Features

WASHINGTON — Amazon unveiled a major home electronics push Thursday, led by a $50 tablet computer and other devices aimed at budget-conscious, gadget-hungry consumers.

The low-cost, 17.8 cm Fire tablet is part of an upgraded line being launched by the online retail giant, along with updated Fire TV streaming media devices and a new game controller box.

Amazon, which appeared to stop sales of its Fire Phone earlier this month after a lacklustre response, is making an aggressive push into the living room at the low end of the electronics market as rival Apple launches its high-end tablets and phones.

“Today, we’re taking another step in our mission to deliver premium products at non-premium prices,” Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in unveiling the new tablet.

The low-cost tablet, which will operate on the newest version of the Fire OS operating system based on Android, “sets a new bar for what customers should expect from a low cost tablet”.

Amazon has built a reputation for selling at low profit margins to build customer loyalty and getting consumers into its ecosystem for shopping, music, online video and other services.

The new budget tablet will be available starting September 30, with an option to buy a “six pack” of the devices at $250, with one free.

Amazon is also launching a new 20cm Fire HD tablet at $149 and a 25.5 cm device at $229 — less than half the price of Apple’s latest comparably sized iPads.

Loss leader

Analysts said Amazon is unlikely to make a profit on the $50 tablet, and may even lose money on the device, but will use it to lure more consumers into the Amazon orbit.

“It does appear this falls into the philosophy of getting people onto the Amazon platform to make money selling them music and movies and books,” said Avi Greengart, analyst at the research firm Current Analysis.

Greengart said Amazon, which has never been among the leaders in hardware, still has a gap in its lineup now that the Fire phone appears to be dead. Amazon made no formal announcement about the phone, but it has been out of stock, with no indication it will be available again.

“The phone is the one object that everyone needs,” he said. “Everything else is less of a necessity and more of an amenity.”

Still, Greengart added that he liked the new tablets.

“They have a low price point and could get people to be more likely to use Amazon services,” he said.

Tim Bajarin at the consulting firm Creative Strategies said in a blog post that “these three models can drive a lot of sales of tablets for Amazon and, if the $50 model has strong demand, it could even drive the overall market for tablets up by as much as 10 to 15 per cent from where it is today.”

Bob O’Donnell at the research firm Technalysis was more cautious.

He said the new tablets “are fine, but they are not going to change the world”.

Global tablet sales are sputtering because many markets are saturated and low prices may not spark a turnaround, O’Donnell told AFP.

“There have been low-cost tablets from other players for a couple of years and it hasn’t dramatically changed the arc of the tablet market,” he said.

‘Every unit is advertising’

Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates said the product push is part of the longtime strategy by Bezos of building a customer base.

“He just wants to get the tablet in your hands,” Kay said.

“Every unit is a bit of advertising, another way to enhance the brand, it can help in a number of ways.”

But Kay said Amazon has yet to prove it can leverage its customer base to deliver the kind of profit that Apple has.

“They get a lot of points for being innovative,” he said, but noted that “the strategy only works if they can turn all that revenue into some kind of profit, and they haven’t done it consistently.”

Amazon meanwhile cut the price of its upgraded Fire tablet for kids to $100. The device links to age-appropriate websites and YouTube videos.

Amazon unveiled an upgraded Fire TV media box for $100 and a new Fire TV Stick with voice remote for $50.

The devices, which compete with products from Apple as well as Roku and Google, allow users to stream in high-definition 4K from Amazon, as well as other online services such as Netflix, HBO and Showtime.

A Fire TV gaming edition media system with a controller is being launched for $140, along with a separate new game controller for Fire TV devices at $50.

NEW YORK — Apple’s iPhones and iPads are getting free software updates Wednesday, including battery improvements and a smarter virtual assistant.

The new features and capabilities in the update, iOS 9, are primarily refinements rather than anything transformative. But the new software is still worth getting, especially as new apps often require the latest version to work.

Apple Watch was also supposed to get a software update Wednesday, but that got delayed because Apple found a bug. A separate Mac update, known as El Capitan, is coming out this fall.

Here are some things to know about Wednesday’s updates:

On the iPhone

Although some features such as 3D Touch contextual menus will require the new iPhones that are coming next week, existing devices will get:

— Battery life: Besides under-the-hood improvements, a new low-power mode will reduce or turn off non-essential tasks such as visual effects and automatic downloads. The phone also won’t check for new mail or update content for apps in the background as often.

