Features

NEW YORK — Most fitness trackers can measure a lot: steps taken, heart beats, sleep quality and workout performance.

That’s a lot of data, but are they useful? It depends on what you’re looking for. Those new to fitness might want something that’s motivational, while those already active might want something sophisticated — but not necessarily easy to use.

Here’s a look at fitness devices from four leading manufacturers. Microsoft’s Band 2 and Motorola’s Moto 360 Sport were excluded from consideration in part because battery life was poor — tough for marathons of more than four hours. There’s a risk your tracker will end up in a drawer after a few months, especially if you get it for free as a gift or as part of a corporate wellness programme. Know what you’re getting and how you might use it before buying or adding one to your gift list.

The recommended devices all claim to be water resistant, so they can withstand sweat or rain. But only Garmin’s are designed for swimming and showering. And for Apple Watch, the protection does not extend to leather bands .

For the basics

Fitbit is the market leader in wearable devices, thanks to its simplicity and wide range of offerings. At $130, the Fitbit Alta offers basic step tracking. The $200 Fitbit Blaze adds heart rate monitoring and a larger screen. The $300 Fitbit Surge adds GPS for better pace and distance readings during outdoor workouts (though all-day step tracking does not use GPS to conserve battery).

For running and cycling, the Blaze does not have GPS but borrows the one on your phone if you carry it.

All three models come with automatic sleep monitoring. Just check Fitbit’s companion app to see how long and how well you’ve slept. A new feature reminds you to go to bed — perhaps too gently, as it is easy to overlook or ignore.

All Fitbits have amazing battery life and can go for several days without a recharge. Their screens are not as vivid as what rivals offer, though the Blaze has colour, a first for a Fitbit.

One of Fitbit’s strengths lies in its community. If a friend has one, you can use Fitbit’s app to compete and nudge each other. As a result, Fitbits are good motivational device for those new to physical activity. Fitbits also sync with just about every device out there — iPhones, Android, Windows and Macs.

For the budget

Samsung’s Gear Fit2 offers high-end features at roughly half the price of a top-line Fitbit: $180. This includes GPS for better distance monitoring during outdoor workouts. There’s automatic sleep tracking, too.

The screen is more vivid than on Fitbits, but it can be tough to read in direct sunlight. You’ll need to crank up the brightness, which is fine, as the battery should still last six or seven hours with GPS use (and a few days without). The Fit2 also tracks squats, lunges and other strength exercises — rare in a tracker.

While the Fitbit Blaze and the Surge notify you of missed calls and messages on your phone, the capabilities are poor compared with smartwatches. The Fit2 does better by offering limited message replies from the device, but it does not offer the app choices that smartwatches do.

An Android phone — not necessarily Samsung’s — is required for full functionality. No iPhones or PCs. You can compete with other users of Samsung’s S Health app — not just Fit2 owners — but the community is not as vibrant as Fitbit’s.

Unfortunately, a bike frame or a backpack can easily knock the device off your wrist. The Fit2’s price is nice — but not if you need to buy a replacement.

For the performance

Most fitness trackers are designed for general fitness needs and offer little customisation for power users.

Garmin’s Vivoactive is the exception, at $220 for the base model and $250 for the newer “HR” version with heart rate monitoring. Both have GPS, automatic sleep tracking and some phone notifications. They sync with a variety of devices, as with Fitbits.

Both Vivoactive models combine the best of Garmin’s stand-alone gadgets for running, golfing and other sports. Runners are able to record times after each lap on a track, while other fitness devices typically limit you to auto-intervals every mile or so.

There are still times you’ll need a dedicated device. Swimming on the Vivoactive, for instance, is limited to the pool, while the $450 Forerunner 735XT allows open-water tracking.

Neither Vivoactive model has a fancy screen, but that improves readability in sunlight and extends battery life — plenty even for super-slow marathons. The devices are bulky for all-day wearing. Garmin is about performance, not fashion. And in another trade-off for added functionality, Garmin’s app is not as easy to navigate as Fitbit’s.

For the lifestyle

At $300 or more, the Apple Watch is for those who want more than fitness on their wrist — such as turn-by-turn navigation, or the latest weather. You need to carry an iPhone for full functionality.

Apple Watch does not have GPS, though it will borrow the phone’s GPS readings if you run, walk or bike with it. This also calibrates the watch so that you can leave the phone home after a few workouts (sorry, calibration does not work for cycling). Unlike the Blaze, the watch will not record your specific route without a third-party app.

You’re given goals on minutes to exercise and calories to burn — customised based on your sex, age, weight, height and current fitness level. Apple Watch will prompt you to adjust goals that you consistently meet or miss. On rival devices, you typically have to take the initiative to go through those settings.

