acceleration
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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.
Watch Ford’s Mustang-inspired EV crossover race around in the snow
Ford's Mustang-inspired EV crossover is expected to launch in 2020. The company hasn't released too many details, other than that it will have a 370-mile range and fast-charging. But this week, Ford shared two videos of the vehicle in action. The first shows a prototype of the Mustang-inspired ride zipping around Grattan Raceway and brags about the EV's acceleration.
Tesla's newest driving mode is 'chill'
Tesla's latest driving mode is an about-turn from its previous options, which were all about squeezing the optimal performance from its cars. The new "chill" setting makes for a "gentler ride," according to the manufacturer. That sounds like an odd upgrade from an EV maker that was once obsessed with cracking the fastest acceleration time, motivated by its rivalry with Faraday Future. It achieved that milestone earlier this year (after dropping the "Ludricous" easter egg), when the Tesla Model S P100D became the quickest car to 60 MPH.
Tesla Model S P85D's 'Insane Mode' lives up to its name
Apparently some people haven't heard that Tesla's dual-motor, all-wheel-drive P85D upgrade to its Model S turns the car into a performance monster. An aptly named "Insane Mode" turns up the power so owners can experience the promised 0 - 60mph in 3.2 seconds (in the regular Sport mode it takes about 4 seconds), and of course a few have been showing it off for their friends. Brooks Weisblat aka DragTimes on YouTube has been having fun with his AWD Tesla ever since it arrived, and a new compilation video showing often-profane passenger reactions has gone viral. Of course, if you've seen one "acceleration reaction" video then you've just about seen them all, however unlike a Bugatti Veyron or Launch Control'd Nissan this is powered by nothing but electricity and Elon Musk's ego. Nothing compares to experiencing an electric motor's "instant acceleration" for yourself, but if the closest you've been to a P85D (or a Tesla period) is our ride-along video than watching Grandma's reaction can at least give you an idea of how it feels.
Meet the electric motorcycle that's now the fastest production bike in the world
The Lightning LS-218 boasts a model number that actually means something. Back in 2012, a prototype of the electric bike clocked in a wholly unnecessary (yet much appreciated) 218mph, helping it to win at Pikes Peak and setting it up to become the world's fastest production motorcycle. The finished version is now ready to make good on that promise, having just been revealed at the Quail Motorsport Gathering in California, prior to a scheduled launch in the summer -- at which point it'll likely cost upwards of $38,000.
EVE Evolved: Everything we know about Rubicon
Back in April, EVE Online Senior Producer Andie Nordgren delivered an incredible long-term vision for the game's future that included deep space colonisation, player-built stargates, and players controlling practically everything that's currently run by NPC empires. This vision sets the tone and direction for development over the next ten expansions, each of which will introduce a small component of the overall goal. In a live interview session earlier this week, CCP revealed the first steps it will take toward space colonisation in its upcoming winter expansion. Named Rubicon, the expansion will be in players' hands on November 19th and promises to give individuals and small groups unprecedented control over the sandbox. It will let players fight over planetary customs offices in high security space, significantly buff the ability of small ships to participate in hit-and-run style warfare, and even introduce a new set of personal deployable structures that can be hidden anywhere in space. All this comes alongside two new Sisters of EVE ships, twitch livestream integration, and significant balance changes to Marauders, Interceptors, Interdictors, and Electronic Attack Frigates. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down all of the new features and changes announced so far for EVE Online's Rubicon expansion.
Adidas miCoach X_Cell hits FCC, looks ready to track your sporting life
Judging by a recent FCC application, Adidas is about to add a new player to its miCoach lineup: the X_Cell performance monitor. According to the manual, the wee device can either be worn on your clothing or strapped to your chest for use in sports like football, soccer and tennis. So attached, it'll store seven hours or more of your sprinting speeds, dodging and cutting forces, jump forces, workout times and heart rates. You can then connect via Bluetooth to the miCoach iOS app to monitor your progress or brag about it on Facebook or Twitter. Adidas has yet to announce it, so there's no word on cost or an arrival date -- but when it does come, coasting through practice might be a thing of the past. To see a flip-side image, hit the break.
Rimac e-M3 breaks EV acceleration records, soon to be dethroned by its own creator (video)
The last time we saw an EV pit itself against a BMW, it wasn't a good day for the German car. On this occasion, the beemer is the EV, and it's one that all the others will officially have to enjoy viewing from behind. The car in question is the Rimac e-M3, the fledgling EV-firm owner's personal custom ride, and it's just been officially acknowledged as the fastest accelerating electric vehicle (with some category caveats). The record-breaking run actually happened April 2011, but it seems the FIA isn't quite so fast when it comes to making things official. The Croatian driver covered the first eighth of a mile in 7.549 seconds, needing less than five more for the same distance again (1/4 mile in 11.808 seconds). This is where the official-dom ends, but the total mile was completed in 35.347, which is still pending the FIA nod. Happy as driver Mate Rimac is, he already thinks there's something faster. What might that be? His new pre-production Concept_One of course. Catch the car in action after the break.