— Navigation: From the main home screen, swipe left to right for a new search screen. The Siri virtual assistant suggests frequently used contacts and apps and nearby businesses, taking into account whether it’s evening or lunchtime. As you jump around from app to app, some apps show a new back button on the top left corner to get you back to what you were doing.

— Notifications: Swipe down from the top edge for missed notifications, with the most recent on top. Before, they were grouped by app, so you had to sift through weeks old notifications from little-used apps to find the new ones. You can restore grouping by app in the settings.

— Sleeping in: If you choose a particular song as your alarm sound, the song will keep playing until you turn off the alarm or hit snooze. Before, the alarm automatically stops once the song ends, even if you didn’t hear it. Now, you’ll hear it over and over — though that might just encourage you to stay in bed.

— Security: If you have a new device with fingerprint ID, you’ll be asked to create a longer passcode as a backup, with six digits instead of four. Because you’ll need to enter your passcode less often, it might as well be stronger. The four-digit passcode won’t change if you’re simply upgrading rather than setting up a new device.

— Getting there: Apple Maps gets transit directions in major cities, addressing a major omission. In some cities, including New York and London, Apple sent teams to map out subway entrances for more precise directions to and from stations — helpful when stations stretch for blocks underground.

— Gone: The Newsstand icon disappears, replaced by an unrelated News service. Go directly to the publication’s app for your subscriptions. You can recreate Newsstand by putting all the apps into the same folder. Passbook gets replaced by Wallet, now that the Apple Pay payment service is becoming a bigger part of Apple’s ambitions. Apple Pay will now work with store-branded credit cards and loyalty cards, though it’ll be up to merchants to decide when they’ll start accepting them.

On the iPad

Though Apple’s larger-screen iPad Pro for business customers isn’t coming until November, existing iPads get the new iPhone features, along with others geared towards improving productivity:

— Multitasking: Swipe left from the right edge to run a second app, such as Maps to look up directions or Notes to jot down reminders. The choices are limited for now, but expect more developers to support that function. You can also run video in a small window while another app uses the rest of the screen. Do this by tapping an icon on the lower right of the video. You can move the video window to any corner or resize it by pinching in and out. It works only with a few video apps for now, but more are coming.

— Laptop-like controls: Place two fingers on the on-screen keyboard and start sliding around the screen to move the cursor around.

How to get

Back up your device and make sure your favourite apps will be compatible. Popular apps will likely have updates right away, but obscure ones might need more time to catch up.

When you’re ready, go to “General”, then “Software Update” in the settings. You need at least 1.3 gigabytes of free space.

You also need an iPhone or an iPad released in 2011 or later, or an iPod Touch since 2012. Not every feature will work with older models, so you might consider a new phone instead. New devices will ship with the updates already installed.

WASHINGTON — The market for wearable tech, led by Apple Watch and a range of connected fitness gadgets, is exploding, a survey showed this week.

The report by research firm IDC said global wearable device shipments will reach 76.1 million units in 2015, up 163.6 per cent from 2014.

By 2019, worldwide shipments will reach 173.4 million units, a growth rate of nearly 23 per cent over the next five years.

The biggest growth segment in this category is “smart wearables”, which includes watches and devices with more capabilities than “basic” wearables such as fitness bands.

“Smart wearables only account for about a third of the total market today while basic wearables, led by fitness trackers, account for the rest,” said IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani.

But Urbani said smart wearables are on track to surpass the less functional basic wearable category in 2018.

“Smart wearables will quickly move from a smartphone accessory primarily focused on notifications to a more advanced wearable computer capable of doing more processing on its own,” he said in a statement.

IDC said it sees Apple Watch and the watchOS operating system capturing some 58 per cent of the market this year, projecting sales for 13.9 million units. Apple has not released any sales figures so far.

Android and Android Wear, the operating system from Google, is expected to grab a 17.4 per cent market share with 4.1 million units selling this year, according to IDC.

Smart wristwear, including watches and bands that are capable of running third-party applications, is a key growth driver, according to IDC.

This includes the Apple Watch, Motorola’s Moto 360, Samsung’s Gear S-series, and Pebble’s Time.

“We are at a stage now where more vendors are getting into this segment, setting the stage for more selection and ultimately more volumes,” said IDC’s Ramon Llamas.

