Skoda Kodiaq SUV announced; heading to India in 2017

Automobile manufacturer Skoda has finally unveiled its SUV called Kodiaq. While pricing details aren’t available just yet, Skoda has made it official that it will be bringing its SUV to India in 2017. Autocar India claims that Skoda Kodiaq will launch in India in September 2017.

Skoda Kodiaq – World Premiere, Berlin (Image: Skoda)

The Kodiaq gets its name from the Kodiak bear which is found in Alaska. The vehicle has been derived from the Vision S concept that debuted at the 86th Geneva Motor Show back in March.

Image: Skoda

Coming to the design, the Kodiaq SUV features some sharp lines as per previous teasers. The design is influenced by Czech cubism and features plenty of cuts and straight lines but retains the recent change in Skoda’s design philosophy that is also evident in the new Superb sedan.

Image: Skoda

Image: Skoda

The 3D-front grille adds to the sharp looks and so do the tail lights and the headlamps both of which get the LED treatment.

Image: Skoda

Moving to the internals, the Kodiaq is based on Volkswagen’s MQB platform and weighs in at just 1,452kgs.

Image: Skoda

The interior is fairly simple but packs in a few modern hints like the black dash you see in the image above. Still then it seems like a subtle version of the SUV’s exterior. It is however practical, one that which Skoda claims, offers a larger than average space compared to other SUVs.

Image: Skoda

The five seat model offers 2.065 litres of boot space while the seven seat option will deliver 720 litres.

Image: Skoda

The Kodiaq will be offered in two TDI variants and three TSI variants. The petrol engine will be a 2.0-litre unit that develops 177bhp, while the more powerful diesel will also be a 2.0 litre engine capable of delivering 189bhp. Transmission options include a 6-speed manual gearbox or DSG transmissions that will arrive with six or seven speeds.

The Skoda Kodiaq will be offered in three trim levels Active, Ambition and Style

Unlike PlayStation 4 Pro, the Xbox Scorpio will natively support 4K: Microsoft exec

#CONSOLE WARS

Microsoft has confirmed that at least some of the games developed for the Xbox Scorpio will natively support 4K resolutions.

Referring to games developed by Microsoft for the Xbox Scorpio, Microsoft Studios publishing manager Shannon Loftis told USA Today, “Any games we’re making that we’re launching in the Scorpio time frame, we’re making sure they can natively render at 4K.”

The recently announced PlayStation Pro console was expected to support 4K as well, but Sony has since confirmed that the console will only upscale games to 4K rather than render them natively. Sony claims to be using advanced algorithms to achieve this.

The Xbox Scorpio is expected to arrive in “Holiday 2017,” giving the PlayStation 4 Pro a huge lead in the market. The PlayStation 4 Pro will be available for purchase starting 10 November this year at a price of $400 (around Rs 27,000).

However, Microsoft claims that the Xbox Scorpio will be almost 50 percent more powerful than the PlayStation 4 Pro (six TFLOPS vs. 4.14 TFLOPS). It’s clear from Loftis’ statement that the Xbox Scorpio will be capable of 4K gaming, but it’s also clear that other developers don’t necessarily have to support 4K.

Also, did you know that your PlayStation 4 now supports HDR?

Tags: game consoles, Microsoft, PlayStation, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, PS4, Scorpio vs Pro, Sony, video games,Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Scorpio

Sony to begin Android Nougat rollout in October starting with the Xperia XZ and X Performance

 martphone choice due to its high price points and declining sales. Nonetheless the company is still managing to launch new smartphones every year and recently it announced the new Xperia X Compact and Xperia XZ.

If you are a loyal Sony smartphone customer, you will be happy to know that the company will begin rolling out the latest Android 7.0 Nougat update for its devices very soon. According to a leaked slide of a presentation, we now have info about the devices as well as the timeframe of the rollout.

The slide reveals that the Xperia X Performance and the newly launched Xperia XZ will be the first ones to receive the update somewhere around October. The next in line will be theXperia X and X Compact which are marked to get the update in November. In December, the Xperia Z5 series, the Xperia Z3+, and the Z4 tablet will get the new update. Lastly, the Xperia XA and XA Ultra will receive the update in early 2017.

The new Android 7.0 update comes with improved, informative and richer notifications, multi-window support, better battery management through Doze, new quick setting toggles, a range new emoticons, new animations, a data saver mode, more informative settings and a bunch of tweaks and fixes.

We want to democratise artificial intelligence, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Artificial Intelligence is the current buzzword and every major tech giant including Google, Facebook, IBM and others are investing heavily in it. At its annual IT conference Ignite, in Atlanta, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also spoke at length about AI and how Microsoft is focussing on this field and how it plans to leverage it in the future.

Nadella said that Microsoft is working towards democratising AI. Taking a slight dig at Google and IBM, Nadella said, “We are not pursuing AI to beat humans at games.” This was clearly in reference to the news reports of how Google’s AI has been effective in defeating humans in Chinese board game Go as well as IBM’s Watson defeating humans at Jeopardy.

“We are pursuing AI, so that we can empower every person and every institution that people build with tools of AI. So that they can go on to solve the most pressing problems of our society and our economy. That’s the pursuit,” said Nadella.

According to Nadella, Microsoft is working towards analysing mountains of data which is produced by consumers or businesses and then making sense of it by presenting it in a legible way to people. Microsoft is approaching AI via what it calls as ‘four core pillars. Namely agents, applications, services and infrastructure. And needless to say each of these pillars is associated with a related Microsoft service.

