Features

NEW YORK — This year’s World Cup will play out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and messaging apps just as it progresses in stadiums from Sao Paulo to Rio De Janeiro.

Nearly 40 per cent of Facebook’s 1.28 billion users are fans of football, better known as football outside of the US, Australia and South Africa. On Tuesday, the world’s biggest online social network is adding new features to help fans follow the World Cup — the world’s most widely viewed sporting event — which takes place in Brazil from June 12 to July 13.

Facebook users will be able to keep track of their favourite teams and players throughout the tournament in a special World Cup section, called “Trending World Cup.” Available on the Web as well as mobile devices, the hub will include the latest scores, game highlights as well as a feed with tournament-related posts from friends, players and teams. In addition, an interactive map will show where the fans of top players are located around the world. The company is also launching a page called FacebookRef, where fans can see commentary about the matches from “The Ref”, Facebook’s official tournament commentator.

Social media activity during big sporting events such as the Olympics and the NFL’s Super Bowl has soared in recent years and should continue as user numbers grow. In 2010, when the last World Cup took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, Facebook had just 500 million users. Now there are just that many football fans (people who have “liked” a team or a player) on the site, the company says.

Facebook has recently focused on making its mobile app usable on simple phones that use slower data speeds since many of its newest users are in developing countries. As a result, Rebecca Van Dyck, head of consumer marketing at Facebook, said the World Cup hub will also be available on so-called “feature phones”. Here the section will be “little less graphical” than what’s shown on smartphones and on the Web, she said, but will include the same information.

Users can get to the World Cup hub by clicking on the hashtag #worldcup in a Facebook post, or by clicking on “World Cup” in the list of trending topics on the site.

In a nod to Twitter, Facebook, earlier this year, began displaying trending topics to show users the most popular topics at any given moment. The feature is available in the US, UK, India, Canada and Australia.

“This is our first foray into this, especially for a big sporting event like this,” Van Dyck said. “We’re going to see how this goes. If people enjoy the experience it’s something we’d like to push on.”

Facebook, which counts 81 per cent of its users outside the US and Canada, is unveiling its World Cup features at a time when the company is working to become a place for more real-time, public conversations about big events — a la Twitter. Such events attract big advertising dollars, though the company is not saying how much money it expects to make from World Cup-related ads.

Not to be outdone, Twitter touted in a blog post last week that the “the only real-time #WorldCup global viewing party will be on Twitter, where you can track all 64 matches, experience every goal and love every second, both on and off the pitch.”

Fans can follow individual teams or players and use the hashtag #WorldCup to tweet about the matches, and follow official accounts such as @FIFAWorldCup, @usfootball for the United States team and @CBF_Futebol for Brazil’s football governing body, for example.

The World Cup is the planet’s most widely viewed sporting event. According to FIFA, which organises the tournament, an estimated 909.6 million viewers watched at least one minute of the final 2010 game when Spain beat the Netherlands. In comparison, nearly 900 million people watched at least part of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. On Twitter, more than 24.9 million tweets were sent out during this year’s Super Bowl, up from 13.7 million just two years earlier.

Because it takes place over several weeks, marketers are gearing up for “a marathon, not a sprint”, said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst for research firm eMarketer.

“Developing countries will be a key target for global brands,” she said. “They will work hard to capture the attention of football fans in Latin America, Asia, Africa. The challenges (include the fact) that all the games are taking place in one place and the customers and marketers are in multiple time zones. This will require around the clock marketing.”

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s Sean Chin had a body fat per centage of 24 per cent seven years ago. He is now lean with just 9 per cent fat and as a personal trainer he works daily with clients at their homes to help them fight the flab.

“Building up confidence levels is the crucial first step towards tackling obesity and I help my clients build theirs by showing them a photograph of a fat me,” he said with a smile.

“My mantra? If I could, you can.”

To complement such efforts and nudge others to take the first step, many Southeast Asian countries are rolling out measures so people can make healthy choices before obesity turns into the full-blown epidemic seen in many Western countries.

Obesity is a priority for the government, said Zee Yoong Kang, chief executive of Singapore’s Health Promotion Board.

