Features

SAN FRANCISCO — At the entrance of Dolby headquarters in San Francisco, a ribbon of television screens plays synchronised videos that change in time to sound effects.

The display mirrors Dolby’s recent efforts to move beyond sound enhancement to improve what people see when they watch films.

Several of the movies that were up for Oscars were made with Dolby Vision, which has become an industry standard for image quality in movies.

Best picture nominees “The Martian” and winner “The Revenant”, as well as Pixar’s animated film “Inside Out” used the technology.

“We’re predominately known and associated with audio, but we spent the last decade working on imaging,” Dolby director of content and creative relations Stuart Bowling told AFP.

Since the company launched its Dolby Vision in 2014, an array of television makers and major Hollywood studios have adopted the technology, which produces wider ranges of colour and contrast.

Even though the number of pixels that can be captured in films has exploded, “we found something was missing everywhere: contrast”, Bowling said.

“Adding more contrast makes a significant impact on the image; it looks sharper, more vibrant, more colour-saturated and then almost 3D,” he added.

The difference becomes clear watching two high-definition televisions side-by-side.

With Dolby Vision, details jump out in a “Lego” movie scene showing car headlights, or during an explosion in “Man of Steel”, while they are crushed or blurred in the standard version of the films.

Industry standard

Dolby Laboratories was founded half a century ago by its namesake, Ray Dolby who set out to develop technology for fuller, cleaner, crisper sound.

One of the company’s early creations was noise reduction technology that made its cinema debut in the 1971 film “A Clockwork Orange”.

Dolby went on to become a de facto standard for audio quality in films, music, theatres and consumer electronics.

Now with its new Dolby Vision technology, it is setting the bar for image quality as well.

To make sure images come out well in theatres, Dolby uses a special projector with lasers rather than traditional Xenon lightbulbs to increase brightness.

This results in intense, nearly fluorescent reds, blues and greens in such films as “Inside Out”.

Dolby Vision imbues movies with “much brighter brights and much darker darks”, according to chief marketing officer Bob Borchers.

“It allows you to do things impossible before,” such as deep black in space scenes from the latest “Star Wars” film, Borchers said.

Dolby Cinema works with theatres on everything from acoustics and interior design to Vision projection gear. It also sets up its Atmos speaker systems which assign sounds to precise locations in a room, creating a real-life effect.

Theatre screens in Europe and the United States have been equipped with Dolby Cinema, and the technology is heading for theatres in China through a partnership with the country’s Wanda Cinema Line.

Dolby has even begun to offer its services for corporate meetings with a product called Voice, which builds upon technology that it designed for the movies.

Voice creates the effect of different people on a call speaking from different places in a room and eliminates background noises.

Dolby revenue was essentially flat at $967 million during its last fiscal year, which ended in September, but the company expects its conference and cinema businesses to add $20 million to its revenue this fiscal year.

Barrington Research analyst James Goss referred to Vision, Atmos and Voice as “potential stepping stones to returning to meaningful top-line growth”.

NUREMBERG, Germany — Colouring books for grown-ups may be the new lifestyle craze, promising ways to combat stress, unleash our creative spirit and generally take time out from our increasingly tech-frazzled, gadget-obsessed lives. 

But for the makers of crayons and colour pencils, the trend also poses a fundamental strategic question: is the current boom in demand just a passing fad or is it a new sustainable trend?

“I dream about crayons at night,” says Andreas Martin, who manages a factory of the manufacturer Staedtler in Nuremberg, southern Germany.

Staedtler is a small family-run firm employing a workforce of around 2,000 and has seen demand for some of its coloured pencils explode, more or less overnight. 

“These are models we’ve been making for years and demand always chugged along unspectacularly,” Martin said. 

“But then all of a sudden, we weren’t able to manufacture enough. It’s incredible.” 

Just behind him, a machine spits out yellow ink pens at a rate of around 6,000 per hour. Another next to it is currently programmed to produce orange ones.

On the next floor down, finished crayons in a kaleidoscope of different colours are packed into boxes of 20 or 36 for shipping to the United States, Britain or South Korea. 

Those are the countries at the centre of the current adult colouring craze, said Staedtler chief, Axel Marx. 