I have two minor issues with 3D printing. It’s still very expensive, and the name the technique has been given doesn’t really correspond to what it does, and it does not do it justice either. Other than that it may well be the most revolutionary high-tech innovation of the last five years, when it comes to hardware at least.

“Digital personal manufacturing device” would explain much better what the machine actually does. Printing is generally understood as laying ink on paper, or eventually on fabric or any other two-dimensional printable material, to form writing or drawing, in black or in colour. A 3D printer does nothing like.

The first definition you come upon when googling the meaning of 3D printing on the Web is “a process for making a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model”. It says it all.

Never mind the name. The technology is doing absolutely amazing things such as making excellent medical prostheses at ridiculous cost or producing unbelievably futuristic musical instruments with close-to-perfection sound qualities. You start by designing the object with your computer, even a laptop would do. It is not the easiest part of the process, but the most delicate and the most important, and by far. Then you take raw matter like, typically, flexible plastic, resin or some powder-based component, you place it in the printer connected to your computer and you tell it to “go ahead, make it”.

A professional 3D printer starts at about JD5,000 though there are slightly less expensive entry-level models and of course much more expensive ones at the higher end. This, naturally, does not include the price of the plastic or resin required to generate the objects. Since not every home or office can afford such expenditure, there are already companies established in Jordan that offer 3D printing service to the public for a reasonable fee.

By bypassing the traditional complex and expensive processes that goes from an idea or a concept, to the design and then to the large scale manufacturing, 3D printing establishes a direct link between the designer and the final, finished product, by using computer hardware and software that are at every one’s reach. This is unprecedented. So far computers have been amazing at processing numbers, data, images and sound, at letting us communicate and print on paper. 3D printing takes us to making physical objects. This is truly the 21st century.

French violinist Laurent Bernadac has designed and made a revolutionary violin by taking inspiration from one actual Stradivarius instrument, the celebrated model that goes back to the 18th century. He named his brainchild “3DVARIUS”. Beyond the technical prowess, critics agree that the resulting sound is outstanding. Because the 3D-printed electric 3Dvarius violin is made of one single bloc, it generates pure sound, something that a hand-made wooden instrument understandably cannot generate.

Whether one prefers the sound of the wooden, traditional Stradivarius or that of the 3Dvarius is subjective in the end but does not diminish the tour de force of Bernadac in any way. Moreover, at about JD10,000 the 3Dvarious is not cheap compared to the commercial violin models usually sold on the market, though it remains infinitely more affordable than a real Stradivarius made by the great master some 300 years ago. The highest price reached by a Stradivarius so far is $16 million.

Prosthetic limbs are one of fields where 3D printing is doing wonders. Private designers are helping injured people to acquire excellent prostheses at a fraction of the cost they would pay to big names in the industry for similar products, all thanks to 3D printing.

The variety of objects that can be printed this way is infinite and we have only seen the beginning of the impact of 3D printing. Just imagine that you can tell your computer and 3D printer to make any object you can think of and can design, using proper 3D software and of course some serious know-how. With these possibilities comes a set of ethical and safety issues, as it is often the case with technology. “Printing” lethal handheld weapons is only one of them. How do you control what people print at home or at their private workshop?

Miami Herald (TNS)

MIAMI — After living with Type 1 diabetes for more than two decades, Wendy Peacock was used to the constant daily juggling act of monitoring her blood sugar, taking insulin and paying attention to everything she ate.

But in recent weeks she was able to stop taking her insulin after doctors transplanted new cells in her as part of a clinical trial at the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) at UHealth — University of Miami Health System.

“To think I can go to sleep at night and not worry that my blood sugar is going to drop it’s almost like a weight has been lifted,” Peacock said during a news conference, where doctors shared her success story.

For those who have Type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system destroys cells that make insulin, the hormone needed to regulate blood sugar. About 1.25 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, including 200,000 youth. Those with the disease must take insulin either through multiple injections a day or continuously with a pump. They must measure their blood-glucose levels by pricking their fingers multiple times a day. 

Researchers are examining a new transplant technique for islet cells, which are clusters of thousands of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin to regulate the body’s blood sugar. Physicians implanted islet cells within a biodegradable scaffold on the omentum, an apron-like lining covering the abdominal organs, to determine whether it were a more viable location than the liver, where many of the implanted cells do not survive.

Doctors transplanted the cells during a laparoscopic procedure at Jackson Memorial Hospital on August 18. The FDA-approved study is a step towards the development of the DRI BioHub, a bioengineered mini organ that will mimic the pancreas to restore natural insulin production in people with Type 1 diabetes.