“There’s some intuition that once obesity gets above a certain share of a population, it becomes more of a norm and then businesses and infrastructure accommodate the greater appetite, sucking in more people into that lifestyle,” Zee said.

While Southeast Asia still enjoys one of the world’s lowest obesity rates, it is seeing a rapid growth in the condition.

Rising incomes, sedentary lifestyles and fattier, Western fast food are exacerbating the situation for a region that has for decades focused on under- rather than over-nutrition.

The obesity rate in Singapore climbed to about 13-14 per cent in 2010 from 8.6 per cent in 2004. In Malaysia, one of two adults is either overweight or obese, while the prevalence of obesity in Thailand has almost doubled between 1991 and 2009.

The World Health Organisation has urged governments to do more to prevent obesity, instead of risking the high costs when it sets in.

Battling the bulge 

Malaysia is working on increasing awareness about obesity being a public health threat as part of its national strategic plan for non-communicable disease (NCD). Obesity is a key cause of NCDs like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

“A population with a high burden of NCDs... will affect productivity and ultimately negatively impact our economic development,” said Dr Chong Chee Kheong, director of disease control at the Ministry of Health in Malaysia.

The “Nutrition Month Malaysia” initiative had “Eat right, move more: Fight obesity” as its theme this year. The country also hosted the International Congress on Obesity in March.

Thailand is looking at various measures to beat the bulge, including a ban on the sale of carbonated soft drinks at state schools, said Krisada Ruangareerat, manager at the health ministry’s Thai Health Promotion Foundation (THPF).

“The latest number in 2012 showed about 17 million Thais suffered from obesity... the number continues to rise by four million people a year,” Krisada told Reuters.

The THPF is also thinking of proposing a tax on sweet foods or those with high calories. “Thais consume 23.4 teaspoons of sugar per person per day, which is very high compared with an appropriate level of six teaspoons a day,” Krisada added.

Singapore on
a fitness drive 

In Singapore, many childcare centres are serving less-fattening brown instead of white rice and public housing blocks have signs urging people to skip the lift and take the stairs.

The government has rolled out an incentive-based weight management programmeme for its residents to collectively shed one million kilogrammes (2.2 million lb) in the next three years.

The city-state, home to 5.4 million people, is also working with several organisations to promote healthy living, including Fitness First and with fast-food chain McDonald’s.

“It’s safer as a health authority to tell the kids no McDonald’s, but it’s more real and will potentially have a better impact if I work with McDonald’s to improve their product mix,” the health board’s Zee said in an interview.

McDonald’s has come forward to commit to provide more wholesome options in its menu, he added.

Singapore, which is hoping to at least stabilise the rising obesity rate by 2020, recently launched a healthy living master plan and a food strategy that will see some 700 food outlets island-wide serving 500-calorie meals. It plans to roll out another initiative for physical activity later this year.

Launched in 1979 to serve as the popular Volkswagen Golf’s saloon sister model, the Jetta’s evolution has taken it ever more up-market in tandem with successive Golf generations, and has been sold under the Vento and Bora names at various points. The current sixth generation Jetta, however, made a more noticeable break with the Golf when it was introduced in 2010. Based on a longer version of the fifth and now, previous generation Golf’s PQ35 platform but sharing no common body panels, the current Jetta is a larger, more practical, cost-effective and better value product intended for large sales volumes and to compete with Japanese and Korean C-segment saloons.

Conceived to be competitive

The Jettta was conceived and developed in conjunction between Volkswagen’s German headquarters and its long-standing Mexican operation to be a popular and competitive family saloon in the cut-throat US and world C-segment saloon market and as a more up-market car in Europe. Initially launched in two versions and built in Mexico to be competitively priced, the Jetta is designed to offer German engineering and brand values at a competitive price. While the Euro spec Jetta featured more luxurious interior appointments, more modern engines and a more sophisticated multi link rear suspension set-up like its predecessor, the US and world market version was designed with a more value- and volume-based approach in mind.