In the USA, nine colouring books are currently among the top 20 best-selling products on Amazon. 

A slice of the cake

Gradually “we’re seeing a similar development in European countries, too”, said Horst Brinkmann, head of marketing and sales at rival Stabilo Schwan, which makes fluorescent marker pens and coloured pencils as well. 

All the players in the sector are keen to get a slice of the cake. Stabilo has launched a set of crayons and book with spring motifs. Swiss upmarket maker Caran d’Ache has published its own colouring book of Alpine scenes. 

Without revealing any figures, Brinkmann said Stabilo’s sales of crayons had risen by more than 10 per cent while the colouring craze enabled Staedtler to lift its sales by 14 per cent last year to 322 million euros ($350 million). 

“That’s remarkable, in this age of digitalisation,” said Marx.

But the hype also constitutes something of a headache for factory chief Martin. 

“No-one knows how long it will last,” he admits.

“We need to strike a balance”, so as to know much to sensibly invest to be able to ride the wave, while still keeping in mind that the trend could vanish as quickly as it started. 

“At the moment, we’re making use of adjustable working hours,” adding shifts, say, at night or on Saturday mornings. In addition to the 350 regular employees, the factory had taken on around 30 temporary workers. 

But ultimately, the decision is whether to invest the 300,000 euros needed for a new machine. 

Fundamental trend?

Staedtler is ready to stump up the cash, with the hope that “if the market falls again, we can use the machines for different types of products”, Martin said. 

But rival makers are betting on the durability of the new trend. 

At Caran d’Ache, “we have invested in production equipment and extended working hours”, said President Carole Hubscher. 

The company sets great store by being a “Swiss Made” brand and “there is no question of relocating to boost production,” she said. 

Hubscher is convinced that writing and drawing “won’t disappear”.

And “our growth targets are not solely built on trends”, she argued. 

Stabilo’s Brinkmann insisted that adult colouring “is part of a fundamental and universal trend towards slowing down”. 

Nevertheless, “it’s important to continue to innovate in this area” to maintain market momentum, he said, pointing to the new “fashion within a fashion” of “Zentangling” or drawing images using structured patterns. 

Staedtler chief Marx is more fatalistic, saying that a trend such as colouring is not predictable. 

“But we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’ll continue,” he said. 

AMULREE, United Kingdom — Tam O’Braan has had several lives. Having been a soldier, an agronomist and an entrepreneur, he now grows tea in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands, and is the envy of those who once called him crazy.

Four years since he began growing tea at Dalreoch, a former sheep farm close to the small Scottish village of Amulree, the Irishman saw his tea crowned a winner at the Salon de The Awards in Paris last year.

Now O’Braan sells his tea in luxury stores like Mariage Freres in Paris where it goes for 78 euros for 20 grammes and London’s Fortnum & Mason, where it brings £40 (51 euros, $57) for 20 grammes, as well as to famous hotels like The Dorchester.

“My neighbours thought I was mad,” O’Braan said.

“We were told categorically by people who have been working in the tea industry for 30, 40 years, that it couldn’t be done.”

Scottish 19th century botanist Robert Fortune had already shown it was possible to grow tea in Scotland but his project failed due to having the wrong plants.

Determined not to make the same mistake, O’Braan imported tea trees that grew in the foothills of the Himalayas (Camellia sinensis sinensis), before adapting them to the Scottish climate.

The plant seeds, which are similar to small nuts, are germinated outside before the plants are grown in a small unheated greenhouse.

“Those plants who originally started on the foothills of the Himalayas, that can deal with snow, are even stronger,” O’Braan said.

Revolutionary tea?

Once the tea plants have adjusted, Scotland has proved to be an ideal place for them to grow, with its fog, high rainfall, hilly landscape and rich soil.

“It’s well accepted among tea experts that the finest teas in Darjeeling or Assam come from areas which are shrouded in clouds for the majority of the year,” O’Braan said.

“Also because the plants are in what many would consider to be an unnatural environment, we’re producing a certain amount of chemical stress within the leaf. That’s responsible for the rather sweet flavour that our tea produces.”

The harvest, which is currently beginning and will continue until September, collects the youngest leaves for white tea and rougher leaves for green and black tea.

