The Facebook Phone has been leaked again, this time still inside the “HTC first” smartphone, this time in a set of press images that show off how simple your experience is about to be. What we’ve got here is a new look at Android, complete with an ultra-simplified interface that pulls no punches when it comes to customization. This is no “do what you want” space, that’s for sure. NOTE: Join us here on SlashGear for the full final reveal at 10AM PST – we’ll be live in effect at Facebook headquarters for you!
In the images you’re seeing above and below (picked up by 9to5Google, you’ll see Facebook being pushed to Android in a big way. In the lockscreen photo (below) you’ll see your Facebook profile image as the center lock – we must assume that you’ll be able to log in with several different profiles if you wish, as Android Jelly Bean allows such functionality at its base.
There you’ll also see notifications from your Phone (this means the device will require voice, dousing thoughts of a web-only smartphone) as well as Instagram and Facebook messaging. This device’s lock screen also shows what may be an ever-changing status update above the fold where you see what your friends are up to.
Below you’ll see an image from inside your photo gallery. This interface makes it appear that Facebook’s take on the Android gallery isn’t all that different from what Google presents. Here you’ll still be able to share to whatever apps you’ve got on the device, including Facebook’s news feed and Facebook Messenger.
Finally you’ll see a home screen, this showing how you’ll still be working with Android icons for the most part, but with the addition of three buttons up top. Up above the fold you’ll be seeing “Status”, “Photo”, and “Check In.” It’s obvious that Facebook intends for you to be tapping these three buttons quite often.
While we’re not sure if these three screens show everything there is to see about the Facebook Phone’s user interface modifications of Android Jelly Bean, we can be sure that the HTC first will be boasting said software tomorrow. You’ll want to JOIN US LIVE AT THE MAIN FACEBOOK EVENT tomorrow at 10AM PST to see the whole show – hit up our Facebook tag portal for more!
Those of you still skeptical about the possibility of an HTC Facebook Phone can toss in the rest of your chips – there’s been a full leak of the so-called “HTC first” this afternoon. This leak includes one extremely clear photo of the device in question from the notoriously accurate @evleaks, leaker of so many devices such as this in this same manner that we’ve simply come to trust the man. This device is one that will be launching with Facebook’s own customized user interface over Android later this week.
It’s also become apparent via this same source that Facebook for Android – the application you’re using right this minute if you’re working with the main Android-based Facebook app – will need to be updated later this week in order to work with the new system. The new system has been once again confirmed to be called “Facebook Home” as well.
For those of you wondering what this device will be like, hardware-wise, we’ve got a bit of a look at that too! Have a peek at the following list, then head back to the post Facebook Home leaked – the HTC Facebook Phone spills its guts. This device will be bringing on some relatively mid-tier specifications and will be aiming at the everyman, if you pardon the expression.
• HTC Myst (code-name) • 4.3-inch display, 720p • AT&T 4G LTE • 1GB RAM • Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor (MSM8960) (same as Galaxy S III) • 5 megapixel camera on back • 1.6 megapixel camera on front • Sense UI 4.5 (Facebook Home modifications onboard) • Bluetooth 4.0 • Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
Don’t forget to check and see if the HTC Facebook Phone belongs in your pocket! We’ll be live in effect at the Facebook event this Thursday – catch SlashGear through our most excellent Facebook tag portal – we’ll have everything you need to be in the know from start to finish!
Once upon a time, your car had to be the fastest or the most luxurious if you wanted to stand out. Now, as GM has discovered, a car has to be talkative if tech-savvy drivers are to take them seriously. A path that started with OnStar has ended up with cars that talk to your smartphone and tablet, quietly plan their own servicing, and generally take the sting out of owning and maintaining a modern vehicle. SlashGear sat down with GM President of General Motors North America Mark Reuss to talk infotainment and how the company is betting on more than just top speed for models like the new 2014 Cadillac CTS.
We’re no strangers to GM’s in-car tech. The company announced earlier this year that it would be equipping all of its models with in-car LTE, and promptly showed off a demo of what you could do when your 4G connection is actually baked into the car’s electronics, rather than just a dumb mobile hotspot in the glovebox. We also played extensively with Cadillac CUE, the infotainment system built into the 2013 ATS, last year.