Although Apple Watch is not alone in offering reminders to take breaks and walk around, it’s more effective than rivals by turning it into a game. Do it 12 times throughout the day to complete a blue circle.

Apple Watch requires a nightly recharge and is not designed for tracking sleep, though third-party sleep apps are available. The battery runs out after 4.5 hours to five hours in a marathon, but you can extend its life by disabling heart rate monitoring during workouts.

This fall, Apple plans to release an app designed to reduce stress by guiding you through deep-breathing exercises — offering a new approach to fitness.

The Bamboo Stalk
Saud Alsanousi
Translated by Jonathan Wright
Doha: Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (formerly Bloomsbury Qatar), 2016
Pp. 499

“The Bamboo Stalk” is about identity but not in the sense of living out one’s chosen identity or even flaunting it as in the now fashionable “identity politics”. The protagonist, José or Isa, as he is alternately named, really does not know who he is or what he believes in; nor can he anticipate how others will treat him, or where he can or wants to live. The uncertainty sometimes drives him to despair: “If only my parents could have given me a single, clear identity, instead of making me grope my way alone through life in search of one.” (p. 62)

José’s identity is precarious because he is the son of a Filipina woman who worked as a servant in Kuwait, and the grown son of the Kuwaiti family for whom she worked. So, alongside identity, “The Bamboo Stalk” also explores the situation of migrant labourers who are treated as non-persons: “We have no feelings and we understand nothing,” says one Filipina of Kuwaitis’ attitudes towards them. (p. 278)

At first glance, José might seem luckier than others of similar origins, because his parents married. His father was a writer with progressive ideas but couldn’t stand up to his mother who felt that accepting Isa into their family was bad luck; it would ruin their reputation, spoil her daughters’ marriage chances, and subject the family to shame and ridicule. So José’s father sent him and his mother back to the Philippines, promising that he would later bring the boy back to live in Kuwait. 

José’s mother hangs on to his promise, thinking it will ensure her son a better life. The only snag is that his father is captured resisting the Iraqi occupation and later dies in a prison camp. When José returns to Kuwait as a teenager, he is at the mercy of the family who are mostly against his being there. Convoluted arrangements are made for him to stay at their house but not be discovered for who he is, revealing how silly, lonely and dysfunctional their biased exclusiveness make them. 

This is a novel built on contrasts, not only between Kuwait and the Philippines, but between two different Kuwaitis — one for rich citizens, the other for migrant workers — and the two faces of the Philippines with its, green luxuriant nature counterpoised to the people’s impoverishment. But in both countries, José is an outsider — called the Arab in the Philippines and the Filipino in Kuwait.

Growing up in the Philippines, José got a clear idea of cause and effect, from why his mother went to work as a maid, to why his Filipino family was always quarrelling among themselves: “Whenever I looked for a reason for everything that happened, it was always poverty that raised its ugly head.” (p. 7)

But his experience in Kuwait teaches him that there are other obstacles to human fellowship, and he begins to question whether he, like a bamboo stalk, can take root anywhere, and specifically in Kuwait.

Alsanousi succeeds remarkably in developing a compelling voice for José, who narrates his own story. His childlike wonder at both the beauty and the ugliness he encounters in other human beings serves as a barometer of his surroundings and sets the tone of the novel. “The Bamboo Stalk” is both brave and innovative in tackling the prejudices and closed-mindedness that lurk below the surface of Kuwait’s prosperous, highly educated society. 

It also challenges the supposition of cohesion by including a major character who is a bidoon, the term for Kuwaitis who are denied nationality despite being born in the country. As José’s father wrote in his unfinished novel: “We become Kuwaitis when there’s a crisis, but we soon go back to that horrible putting people in categories as soon as things calm down.” (p. 330) 

Countering the dehumanisation of Asian workers, Alsanousi visited the Philippines to make his writing about the country and its people more authentic, and also included some of its history in the novel. Each chapter is prefaced by a quote from José Rizal, who inspired the revolt against Spanish colonialism in the 19th century. These quotes also pertain to José’s situation in Kuwait, such as “The tyranny of some is possible only though the cowardice of others”. (p. 205)

“The Bamboo Stalk” proves that Alsanousi is no coward but confronts the problems of his country head on. In an interview with Ben East, he explained that upon returning to Kuwait, he saw his own society in an entirely new light (“The National,” May 30, 2015). Alsanousi exhibits an instinctive understanding of the link between creativity and the exploration of difference and otherness, which makes “The Bamboo Stalk” outstanding and won him the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

NEW YORK — You’d be wrong to think that Facebook’s Messenger app is all about messaging.