Dalreoch Estate tea is the first white tea whose leaves are smoke dried, making it “revolutionary and unique”, according to Mariage Freres.

In the Habitat cafe in the village of Amulree close to Dalreoch, owner Mike Haggerton offers sceptical customers free samples of the teas.

“We give a little bit to our clients and the reaction is never been anything other than ‘this is incredible’,” Haggerton said.

“There is the potential for so much more great tea to come out of Scotland.”

Scottish tea growers

In 2015, O’Braan produced 500 kilos of tea from his 14,000 plants and founded the Scottish Tea Growers Association in a bid to be more recognised in a land better known for its whisky.

Ten people have joined him, creating small tea plantations of about 1,000 plants each in places like the Isle of Mull and the Lowlands.

O’Braan hopes that there will be 28 tea growing sites in Scotland by 2017.

“From the same tea plant you can make 300 different types of tea. So there’s no reason why my neighbours should look to manufacture the same as I’m doing,” O’Braan said.

“In fact we should all diversify and make different types of tea.”

“We’re not going to replant Scotland. It’s always going to be boutique, artisan tea,” he said.

Members of the association can use a small tea processing plant that O’Braan is setting up on his farm.

The production of Dalreoch itself is sold out for the next four years, according to O’Braan — meaning there should be plenty of business to go around.

We use WhatsApp and we depend on it so much that we easily forget that only seven years ago it was not here at all. Even by IT standards this is an incredibly fast evolution, an unprecedented change in computing habits. Facebook, the owner since 2014 of the amazing instant messenger service, claims a little more than 1 billion users. We believe that.

Instant messaging (IM) with smartphones is now almost as frequently used as the voice phone part in your handset. The functionality and the convenience far exceed what the “traditional” SMS service that your mobile phone provider typically offers. When it comes to exchanging short messages, which is quickly becoming our favourite way to communicate, IM often beats e-mail, taking precedence over it. By including text, photos, video and audio, and by making everything a breeze and providing convenient feedback about the delivery of the messages, WhatsApp does an almost perfect job, nice and easy. 

Even if the leader in terms of community size, WhatsApp is not the only such service. Skype Messenger, Viber, Tango, Hangouts and also are widely used and very popular systems. Skype Messenger for one presents the advantage of working across a wider variety of platforms, including full-size Windows 7, 8 and 10 computers. WhatsApp on the other hand doesn’t work on these versions of Windows; it only works on mobile Windows (tablets and phones).

If WhatsApp is — for now — the undisputed king, Telegram, the newcomer and the brainchild of Russian Nikolai Durov, brings with it one advantage that may prove to be not negligible at all. Messages on Telegram can be safely encrypted and, therefore, cannot be hacked, forwarded or intercepted. It won’t even reside on Telegram servers. This is unique, a feature unseen in the field.

Telegram already has 100 million users. Though it is but one-tenth of WhatsApp, it is still impressive by any measure. And the users base of growing very fast.

Now why on earth should you want to encrypt a short message? There can be many reasons for that, especially if it’s a business text, not just a casual question you are asking your friend or a message to tell your spouse you’re going to be late for lunch. Perhaps Telegram precisely is targeting businesses. In my line of work we often need to send IMs including sensitive passwords for computers and servers. Telegram can prove to be handy in such cases.

Many argue that given the flabbergasting number of users on these networks, typically in the hundreds of millions when not in billions, who really is going to eavesdrop on your messaging? Who has the time to do it and who do you think is interested in your personal chats? Even if spying is done randomly, the chance that your messaging be intercepted is virtually zero. On the other hand, if you are specifically targeted, for one reason or another, “they” will manage to read you anyway, whatever your messaging service or security mode.

I recently installed Telegram on my smartphone, adding it to the already installed
WhatsApp and Skype. Whereas Skype behaves a bit differently, the first two are neck and neck in terms of speed, convenience and functionality, albeit with slightly different settings, again with Telegram featuring the unique “secret chat” thing. If you need this level of confidentiality Telegram is unmatched for now. And to think that all these IM services are free, truly free, without even insidious ads or annoying pop up notifications and reminders to subscribe.