Intended to provide a compact German saloon car experience to a greater number of people at an affordable and competitive price, the US and world market Jetta was initially launched with subtly less luxurious upholstery and interior plastics, as well as less costly torsion beam rear suspension and less sophisticated but thoroughly proven drive-train options, including a naturally aspirated two litre eight valve SOHC four-cylinder engine — as tested — and six-speed automatic gearbox, rather than a dual-clutch automated DSG as fitted to pricier European versions. Volkswagen have however since introduced a more contemporary 1.8-litre turbo engine in the US, as well as reverted to the use of more sophisticated multi-link rear suspension.

Consistent and confident

Developing 114BHP at 5,200rpm and 125lb/ft at 4,000rpm, the Jetta’s long-serving two litre eight valve is a charismatic alternative and comparable to a more modern 1.6-litre engine, and with a proven track record, less complexity and lower fuel octane requirement, should be easier and less costly to run and service. A relatively low-revving engine, the Jetta’s two- litre engine doesn’t need to be thrashed too hard and delivers good low- and mid-range torque and flexibility. Consistent in building up power and torque, the Jetta feels confident driving in high gears on the highway and on inclines, while its six-speed gearbox is smooth shifting and can be operated sequentially for more direct control.

Weighing in at 1,331kg, the Jetta 2.0 automatic delivers respectable 12.6-second 0-100km/h acceleration and a top speed of 193km/h owing to good torque and aerodynamics, while combined cycle fuel economy is 8.72’/100km/h. Consistent in power delivery and with a strong mid-range, the Jetta 2.0 isn’t particularly fast climbing steep inclines, but it doesn’t lose steam, and instead progressively picks up the pace, while brakes grip confidently on the way down. Stable, planted and smooth at speed, the Jetta is typically and reassuringly German in this regard, while compliant suspension settings allow it to comfortably take imperfections, lumps and bumps and easily glide over longer and more gentle speed bumps.

Settled and smooth

Settled on the rebound from road texture changes, the Jetta’s comfortable suspension allows it to iron out imperfections, while its 205/55R16 tyres find a happy medium between pliancy and grip. With three-turn lock-to-lock steering, good visibility and 11.1-metre turning circle, the Jetta is maneverable in the city, while cabin refinement is high, with terrific road noise and vibrations filtered out well. Designed to be comfortable but not sporty, Jetta nonetheless availed itself well over a narrow, brisk and imperfectly paved route, where ride and handling were put to the test simultaneously.

Steering is well-weighted, progressive and delivers good precision, while turn-in is tidy as the front wheels grip well, while its longer wheelbase ensures good lateral grip too. Pushed somewhat hard through country switchbacks the Jetta becomes more confident and feels more agile, and while body lean is evident, it is well-controlled, progressive and not excessive. Un-dramatic and reassuring, the Jetta has good front grip, but being a front-drive car it will understeer slightly if pushed too hard or tightly though a corner, but this is easily corrected with slight throttle lift-off to bring its back to the desired cornering line.

Design, cabin and kit

Understated and conservative but elegantly and uncontroversially handsome, the current Jetta’s design is a sleeker, less pronounced, more mature design and with clean lines. Longer, wider and shorter than before, the current Jetta’s unfussed fascia bears a strong familial resemblance to other Volkswagen models, with its discreetly angled headlights sitting at almost the same height as its wide grille. Sober rather than extrovert, the new Jetta’s restrained lines are given movement by a subtle character groove above the sills, while its rear view is best. The Jetta also has strong hints of Audi, especially from rear views and around its trapezoidal rear lights.

During the test drive one was hard pressed to see signs of any cost-cutting in the Jetta’s handsome conservatively designed dashboard and centre console, where its prominently featured soft touch quality plastics, good fit and finish, and well laid out buttons. Signs of cost-cutting were discreet and subtle, with the doors’ interior plastics being of a harder texture. Spacious inside for its segment, the Jetta rear legroom is accommodating for taller passengers, while rear headspace was adequate. Front seats were comfortable and adjustability and visibility were good. Boot space is generous at 510 litres, while the boot opening was adequately — if not generously — sized.