Although people typically install it on their phones to chat privately with their Facebook friends, Facebook also uses Messenger to bring features and capabilities that might not make sense, or even be possible, as part of the main Facebook service. And of course, a separate app gives Facebook even more advertising and other moneymaking opportunities.

For that reason, Facebook is pushing users to download the app, even though it takes up valuable storage on the phone. The company recently started blocking access to Facebook messages from mobile web browsers on Android phones in some markets. The ban will extend to iPhones as well, though Facebook isn’t saying when.

Before you complain, consider what a separate Messenger app offers beyond simply typing words and sending emoji back and forth:

Group chats

Messenger lets you easily add friends to group chats so you can make dinner or travel plans or just talk about your day. Although this is also possible using your browser, it’s more convenient with the app. If kicking people off mobile browser messaging is the stick to prod people towards the app, the convenience of Messenger is the carrot to lure users.

Tapping the “groups” icon at the bottom of the screen will take you to existing group chats and let you start new ones. You can add people to group chats at any time, or leave the group. If you have an often-used group chat, you can also “pin” it to the top of your messages to make it easily accessible.

Bots

Who wants to chat with people when you can chat with... bots? Well, most of us, but bear with me here.

Since April, Facebook has let outside businesses create “chat bots” that can send you the news or weather, help you shop for shoes or book plane tickets and hotel rooms. You send a message to a brand’s bot just as you would a friend; the difference is that the reply is automated through software. The results can be clumsy, as expected for such a new venture.

But bots can be helpful. Expedia, for example, lets you search for hotels and book them by messaging with its bot. Start by telling the bot where you are going and when. After some back and forth, the bot will give you hotel options. To book, the bot will take you to Expedia’s website.

This is just the start. Perhaps one day, the bot will be more useful by letting you book directly through Messenger. David Marcus, Facebook’s head of messaging products, has called bots “overhyped in the short term and underhyped in the long term”.

Send or request money

Using your debit card, you can send money to your Facebook friends using Messenger — as long as they also have their card number attached to their Facebook account. You can also request money, in case your friends forgot to pay you for those movie tickets and aren’t answering their e-mail. To use the payments option, select the person you want money from and tap “payments”. There are no extra fees to send or receive payments, but you must use a debit card — not a credit card.

Video calls

Your mom isn’t on Skype? FaceTime isn’t cutting it because your friend has Android?

Messenger offers yet another way to do video calls on your phone. It’s free over a Wi-Fi connection. If you use cellular, you might get charged for data by your phone company.

Play games

How about some football — or football, as it’s known in most of the world? Select a friend to play with. Then, select Messenger’s emoji keyboard by tapping on the emoji icon on the left side of your message window, right above the keyboard. Tap the football ball icon and send it to your friend. Then, tap the ball with your finger and keep tapping it so it stays in the “air”.

During a recent, frustrating attempt, I had a high score of just two — though that’s still one more than what Portugal scored to win the Euro Cup this year.

Trampoline parks have jumped in popularity in recent years, and so have visits to the emergency room from park-related injuries, a new study in Paediatrics found.

Trips to the emergency room due to injuries at trampoline parks shot up from just under 600 in 2010 to almost 7,000 in 2014, the latest year of the study. The number of trampoline parks in the United States also increased during this time, from around 40 in 2011 to 280 in 2014.

Sprains and dislocations are the most common injuries for trampoline park goers. Some of the most serious injuries included skull and open leg fractures and spinal cord trauma, according to study author and paediatrician Kathryn Kasmire of Connecticut Children’s Medical Centre. She said the injuries in some cases led to paralysis and surgery.

Kasmire said one in eleven children or young adults who went to the emergency room for park injuries was admitted to the hospital.

The study also found that the majority of trampoline-related accidents occur at home — rather than at a park — and these accidents did not increase significantly from 2010 to 2014, nor did overall trampoline injuries.

The International Association of Trampoline Parks said the rise in injuries should be expected because of more parks in recent years.

“We believe that the positives of youth recreational sports far outweigh the negatives, and we are actively engaged in programmes aimed at promoting the safety and well-being of jumpers who visit our member parks,” the group said in a statement.

Kasmire admitted that parks have done a good job of ensuring that youngsters do not fall off trampolines, reducing the likelihood of head injuries, because the floors are covered with a bouncy surface. This floor, though, can increase the risk of other injuries if a person lands between two trampolines, she said.

Kasmire noted that the study could not determine the likelihood of being injured at a park, adding: “We already know that any kind of trampoline is a relatively dangerous activity for children.”