Compared to WhatsApp, Telegram and the like, the old, basic SMS system that comes with your phone seems like an antiquated system, though it is still used, especially by banks and other formal services that need to send you official notifications. We probably need them all.

It is better to give a statutory warning at the beginning of this write-up: playing “social sweethearts” games on Facebook can be highly addictive. They can also be surprisingly informative because as soon as you click on their one line questionnaire, you discover things about yourself that were previously unknown. Even to your own self! 

I have learnt, for instance, that my birthstone is turquoise, I have been reincarnated 84,000 and 47 times, the profession that I was born to do is bartending, 99 per cent of the people I know envy my composure, my three lovable flaws are that I am impatient, lazy and stubborn, I have 180 secret admirers, my rainbow colour is yellow and my favourite four-letter word is “from”.  

From? What sort of a favourite four-letter word is that? It was exactly at this point of the game that I smelled foul play. I mean, of all four lettered words in the world, like, care, dare, fair, bear, dark, bark, lark, mark, take, bake, make, cake, lust, must, bust, dust, ahem, even, oven, amen, why pick “from?” I should have stopped playing these puerile games immediately. But you know how it is with flawed stubborn personalities. I became more and more curious. 

Therefore, I soon discovered that I was an active and humorous person. But wait a minute; was I not labelled lazy earlier? Maybe it meant that I was actively lazy, or in fact, lazily active? Further, heartwise I was 29 years of age but my face was that of a 15-year old. Gosh! If only “social sweethearts” had seen me at age fifteen! With braces on my teeth and thick bushy and unruly eyebrows, that was one phase I did not ever want to revisit in my life. I was losing hope when so many things were being predicted wrongly so quite listlessly I clicked the query that asked me “where would you be in one year?”

What was revealed cheered me up. “You are going straight to the top” I was told. The window that opened had my Facebook display picture perched on the uppermost hill of very picturesque scenery, which had a dark blue river snaking its way around a valley. “The image stands for your private life and your career because you will reach the peak of the mountain. Your dreams will come true and you will be completely happy and fulfilled. Your friends and family can feel this joy and will do anything to support you! Wow!” I read out. 

“Wow!” echoed the voice in my head. I suddenly got a newfound respect for the writers of “social sweethearts”. They undoubtedly knew how to engage a most reluctant player into their game. If I carried on playing for some more time there was no doubt that I would start believing in all this balderdash. But before banning myself from further play I decided to click on one last question that informed me about the type of woman I was.

“I am a role model, you know,” I beamed at my husband in the evening.

“For whom?” my spouse asked.

“For others and I’m going straight to the top,” I told him. 

“From where?” he wanted to know.

“Is ‘from’ my favourite four-letter word?” I cut in. 

“No,” he replied.

“What is it then?” I was curious.

“It’s similar sounding”, he twinkled.

“Form?” I guessed.

“Firm,” he stated.

NEW YORK — One New York judge ruled the DNA evidence was scientifically sound. Another, just kilometres away, tossed it out as unreliable.

The same scenario is playing out in courthouses around the world amid a debate over whether a type of DNA analysis involving the amplification of tiny amounts of genetic material is reliable enough to convict someone for a crime.

The technique, known as low copy number or high-sensitivity analysis can be used when investigators use “touch DNA” and are only able to collect a few human cells left behind when someone touches an object such as a gun, the handle of a knife, or even clothing.

While many prosecutors and forensic experts hail it as powerful tool that can help close cases, critics — most notably the FBI — argue it is inconclusive and unreliable. But there is no clear case law on the merits of the science, leaving judges to evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.

“If the experts in the DNA field cannot agree on the weight to be given to evidence produced by high-sensitivity analysis, it would make no sense to throw such evidence before a lay jury,” Brooklyn State Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer said last year in throwing out a DNA sample swabbed from a bicycle in an attempted murder case.

With low-copy number DNA, the samples are so small — less than 100 picogrammes, or about 16 human cells — that scientists amplify them more than typical DNA samples and that’s one of the reasons critics say the technique is troubling.

“It’s more likely to pick up contamination, transference,” said Jessica Goldthwaite, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s DNA unit, who worked on the Brooklyn case. “You can’t be assured of the reliability of the results.”