Since the transplant, Peacock’s glucose levels have remained at a healthy level, and she was taken off insulin and has no dietary restrictions.

“She is like a nondiabetic person but requires anti-rejection drugs,” said Dr Camillo Ricordi, director of the Diabetes Research Institute. “When you can do it without anti-suppression, then it’s a cure.”

Peacock said that she has not experienced side effects as a result of the drugs. 

So is she going to eat ice cream now?

“I’ve been following a certain diet for 26 years,” said Peacock, 43. “I don’t know if I will have ice cream.”

In the past, diabetes ruled Peacock’s life. A legal consultant, Peacock lives with her 5-year-old son and her parents in San Antonio.

“It’s a constant juggling act,” she said. “It is always there. I just lived with it constantly.”

Peacock said that when her blood sugar would drop, it would make her feel like she was living in a fog and would make it difficult to process and think logically. Peacock developed a condition in which she could no longer tell whether her blood sugar was dropping — a dangerous situation.

In February 2014, Peacock came to Miami to get tested for the clinical trial and found that she was eligible. On August 16, she flew to Miami with her father and was admitted to Jackson for the surgery.

“From then on it has been a whirlwind,” she said. “I was of course scared, excited and hopeful.”

Peacock plans to return to San Antonio later this month, where she will resume her life — minus insulin. That will make her daily life much easier, she said. She will no longer need her mental checklist that revolves around measuring her blood sugar. For example, if she wants to go for a run, she can just put on her sneakers and go without figuring out if she has to eat first.

Ricordi transplanted the cells in collaboration with Dr Rodolfo Alejandro, an endocrinologist and director of the DRI Clinical Cell Transplant Programme; Dr Gaetano Ciancio, a UHealth surgeon and director of Urologic Transplant Surgery; and Dr Jose Martinez, a laparoscopic surgeon at Jackson. The team collaborates with other doctors worldwide and hopes to do 20 to 30 more of these transplants within the next year, including a few at Jackson.

Ricordi told the Miami Herald last year that within three to seven years there will be a cure for Type 1 patients.

“It’s not a prediction — it’s a promise that I make to patients. We will defeat this disease for sure,” Ricordi told the Herald in November. “Depending on how many obstacles we hit, and regulatory complexities and cost, it could take more than 10 years, depending, but we’re getting there.”

After landing in Amman five years ago, the first thing I noticed while grocery shopping was that all the supermarkets here sold Ghee. It was a complete surprise to me that Jordan was also a ghee-eating nation. All along I thought that consuming ghee, in large quantities, was entirely an Indian habit.

What is ghee you want to know? Ghee is a kind of pungent smelling clarified butter that originated in ancient India. Widely used in Indian cuisine, traditional medicine and religious rituals it is manufactured in everybody’s kitchen usually by their grandmothers or the oldest living female relative. Why so? Well, I never questioned conventional customs; simply assuming that this was the manner in which it was passed from one generation to the next.

If you ask me I think only an elderly woman could stand the strong aroma that was produced when butter was simmered from churned cream to make ghee. My own granny was an expert at it and she firmly believed that its benefits far outweighed the discomfort. According to her it was a remedy for all ailments, from constipation, ulcer, arthritis, stomach cramps, insect bite, headache, sunburn, heartburn and even hair loss. Believe me, that’s the truth.

“Ghee can cure, what mom and dad endure”, is the rough translation of a rustic proverb that is famous in Punjab, the state of India that I belong to. This was almost a divine maxim that my grandma lived by. There was nothing that could surpass the goodness of ghee and a couple of homemade bottles of the white coloured stuff accompanied her everywhere that she travelled. If she were not adding copious amounts of it to garnish her food, she would be applying it liberally on her thick lustrous hair. She would be reeking of the stuff and I had to hold my breath when she enveloped me in a bear hug.

She loved the smell of ghee and said it whetted her appetite before every meal. Me on the other hand could not bear the sharp stench wafting from it. This was the main reason that I was such a thin child, she concluded once, when I refused to eat the chapatti that she had drenched with ghee. She relented when I pinched my nostrils and pretended to throw up. I was a gone case, she declared reluctantly, and concentrated on feeding my brothers. They would readily pour the melted ghee that she had prepared, on top of the steaming bowl of curries, and the sight made her dizzy with delight. If we ran short of it by any chance, she would immediately skip to the kitchen and start making some more. She took a situation, where there was no ghee in the house, as a personal affront that had to be remedied promptly.