The American Academy of Paediatrics advises against trampoline use for all children but says if children do use them, they should not do flips or have more than one jumper at a time on a trampoline. The academy said adult supervision is needed and that trampolines should also have proper padding.

The number of online tasks and activities is growing, it’s understood, but how far can it all go? Of all the actions and operations we used to do manually, how many can be transformed into digital operations? What are the consequences?

Banking, shopping, social networking, e-mailing, gaming, reading, and hundreds of other activities are already in the digital domain. Even “traditional” software that you used to have on your computer is being taken one degree up in virtualisation and is being accessed in the Cloud from your computer, without being actually physically installed (i.e. saved) on its hard disk.

Bitdefender, a company based in Romania and one of the leading providers of antivirus software is changing its policy and wants its user to use its Cloud-based software, not the one you used to install on your machine.

France also is going one step up in virtualisation. Voting will be done electronically via the Internet and the correction of the “baccalauréat”, the equivalent in France of the Jordanian high school Tawjihi exam, will also be done online. In countless schools, including the French school in Amman, students are already doing part of their homework online, digitally, in a completely paperless manner.

Jordan has its share of online-based electronic services, not only in banking of course, but in a large number of public ones, mainly those pertaining to Amman municipality, such as checking (and paying…) traffic fines, companies’ yearly licences renewals, real estate taxes and others.

Whereas all the above undeniably save time, money, transportation, paper, fuel and certainly contribute to reducing environment pollution in a general manner, at the same time they all reduce direct human contact, a direct effect the consequences of which cannot be underestimated, and for the time being are not fully studied, evaluated or understood.

The world is not only becoming digital and paperless, but also “human contact-less”. 

Providers of technical service in the field of Information Technology (IT) have also found a way to help users and solve problems not by physically dispatching technicians on-site, but by remotely accessing the machines that require service, vie the Internet, of course. German company TeamViewer has taken the lead in this field. Its eponymous product is a software application that your install and that lets the computer technicians wherever they may be in the world, to access your computer remotely, work on it as if they were sitting with you in the same room and solve most of the technical issues you may encounter.

Again, the advantages of such extensive digitisation and virtualisation are many, are obvious and priceless; but what about the disadvantages?

It belongs to psychologists, scholars and college researchers to study and analyse the consequences of not doing things in person, of not seeing the other party in the flesh when working, of not having a humane, basic but so important handshake, of not having an eye contact with the person you are dealing with.

Whatever their findings and eventually their recommendations, it is safe to bet that nothing will go backwards and that we will keep seeing more and more being done digitally, online, virtually, without any human contact. There simply seems to be no limits to what can be done via the Internet, and all the already available electronic means and the ones to come.

If I told you that I am going to tell you something about the rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, you would be confused and not understand what I am talking about. But if I say that the boiled, dried and ground version of this deep orange powder is found in most of the kitchens of the world, you will be surprised and rush to your kitchen to solve the mystery. 

The minute you open your spice box, the riddle would be unravelled, as turmeric, which has been used for thousands of years as the main ingredient for making curries, will be revealed, in all its golden glory. Turmeric, also called curcuma aromatica, is popularly referred to as ‘haldi’ in my home country India and is commonly believed to cure all the diseases known to mankind. Believe me, it’s true. 

Let me list some of them: arthritis, joint pain, stomach ache, ulcerative colitis, bypass surgery, jaundice, liver problems, irritable bowel syndrome, gallbladder disorders, high cholesterol, bronchitis, headaches, lung infections, Alzheimer’s disease, tuberculosis, auto immune disorders, sprain, bruises, leech bites, and so on and so forth. The catalogue is never-ending and even includes gum disease. 

People who think that a pinch of this orange powder that is added to give the correct shade to the gravies, is its only use, are terribly mistaken because there are a host of natural chemicals inherently found in turmeric that help in reducing inflammation and healing ailments. Therefore, after Godly intervention, if you need to revere anything, it should be the humble “haldi” because other than life and death, it restores everything in between. Or so it is said. 

A native to Southern India and Indonesia, where it has been harvested for more than 5,000 years, the Arab traders introduced it into Europe in the 13th century. It has only recently become popular in Western cultures. Much of its current recognition is owed to the fresh research that has highlighted its therapeutic properties. The leading commercial producers of turmeric include India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Haiti and Jamaica. Traditionally it is called Indian saffron because of its deep yellow-orange colour, which is similar to that of the prized saffron. 

