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Polestar will increase its EV's horsepower with a €1,000 software update
The update is available now in some European countries, and it will hit the US and Canada this spring.
Ford starts taking Mustang Mach-E orders in the US
Ford's upcoming Mustang Mach-E is one step to makings its way to buyers, with the automaker opening up US orders for the EV.
Ford may over-deliver on the Mustang Mach E’s power and torque
Ford’s upcoming 2021 Mustang Mach-E might have more speed and acceleration than expected, according to leaked dealer slides seen by Mach-E forum administrators and spotted by Autoblog. All of the versions appear to have gained modest horsepower and torque bumps, with the standard range RWD model now hitting 266 horsepower instead of 255 (with torque going from 306 to 317 pound feet.
'Overwatch' college esports series will award $40,000 in scholarships
There's certainly an active Overwatch college esports scene, but it can be difficult for a player to stand out and turn pro when there are hundreds of schools. Activision Blizzard, Torque and UMG might have a way for serious players to shine. They're launching an Overwatch Collegiate Clash series that will have college competitive teams square off for a chance at both recognition and a total $40,000 in esports scholarships. The eight-week series will have eight teams face each other per week, with a final round pitting the winning teams against each other.
Mazda purposely limited its new EV to feel more like a gas car
Mazda not only limited the range of its first EV, the MX-30, it also took some of the fun out of it on purpose, too. The automaker said it tuned the electric motor's torque to feel less like an EV and more like a gasoline-powered car, according to Autocar. With 192 pound-feet of torque, the EV will take a leisurely nine seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph -- not bad for a gas car, but far slower than EVs like Tesla's Model 3.
Watch an electric Ford F-150 tow over a million pounds
Ford is trying to show its rabid pickup truck fans that EVs aren't just for latte-sipping Tesla pilots. In an impressive demonstration of torque, an electric F-150 prototype towed 10 double-decker rail cars stuffed with 42 current-model F-150s, weighing over a million pounds (500 tons) in total. That shows promise that it could beat Ford's current towing champ, the 2019 F-150 with a 3.5L twin-turbocharged V6, that's rated to tow 13,200 pounds (6.6 tons).
Tesla's Model 3 gets quicker cornering with 'Track Mode'
Tesla has just made your Model 3 Performance EV a helluva lot more fun with the launch of Track Mode. The software shuts down all the traction control protection that normally prevents wheel slip in order to keep your car between the scenery. With that turned off, the dual electric motors are repurposed to improve cornering and, judging by Tesla's demo video below, transform the Model 3 into a drifting machine.
Microsoft's Android voice search app now works without a watch
Microsoft's Torque is handy if you want to search the web through a quick shake of the wrist and a voice command, but you've had to use an Android Wear smartwatch to try the Bing-powered app. That's not much help if your wrist is bare, is it? You won't have sit on the sidelines any longer, though. A revamped version of Torque now runs on any reasonably modern Android phone (4.3 or later), no wearable required; you only have to shake your phone to bring up a mini window and start speaking. The app also provides streamlined answers for more of your questions, including flight statuses and events. Torque is still a bit superfluous when Android is virtually built around Google search, but it's worth a look if you can't (or just don't want to) use "OK Google" to get a quick answer.
Microsoft Android Wear app lets you search Bing by twisting your wrist
Slightly irked that you have to say "OK Google" whenever you want to use voice search on your Android Wear smartwatch? Microsoft, of all companies, is coming to your rescue. The developer is leading a trio of experimental Android releases with Torque, an app that lets you start a Bing search just by twisting your wrist; you only have to speak when you're asking your question. You'll get optimized output for certain kinds of search results, including maps, stocks and weather.