Despite my North Indian origins, I could never develop a liking for ghee. I tried to make it at home once when our daughter was small, as a desperate attempt at fattening her up, because she was so thin. But when I brought a spoonful of the ghee lathered baby-food to her mouth, she spit it out with great force.

“Baby no like, baby no like,” she stressed banging her rattle on the dining table.

“Try one spoon,” I cajoled.

“Try one spoon,” she parroted.

“Open your mouth,” I coaxed.

We looked at each other steadily.

“Baby no like,” she repeated.

“Mama also no like,” I agreed, giving up.

NEW YORK — Passengers landing at remote Ornskoldsvik Airport in northern Sweden might catch a glimpse of the control tower — likely unaware there is nobody inside.

The dozen commercial planes landing there each day are instead watched by cameras, guided in by controllers viewing the video at another airport 145km away.

Ornskoldsvik is the first airport in the world to use such technology. Others in Europe are testing the idea, as is one airport in the United States. While the majority of the world’s airports will, for some time, still have controllers on site, experts say unmanned towers are coming. They’ll likely first go into use at small and medium airports, but eventually even the world’s largest airports could see an array of cameras mounted on a pole replacing their concrete control towers.

The companies building these remote systems say their technology is cheaper and better than traditional towers.

“There is a lot of good camera technology that can do things that the human eye can’t,” says Pat Urbanek, of Searidge Technologies. “We understand that video is not real life, out the window. It’s a different way of surveying.”

Cameras spread out around an airport eliminate blind spots and give controllers more-detailed views. Infrared can supplement images in rain, fog or snow and other cameras can include thermal sensors to see if animals stray onto the runway at the last second.

None of those features are — yet — in the Swedish airport because of regulatory hurdles.

Ornskoldsvik Airport is a vital lifeline for residents who want to get to Stockholm and the rest of the world. But with just 80,000 annual passengers, it can’t justify the cost of a full-time control staff — about $175,000 a year in salary, benefits and taxes for each of six controllers.

In April, after a year and a half of testing a system designed by Saab, all the controllers left Ornskoldsvik. Now, a 24-metre tall mast housing 14 high-definition cameras sends the signal back to the controllers, stationed at Sunvsal Airport. No jobs have been eliminated but ultimately such systems will allow tiny airports to pool controllers.

Old habits are hard to break. Despite the ability to zoom in, controllers instinctively grab their binoculars to get a closer look at images on the 55-inch TV screens. And two microphones were added to the airfield at Ornskoldsvik to pipe in the sounds of planes.

“Without the sound, the air traffic controllers felt very lost,” says Anders Carp, head of traffic management for Saab.

The cameras are housed in a glass bubble. High pressure air flows over the windows, keeping them clear of insects, rain and snow. The system has been tested for severe temperatures: 30oC below zero and, at the other extreme, a sizzling 50oC.

Niclas Gustavsson, head of commercial development for LFV Group, the air navigation operator at 26 Swedish airports, says digital cameras offer numerous possibilities for improving safety.

Computers can compare every picture to the one a second before. If something changes — such as birds or deer crossing the runway — alerts are issued.

“Maybe, eventually there will be no towers built at all,” says Gustavsson.

Saab is currently testing — and seeking regulatory approval — for remote systems in Norway and Australia and has contracts to develop the technology for another Swedish airport and two in Ireland.

Competitor Searidge is working on a remote tower for the main airport in Budapest, Hungary. That airport serves 8.5 million passengers annually and, within two years, controllers could be stationed a few kilometres from the airport.

Now, Saab is bringing some aspects of this technology to the United States.

Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia is a relatively busy airport with 300 daily takeoffs and landings. Just a few kilometres from Dulles International Airport, Leesburg does not have its own control tower. A regional air traffic control centre clears private jets into the airspace and then pilots use an established radio frequency to negotiate the landing and takeoff order. That often leads to delays.

Saab has built a system for Leesburg and on August 3 started a three-month test with the Federal Aviation Administration. FAA controllers will, at first, familiarise themselves with the technology and just observe the planes operating as they already do today. If the FAA approves, the next phase would be to start clearing planes onto taxiways and to take off and land.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association says it is participating in the testing.