Starting from JD23,950 for the basic S version and JD28,500 for the better kitted SE version — on-the-road without insurance — as tested, the latter comes well-kitted with sensible and practical features. Kit includes multifunction steering wheel, all-round electric windows, cooled glovebox, electronic immobiliser, cruise control, sunroof, parking sensors, electric heated mirrors, touchscreen infotainment with six-CD changer and Bluetooth connectivity, and dual zone air conditioning with rear vents. Safety kit includes six airbags, traction control, anti-lock brakes, front and rear fog lamps and rear childseat Isofix latches. Warrantied for three years of unlimited mileage, the Jetta also comes with a free service package for three years or 45,000km.

SPECIFICATIONS

Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 (auto)

Engine: 2 litre, cast-iron block / aluminum head, transverse 4 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82.5 x 92.8mm

Compression ratio: 10.3:1

Valve-train: 8-valve, SOHC, Multipoint fuel injection

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 4.15:1; 2nd 2.37:1; 1.56:1; 4th 1.15:1; 5th 0.86:1; 6th 0.69:1

Reverse / final drive: 3.39:1 / 3.68:1

0-100km/h: 12.6-seconds

Maximum speed: 193km/h

Power, PS (BHP) [kW]: 115 (114) [85] @ 5,200rpm

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 125 (170) @ 4,000rpm

Specific torque: 85.8Nm/litre

Fuel consumption, urban / extra-urban / combined: 6.78-/12.08-/8.72 litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 55 litres

Length: 4,644mm

Width: 1,778mm

Height: 1,482mm

Wheelbase: 2651mm

Track width, F/R: 1,542 / 1,539mm

Ground clearance: 139mm

Kerb weight: 1,331kg

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.30

Headroom, F/R: 970 / 943mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,046 / 967mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,401 / 1,362mm

Luggage volume: 510 litres

Steering: power-assisted rack and pinion

Steering ratio: 16.4:1

Turning circle: 11.1 metres

Lock-to-lock: 3.01 turns

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated disc 22 x 280mm / drum 32 x 230mm

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts / multi-link, coil springs, stabiliser bars

Tyres: 205/55R16

Price, starting / as tested: JD23,950 / JD28,500, on-the-road, no insurance

SAN FRANCISCO – Muscular new consoles from Microsoft and Sony are girding to battle for the throne of the video game industry at the E3 extravaganza set to kick off in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The two rivals will showcase blockbuster titles to the press Monday with eye-popping graphics and promote their consoles that are evolving into multipurpose home entertainment centres.

Nintendo, whose new-generation Wii U consoles were eclipsed by Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4, is taking a lower profile approach with an online event it will stream before the huge industry event officially opens.

“At the end of the day, what sells video game systems are blockbuster games,” said Phoenix Online Studios manager and strategy analyst Scott Steinberg.

“The competing players will trot out major titles and try to establish dominance.”

Sony goes into the video game industry’s biggest annual trade show with an edge, its PS4 having trumped Xbox One in sales since the competing consoles hit the market in November.

Microsoft last month effectively cut the Xbox One retail price, deciding to sell a version of its Xbox One console without its Kinect motion detection system.

Upon release of the Xbox One, Microsoft included the Kinect voice and gesture recognition accessory, saying it was integral to the performance of the console.

Microsoft basically “put all of its cards on the table” early, billing Xbox One as an all-purpose living room entertainment device for films, music, games and more, according to Forrester analyst James McQuivey.

“That was a pretty big play,” McQuivey said.

“Hardcore gamers didn’t want to hear that Netflix was anywhere near (the popular game) ‘Halo’, even though Microsoft knows viewing Netflix accounts for a huge amount of time spent on Xbox.”

Gamers targeted 

Meanwhile, Sony aimed squarely at gamers while pitching PS4 even though the consoles also deliver films, music, television shows and other digital entertainment, a chunk of it from the Japanese entertainment giant’s own studios.

Games designed exclusive for Xbox One or PS4 are expected to be scarce at E3, but Microsoft and Sony will play up whatever content that might differentiate their consoles.

Sony is also likely to give a deeper look at its augmented reality headset.

“If Microsoft can’t catch up with Sony in the short run, it will not own the market in the long run,” McQuivey said.