Refresh Roundup: week of July 1st, 2013
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Kyocera Torque review: a rugged phone delivering superior sound
More Info Kyocera Torque coming to Sprint's Direct Connect lineup in March, we go hands-on (video) Kyocera Torque hitting Sprint March 8th, carrying $100 price tag Kyocera teases tissue conduction audio technology for mobile phones at CTIA Sacrificing a smartphone's thin and sleek form factor with a case is tantamount to sacrilege in some circles. Others feel little comfort venturing outdoors without having their phone wrapped safely in one sleeve or another. Sprint's Kyocera Torque, though, is for people who demand more than just a sheath of silicone to keep their device safe. Instead of relying on a case for its protection, it's durable in its own right, with an IP67 rating and Military Standard 810G certification to help it withstand everything from water to salt fog. In addition, the handset carries the distinction of being the very first phone released in the US with Kyocera's Smart Sonic Receiver tissue-conduction tech, which does away with the traditional earpiece. We put the Now Network's first LTE push-to-talk phone through our review gauntlet not only to gauge how tough it is, but also to find out how well it performs. Head past the break to see how it fared.%Gallery-183163%
Kyocera Torque hitting Sprint March 8th, carrying $100 price tag and Bear Grylls' seal of approval
We first heard about -- and went to town on -- Kyocera's latest smartphone toward the end of last month. Thankfully, the Torque happens to be an "ultra-rugged" device, meaning its creators didn't mind at all when we tossed it against a wall or two. The LTE-packing Ice Cream Sandwich handset was made to the Military Standard 810G standard, so you can drop it, get it dirty or even submerge it in up to a meter of water for half an hour or so and go back for a little more Fruit Ninja -- it's also been placed in the hands of Mr. Man vs. Wild himself, Bear Grylls. The handset will be tumbling onto Sprint March 8th, with a $100 price (post two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate).
Kyocera Torque coming to Sprint's Direct Connect lineup in March, we go hands-on (video)
Going to be in the market for a new Direct Connect device soon, but the current offerings seem so... drab? Enter the Kyocera Torque, the latest Sprint smartphone featuring the network's CDMA-based Push-to-Talk service. The phone, which should be available sometime in early March, brings with it LTE connectivity, (mostly) stock Android 4.0, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, HD Voice, 4-inch WVGA display, 4GB internal storage and a 2,500mAh battery. As you'd come to expect on a Direct Connect device, it's also certified mil-spec 810G and IP67 and is water-resistant (it can be in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes). It's also the first on this side of the Pacific to utilize Kyocera's Smart Sonic Receiver tissue-conduction tech, a system that foregoes the traditional earpiece and transmits audio to your ear via vibration. The Torque packs a lot of average features that would likely put it somewhere in the mid-range (we haven't been given pricing yet), but it's definitely not going to win any beauty awards -- it's still a Direct Connect device, after all. Its outer layer is dressed with Dura-Grip and the phone is plenty bulky as a result; however, it's also much more durable than your standard piece of electronics. We threw the phone at the wall, slammed it repeatedly on the table, dunked it in water and even let it sit in ice for at least 20 minutes, all without incident. On the software side, the Torque uses a version of stock Android 4.0 with only a small amount of tweaking. Essentially, the only major change added in by Sprint and Kyocera is Eco Mode, a power management system on the Torque that blocks background data connections for nonessential apps. We've put together a gallery of pics for you below. Follow us past the break for a full spec listing and our hands-on video.
Mobile Miscellany: week of January 14th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought smartphone leaks from Samsung and Kyocera, along with news that Rogers will take on additional colors of the Lumia 920. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of January 14th, 2013.
Tesla Model S squares off against BMW M5 in drag race, gives EVs extra street cred (video)
We already know from our own experience that the Tesla Model S is a driver's car, with acceleration and handling you wouldn't expect from a big and quiet luxury sedan. There's still nothing like a drag race to help settle the matter. Automobile has pitted the upscale EV against one of its more conspicuous rivals, BMW's M5, with performance results that might surprise those who would expect a 500HP, twin-turbo V8 to regularly come out on top. While we won't spoil the full results of the showdown video after the break, let's just say that even the M5's relatively wide torque band can only do so much when the Model S' electric motor is always at its peak. BMW's car may be better overall for those who want to travel long distances outside of certain routes, or to enjoy a burly exhaust note -- but there has to be a certain thrill for Tesla drivers who know they can hang with the speed kings while helping the environment.
