an entirely new, lightweight bonded aluminum platform rather, than the welded design used by the 1 and 2.

Polestar

Because welding aluminum generally halves its yield strength, you end up having to use double the amount of material to achieve the same performance — which defeats the whole purpose of using the lightweight metal in the first place. Bonding aluminum parts together (ie affixing them with screws and adhesive), on the other hand, cuts down on the materials needed but at the cost of extended production times. 

“The cycle time to cure the adhesive is comparatively long compared to a typical welding cell,” Steve Swift, director of vehicle engineering at Polestar, told Engadget via email, adding “the strategy to control build consistency is very different to conventional construction methods.”

In order to maintain the material advantages of using aluminum while minimizing the production penalties of bonding the pieces together, Polestar’s engineering team developed a faster manufacturing process that assembles the vehicle body and battery platform as one.

Polestar

“We were able to bake in the structural stiffness targets we need to meet our dynamic performance aspirations at the beginning of the project,” Swifts said, explaining the benefits of a unibody construction process. 

“As such, we will not have to make late modifications to the design to deliver on performance,” he conceded. “With a conventional strategy, if the platform and body performance contributions are discovered to be unbalanced, a compromise or modification becomes necessary.”

The design’s time-saving design has already born results, enabling the company to produce and deliver an early series of prototypes, just 18 months after the start of development. Swift expects the process to reduce “the timing for some of the production tooling required,” as well. What’s more, Polestar noted that the 5 “is being designed with torsional rigidity superior to that of a traditional two-seat sports or supercar” in Tuesday’s announcement and “is expected to weigh less than that of cars in smaller segments.” This should translate into increased range and improved handling, since there is less vehicle mass to move around. 

Polestar

Though the technique cannot be retroactively applied to production of the Polestar 2, its success with the Polestar 5 could potentially lead to its implementation in future projects as well. “While nothing is in R&D just yet,” Swift said, “we have been dreaming of the possibilities it offers.”

Yet hours before the Russian statement about the troops, a U.S. defense official said Russian units were moving closer to the Ukrainian border – not away from it.

Epson has unveiled a new long-throw laser projector that delivers a claimed “zero compromise” 4K picture thanks to a 3-LCD chip system with new pixel shifting technology. The Pro Cinema 4K PRO-UHD LS12000 also comes with an HDMI 2.1 port, promising 4K gaming at up to 120 frames per second.

Epson stands out from other projector manufacturers by using its own 3-chip LCD system rather than single DLP chips from Texas Instruments. That generally results in better color fidelity and none of the annoying “rainbow effect” of DLP projectors, but less perceived 4K resolution.

It has apparently solved that problem with what it calls “precision shift glass plate technology.” As with other models, it uses three LCDs for red, green and blue, with each limited to 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. However, the shift glass plate system runs at a high refresh rate and accurately shifts pixels “to display a 3,840 x 2,160, 8.29-million-pixel image,” the company said. 

The laser light source, meanwhile, pumps out up to 2,700 lumens and lasts for up to 20,000 hours. It also allows for deeper blacks with a claimed contrast ratio of over 2,500,000:1. There’s no sign of Dolby Vision, but it does offer HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, with the latter supported on Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube, but not Netflix. 

It should be one of the best gaming projectors, as well, with the aforementioned 120 Hz refresh rate, lag input below 20 milliseconds, 1080p upscaling and relatively high brightness. The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 4K PRO-UHD projector is now available for $5,00 — expensive, yes, but a relative bargain compared to comparable 3-chip 4K projectors from Sony, JVC and others.

The San Francisco Police Department has used DNA obtained for a woman’s rape kit to later arrest her over a property crime, according to a horrifying announcement from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin on Monday. And Boudin suggests this might not be the only case of this happening.

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OM Digital Solutions has unveiled the Micro Four Thirds OM-1, its first mirrorless camera since purchasing Olympus. It packs a new sensor and technology that gives it a big leap in performance over the last flagship Olympus models and could be the last Olympus-branded model you’ll see. 

Marking the 50th anniversary of the original OM film SLR, the OM-1 offers some big improvements over the E-M1 Mark III. That starts with the stacked, backside illuminate 20.4-megapixel Live MOS sensor with a “quad pixel” AF arrangement using four photodiodes per pixel. With the higher-speed readout and updated TruePic X processor, it can shoot RAW photos at speeds of up to 50 fps in electronic shutter mode with phase-detect autofocus enabled (with supported PRO series lenses), or 120 fps with AF locked. 

OLYMPUS CORP.

With the stacked design, you’ll also see far less rolling shutter when shooting in electronic mode. That’s pretty important, because speeds go down considerably to 10 fps with the mechanical shutter. Unfortunately, you can only capture up to 139 RAW images at a time with the mechanical shutter, or just 96 RAW images in silent mode at 50 fps — less than 2 seconds of shooting. Those speeds are no doubt limited by OM’s choice to use dual SD UHS-II card slots instead of something faster like CFexpress. 

Though the OM-1 is mainly aimed at wildlife photographers, it can handle more detailed images as well with the High Res Shot mode. That allows you to capture 50-megapixel images handheld in just five seconds, or 80-megapixel images on a tripod. Other modes include live ND to simulate long exposures, HDR, and focus stacking, which delivers an image with everything in focus.

OLYMPUS CORP.

The AF is considerably improved in terms of AI smarts, as well. OM says that its latest face and eye-detect algorithms are much more responsive, and it now detects cars, airplane and trains on top of people, birds and animals. It also has a new subject tracking feature that’s completely separate from face and eye detection. 

The OM-1 looks to easily be OMD’s best camera ever for video. You can now shoot 4K (UHD or DCI) at up to 60 fps, in either 8-bit H.264 or 10-bit H.265 modes (1080p at 240 fps). H.265 capture works either in OM-Log mode for improved dynamic range, or HLG mode for HDR work. Better still, the OM-1 can output 12-bit Apple ProRes RAW video at up to 60 fps to an Atomos Ninja V or Ninja V+ external recorder, supposedly without any subsampling (pixel binning). 

OM Digital Systems

Other feature include 8 stops of in-body image stabilization with supported lenses (7 stops without), high-end build quality with an outstanding IP53 camera rating against dust, water, and freezing conditions, a redesigned menu system, 5.76 million dot 120 HZ electronic viewfinder and battery that delivers 520 shots on a charge (CIPA rated) and 90 minutes of video recording. It has a fully articulating 1.62 million dot rear display that should make this camera ideal for vlogging.  

The OM-1 looks to be a strong rival to Panasonic’s GH5-II Micro Four Thirds camera, offering faster shooting speeds and superior phase-detect autofocus, while even matching up well in terms of video for the first time. It remains to be seen how it will stack up against the upcoming Panasonic GH6, however, which is set to be launched on February 21st at 8PM ET. 

The OM Digital’s OM-1 is now available on pre-order for $2,200, with delivery set for early March. Olympus also unveiled a pair of new lenses, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro II ($1,000) and the M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4 PRO ($900).