Towers for large commercial airports are expensive. They need elevators, air-conditioning and heating, fire suppression systems plus room for all the controllers. A new tower in Oakland, California, that opened in 2013 cost $51 million. Towers at smaller airports are cheaper. Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport opened a new one in February at a cost of $15.4 million. Saab won’t detail the cost of its system except to say it is “significantly less”. There is no need for a tower and elevator.

The companies see a giant market: The vast majority of US commercial airports — 315 of 506 — have control towers. However, only 198 of the 2,825 general aviation airports have manned towers.

NEW YORK — During a self-prescribed listening tour with physicians groups this summer, Mehmet Oz learned just how much it annoyed many doctors when their patients say, “I heard on ‘Dr Oz’ ...”

It’s been a humbling stretch for the heart surgeon who built his own successful talk show after being introduced to the world by Oprah Winfrey. Critics, including some in Congress, scolded the hyperactive health evangelist for promoting questionable diet aids he’s since sworn off. In April, a group of 10 doctors urged that he be removed from Columbia University’s medical faculty, accusing him of promoting “quack treatments”. His show has lost half its viewers over the past five years.

“Heal thyself” is now the goal, as Oz tries to recalibrate and save his programme, which began a seventh season on Monday. He privately sought feedback this summer from doctors’ groups of various specialties.

“We’re on the same team of trying to make people healthier, which I think everyone can agree is the case, even if you disagree with how I do it, even if you don’t like the entertainment aspect of it,” he said.

What he didn’t realise was how he’d become a symbol for a development in healthcare that many doctors feel threatened by. Patients today often go for check-ups after Googling for information on what ails them or listening to advice from their favourite television doctor.

Oz has taken steps to mend fences, hiring a doctor to improve his show’s communication with the medical community. Since many doctors hear their patients quote Oz but don’t know what he said, the outreach effort will make it easier for them to find out and will alert specialists when the show addresses topics in areas of their expertise.

He found the listening tour rewarding.

“It was a very good investment of my time to hear from these folks, and it was very hard for me not to speak more,” he said.

He said when his name was in headlines last spring he was buoyed by support from his parents, Winfrey, his surgical partner and other doctors from Columbia.

“The Dr Oz Show” averaged 3.8 million viewers in 2011-12 and 1.85 million for the season that ended in May, the Nielsen ratings company said. The show’s switch from ABC to lower-profile Fox affiliates in several markets, along with some stations cutting airtimes from twice to once a day, has impacted ratings, said Holly Jacobs, executive vice president of US reality and syndicated programming for Sony Pictures Television. Jacobs said Sony stands behind Oz and the show has contracts to air through 2017.

But Oz’s reputation among consumers has clearly taken a hit. His positive Q score peaked at 32 in winter 2011, meaning 32 per cent of people who knew him considered him one of their favourite personalities. Now it’s 15, below the average of about 18, according to Marketing Evaluations Inc.

This season is important for Oz to determine his long-term viability, said Bill Carroll, an expert on the syndication market for the Katz Television Group. He said the uniqueness Oz brought to the audience is no longer unique.

“He’s the hardest-working guy in television,” Carroll said, “but there comes a point where you have to reinvent yourself, and I think that’s what they are going to attempt to do this year.”

Oz distributes a detailed outline of themes for his new season, and diet aids aren’t among them. “The Healthy Mind Project” will delve into the areas of mental health, addiction and happiness. He wants to help viewers navigate a glut of information, with one show devoted to teaching the best way to search online for reliable health information.

Producers aim to stretch out the show to add depth. The show has frequently operated like a magazine, with different topics introduced after each commercial break, and now Oz plans to stay longer on certain topics.

Oz said he never considered abandoning the show. He heard from viewers who told him they had helped people having seizures after seeing instructions on his show or interacted with someone about to commit suicide. He’s turning these stories into a future episode, about tips to save lives.

“When I hear this, and I see it all the time,” he said, “there’s no way I wouldn’t want to do this to the best of my ability.”

Revised and rebadged in line with Infiniti’s evolving brand design, identity and “Q” prefix alpha-numeric nomenclature, the Q70 seamlessly replaces the M saloon line. Retaining its drive-train options, the Q70’s sharpened up face-lifted lends it a more assertive presence and tweaks its resemblance to the Infiniti Q50 compact executive saloon.

Smooth, stylishly, spaciously, supple and sporty, the Q70 plays a deft hand in reconciling agile and eager handling with supple and refined comfort. A thoroughly convincing alternative to more obvious executive saloon options, the Infiniti Q70 certainly deserves more recognition and consideration, but part of is that it isn’t an obvious choice.