For example, she said, “you shake my hand and then I touch a gun, your DNA could end up on the gun”.

Such concerns prompted the FBI to forbid laboratories to run low copy number profiles through the national DNA database. The FBI has said it is studying the use of low copy DNA analysis but it hasn’t “demonstrated the necessary reliability for use in forensic casework”.

Perhaps the most high-profile example of the technique, and the controversy, came in the case of Amanda Knox, the American college student charged with killing her roommate in Italy. A low copy number DNA sample taken from the handle of a kitchen knife helped convict her but a forensic report in 2011 called the evidence unreliable and possibly contaminated, leading to the exoneration of both Knox and her co-defendant. The two were later retried, convicted and exonerated a second time.

The technique was also used in New York in a weapons possession case involving entertainer Lil Wayne. A judge ordered a hearing after prosecutors tried to use the technique to tie Lil Wayne to a gun found on his tour bus in 2007. The rapper eventually pleaded guilty in the case.

Notably, New York stands out for its aggressive use of the technique.

New York City’s medical examiner’s office says it uses the protocol in about 10 per cent of the DNA cases it analyses. Its forensic scientists have performed about 7,500 low copy number tests since 2005 and have testified in close to 250 cases in state and federal court.

“Removing it as a tool for police and prosecutors would lead to significant setbacks in 21st century evidence-gathering techniques,” said Emily Tuttle, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Just this past week, a former director of the city’s medical examiner’s office filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that she was forced out of her job after questioning its use of low-copy DNA testing.

Dr Marina Stajic, who also served on a state commission tasked with developing standards for DNA labs, claimed she was ousted when she voted to require the medical examiner’s office to publicly release a study about the testing technique.

Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for New York City’s medical examiner’s office, declined to comment specifically on Stajic’s claim, citing ongoing litigation, but said the office is dedicated to using “the most accurate and advanced technology”.

“Low copy number DNA testing provides a tool for solving cases that is recognised as reliable and generally accepted by the scientific community,” she said.

SAN FRANCISCO  — Can the FBI force a company like Apple to extract data from a customer’s smartphone? In the fight over an iPhone used by an extremist killer in San Bernardino, some legal experts say Congress has never explicitly granted that power. And now a federal judge agrees in a similar case.

In a New York drug case that echoes the much higher-profile San Bernardino dispute, US Magistrate James Orenstein has ruled the government doesn’t have authority to make Apple pull information off a suspect’s iPhone. The judge said in his ruling that Congress has already considered, but rejected, extending the government’s authority in this fashion.

Orenstein cited the history of a 20-year-old federal law — one that requires phone companies to assist police in conducting court-authorised wiretaps. Congress has resisted attempts over the years to extend that authority to tech companies like Apple, according to experts who have studied the law, known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA.

Federal prosecutors have argued that a much older law known as the All Writs Act allows courts to compel private parties to assist law enforcement. But Orenstein said that shouldn’t apply when, in his words, “Congress has considered legislation that would achieve the same result but has not adopted it.”

The New York ruling isn’t binding on the magistrate in the San Bernardino case. And federal authorities said Monday they’ll appeal Orenstein’s decision. But a senior Apple executive, who spoke on condition that he wouldn’t be named, said Apple believes Orenstein’s ruling is both persuasive and relevant to the issues at stake in San Bernardino.

In that case, the FBI wants Apple to create software that would bypass some iPhone security features, making it easier to guess the passcode that would unlock it. Prosecutors say they’re only seeking what amounts to routine cooperation; Apple and its supporters say the request is unprecedented and would make other iPhones vulnerable to hacking by authorities and criminals alike.

By contrast, US phone carriers have long been required to design and build their networks in ways that allow federal wiretaps of digital phone calls. That government authority stems from CALEA, a 1994 law that drew heated debate before it passed, and even more controversy on occasions when federal officials sought to expand its scope. Tech industry and civil liberty groups have mostly succeeded in blocking those efforts.

Even before Orenstein’s ruling, some legal experts said in recent weeks that the history of CALEA suggests that authorities are overreaching in the San Bernardino case.