GM isn’t a late entrant to the infotainment market, however, and gambles like baking expensive LTE radios into every single model aren’t exactly new. “If you look at our history, we’ve long had OnStar as an asset” GM President Mark Reuss told us. “So I think bringing that demonstrates the commitment we’ve made. There were a lot of tough times at the company when we looked at the equipment that we put in to do that, and generally did not price for. So that’s generally a long-term financial commitment to what we think we’re now being able to look at: an amazing opportunity for us for 4G, the expansion of that pipe we’ve invested in.”
In fact, Reuss argues, car connectivity and the functionality that enables could well end up being the 21st century’s equivalent of extreme customization. “If you look at how people use their cars, if you look at the changing demographics, new people coming into the car-buying market, most of those people have sort of an “ultimate customization” available, they see all the different devices available today” he pointed out. “That’s a reflection of who you are, that’s a reflection of how you live … it’s almost like hot-rodding used to be, right, sort of like that type of creativity that you have. It’s very low-cost, it’s very fun.”
Examples of that flexibility GM has already demonstrated range from remotely setting LED color schemes and cabin temperature, monitoring fuel levels and economy from across the country, and turning your car into a Skype video conferencing suite. However, Reuss says, the key is minimizing the stress involved in owning a car.
“That attention and care is now delivered through the pipe of the car, because the car is now bringing that information back to both the dealer, our engineers, and us as an OEM, and that’s really important data to us from a safety standpoint, and it’s important to the customer” Reuss says. “It takes the challenge of thinking about “when’s my oil going to be changed?” and “when are my tires going to be rotated?”; it takes that away from your busy life. And these are big, big things because the world is not getting less complex, and these type of tools in fact can make your daily life less complex.”
Still, it’s a big investment to web-enable every car you produce, especially when only part of your audience might walk into the showroom with an understanding of cutting-edge informatics. According to Reuss, GM has tackled that in how it markets each system across each of its brands, picking out the key functionality it knows potential drivers are going to be most interested in, as well as able to afford.
At the budget end, for instance, there are models like the Chevy Spark, aimed at younger drivers who are particularly smartphone-savvy. “You see widely different approaches in GM in how we’re doing this” Reuss points out. “The reason for purchase in a Spark of the screen we have in the car, the bring-your-own-media, don’t underestimate that. This is a car that’s under $13,000 … so that car in that price point is one approach to connectivity and bring-your-own-media, that replicates basically what you have on your phone in a very simple way, a fun way.”
On the other end of the spectrum is Cadillac’s CUE, which doesn’t assume the driver will necessarily be coming to the car with a pocket or bag full of the latest phones and slates. Instead, Reuss says, “the CUE system embeds more of that technology into the car, into the center stack of the car.”
For Cadillac drivers, the appeal of a system like CUE might not be its streaming media capabilities but how it unlocks new safety and convenience features: tech that builds on the same underlying informatics hooked into the car, but delivers that access and data in differently focused ways. “The price point is wildly different,” Reuss concedes, “but that type of information, integration, safety systems, crash avoidance, automatic cruise-control, radar-detected cruise control: that data and that format in the car you’ll see on the most expensive models in the range. And it replicates a lot of the function of what a tablet, or a smartphone, would do for you on a use-basis.”
The next example of that growing technological focus inside and outside of the car comes in the shape of the new 2014 Cadillac CTS, the company’s latest sports sedan. Set to hit the road later this year, the CTS builds on the excellent example of last year’s Cadillac ATS, borrowing the expansive all-digital driver instrumentation from the more expensive XTS, and cladding it in a sharp suit with echoes of the eye-catching 2014 Corvette Stingray.
On the outside, that design language expresses itself in features like the daytime running lights, extending down from the main lamp cluster and under the bumper. Like on the new Corvette, GM has worked hard to diffuse the LEDs so that they illuminate as two solid strakes of light; that, director of Cadillac exterior design Bob Bonaface tells us, gives the whole family a recognizable face, and one which you can spot no matter whether it’s day or night.
It’s arguably on the inside that the technological and materials focus is most obvious. Just as the Corvette team strove to be “authentic” in their choice of finishes – opting for real carbon-fiber, real metal, real leather rather than cheaper lookalike alternatives – so the new CTS dresses its cabin in premium materials. Eight interior finishes will be offered, ranging from the more traditional black, tan, and brown leather, through to more eye-catching shades like blue, each with optional contrast stitching. Real carbon-fiber and aluminum also show up again, joined by open-pore and natural finish wood.