Twisted Pixel's LocoCycle takes inspiration from some crazy places
You may think, after watching the initial trailer, that Twisted Pixel pulled LocoCycle (in which you control a renegade robotic motorcycle that shoots and karate-chops its way across the country) out of some loony creative cauldron of its own making. But that's not quite true, says studio director Michael Wilford, showing the game for the first time at PAX Prime 2012. There is a very clear inspiration, he says, and it's Ice Cube's 2004 motorcycle racing movie, Torque."It's a really shitty movie," Wilford tells us. "It tries to be Fast and the Furious on motorcycles." Twisted Pixel's art director gave a copy of Torque to the company's chief creative officer, Josh Bear, one day as a joke, and Bear was directly influenced by a viewing, especially a scene where two women battle with motorcycles. "Josh had a nightmare that night," says Wilford with complete sincerity, "and woke up the next day and said, 'We have to make a game about a fighting motorcycle.'"
BitTorrent Torque alpha puts file seeds on the web, makes desktop apps look stale
Almost without fail, BitTorrent downloads have had to spread through a dedicated client, whether it's on the desktop or a router. Thankfully, BitTorrent Torque has just come in alpha form to liberate the peer download service from its software chains. All that's needed now is a web browser that can parse a JavaScript app. Going the new route gives some freedom to enable sharing that hasn't always been practical: among the tricks in the company's Torque Labs are drag-and-drop sharing, conversion of torrents into traditional downloads and easing the burden on a server for video streaming. The alpha stage leaves Torque with awhile to go before it's ready for the limelight, but experimenters can hit the source link to start tinkering with distributed file sharing today.
InstantAction dies in an instant, future of embedded gaming looks questionable
Well, that was brief. Just a few short months after InstantAction went public with its embedded browser-based gaming platform at GDC 2010, the Oregon-based startup has gone belly-up. If you missed out on what this here outfit was offering, you clearly aren't alone -- but for the historians in attendance, we'd invite you to revisit our hands-on for an overview of what was planned. Unfortunately, the company has yanked all of its Vimeo clips detailing the system's features, and its website now affirms that the service as a whole is "no longer available." We're hearing that it'll be selling the underlying Torque Game Engine (and presumably that fancy "chunking" tech that enabled games to be played in a browser with just a broadband connection), but based on the tepid response so far, we're guessing it won't fetch much. We definitely saw a bit of promise in the concept -- after all, browser-based games like Solipskier are all the rage in some circles -- but bona fide console / PC games simply don't fit that mold, or so it seems.
PARITy differential keeps your MAV flying level even if you clip its wings
Ever wonder how the single driveshaft in your car manages to power two (or more) wheels simultaneously? The answer is the differential, a device capable of splitting torque dynamically. There are a variety of different types of diffs, from fully unlocked to more pricey limited-slip models, but none are quite like the one created by Harvard graduate student Pratheev S. Sreetharan and professor Robert J. Wood. Dubbed the PARITy (Passive Aeromechanical Regulation of Imbalanced Torques), it's only five millimeters long and, while such a tiny thing would evaporate if mounted between the rear wheels on a Mustang GT, it's destined for rather smaller applications: tiny, winged micro air vehicles. The scientists proved its effectiveness by clipping one wing on a PARITy-equipped drone and, despite the imbalance in lift surface, the robo-bee maintained level flight -- differential automatically flapping the tinier wing more quickly to compensate. You know what that means: keeping our robot overlord's spies grounded just got a little bit harder. %Gallery-101468%
Aptera co-founder expands Epic Boats beyond boats, spurs hiring spree
It certainly looks like Aptera co-founder is Chris Anthony is intent on making a name for himself with his own company, Epic Boats, which has recently be renamed Epic Electric Vehicles to better suit its more ambitious goals. That now includes the announcement of two new land vehicles: the fairly standard looking Epic Amp all terrain vehicle, and the three-wheeled Epic Torque (pictured above), which will reportedly cost around $22,000 and $35,000, respectively, and are both set to go into production this fall at Louisiana-based Caddo Manufacturing. That expansion has also now prompted quite a hiring spree -- the company says it's bringing on 200 new employees immediately and will eventually hire nearly 500 altogether, and adds that the manufacturing should also create about 1,500 indirect job in the area.