The law was narrowly focused and “the product of years of public debate, with many compromises on both sides of that debate,” said Ahmed Ghappour, a visiting professor who focuses on tech issues at the University of California, Hastings School of the Law. “That’s what Congress is for.”

As with the iPhone dispute today, the 1994 law was enacted at a time when the nation’s police agencies were struggling to keep up with new technology. Authorities feared that a switch from old-fashioned copper wire to digital phone networks would hinder their eavesdropping capabilities.

CALEA intentionally covers only telecommunication carriers and specifically excludes “information service providers” — including Internet companies such as Apple and Google. Extensive negotiation produced a law that preserved the wiretapping ability authorities already had without adding new types of surveillance capabilities, said Deirdre Mulligan, co-director of the Centre for Law & Technology at the University of California, Berkeley

The Federal Communications Commission updated CALEA-related regulations in 2005 to extend the government’s sway to voice-over-Internet phone services. Moves to expand it further, however, have fizzled, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, which cited proposals for extending the law to “a wide range of technology services”, including instant messaging and video game chats.

“This is a power that Congress has had numerous opportunities to extend and has chosen not to,” said Mulligan.

Federal authorities argued that CALEA isn’t relevant to either iPhone case. But Apple and its supporters are likely to cite CALEA in the San Bernardino case, said Alex Abdo, an ACLU attorney who is helping draft a “friend-of-the-court” brief on Apple’s behalf. He said the All Writs Act can only be used to enforce authority the government already has, such as a legal search warrant.

The history of CALEA shows that if Congress wanted the government to have the authority it’s invoking against Apple, “it would have given it already,” said Abdo, echoing the New York magistrate’s ruling.

First launched globally in 2011, the Middle East and US Volkswagen Passat diverged from the long-standing European model as a larger, affordable parallel model better serving those markets’ preferences. Built in Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant, the more accommodating Passat is intended as a more elegant Germanic answer to high volume large saloons from General Motors, Toyota and others.

Updated for 2016 and launched regionally last month, the smooth, spacious and comfortable US-Middle East Passat receives a subtle but effective and honed aesthetic facelift inside and out. Revised to be more contemporary and competitive, it gets a raft of more advanced safety and infotainment systems, and new and more direct electrically assisted steering.

Classy and restrained

Discretely revised in design, the 2016 Passat has a classier more chiselled aesthetic, with revised grille featuring horizontal and vertical slats, sharper headlight elements including LED running lights on SEL specification models and higher. The new Passat also features a chrome strip across the top of the grille and headlights to create a moodier more browed face and reshaped foglights.

Snoutier and more jutting at the grille, the new Passat also features a more sculpted front bumper, bonnet and wings, in addition to new power-folding side mirrors and classy frameless interior rear-view mirror. From the rear and silhouette, the Passat is similarly sharper and better resolved, with new chrome window surrounds and restyled bootlid and light clusters with more complex LED elements. 

Chrome strips across the flanks and rear bumper are complemented by sportier exhaust tips and new alloy wheel designs. The next-to-top Sport spec model driven features standard 18-inch twin five-spoke alloy wheels with 235/45R18 tyres, providing strong later and grip, sure-footed highway composure and a smooth if slightly firm ride over hard lumps, bumps and cracks.

Smooth and progressive

Offered with a choice of either 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder or 3.6-litre V6 in the US, Middle East specification Passat, however, comes with one 2.5-litre naturally aspirated five-cylinder engine for all trim levels. Well insulated for a refined driving experience, one can still pick up a faint hint of the Passat’s charismatic five-pot burble at heavy loads and high revs.

Progressive in character and delivery, the Passat’s rugged cast iron block and light aluminium head multi-point injection l2.5-litre engine develops 177lb/ft torque at 4250rpm and 168BHP by 5700rpm. Fitted with a standard six-speed automatic for the region, the Passat accelerates though 0-1000km/h in 9.2 seconds and onto an electronically governed 190km/h top speed.

Carried over from before its’ revision, the Passat’s 2.5-litre engine progressive and smooth with good response and mid-range, and returns good efficiency. If not outright fast or effortlessly muscular, the Passat’s five-pot power plant is effective, confident and is happy to be hustled along at a quicker pace, especially when using sequential tiprtonic shifts to hold gears longer at higher revs.