The center stack has the same zero-profile touch sensitive buttons, topped by an 8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen with anti-gloss and oleophobic coatings, as we saw in the Cadillac ATS last year. However, the ATS’s LCD sub display in the driver’s binnacle has been replaced with a huge, 12-inch 1280 x 480 cluster display, capable of showing multiple instrument layouts and even 3D graphics of the car which can be scrolled through using wheel-mounted controls. It’s all driven by a tri-core ARM11 processor running Cadillac’s proprietary Linux OS.
The only visible sign of that underlying tech that GM wants drivers to see, though, is a smooth and responsive interface. It’s still a work-in-progress, Reuss tells us, but it’s one the car company is committed to: making its car’s controls just as tactile and efficient as analog would be, while also having the flexibility benefits being digital brings. “Things we’re working on to make them perfect is the feedback and latency of something so simple as a volume control,” he says, “so we’ll work to perfect that, but the use and layout of it is spot-on, so we’re committed to that.”
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating (or, in this case, how many drivers aren’t punching their dashboards in confusion), the GM President says the response – even from those who might traditionally be considered more tech-averse – has been positive. “While the demographic for Cadillac may not be the very youngest car-buying population, our population is currently changed by the use of those devices no matter what your generation is” he argues. “You immediately understand what [CUE] is and how to use it, so we’ve had very little feedback that that’s a problem; very little from the CUE system in both the XTS and ATS.”
Next up is third party developers wading in, as GM throws open its In-Vehicle APIs and invites coders to cook up new functionality and features based on having core access to the infotainment stack. Alongside that, there’s an official plan for “agility and capability” over the next decade, Reuss says, though he also points out that consumer demands more than anything might well shape what car dashboards look like and deliver in tomorrow’s models.
“I don’t know how it’s going to evolve, and that’s exciting to me” Reuss concluded. “It’s sort of an open world of possibilities for it, and our job is to provide those open world of possibilities enabling people’s lives to be easier, to provide new advantages to buy a GM car, and to provide a user-interface that’s extremely safe, and easy to use, and very consistent.”
If you thought yesterday’s April Fool’s Day mess of rumors was hard to swallow, you’re really going to have a difficult time with this tip: Verizon and AT&T have been reported to be jointly buying Vodafone. This absolutely wild possibility comes from The Financial Time’s Alphaville where they’ve got what they say are “usually reliable people” suggesting a “breakup bid” for Vodafone between AT&T and Verizon. It’s also been said that such a purchase would include a 40% premium on Vodafone’s current stock price, this giving the company an enterprise value of right around $245 billion USD.
If such a deal would be made, it’d be the single largest M&A value (Mergers & Acquisitions, that is) of all time. The previous holder of said record was the AOL takeover of Time Warner back in 2000, that deal racking up a cool $182 billion USD. The same source speaking with Alphaville has suggested that Barclays US is working out the possibilities for a potential transaction, the current deal being the following.
“Barclays US has been tasked with putting together the potential transaction, the usually reliable people claim. The basic idea would be that Verizon buys Vodafone’s 45 per cent stake in their Verizon Wireless joint venture while AT&T takes the non-US assets.” – Alphaville
Other than this basic set of notes and some analysis, it would appear that there’s been no evidence that these companies will actually go through with said deal. We’ll continue to keep our eye on the situation and you’ll know as soon as we know – stay tuned to SlashGear for more!
UPDATE: An update from Dealreporter (through Alphaville) says that Verizon “is not involved in a reported bid for UK telecom company Vodafone.” Of course their note also comes from “a person familiar with the matter” as no representation from any of the three companies supposedly involved has yet come forward with a statement.
Have a peek at the timeline below for additional puzzle pieces leading to today’s oddity and let us know if you have any insight you’d like to lend!
AT&T will offer the HTC One from $199.99 for the 32GB model, with deliveries kicking off April 19, as well as exclusively ranging the 64GB variant for a hefty $299.99. Up for preorder from Thursday, April 4, the AT&T HTC One will also come with a free HTC Media Link HD adapter to make better use of the smartphone’s wireless streaming technology, including the HTC TV app which can push on-demand shows from your handset to your TV.