Swooping style

Seductively swooping, with fluidly wavy lines, eager demeanour and Coke-bottle hips, the Q70’s cabin-back design emphasises its front-engine and rear-drive layout. With long bonnet and short front overhang complemented by short rear deck and longer rear overhang, proportions are luxurious, while its shape and subtle aerodynamics achieve 0.27 drag co-efficiency and zero lift.

Visceral, emotive and seemingly ready to pounce, the Q70’s pinched-in mesh grille and slim moody and rising headlights are complemented by heavily scalloped wings. Rising and from the upper grille tips, the Q70’s sharp bonnet ridges lead towards its rakish A-pillars and trail off to long arcing roofline profile. 

Face-lifted and sportier, the Q70 receives Infiniti’s new double arch grille corporate face with chrome surround and wavy mesh and new front and rear LED lights. A more sculpted bumper treatment features flared and angled lower intake and bigger slatted foglight housings, and rearwards is more aesthetically dynamic with flatter and sharper boot-lid and blacked-out lower section.

Smooth revving

Silky smooth, eager and searingly high-revving in an executive saloon segment ever-more dominated by muscular mid-range oriented turbocharged engines, the Q70’s naturally aspirated VQ-series 3.7-litre V6 engine delivers clarity, responsiveness and progressiveness. Developing 329BHP at a haughty 7000rpm and 267lb/ft torque by 5200rpm, the 1764kg Q70 completes the 0-100km/h sprint in 6.2 seconds and tops out at 250km/h

Pulling hard from low-end and building up torque and power progressively through its rev-range, the Q70’s mid-range is flexibly muscular but linear. However, the Q70 is at its best and most satisfyingly and rewardingly eager, crisp and intense as it reaches towards its high 7500rpm rev limit, before a quick and concise gear shift.

The Q70’s 7-speed automatic gearbox features a more responsive “sport” mode and gear lever-actuated manual mode. Well-suited to its high-revving engine, the Q70 can stretch its long-legs and accelerate hard out of long fast sweeping corners in a single chosen gear in manual mode. Returning 10.2l/100km combined fuel efficiency, the Q70’s 80-litre fuel tank provides a long range. 

Balanced handling

Sporty yet smooth, the Q70 is an intuitive and relaxed yet sharp drive, with balanced weight distribution and front double wishbone e and rear multi-link suspension. Eager and agile, the Q70 turns in tidily and provides good body control through corners, while hydraulic-assisted steering is light, precise, refined and delivers decent feel. 

Balanced and tidy, the Q70 feels like a smaller car through switchbacks yet delivers high grip levels. Well-tuned for ride and handling abilities, the Q70’s handling is predictable, progressive and exploitable at its rear grip limit. Tuned for a crisp turn-in, the Q70 under-steers slightly if pushed too aggressively, and is an easily correctible sign to ease back.

Allowing one to best exploit its superb chassis balance, the Q70’s linear delivery, responsiveness and high rev-limit allow one to feed in precise power increments without unintentionally breaking rear traction and grip. Smoothly feeding the throttle by a corner’s apex, the Q70 digs in and smoothly, swiftly and seamlessly powers out without unnecessary gear change interruptions.

Refined ride

Refined and stable at speed and in town, the smooth-riding Q70 deliver good body control and is buttoned down over rebounds. However, it is also comfortable and fluid over lumps, bumps and imperfections, with 245/50R18 tyres finding a happy medium. Well-insulated from noise, vibration and harshness, the Q70 even features active noise cancellation technology.

With easy access, highly adjustable seats and steering, spacious front seats and good visibility, one can easily place and park the Q70. Elegantly finished with quality materials and soft textures, the Q70 has a classy ambiance but looks best in dark cabin tones, while rear seats offer spacious legroom and better headroom than most competitors. 

Well-equipped, the Q70 features an intuitive and large centre console and infotainment system, and includes USB and Bluetooth connectivity, rear view monitor and Intelligent Key function which memorises climate, audio and satnav settings. Advanced driver assistance and safety systems include numerous airbags, child seat latches, lane departure and brake assists, blindspot and predictive forward collision warning and around view monitor.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3.7-litre, in-line, V6 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 95.5 x 86mm

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable timing and lift

Gearbox: 7-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 329 (333) 245 @7000rpm

Specific power: 89BHP/litre

Power-to-weight : 186.5BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 267 (363) @5200rpm

Specific torque: 98.2Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 205.7Nm/tonne

Maximum engine speed: 7500rpm

0-100km/h: 6.2 seconds (est.)