Emerging from an exhausting calisthenics exercise class at my gym the other morning, I was persuaded by my friends to go for a golden milk trial at the nearby cafeteria. Also called the ‘new workout recovery drink’ the bartender made the concoction in front of us by adding one cup of unsweetened coconut milk, half teaspoon each of ground turmeric and ground ginger, a pinch of cardamom powder, a teaspoon of honey and after shaking it for two minutes, strained it into tall glasses and put some ice cubes into the mix. 

I watched the entire process with indifference because my sore muscles were crying for attention and all I wanted to do was rush home and put my feet up and not move even an inch for the rest of the day. 

But the very first tentative sip of the golden milk shot like shockwaves through my system. By the time I reached the midway mark I felt a surge of renewed energy in my tired body and by the end of it I felt completely rejuvenated. 

“The pain in my shoulders has disappeared,” exclaimed my friend. 

“Should we try more?” I asked. 

“Another step aerobics class?” she was horrified. 

“Another shot of magic milk,” I smiled. 

Scientists scanning Jupiter’s atmosphere have found a mysterious spike in temperature high above the Great Red Spot — that massive, swirling storm that has graced the planet’s face for centuries.

The discovery, described in the journal Nature, may hint at a deeper connection between the dynamics of the gas giant’s upper and lower atmosphere, and could shed light on the basic physics of such planets in our solar system and beyond.

For more than four decades, scientists have struggled to explain why the temperatures in parts of the giant planets’ upper atmospheres can be hundreds of degrees warmer than expected — too warm to be explained by heating from the sun.

“Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all far too hot in their upper atmospheres compared to the amount of sunlight they receive,” said lead author James O’Donoghue, a planetary scientist at Boston University. “For example, Jupiter should be about 200 degrees Kelvin, whereas we consistently measure it to be over 1,000. So it’s a massive discrepancy.”

To find out where this heat was coming from, a team of scientists from Boston University and the University of Leicester used a spectrometer at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility to create a map of the temperature distribution across the striped gas giant. To do so, they tracked emission lines from a triple-hydrogen ion found in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

“It’s kind of like it’s a probe of the atmosphere,” O’Donoghue said. “Wherever that molecule is, we can read its temperature and construct a map that way.”

The scientists were expecting to see the polar atmosphere show up brightly, given that those regions have massive auroras energised by the planet’s powerful magnetic field. But they were not expecting the Great Red Spot to pop out of the haze near the equator as well.

“We were actually surprised,” O’Donoghue said. “We just wanted to make the maps first and then assess things later, but we luckily got the Great Red Spot in our data.”

The Great Red Spot, which is currently about twice as wide as Earth, sits about 50km above the so-called surface (the depth at which the planet reaches Earth’s sea-level pressure — Jupiter doesn’t really have a surface). But the overheated layers in the upper atmosphere sit much higher, around 600km to 999km above the surface. There, the temperature above the storm came out to a whopping 1,600 degrees Kelvin. That means that whatever was happening in the Great Red Spot was having a significant effect far above it.

“It was unthinkable in ways, because you’re communicating energy from 800km away, which sounds just crazy — I still think it’s quite crazy, but it still seems to be the case,” O’Donoghue said. “On the other hand, you’re talking about a storm that is … the largest in the solar system. Then it didn’t sound crazy.”

What could be causing this heating? It’s possible that gravity waves might explain the heating, although they generally only heat an area by tens of degrees at best. (These are pretty mundane physical phenomena and not at all the same as gravitational waves, those Einsteinian ripples in space-time.)

It’s also possible that acoustic waves, generated as the swirling storm rubs against atmospheric layers headed in the opposite direction, might be carrying energy into the atmosphere and heating it. Perhaps a combination of these two wave types “crashing” into the atmosphere causes the super-heated spots.

What the exact dynamics are, however, remains unclear.

“The lack of a solution points to a huge misunderstanding in our fundamental knowledge of how an atmosphere works,” O’Donoghue said. 

The scientists want to see if they can find similar hot spots hovering over smaller storms on the gas giant, and plan to analyse data from the Keck telescope that examines the atmosphere above the Great Red Spot in finer detail.

In the meantime, NASA’s Juno spacecraft is now looping around the planet with the aim of peering beneath the clouds to study Jupiter’s depths, including those beneath the giant red storm. Those two datasets could work hand in hand, the scientist said.

With Juno’s depth measurements and more atmosphere measurements, “we’ll have a complete picture of the altitude profile of the storm,” O’Donoghue said, “and figure out basically how it works, really”.

SAN FRANCISCO — In a world where there’s a smartphone app for everything, one company __ Amazon.com Inc. — has long been the host for an outsized share of online software and computing services.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wants to change that.