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.
Microsoft digs deep into Windows 8's hardware graphics boost, says fast just isn't slick enough
While Microsoft has been exploring the sensory experiences that will go into Windows 8, like sight and touch, there's only one thing that many enthusiasts care about: speed. To their delight, Redmond has just devoted one of its pre-release blog posts to showing just how much faster its hardware graphics acceleration will be in a Metro-focused universe. The goal is a hiccup-free 60Hz frame rate, and virtually everything in Windows 8 centers on that ambition. Baked-in transition effects, optimized geometry and even improved font rendering give modern computers a huge jump in performance versus Windows 7. Microsoft is just as keen to expose that power, as well: Direct3D 11.1 is now the root of all video acceleration in the pipeline, making it both easier and faster to mix 2D and 3D. All told, Windows 8 promises to get responsiveness freaks and benchmark lovers all hot and bothered. If either label describes you, the source link might satiate your lust until October 26th.
MagicPrefs is a must download for Magic Mouse owners
We know the Magic Mouse is selling well. I was one of the many who was pretty excited when I heard about it and grabbed one the first week it was out. When I actually went to use it, however, it was a major downer. On my Mac Pro the tracking was erratic, slow, and pretty unusable. I wasn't the only person reporting this. I put the mouse on my shelf of forgotten tech until a friend told me about MagicPrefs. MagicPrefs is a free utility that runs from your menu bar and fixes the problems some Mac Pros had with the Magic Mouse. This app goes way beyond fixing the tracking speed. This little utility allows you to assign actions to two, three and 4 finger clicks. Also to one, two, three and four finger taps. You can define two and three finger swipes for left, right, up and down. You can even define drag and pinch movements on the surface of the mouse. Pre-defined actions include control of Spaces, Dashboard, Expose, Quicklook and many others. You can create, load and save presets as well. Some of the gestures are a bit difficult and take some practice, and the app warns you which ones might be tricky. There is even a real time display on the app that lets you test different combinations of motions to see how they will work. For people who have a Magic Mouse that works great, you will love the power of this app. If yours was a dog with your Apple hardware, this app may fix all that. The developer says the app will eventually wind up as a preference pane, and that it will always remain free. The app requires OS X 10.5 or above. The price is very, very right, and the app fixes a lot of the weaknesses in the Magic Mouse. I say, go for it, and let us know in comments how it works for you.
Internet Explorer 9 to sport GPU acceleration and HTML5 support
Even if you don't have a favored fighter in the browser wars, you have to admit Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been looking mighty unfit over the last few years. Younger and fitter contenders like Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome have arguably overtaken the old stalwart, and now Microsoft is making some much-needed noise about fighting back. The software giant has been giving developers and curious journalists a very early peek into its IE 9 progress at PDC, with its stated ambitions including faster Javascript (see table above), HTML5 support, and hardware acceleration for web content. By harnessing DirectX and your graphics processor, the new browser will offer improvements in text readability and video performance, as well as taking some of the load off the CPU. Development has only just got under way, mind you, so there's still plenty of time to screw it all up. Or make it awesome.
Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 beta GPU acceleration tested, documented
We know you don't actually care about 99 percent of the contents of the latest Flash Player update. What you really want to know is whether those new 1080p YouTube streams will run smoothly on your machine thanks to the newly implemented graphics card video acceleration. AnandTech has come to our collective aid on that one, with an extensive testing roundup of some of the more popular desktop and mobile GPU solutions. NVIDIA's ION scored top marks, with "almost perfect" Hulu streaming (see table above), though Anand and crew encountered some issues with ATI's chips and Intel's integrated GMA 4500 MHD, which they attribute to the new Flash Player's beta status. On the OS front, although Linux and Mac OS are not yet on the official hardware acceleration beneficiary list, the wily testers found marked improvements in performance under OS X. It seems, then, that Adobe has made good on its partnership with NVIDIA, and made ION netbooks all the more scrumptious in the process, while throwing a bone to the Mac crowd, but leaving the majority of users exercising the virtue of patience until the finalized non-beta Player starts making the rounds in a couple of months. Hit the read link for further edification.