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 14.9/7.4/10.2 litres/100km (est.)

Fuel capacity: 80 litres

Height: 1493mm

Width: 1845mm

Length: 4980mm

Wheelbase: 2900mm

Track, F/R: 1575/1570mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.27

Kerb weight: 1764kg

Headroom, F/R: 993/958mm

Legroom, F/R: 1129/919mm

Shoulder-room, F/R: 1483/1441mm

Hiproom, F/R: 1379/1358mm

Luggage volume: 500 litres

Weight distribution F/R: 54 per cent/46 per cent

Steering: Variable hydraulic-assistance

Turning diameter: 11.2 metres

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/multi-link, twin tube dampers, stabiliser bars

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 320mm/308mm

Tyres: 245/50R18

VAASA, Finland — Snow, preferably a thick layer of it, is the recipe for successful winegrowing in western Finland, at what is believed to be the world’s northernmost winery.

Thanks to an insulating layer of snow, winter temperatures as low as -36^oC have not managed to freeze the Riesling, Merlot and Chardonnay vines of Finnish wine pioneer Kaarlo Nelimarkka, 74.

On the contrary, Nelimarkka is more concerned about the sun’s rays than the winter frost piercing his Sundom winery in the town of Vaasa, just 400 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle.

“The winter is not a problem. The biggest problems are too short summers and the strong spring sun which can make the vine shoot out sprouts even when the soil is still frozen,” the retired Vaasa town administrator tells AFP.

He can make up to 400 bottles of whites, reds and roses in a good year, combining the hardier grape varieties Madeleine Angevine, Gewurztraminer and Solaris to make his speciality, Sundom White.

He describes it as “luminous”, and Finnish wine enthusiast Hannu Hokka, a former expert at Finland’s state-owned alcohol monopoly Alko, said he was impressed by it.

“The taste was fine and well-balanced, to go with salads or crayfish. Without knowing better, I could have never guessed it was from a minor Finnish producer,” Hokka told AFP.

There are less than a handful of winegrowers in the country, none of whom earn a living from it. At one point, Nelimarkka had hoped to make a career of it — but European Union bureaucracy reared its head.

No matter how meticulously Nelimarkka makes his wine he is not allowed to call it “wine” as Finland is not listed by Brussels as one of the official wine producing regions of the EU.

Because he can’t sell his product, Nelimarkka instead hosts groups who pay to visit his vineyard and who can enjoy wine tastings courtesy of the house.

A stick in the mail

Nelimarkka first began experimenting with Arctic winegrowing 40 years ago.

“My wife ordered some tulip bulbs from the Netherlands back in 1975 and they also advertised vines. I ordered just one and it turned out to be Pinot Noir, which is one of the most difficult varieties to cultivate, so I had to learn,” he says.

His was bemused when the mailman delivered a bare stick — which he then found out was a cutting. 

“For the first 20 years, I read all the instruction books and did everything accordingly but I always failed,” the self-educated wine enthusiast recalls.

After decades of trial and error, Nelimarkka has devised his own methods to protect his vines from the cold.

He quickly abandoned the idea of growing medium-height trunks common in traditional wine producing regions, and began cutting his vines down to under 30 centimetres for the winter.

He also piles heat-retaining stones under the vines to protect them from the humidity and cold, and covers them partly with white plastic tarpaulin for the winter.

More sun than Sicily

In summer, the midnight sun comes to the rescue, offering up to 20 hours of daylight per day at Sundom’s latitude.

Nelimarkka calculated that between March and September, there are an average of 30 days more daylight at his vineyard than what winegrowers around the Sicilian city of Palermo, in southern Italy, enjoy.

But this summer, Mother Nature has offered up another challenge for the resourceful viticulturist to overcome: an excess of rain.

While much of southern Europe had to contend with sweltering heatwaves, Finnish meteorologists recorded June and July as the coldest summer months in 50 years, with rainfall almost every day.

If an unusually warm end of the season was to save the harvest, he could be picking his grapes — he picks all the grapes himself — in early October, a few weeks later than usual.

He then ferments his wine in big glass jugs, foregoing traditional oak casks because he found that process too difficult.