Xbox and PlayStation consoles have both been evolving into home entertainment hubs of the future as pressure mounts smartphones, tablets, and even “dongles” that can interactively route rich content to television screens.

Twitch, a startup that specialises in streaming play to viewers in a hot trend of video games becoming spectator sports, this week released a study indicating that the notion of gamers being basement-dwelling hermits is off mark.

LONDON – They have been the kings of the British capital’s roads for over a century but now the often opinionated drivers of London’s iconic black taxi cabs are battling a high-technology rival that threatens their dominance.

In their sights is Uber Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based company whose application lets people summon rides at the touch of a smartphone button and uses satellite navigation to calculate the distance for fares.

The drivers of black taxis say Uber, backed by investors such as Goldman Sachs and Google, is being used as a taximeter and thus contravenes a 1998 British law reserving the right to use a meter for licensed black taxis.

Uber says the application used by their drivers complies with all local regulations and that they are being targeted because of their success in winning customers.

A variety of apps are available for summoning both black cabs — bulbous, purpose-built vehicles which offer a roomier passenger compartment than most normal cars — and unmetered private-hire taxis known as minicabs.

But the power of Uber and the growing popularity of its app have so rattled the black cab drivers that they have pushed London’s transport regulator to ask the High Court to rule on the legality of such applications.

They also plan to converge near Trafalgar Square on June 11 for a protest that could paralyse central London, following strikes and other actions by drivers in cities such as Paris and Milan.

“We understand it’s a competitive market place, but they’re not playing by the rules,” Jim Thompson, a taxi driver of 30 years, told Reuters during a coffee and cigarette break in the financial district. “We’re fighting for our livelihoods here. No one’s going to take it lying down.”

Since Uber’s foundation in 2009 by two US technology entrepreneurs, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, the darling of Silicon Valley has entered over 70 cities, expanding from California to Washington, Tokyo and now London.

Colleagues in the US capital are suffering, said Thompson. “I was over in Washington last year and it slaughtered them,” he said. “You just can’t compete.”

Behind the debate over what constitutes a taximeter, Uber has touched a raw nerve in London because it brings home the threat to one of the city’s most visible trades from technological advances.

To win the coveted green badge giving the right to drive a black taxi, drivers have to study for up to five years to pass the “the Knowledge”. This is a rigorous test requiring encyclopaedic knowledge of London’s roads and its landmarks — from the Tower of London to the site of Karl Marx’s grave — although many drivers now use satellite-navigation devices.

First introduced as motorised competitors to the horse-drawn carriage in 1897 under Queen Victoria, there are now over 25,000 hackney carriage taxis in London making more than 300,000 trips each day.

The cabs, which are now made by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, can be flagged down on the street and use a meter to calculate fares while London’s 44,000 minicabs must be pre-booked with a set fare and destination.

Taxi wars ?

Uber says its minicabs arrive in five minutes in central London and it offers numerous incentives, including a free first journey to attract new users and allowing customers to see the driver’s name and photo before they arrive.

“You really feel you are the customer and not someone who’s just getting a lift,” said David Wetherill, an Uber customer in London. “It’s like the difference between staying in a budget hotel and a five-star.”

But Uber also provides an application for its drivers to calculate the cost of each journey by monitoring the distance and time travelled. The London taxi-drivers’ union says this amounts to a taximeter and that the regulator, Transport for London (TfL), is failing to enforce its own rules with a firm that has powerful investors.

“TfL is scared by Uber’s big-money backers like Goldman ‘Government’ Sachs and Google,” said Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association. “Something is very, very wrong here.”

TfL says its provisional view is that the use of smart phones does not constitute a taximeter but has invited the High Court to rule on the issue.

Uber is being targeted because of its success and out of fear of its technological strength, said Jo Bertram, Uber general manager for Britain and Ireland. “We’re bringing more competition and we think that’s good for everyone,” she told Reuters at the company’s new offices in north London.

But Uber isn’t to everyone’s taste. There have already been protests against Uber in both the United States and continental Europe, and one of its cars was attacked near Paris earlier this year. Not all appear to have helped the drivers’ cause: When the Milan taxi union staged a strike in March, Uber enticed stranded customers by offering a 20 per cent discount.

