T3 India

News

Tesla’s new ‘Ludicrous Mode’ makes the Model S a beast

by

Speed freaks usually disregard the environment with gas-guzzling vehicles, but now they can don an electric car. Tesla’s new Ludicrous Mode makes the Model S reach 155mph 20 per cent faster than the bog-standard version.  

The boost, which comes via the aid of a new “smart fuse” allows the car to accelerate at 1.1G, which CEO Elon Musk says makes it “faster than falling.”

Beyond the fuse, Musk added: ”That was combined with upgrading the main pack contractor to use inconel (a high temperature space-grade superalloy) instead of steel so that it remains springy under the heat of heavy current."

Ludicrous Mode isn’t exclusively for the Model S either. Musk confirmed that it would feature on the Tesla Model X SUV following testing, which will boost its 0-60 time to 3.3 seconds.

The only caveat is the price. It isn’t exactly a cheap add-on, going for a hefty $10,000. If you’re already driving a Model S but want to upgrade, then you can get Ludicrous Mode installed for $5,000 within the next six months.

Tesla also announced plans to revisit its original electric car: the Roadster. It was originally released in 2008, but Tesla plans to release a new and improved version in 2019. 

Marshall to rock out with its own Android phone

by

Rather than just being a generic Android phone with the Marshall logo slapped on the back, it does look as though this Android, called the Marshall London, might be a top pick for audio nuts.

First of all, it uses a good-quality Wolfson WM8281 DAC to make the most of high-quality digital audio files.

Then there are the speakers. The Marshall London has two front-facing speakers, although we’ll have to wait to see whether they’re better than the HTC One M9’s pair. Apparently they’re 13 mm x 18 mm in size, which seems large for a phone.

The London is also one of the only phones we’ve come across with share-happy dual headphone jacks, each with their own volume control. They’re old-fashioned dials too. No volume buttons here.

Finally, it has dual MEMS microphones to let you record loud audio without that ugly clipping sound you get with most phones.

Aside from the music angle, though, this is no Galaxy S6-worrier. It has a relatively small 4.7in 720p screen, Snapdragon 410 CPU and 8-megapixel main camera.

It doesn’t look like it’ll come cheap, either. A Swedish Krona pre-order price of 4995 equates to £370. That’s a lot of cash for a phone of this size and power. Those speakers has better be good.

Don’t forget to check out our predictions for the forthcoming iPhone 6S.

Apple launches powerful new iPod touch, uses iPhone 6 internals

by

There's now an 8-megapixel camera, A8 processor plus the M8 motion coprocessor alsongside iOS 8 (which will be iOS9 before too long). The 4-inch retina display remains. 

The new iPod touch starts at Rs. 18,900 for the 16GB model, Rs. 22,900 for 32GB, Rs. 26,900 for 64GB. The 128GB variant won’t be sold in India. The iPod touch is now available in space grey, silver, gold, pink and blue, colours that will also be available on other iPod models from today. 

Check out the complete lowdown on the upcoming iOS 9.

The new iPod touch are available today with the entry-level 16GB model starting from Rs. 18,900 while the 32GB and 64GB are priced at Rs. 22,900 and Rs. 26,900 respectively.

Samsung reveals its slimmest Android phone in China

by

Samsung has had a hard time keeping the Galaxy A8 under wraps and now the company has officially announced the phone. Touted as Samsung’s slimmest phone, which is just 5.9mm thick, the Galaxy A8 has been announced for the Chinese market.

The phone is clearly inspired from Galaxy S6 and in fact seems to better the flagship phone in some department. For instance, the Galaxy A8 has a larger 3050mAh battery and microSD card slot, which are missing from the Galaxy S6 family.

Apart from that, the phone has mid-range hardware with 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, dual SIM support, 2GB RAM, 16MP main camera, 5MP front-facing camera, 4G LTE, fingerprint sensor and 16GB or 32GB internal memory.

The phone will sell in China for now but expect it to hit other countries soon.

Product Page

New Android Wear features incoming: interactive watch faces and more

by

What’s up next for Android Wear? Google’s smartwatch OS is to get official support for watch faces you can interact with and a system that’ll let you send your heart rate or a scribble to another Wear user.

One is long overdue, the other nicked from the Apple Watch, but we’ll be glad to see them arrive in August, which is when Phandroid says the update is coming.

Interactive watch faces will let you do things like switch the colour of the clock with a tap, or cycle through screens such as weather, fitness tracker stats and your next calendar appointment. It sounds like watch face devs will have much more control in the future.

With any luck it’ll mean you have to use Android Wear’s insides even less often.

The new Android Wear communicator feature is called Together, and will let you send little digital notes to your Wear-wearing friends. If you have any.

Phandroid says, according to the code, this is actually restricted to a single special watch face, but we imagine it’ll be opened up by the time we get hold of it.

With any luck the Android Wear update will feature a few more goodies than this leak covers too.