Settled and stable

In its element on the highway, the Passat is a smooth, comfortable and highly refined long-distance cruiser with terrific insulation from noise vibration and harshness. With committed stability at speed, the Passat remains settled and buttoned down on vertical rebound. Slightly firm on jagged low speed bumps with 18-inch alloys, 17- and 16-inch options provide more compliance for badly paved roads.

Long, stable, settled and with progressive delivery, the Passat well controls body lean for a large comfortable cruiser, but also provides excellent lateral grip, with rear wheels especially tenacious through hard cornering manoeuvres. More agile than its size suggests, the Passat’s new electric assisted steering is more efficient and sportier, and is quicker and more direct, responsive and precise.

Tucking tidily into corners the Passat feels manoeuvrable and sure-footed, but when pushed too fast and tight into corners, safe, progressive and instinctive understeer clearly notifies one of its grip limits. Underwritten by effective electronic safety systems, the new Passat also receives electrontic brakeforce distribution, adaptive airbags, tyre pressure monitoring system and other safety features.

Generous and spacious

Well equipped, the new Passat features revised standard safety systems including an Intelligent Crash Response system that cuts the fuel pump, unlocks doors and turns on hazard lights in the event of a crash severe enough to deploy the airbags. Additionally, the Passat features an Automatic Post-collision Braking System that brakes the car after a crash to prevent secondary collisions.

A revised technology and features suite includes an upgraded smartphone compatible infotainment system with Volkswagen App-Connect, large screen, voice command, Bluetooth streaming, and SD and USB connectivity. In addition to parking sensors, the Passat features a rear-view camera system, multi-function steering, eight-way adjustable driver’s seat, dual-zone climate control and automatic motion sensing boot release for added convenience when one’s hands are full.

Elegant, symmetric and logical, the Passat’s classy un-fussed cabin aesthetic and layouts feature revised colours and soft texture dashboard and seat designs. Supportive and comfortable seats and tilt/reach adjustable seats allow for a comfortable alert driving position, but more reach would be welcome. Airy, spacious and accessible in front and rear with leatherette upholstery, the Passat features good rear headroom, but is especially noteworthy for its extensively generous rear legroom and vast 578-litre boot.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2.5-litre, cast iron block / aluminium head, transverse 5 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82.55 x 92.71mm

Compression ratio: 9.5:1

Valve-train: 20-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, front-wheel drive

0-100km/h: 9.2 seconds

Maximum speed: 190km/h

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 168 (170) [125] @5700rpm

Specific power: 67.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 116.7BHP/tonne (est.)

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 177 (240) @4250rpm

Specific torque: 97Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 167Nm/tonne (est.)

Fuel consumption, city/highway: 11.2/7.3 l/100km (approximately)

Fuel capacity: 70 litres

Length: 4,868mm

Width: 1,835mm

Height: 1,472mm

Wheelbase: 2,803mm

Curb weight: 1,436kg (est.)

Headroom, F/R: 972 / 960mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,077 / 993mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,445/1,447mm

Luggage capacity: 568 litres

Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion

Turning circle: 11.1 metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs / discs

Suspension, front: MacPherson strut / four-link coil springs, stabiliser bar

Tyres: 235/4518

FRANKFURT, Germany — While waiting for the much-discussed future of driverless cars to arrive, European automakers are focusing on tried-and-tested sales winners at this year’s Geneva International Auto Show — rolling out the small SUVs that are increasingly replacing hatchbacks and sedans in people’s driveways.

Long after it has ceased to be an innovation, the small SUV category is drawing carmakers like catnip because it’s seen as the best chance to continue to increase sales and keep development costs down.

Europe’s car industry finally bounced back strongly in 2015 after the eurozone debt crisis that started in late 2009. Sales rose 9.3 per cent to 13.7 million vehicles in the European Union countries in 2015 and have risen now for 29 straight months.

Meanwhile, the shadow of Apple and Google hangs over the industry, as people wonder when, if and how non-industry players will compete with incumbents. There will be plenty of discussions about Internet-connected cars, car sharing apps such as GM’s Maven, and self-driving cars.

Until those driverless cars arrive, the metal on display in Geneva still represents the current model of people buying cars and driving them themselves.