The pricing details run contrary to previous rumors about AT&T’s plans for the phone, which suggested the carrier would demand $250 for the 32GB version. That, unsurprisingly, met with vocal criticism, given that HTC needs to make the One as big a success as possible if it’s to claw back market share.
AT&T will offer both the black and the silver versions of the One, both packing LTE connectivity. The smartphone also has a 4.7-inch Full HD display, 1.7GHz quadcore processor, and HTC’s special UltraPixel camera, which uses oversized pixels for improved low-light performance.
The camera also includes Zoe recording, a blend of burst-capture stills and brief Full HD video recording which can then be automatically cooked up into a half-minute “highlight reel.” There’s more on how Zoe technology works in practice here.
AT&T will also preload its own AT&T DriveMode app, a car-mode system which kicks in when the One is in a vehicle traveling at above 25mph. It will automatically reply to texts, emails and calls to reduce the risk of driver distraction.
This week the Facebook Phone has been revealed. Unofficially, of course, but in a run-down of the software that comes within the device more in-depth than we’d otherwise be skeptical about. What we’ve got here is a midrange smartphone from HTC that runs the big news: Facebook Home. This software is at once a simple app for Android AND a user interface that takes over Android fully. The HTC smartphone hardware is almost like an afterthought.
We had a quick look at what Android Police discovered today, HTC Facebook phone should have you covered for all the gruesome details. If you’re all about the hardware, however, all you need to know is this:
1. 4.3-inch 720p Display 2. AT&T 4G LTE 3. 5-megapixel back-facing camera 4. Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor (same as Galaxy S III) 5. Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
This device’s pricing structure will be very, very interesting. If Facebook has enough clout to create a smartphone without a need for voice and text messaging service, they may very well be creating a whole new segment in the mobile smart device industry. If they release this device for something more like $50 USD with a 2-year contract with AT&T, they’ll be better off not releasing the device at all.
Or perhaps an inexpensive not-the-best-but-decent smartphone is exactly what Facebook needs to start their smartphone party off right? This release will certainly center around the software experience first and foremost – maybe the marketing for this release will be successful with just talk of how this will be the one true Facebook Phone?
Based on what we know – or what we think we know – about the software experience being presented by Facebook this week, this device will need to be all about the hype.
Would you buy the smartphone outlined above if it were packing the Facebook Home user interface over Android? Let us know! Then join us later this week as SlashGear covers the Facebook event live and in-person! That’s Thursday, April 4th at 10AM PST, don’t miss it – stick close to the Facebook tag portal right up and through that time!
It’s time to check out the Facebook Phone early – a full software build from the device has been leaked and it would appear that HTC is, indeed, onboard. What we’re having a look at here is a full APK (application for Android) that will live inside the device code-named HTC Myst. This device has been leaked before, and according to the leak Android Police has secured, (and promises isn’t an April Fools joke,) it’s set to be a real oddity in the market.
Hardware: HTC Myst
The first place we’ll be seeing Facebook’s new software is the HTC smartphone still code-named “Myst”. We’ll likely see this device shown by HTC later this week with the name “Facebook Phone by HTC” or something equally appropriate. The device is being delivered as – more or less – an idea palm-sized smartphone made to compete with the size segment Apple is still king of at the moment.
• HTC Myst (code-name) • 4.3-inch display, 720p • AT&T 4G LTE • 1GB RAM • Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor (MSM8960) (same as Galaxy S III) • 5 megapixel camera on back • 1.6 megapixel camera on front • Sense UI 4.5 (Facebook Home modifications onboard) • Bluetooth 4.0 • Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
Sound like the mid-range winner for you? Will Facebook offer this device for sale straight from their site? That might be a winning situation – something like Google Play does with the Google Nexus smartphone and tablet lineup?
Facebook Home App
Facebook Home will be essentially a Home Screen Replacement app. If you’re working with Android on your smartphone, you’re able to download a variety of Home Screen Replacement apps that will allow you to work with a user interface that’s totally different from what you’re working with right out of the box. Here with Facebook Home, it would seem that everything will be just a bit different – from your lockscreen down to your settings.