Nadella has poured billions of dollars into building new data centres around the world, hoping to position Microsoft as the leading alternative to Amazon in selling online computing power — housed in remote centres or “clouds” — to Internet start-ups and big corporations, as well as consumers.

As evidence the investment is paying off, Microsoft Corp. reported that its Azure cloud-computing business more than doubled in sales last quarter, compared with a year earlier. That growth, combined with increases in revenue from Windows software licences and other key segments, helped offset a big decline in revenue from the Nokia smartphone business that Microsoft largely shut down last year.

If Amazon has been the undisputed king of the cloud, analysts say Microsoft, Google and a few other tech giants are emerging as rivals. The competition could mean lower prices and more innovation, both for businesses that buy cloud-computing services and for consumers who use popular apps — from Netflix to Pinterest and Airbnb — that run in the cloud.

Amazon pioneered the cloud business almost 10 years ago, when the online retailer began renting out unused capacity on its own servers. Estimates vary, depending on how you define “cloud computing”, but analysts at Synergy Research Group say Amazon still has more than 30 per cent of the market, while Microsoft has grown to 10 per cent — partly on the strength of Microsoft’s promise that its cloud services are compatible with Microsoft software that customers already have on their own computers.

IBM and Google have 7 and 5 per cent, respectively. Like Microsoft, IBM reported this week that its cloud revenues increased in the last quarter, despite a broader decline in its traditional software business.

For consumers, competition in the cloud-computing industry could mean their favourite social media site or streaming entertainment app doesn’t depend on a single company to keep its service running. Increasingly, that’s also true for big companies like General Electric and Boeing, which provide online data and other services for their commercial customers, and which recently signed deals to move some of those services to Microsoft’s cloud.

“Some companies will want to work with multiple cloud providers, so if anything goes wrong, they have redundancy,” said Frank Gillett, a tech analyst with Forrester Research.

For Microsoft, meanwhile, cloud computing has been the company’s biggest source of growth in recent quarters. It’s helped drive up Microsoft’s stock price by 15 per cent over the last year, despite sluggish sales of PC software and the near-collapse of its floundering smartphone business. 

Some investors worry the cloud business isn’t as profitable as selling traditional software, since the latter didn’t require massive spending on data centres. But cloud computing is “the area that offers the highest potential for the entire company to grow its way out of a very mature PC business”, said Dan Morgan, the senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust, which holds Microsoft shares.

Results from Microsoft’s latest quarter underscored that trend. The company doesn’t disclose revenue for its Azure cloud computing service by itself. But Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” division — which includes Azure and some software that customers use in their own data centres — reported revenue of $6.7 billion, up 7 per cent from a year earlier. That helped boost Microsoft’s overall sales to $22.6 billion, after adjusting for deferred revenue, for an overall increase of 2 per cent.

Revenue from the division that includes Microsoft’s Office productivity software was up 5 per cent. But sales from the “More Personal Computing” segment fell 4 per cent. The latter includes licensing fees that PC makers pay for Windows software, which saw an uncharacteristic increase, offset by declining revenue from smartphones and Xbox consoles.

Microsoft still relies heavily on the PC business, and it has been aggressively promoting Windows 10, the latest version of its operating software for PCs and other devices. But Nadella has positioned Windows 10 as part of a broader software ecosystem that includes money-making online services like Skype and the ad-supported Bing search engine.

In a rare concession, Microsoft signaled that it was backing off its stated goal of getting Windows 10 on a billion devices by 2018. Analysts say the timetable was probably slowed by a continued slump in global PC demand, as well as Microsoft’s failure to persuade consumers to buy Windows-based phones.

Hotly anticipated since its first appearance as the C-X17 concept at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Jaguar F-Pace is set to become one of the British brand’s most important vehicles. Jaguar’s first endeavour in the SUV market, the F-Pace is expected to substantially increase sales, widen the brand’s client base and possibly become the brand’s most popular model.

Driven at global launch on rugged and breathtaking, if imperfectly paved winding mountain routes, fast B-roads and treacherous off-road trails, the F-Pace effectively translates Jaguar’s sporty yet supple driving characteristics for SUV service. Fast, focused, fluent and comfortable, the F-Pace is positioned in the mid-size premium sports SUV segment, competing alongside the Audi Q5, BMW X4 and Porsche Macan.

Familiar and feline face

Seamlessly re-interpreting the Jaguar’s elegantly well-proportioned and flowing uncomplicated yet urgently athletic contemporary design language and corporate face for SUV service, the F-Pace’s body seems to be tautly stretched around its frame. With both assertive demeanour and aerodynamic efficiency, the F-Pace’s long bonnet, short overhangs, fluent lines and gracefully descending roofline lends it a sense of dynamic tension and forward movement even when at standstill.