Cortana, the digital assistant of Microsoft will be an agent, which will be a new organising layer which will sit across all applications you will use in your life. Microsoft Office and Dynamics software can function as applications. According to Nadella, Microsoft Dynamics is capable of sifting through third party apps such as LinkedIn to point out where changes are made on this app.

Cortana being open to third party developers to help them use it to build their own apps is an example of services said Nadella.

Nadella also mentioned that Microsoft is using custom computer chips to help crunch information quicker and better manage traffic in data centres.

Deep learning is a major component of all the products and services making use of AI. This lets organisations feed large amounts of data in to neural networks, which mimic the human brain in a way to understand links between information and data sets. Google and Facebook have been using deep learning for things such as improving search results, image recognition, speech translation and so on.

Google self-driving cars may reduce fatalities, but what about human error

The week began with reports about Google’s autonomous car being involved in what it calls its worst ever accident. And, a human is to be blamed.

So, a van ran into a red light and rammed into the driverless car, damaging the right door and window. You can see the photo here. The Interstate Batteries van was to be blamed as the light is said to have been green for at least about ‘six seconds’ before the Google car entered the intersection.

This is neither the first time that a Google car is involved in an accident, nor is it the first company testing autonomous car to be facing the wrath. In the recent past we’ve seen Tesla involved in an accident that killed the driver. A DVD Player was found in the car that was on autopilot, and a truck rammed into it killing the driver. Again, a possible human error. However, some witnesses claimed that there was no movie or music playing in the car.

Earlier this year, Google car had hit a bus. The company did take up some responsibility for the hit. “We saw the bus, we tracked the bus, we thought the bus was going to slow down, we started to pull out, there was some momentum involved,” Chris Urmson, the head of Google’s self-driving car project, had told The Associated Press.

Can one rely on software guided cars?

If you read how the accident unfolded, one could never say who is at fault. It was plain ‘predicting the other’s move’ gone wrong. Google then said its computers had reviewed the incident and engineers changed the software that governs the cars to understand that buses may not be as inclined to yield as other vehicles.  However, in certain cases, who takes the responsibility of the accident? This also means users may not trust a software driving them around that won’t really take any responsibility.

In June, we heard how Google software is designed to see a 360 degrees view, improvement in honking algorithms so that it is more human like. Read here to know more. But, on a larger scale, the algorithm is still software that can fail or go wrong. And, the new worries on the forefront show how the car could rather foresee or avoid human errors. For example, in the recent case, the car entered the intersection after the light turned green, but it was the van that tried to zip in the last few seconds.

Predicting human error

So, unlike previous cases, wherein there was the chance of a system failure, bad prediction or likewise, this is a new worry for autonomous car makers. How can the smart car accurately foresee a human error? This also proves we are a long way to go until these cars take on drivers completely. Though driverless car is the most sought after category these days with major interest from global players including and not limited to Tesla, Google, Uberand nuTonomy, it may take a few years for a refined technology

In support of its autonomous cars, Google has been talking about how it will reduce fatalities caused by human error. Google said it  aims to develop a fully self-driving technology to make roads safer. But, here is the case of a smart car crash due to a human error. We wonder how long it would take to build a system that could cut through human errors and is designed to predict the move accurately

Lenovo lays off over 700 Motorola employees

Lenovo has started its latest round of layoffs that is set to hurt Motorola employees, yet again. Lenovo had acquired Motorola back in 2014, and the new move is aimed at streamlining workforce after another sluggish quarter. However, it is said to impact two percent of the overall workforce, which is 55,000 employees globally.

The new number is pegged to be more than 50 percent of the remaining Moto workforce. According to DroidLife, over 700 out of the 1200 Motorola employees will be informed they’ve lost their jobs.

An official statement from Lenovo states:

Lenovo today announced a resource action impacting less than two percent of its approximately 55,000 employees globally. The majority of the positions being eliminated are part of the ongoing strategic integration between Lenovo and its Motorola smartphone business as the company further aligns its organisation and streamlines its product portfolio to best compete in the global smartphone market.

The company is also making adjustments in other areas of the business as part of a continued effort to manage costs, drive efficiency and support ongoing improvement in overall financial performance. While these actions are never easy, they are a necessary part of our continued efforts to ensure long-term, profitable growth across all of our businesses.

Lenovo is absolutely committed to Chicago and we plan to maintain our Motorola Mobility headquarters there. Chicago has a well-deserved reputation for technical excellence and as the hub of our global R&D for our smartphone business we expect to take advantage of local talent to continue developing Moto products there.

Many see it as the last step to merge Motorola completely into their own business. It was not too long ago that Motorola was renamed Moto by Lenovo. The move, as stated above, is also a change in its strategy to improve financial performance.

Meanwhile, AndroidPolice claims that Motorola has lost more than 95 percent of its employees in the last four years. It should be noted that Google acquired Motorola in 2012, and sold it to Lenovo in 2014

Pokémon Go buzz cools but the AR game is not out despite being down

Does “Pokémon Go” have a second act? The mobile phone app was an instant hit when it debuted in July. Crowds stampeded after a Vaporeon in Central Park and people fell off cliffs playing it in California. At an Apple event on Sept. 7, Niantic CEO John Hanke said 500 million people had downloaded the game in just two months. It was the first mobile game to go mainstream in a big way since “Candy Crush” in 2014 or “Angry Birds” in 2012. It was also the first to