Some interesting bits and pieces discovered in the Facebook Home APK thus far:
• TouchWiz permissions (for future Samsung smart devices) • Icon changes (simple differences making Android look more “Facebook-like”) • Google button (indicating Facebook’s willingness to use Google – not just Bing) • Chat Heads – a new way this user interface handles your contacts • Facebook Apps out-of-box integration
Given what we’re seeing here in this, effectively a full leak of Facebook’s intentions, it would appear that the HTC Myst will be a device that works with Facebook Home, one of the first (or only) Facebook Phones on the market. Otherwise it may be that Facebook releases Facebook Home as a stand-alone app you can download yourself for your own device – wouldn’t that be fabulous?
The Full Story
We’ll be live in-effect at the Facebook event later this week – stay tuned to SlashGear for the big show, starting Thursday, April 4th at 10AM PST! Make sure you have a peek at our Facebook tag portal until then and keep up to date on all things Facebook coming your way!
April 1st is upon us, and that can only mean one thing: pranks, gags, and joke products of dubious comedic value, as the tech world tries to make you crack a smile. Whether you love it or loath it, April Fools is inescapable, so join us as we run through 2013′s cons and let us know which – if any – convinced you, and which you thought were actually funny.
Nokia has cooked up a range of Lumia-colored touchscreen microwaves, the Nokia 5AM-TH1N6 Constellation, promising a mythical 5,000W to cook food in seconds and an integrated camera to share snapshots on Facebook. “More models, including a mini variant targeted towards people with small appetites, and a 10-inch variant aimed at no one in particular, are also planned” the company teases, a coy splash of April snark for those demanding a Nokia tablet.
Samsung has gone green for April 1st, with its new SMART Eco Trees idea: scented “S Buds” with over-the-air fragrance; the promise of CO2 to O2 conversion; and S-eeds for SMART Sharing. The Korean company says you can also climb them, and they’ll come in a range of colors.
Google is always good for an April prank or three, and the company has a few different fakes this year. Google Nose aims to bring scent to search, whereby a range of “expertly curated Knowledge Panels pair images, descriptions, and aromas” as well as links to what people also sniffed.
Gmail Blue, meanwhile, has apparently been six years in the making, as Google’s email team faces the challenge of “how do we completely redesign and recreate something, while keeping it exactly the same?” The result is a whole lot of blue, quite literally:
The Gmail team isn’t the only one to get in on the prank action. Google Maps unveiled Treasure Maps, a pirate-themed redesign with hidden treasure and hand-drawn landmarks, while YouTube revealed it had in fact all been an eight year experiment to find the best-ever video, and would be shutting down to allow judges time to sift through the millions of uploads. You’ll have to wait until 2023 to find out which it is, though, with YouTube promising to delete every other clip.
Twitter, meanwhile, finally came up with a way to monetize its users’ tweets: charge them for vowels. Twttr, so the company claimed, would demand $5 a month if you wanted to include A, E, I, O, or U in any of your messages; however, Y would remain free.
April Fools is usually a good source of hardware mock-ups, and IKEA has led the way with a flat-packed lawnmower, the GRÄSSAX. The compact lawn-chewer promises all the frustration of IKEA furniture, though we can actually see some gardeners envying the £39 ($59) rechargeable mower and demanding it be made real.
That – if past performance is anything to go by – could happen with ThinkGeek’s Play-Doh 3D Printer, a $49.99 kid’s toy that runs from an iPad app and can create up to 5-inch cubed 3D models from the squishy dough. It’s only a fake at this point, but in previous years ThinkGeek has used April Fools to gage interest in more offbeat products, and then subsequently put them into production, so we have our fingers crossed that the Play-Doh 3D Printer will go the same way.
Less appealing is the Virgin Atlantic glass-bottomed plane, something guaranteed to give nervous flyers palpitations while crossing the pond. If you don’t like being reminded of broad expanses of water under your feet, Virgin says it’s also starting a domestic service to Scotland.
Flying isn’t the only transport-themed con today; BMW has a royal-baby themed entrant, in the shape of the P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile), complete with two- or four-wheel drive and flagpoles for suitably heralding the Duchess of Cambridge’s incoming child.