With wide snouty and broad mesh grille, big lower intakes, slim headlights and sculpted bonnet, the F-Pace has a sporting sensibility, which is also reflected at the rear, where slim horizontal lights with a rounded lower element, working to evoke its F-Type sports car sister’s design similarity. Under its taut skin, the F-Pace is built on the Jaguar’s stiff and lightweight modular aluminium architecture, also underpinning the XF and XE saloons. 

With 80 per cent aluminium keeping centre of gravity and unsprung weight low to aid performance, efficiency, safety and ride and handling, the F-Pace also features near perfect weight distribution. With stylish, deep and fresh Caesium Blue paint and 56cm 15-spoke alloy wheels with contrast inserts, unique to the First Edition spec model driven, such vehicles also feature full-LED headlights, panoramic sliding sunroof, gloss black fender vents and adaptive dynamics dampers.

Keeping pace

Driven in F-Pace S guise with the more powerful of two states of tune for its direct injection 3-litre supercharged V6 engine, power rises to 375BHP at 6500rpm and is underwritten by healthy and responsive torque band peaking at 332lb/ft torque at 4,500rpm. The top-of-the-line model until an expected 5-litre supercharged V8 performance model arrives, the F-Pace S is nevertheless swift and keen, with 0-100km/h dispatched in 5 seconds and an electronically governed 250km/h top speed.

Smooth and refined with a muffled yet evocative snarl, the F-Pace S’ mechanically driven supercharged engine delivers instant boost and responsiveness from idle, unlike most gas-driven turbo engines’ low-end lag or moment of inertia. Characterised by consistently muscular yet urgently progressive delivery eagerly as it climbs to its long-legged rev limit, the F-Pace S features responsive throttle control and clarity as it pounces through switchbacks and climbs through steep winding mountain roads.

An 8-speed automatic gearbox with a closely spaced but broad range of ratios allows for responsive acceleration from low-end, relaxed economic cruising and punchy on-the-move versatility and contribute to the F-Pace’s 8.9l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency. Swift and smooth shifting, the F-Pace features a snappy paddle-shift manual mode for more driver autonomy and involvement. Individually adjustable for responsiveness, engine, throttle and gearbox modes are accessed through the infotainment screen, as are damper stiffness settings.

Grace, fluency and agility

Riding on sophisticated double wishbone front and integral link rear suspension stiff lateral control yet supple vertical absorption, the F-Pace is comfortable and refined, and agile and focused for a high riding 1861kg SUV. Stable and planted at high speed and settled on sudden vertical rebound the F-pace is ever poised. Meanwhile, adaptive dampers reconcile massive low-profile 265/40R22 tyres with a smooth and forgiving ride quality over lumps, bumps and cracks.

Deriving its name from Jaguar’s 1960s “space, grace and pace” mantra with a deliberate nod to its contemporary F-Type sports car sister, the F-Pace sets its stall out as sports SUV. A description well-reconciled by its clever suspension set-up and tuning, the F-Pace may not be a corner carver of F-Type calibre, but handles with a discernable in-class fluency and agility. Meanwhile, steering is quick, precise, reassuring and refined, if not superlative in textured road feel and feedback. 

Characterised by its handling fluency and finesse, the F-Pace tucks tidily into corners, through which its adaptive dampers keep it poised and well suppress body roll, especially in its firmer sport damping mode. Controlled with little body lean through corners, the F-Pace’s anti-roll bars are particularly praiseworthy for being ultimately firm in resisting roll, but with progressive bushings that gently feed in weight shift to prevent occupants being suddenly slammed to the side when cornering briskly.

Space and technology

Tidy, balanced and committed through corners, the F-Pace’s good cabin forward visibility, agility and fluency make it feel smaller than its 1,936mm width through narrow mountain hairpins. Operating with 90 per cent power sent to rear wheels for sporty agile handling as a default, the F-Pace’s lightweight chain-driven four-wheel drive however reapportions up to 50 per cent power to front wheels to — aided by long wheel travel — maintains traction, grip and pull it out of wet corners or for off-road driving.

Off-road, the F-Pace availed itself well on rugged, rough, rocky, gravelly and wet trails, with 213mm ground clearance, 525mm water wading and 25.5° approach and 26° departure angles. Leveraging sister brand Land Rover’s unimpeachable off-road expertise, the F-Pace features sophisticated driver assistance systems that utilise various systems to act somewhat like off-road cruise control. On road semi-autonomous safety technologies include pedestrian-sensing autonomous braking, stop/go adaptive cruise control, parking assistance, blind spot and reverse traffic detection and the ability to nudge the electric steering into lane. 