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 betas are out, multi-touch and video acceleration are in (video)
Here we go: Adobe just made its Flash 10.1 prerelease packages available for download in fulfillment of its Open Screen promise. The download is available for Windows, Intel-based Mac, and Linux systems with a smartphone version coming later; notably, while no other mobile OS is specifically mentioned, Adobe says that a beta for Palm webOS is slated for "later this year" on its Flash Player 10.1 page. At the moment, however, only the Windows release includes hardware-based video acceleration for H.264 video. And this is beta-ware kids, so there's more than the usual level of hazard with installing. Then again, for those of you with Atom-based netbooks brought to their knees by full-screen HD video, well, the benefits likely outweigh the risk for you. Adobe also announced an AIR 2 beta which allows developers to build more feature-rich applications including multi-touch capabilities -- see the unholy union demonstrated on an HP TouchSmart in the video after the break. Update: As noted by reader ZeroK2 in the comments, the release notes [warning: PDF] specify which GPUs will benefit from the hardware acceleration. These include ATI Radeon HD 3xxx and 4xxx series, Mobile Radeon HD 4xxx series, select FirePro products, Intel 4 series chipsets, the Broadcom Crystal HD decoder, and most NVIDIA ION and GeForce 8/9/1xx/2xx powered PCs. In other words, the vast majority of netbook owners with integrated GMA950 graphics need not apply. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
HP Mini 110 netbook goes pink and white, adds Broadcom's HD video acceleration
It's July 8th which means the white swirl and pink chic editions of HP's Mini 110 netbooks are available. Unfortunately, the addition of color over the base-black models will cost you an extra $20. More importantly, this commonly speced netbook with choice of Atom N270 or N280 processors and integrated GMA 950 graphics is also getting an HD video boost thanks to a $30 option for Broadcom's Crystal HD Enhanced Video accelerator. That should make HD video playback silky smooth without taxing the CPU (and battery) too much. Of course, it looks like you'll have to give up your favorite media player and use the bundled ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre software if you want to take advantage of the acceleration. A small price to pay for portable, 10.1-inch LCD-backlit access to all your MKV, MOV, MP4, AVI, WMV, and TS/M2TS files -- or at least as many as you can fit on 160GB of HDD or 32GB of SSD storage. Pink and white models pictured after the break, for free.[Via PortableMonkey, thanks David]
Car modder repurposes Wiimote as accelerometer
Looking to collect a little acceleration / braking data on the cheap? Even if you're just scouting alternative uses for that oh-so-handy Wiimote, a recent project from klee just may suit your fancy. A proud owner of a 2000 Volkswagen Jetta managed to rig up a Wiimote-based tracking system that gathered information on g-forces, acceleration, turning, and overall speed, and thanks to a little Excel computation, the results are neatly graphed once the outing concludes. Of course, you may need a little help in the script writing department, by judging by the looks of things, most everything you need is awaiting you in the read link -- you know, except your own Wiimote and a Vee-Dub.[Thanks, Matt]
LEGO Autopilot takes to the skies autonomously
Seems like LEGO mods are gaining quite a bit of steam these days, as not only are the amount of block-based creations growing by the week, but Bosch has even unveiled a dishwasher specifically made for the hopelessly obsessed. Just in case the LEGO-based Wii concoction isn't down your alley, the self-proclaimed LEGO Autopilot could be just what the voyeuristic side of you has been yearning for. Modeled around HiTechnic's NXT Acceleration / Tilt Sensor kits, it's apparently possible to build a UAV for your personal indulgences with less than a grand in cash, and if you add on the optional webcam and Bluetooth controls, you could definitely fetch a sneak peek in faraway locales. The autopilot system reportedly "controls the rudder, which keeps the plane flying level," but manually altering the servo arm can give you a taste of manual controls if you get tired of watching. Of course, this here endeavor certainly isn't aimed at the faint of heart (or budget-minded), but be sure to hit the read link to see what you're in for if you decide to give this a go.[Via Slashdot]
Physics acceleration: hot or not?
Physics is becoming the new buzzword when it comes to hyped-up hardware. Ageia's PhysX processor has been touted as an important step forward -- the add-in card, which is already available in Alienware's machines, goes on sale this month, though it will be some time before the games which support it are released.However, Ageia hasn't sewn up the market. NVidia is also getting on the bandwagon by supporting Havok (as announced at GDC). Ageia claim that their card can generate more objects than a high-end graphics rig can cope with, so it will be interesting to see how a dedicated graphics card handles the task of physics too. Microsoft is jumping in the fray as well -- not much is known about DirectPhysics, but if history repeats itself then a firm hand from Microsoft could do the hyperbolic world of physics accelerators a world of good. Ultimately, physics acceleration has a lot of potential, but the cost of an additional card is off-putting; as more emerges about the alternatives to PhysX, it'll be easier to make an informed decision.