Elsewhere, Sony has apparently realized that the internet loves cats, and so has a fake line of pet audio tech including these fetching Cat Cans. Part of the so-called “Animalia” line, the range also includes 4K TVs for dogs and speakers for hamsters.
Google’s Glass has provided the inspiration for UK newspaper The Guardian’s tease, Guardian Goggles, a set of wearable displays that can call up the publication’s reviews and columns depending on where you’re looking. Known for its liberal slant, The Guardian promises to blank out right-wing commentary from rival papers and warn shoppers if their purchases aren’t ethically sound.
They’re not the only head-worn gag. Lomography has whipped up LomoGoggles, analog-style vision that promises to remove any digital objects – such as your iPad – from your field of vision, returning you to the halcyon days where film was king and “touchscreen” described how you might fondle a room divider.
The Toshiba SHIBASPHERE (or TOSHIBASPHERE) will have you flashing back to fond memories of the Okama Gamesphere, South Park’s take on the console wars of the past couple of decades. With Toshiba’s SHIBASPHERE, you’ll be able to play games like Let’s Travel – waiting in lines for airplanes! Pet the Dog – a first-person simulation of dogs and the fur you love! Contract Negotiations – office-room madness! You’ll also find a SHIBADOME for your head – fully enclosed 3D helmet excellence, the SHIBASUIT – a full-body spandex suit for HD motion detection, and the SHIBATOTE – basically a bowling ball bag for your SHIBASPHERE.
The Sphero PEACEKEEPER is the same device you loved back when it was a tiny handheld moving machine – now it’s ready for war. With the PEACEKEEPER you’ve got a 3-foot in diameter beast weighing in at 150 pounds. Run over the neighbor’s dog with ease!
With SwiftKey Tilt you’ll never again wonder what it’d feel like to use your whole body to type a word. The best part about this fool? You can actually use it – it’s a real product! Have a peek at Android Community to find out more.
With the iBUYPOWER Revolt XXL, you’ll have the largest computer on the block. You’ll never again wonder – wow, what would it be like to have so much computing power that I’ll have to take out a loan to have enough electricity to keep it on? This computer is so extremely massive that it’s large enough to fit the original Revolt inside – yes, please!
You can now watch the YouTube awards for Best Video as it will be live for the next 12 years – they’ll need that much time to read the descriptions of all videos that’ve been uploaded to YouTube over the past 8 years. At the time of this posting, these two folks have been reading nominees for over two hours straight.
So, did any of today’s pranks tickle you, or have you had enough of fake news? Spotted anything new worth including? Let us know in the comments.
Watch the commercials and you’d assume all cars are only designed for long, sweeping roads on scenic mountain routes and by sun-blessed beaches. As plenty of drivers have discovered this winter, however, snow, ice, and similarly treacherous conditions can make getting behind the wheel far more intimidating. SlashGear joined Ford in the cold of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, to see what good behavior we could coax from the Ford Escape, Fusion, and Explorer Sport when the conditions get bad.
The core advice for winter driving hasn’t changed much over the years, but more than a few people ignore suggestions to switch regular tires to their deep tread counterparts, and wouldn’t have a clue what to do with snow chains. Thankfully cars themselves have got smarter along the way, with a growing number of electronic driving aids that can work around the limitations of both the road and the driver.
Ford’s chosen test ground would be an icy nightmare for most drivers, a range of different conditions including loose and impacted snow, treacherous ice, and the sort of gritty combinations that make many backroads so dangerous when it gets cold. As for the technology, Ford starts with all-wheel-drive (AWD) on many cars, but its front-driven models also get a boost courtesy of electronic magic like Curve Control and Torque Vectoring Control.
Introduced first on the 2012 Focus, Torque Vectoring Control monitors grip levels on each wheel and can dynamically shift the torque – the rotational force produced by the engine – to whichever side of the car has the best grip. Ford claims it can “virtually eliminate” understeer in regular driving, while in more wintery conditions it can counteract patches of ice or snow which rob the car of grip, without significantly reducing the speed of the vehicle.
There’s dangerous roads, and there’s mis-reading the road conditions and tackling them incorrectly. That’s where Curve Control steps in, a cornering technology Ford debuted back in 2010, and which it intends to have on the majority of its range by 2015. Enter a corner too quickly – Ford’s sensors track that 100 times per second – and Curve Control can shed 10mph from your speed in the space of a single second, by adjusting the four brakes and trimming engine torque.