Well-appointed, luxurious, sporty and easily accessible with highly adjustable, supportive and comfortable driving position, the F-Pace features user-friendly layouts and stylish designs include pop-up rotary gear selector and quality leathers, metals and textures. Spacious with 650-litre boot, rear headroom is decent but would be better still without panoramic sunroof, while 40:20:40 split folding/reclining rear bench add versatility. High-tech infotainment and convenience equipment is extensive and includes remote engine and climate control operation, in-car Wi-Fi and advanced smartphone integration allowing online connection with the F-Pace.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3-litre, supercharged, in-line V6 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, continuously variable valve timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel drive

Ratios: 1st 4.714; 2nd 3.143; 3rd 2.106; 4th 1.667; 5th 1.285; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.839; 8th 0.667

Reverse/final drive: 3.317/3.73

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 375 (380) [280] @ 6,500rpm

Specific power: 112BHP/litre

Power -to-weight ratio: 201.5BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 332 (450) @4,500rpm

Specific torque: 150.25Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight ratio: 241.8Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 5.5 seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel economy, combined: 8.9 litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 209g/km

Fuel capacity: 63 litres

Length: 4,731mm

Width: 1,936mm

Height: 1,652mm

Wheelbase: 2,874mm

Track, F/R: 1,641/1,654mm

Approach/departure angles: 25.5°/26°

Headroom, F/R: 1007/977mm

Boot capacity: 650 litres

Kerb weight: 1861kg

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/integral link

Steering: Variable electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 11.87 metres

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres: 265/40R22

LOS ANGELES — A 42-year-old skydiver with more than 18,000 jumps made history when he became the first person to leap without a parachute and land in a net instead.

After a two-minute freefall, Luke Aikins landed dead centre in the 30-by-30-metre net Saturday at the Big Sky movie ranch on the outskirts of Simi Valley.

As cheers erupted, Aikins quickly climbed out, walked over and hugged his wife, Monica, who had been watching from the ground with their 4-year-old son, Logan, and other family members.

“I’m almost levitating, it’s incredible,” the jubilant skydiver said, raising his hands over his head as his wife held their son, who dozed in her arms.

“This thing just happened! I can’t even get the words out of my mouth,” he added as he thanked the dozens of crew members who spent two years helping him prepare for the jump, including those who assembled the fishing trawler-like net and made sure it really worked.

The stunt, broadcast live on the Fox network for the TV special “Stride Gum Presents Heaven Sent”, nearly didn’t come off as planned when Aikins revealed just before climbing into his plane that the Screen Actors Guild had ordered him to wear a parachute to ensure his safety.

Aikins didn’t say what prompted the original restriction, and representatives for the show and the Screen Actors Guild did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages.

Aikins said he considered pulling out at that point because having the parachute canister on his back would make his landing in the net far more dangerous. If he had to wear it he said he wouldn’t bother to pull the ripcord anyway.

“I’m going all the way to the net, no question about it,” he said from the plane. “I’ll just have to deal with the consequences when I land of wearing the parachute on my back and what it’s going to do to my body.”

A few minutes before the jump one of the show’s hosts said the requirement had been lifted. Aikins left the plane without the chute.

He jumped with three other skydivers, each wearing parachutes. One had a camera, another trailed smoke so people on the ground could follow his descent and the third took an oxygen canister he handed off after they got to an altitude where it was no longer needed.

Then the others opened their parachutes and left him on his own.

Aikins admitted before the jump he was nervous and his mother said she was one family member who wouldn’t watch.

When his friend Chris Talley came up with the idea two years ago, Aikins acknowledged he turned it down cold.

“I kind of laugh and I say, ‘Ok, that’s great. I’ll help you find somebody to do it’,” he told The Associated Press as he trained for the jump last week.

A couple of weeks after Talley made his proposal Aikins called back and said he would do it. He’d been the back-up jumper in 2012 when Felix Baumgartner became the first skydiver to break the speed of sound during a jump from 38km above Earth.

The 42-year-old daredevil made his first tandem jump when he was 12, following with his first solo leap four years later. He’s been racking them up at several hundred a year ever since.

His father and grandfather were skydivers, and his wife has made 2,000 jumps. His family owns Skydive Kapowsin near Tacoma, Washington.

Aikins is also a safety and training adviser for the United States Parachute Association and is certified to teach both students and skydiving instructors. His business Para Tactics provides skydiving training to Navy Seals and other members of elite fighting forces.