Here are the most anticipated themes and vehicles at the Geneva Auto Show:

Smaller and smaller

Volkswagen AG’s luxury brand Audi offers a tiny SUV, the Q2, which is aimed at attracting younger buyers to the brand. Audi is the first of the three high-priced German carmakers — the others being Daimler and BMW — to have an SUV this small.

Analyst Tim Urquhart from IHS Automotive said the business rationale is compelling. He said Volkswagen, like other carmakers, can use engines and transmissions from other models, in this case the Audi A3 compact car, “and get two cars for the price of one”.

“The public sees a brand-new model — but the research and development costs are relatively little,” he said.

The Q2 will also likely share some components with a nearly production-ready Volkswagen-branded concept SUV that’s also on display. Concepts are cars meant to show possible new designs, with only some eventually being produced.

There’s more.

Volkswagen’s SEAT brand offers its mid-sized Atec on underpinnings shared with the Leon hatchback, giving the brand its first SUV offering; Skoda, another VW brand, has an SUV concept.

And Fiat Chrysler Automobile’s Maserati brand is coming with the Levante, an SUV crossover that offers powerful 350-horsepower and 430-horsepower engines and a silhouette that stands out due its sharply tapered back window. A crossover combines SUV features such as higher driver seating and lots of cargo room in back with a lower, sloping roofline more like a sedan.

Speed machines

It wouldn’t be an auto show without stunning vehicles like Bugatti’s Chiron, the successor to its 258-mph Veyron supercar. Photos show a low-slung sports car with a wrap-around windshield and the distinctive oval Bugatti front grille.

McLaren is offering the 570GT, a sleek two-seater that reaches 100kph in only 3.4 seconds. The company says it aimed to make a car that’s comfortable for weekend trips and long-distance drives, despite its racing-level performance. They gave it eight-way adjustable power seats, a touchscreen to control air conditioning and music, a large glass rear hatch to let in light and create a relaxed environment, and a lower door sill to make it easier to climb in and out.

Prices start at $199,950; the company is taking orders for delivery globally in late 2016.

The future

Auto executives say their industry is on the verge of wide-ranging transformation powered by the Internet, information technology and changing attitudes towards the automobile. There will be much talk of such themes in Geneva, but the actual vehicles, businesses and technologies may take years to appear.

US automaker General Motors is experimenting with a car-sharing programme called Maven, in which people reserve cars using an app and then use their phones to unlock and drive the vehicle.

Consulting firm EY and Swiss think tank Rinspeed are showcasing their Etos concept of a self-driving sports car that has a retractable steering wheel that clears more space for the driver, an entertainment system that anticipates user preferences and an on-board drone with its own landing platform. In one sign of the increasing convergence of tech and autos, the car has already been seen by the public — at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Efficent luxury

BMW is offering its large 7-Series sedan as a plug-in hybrid, for which it will even come install a charging station at your house. The vehicle uses technology from the Munich-based company’s all-electric i-series models such as the i3 and the i8, including light-weight materials and battery and charging technology.

Analyst Urquhart says higher-price brands are combining efficient technology with high power as a selling point, “so it’s smart performance, and not just out-and-out performance”. The robust acceleration of electric motors is an added advantage.

For those who just want the power, BMW offers a 7-Series M version — the company’s performance designation — with a 12-cylinder, 600-horsepower gasoline engine that will accelerate to 100kph in a brisk 3.9 seconds.

Hollywood - Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio finally bagged Oscars gold on Sunday for his grueling star turn in "The Revenant," 22 years after his first Academy Award nomination. 

DiCaprio edged out Bryan Cranston ("Trumbo"), Matt Damon ("The Martian"), Michael Fassbender ("Steve Jobs") and Eddie Redmayne ("The Danish Girl") to take the best actor statuette.

DiCaprio won a standing ovation as he accepted the award -- one of the most highly anticipated moments of the night. He had been nominated six times in total, five of them for acting roles.

The 41-year-old film veteran thanked a long list of figures who have helped him in his career, including Martin Scorsese, before speaking on his passion -- climate change.

"Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work together and stop procrastinating," he said to applause.

"We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world," he said.