Curve Control works in the dry, but it’s far more impressive when you’re trying to navigate a car round a suddenly icy corner. Ford’s system works by comparing how much the driver is turning the wheel with how much the car is actually turning, kicking in when the understeer becomes too great.
These are more than just blinking lights in the instrument binnacle, too: you can feel Curve Control and Torque Vectoring Control doing their work. Pushing the Escape SUV too hard through the icy corners of Ford’s test course, for instance, and the power shifting between the wheels to guide it back onto the line was noticeable through the seat and the wheel. You can feel the car correcting itself; when we turned off the traction control altogether, the difference was clear, with corners instantly turning into slides at speeds where, with the electronic brains in place, we’d previously sailed serenely round.
The technology works on Ford’s FWD cars, but it’s even more impressive in the AWD models. In a FWD Fusion, for instance, the car will automatically prioritize two-wheel drive in regular conditions, for the best fuel economy, but instantly switch in the all-wheel drive when grip starts to disappear. Corners on the ice track which we ended up going sideways on with traction control turned off, we were able to comfortably take at 40-50mph with Curve Control and Torque Vectoring Control switched on.
Step into the Explorer, meanwhile, and there’s even more control possible over the safety and stability systems. The seven-seater SUV exclusively gets Ford’s Terrain Management System, a knob in the center console which allows the driver to switch between four road conditions: normal, sand, mud/rut, and snow. The mood of the car changes noticeably when you do, the Explorer feeling calmer and more considered in the snow mode as the electronics ramp up their role. It’s not the mode for eager drivers, certainly, with the safety systems particularly intrusive, but it makes a huge difference in how confidently you can take on treacherous roads.
That’s not to say the Ford technology is anathema to fun. Just as it the various traction systems show their worth in getting you safely round in snow and ice at real-world speeds, at a more eager pace – and on the safety of a closed course rather than public roads, of course – you can start to have some real fun, relying on enough grip to get around corners while also letting the tail of the car swing out. As Ford told us, the electronics mean “you can take an unskilled driver, and turn them into a skilled driver.” When you’re on ice we struggled to walk on, it feels more like magic.
Ford currently offers eight models with AWD, while eleven offer Torque Vectoring Control. So far, the C-MAX Energi and Hybrid variants, the Escape, the Explorer, the Flex, and the Taurus offer Curve Control.
Back when Apple’s first Macintosh computer was introduced, there was an explosion of interest from not just geeks and nerds, but “the rest of us” too – that’s what this television program explores. What you’re about to see is an episode of the legendary Computer Chronicles, a show here dug up from the archives by Wired for your enjoyment. This episode goes by the name “MACINTOSH”, was directed by NICHOLS, and is program number 210, and is approximately 29:03 in length – there’s even a countdown beeper before it begins!
Obviously when there’s a program this old all about computers, even when it’s all “retro” and funny because of it, there’s some level of understanding you must have so far as how excited everyone seems about now-ancient tools and features. What’s particularly interesting about this video is how simple the presenters make each of the terms included in the still relatively new concept of visual computing.
What you’re going to learn is how the Apple Macintosh computer made working with a computer at home – or at school, or in the office – a reality for those that otherwise would never have considered using a computer. While the difference between working only with lines of code and working with pictures and renderings of objects wasn’t brand new at the time, the solidification of that kind of thinking was certainly taking place.
You’ll find that the Macintosh they’re working with here in the program was launched with two applications – one for typing (MacWrite), the other for drawing with your mouse (MacPaint). By the time this program had been filmed, as they say “the number of Mac products has skyrocketed, and now numbers in the hundreds.”
So consider this your mission for this weekend – see if you or one of your friends or family members would like to learn how computers work at their most basic. The talks here are applicable even to our most advanced systems – see how they make the magic happen now! And make sure you grab your healthy helping of Easter ham or otherwise non-denominational feast with the future on your mind!
BONUS: Save a collection of episodes lost to time for whatever reason, there’s a massive amount of episodes of Computer Chronicles up in the Internet Archive for your perusal now as well. More computer knowledge from the 1980s than you’ll know what to do with!
Have a peek at a few more “Weekend Watching” posts below to see how they ring your bell!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