The company has also faced complaints from rival taxi firms in the United States while in France a law requiring all its drivers to wait 15 minutes before responding to a booking was briefly introduced and then suspended.

In London, about 10,000 taxis are expected to cause gridlock at next week’s protest.

Night of the Golden Butterfly

Tariq Ali

London: Verso, 2010, 275 pp

This is the final book of Tariq Ali’s Islam Quintet, a series of novels situated at important junctures of Muslim history, such as the Arabs’ last days in Spain, and Salahdin’s conquest of Jerusalem. In contrast to the previous four, the fifth volume is contemporary and global, jetting from Lahore to Paris, London, the US and China, to reveal the complex history of various Muslim communities and patterns of migration. 

“Night of the Golden Butterfly” starts and ends with Plato, a brilliant, iconoclastic painter who studiously avoids seeking wealth and fame. Traumatised as a child by losing all his family in the violence that accompanied the1947 partition of India, and dumped alone on the Pakistani side, he develops an acute eye for human pretense, pain and injustice. His biting social critique makes him a sort of secular guru to a group of leftist college students in Lahore in the early 60s. One of them is Dara, who narrates the novel and whom one suspects is the author’s alter ego. As the novel opens, Plato contacts Dara, who has been living in London for decades, to demand repayment for a long-ago favour. While Plato had always been secretive about his personal life, he now wants nothing less than for Dara to write a novel based on his life. Dara cannot refuse, but realises that in writing about Plato, “I would, of necessity, have to resuscitate the lives of others, including my own.” (p. 79)

It is this resuscitation that gives the novel its structure as Dara revives memories of his youth and reconnects with those in his circle of old friends from Lahore, who are still alive. While all had shared dreams of revolution to create a better world, they have since had to survive in the world as it evolved quite apart from their expectation. Reconnecting means confronting new interpretations of the past and the changes undergone by old friends. With each new character comes insight into a different experience which together amount to a panorama of Muslim lives past and present, challenging the monolithic picture of Islam today being promoted by most mainstream media.

Particularly poignant is reencountering his old Punjabi friend, Zahid, now married to Jindie, a Punjabi of Chinese descent, with whom Dara was (is?) madly in love. As Dara struggles to reconcile himself to their marriage, Jindie attempts to explain why she didn’t marry him by sharing her diary which traces her family history back to the Hui Muslims in Yunnan, China, whose sultanate was destroyed by the Hans, leading her family, like others, to flee. Tellingly, she makes the parallel to Punjabis’ treatment of other ethnic groups, like the Baluch, Pashtuns and Sindhis. Jindie’s brother, Hanif, or Confucius, as they called him in the old days, had gone to China long ago in search of his Maoist dreams. Reconnecting with him means revisiting the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Meanwhile, the marriage of Jindie’s and Zahid’s daughter to a Fatherland general takes the reader into the labyrinth of the military’s corruption, intrigue and partnership with the “war on terror”. Dara also meets new friends of Plato, like Zaynab, whose brothers married her to the Holy Koran in order to disinherit her, a practice not permitted by Islam but used by patriarchal landlords with impunity to hoard their wealth. 

Everyone knows that Lahore, birthplace of the author and most of his characters, is in Pakistan, but the book refers only to the Fatherland. While Ali may have used this term to avoid accusations, it has the effect of making his narrative a more universal critique of narrow nationalisms. The narrative is rambling, raucous, irreverent and funny, yet dead serious as Ali satirises hypocrisy, corruption, willful ignorance and injustice in East and West, with his most witty satire targeting the racism inherent in Islamophobia.

This is a well-crafted novel filled with fascinating characters, unconventional behaviour, vivid dialogue, passionate and platonic love affairs and bizarre incidents, but it is more. The subtext is a humanistic cultural and historical essay which revisits the past, decrying imperial rulers and celebrating popular rebellions, while scrutinising the new world order and finding it wanting. Known as a secular leftist, Ali’s interest in Islam is uncovering its hidden history and great contributions to civilisation. At the same time, he is deeply disturbed by the effects of poverty, fanaticism, war and corruption, lamenting the descent of Lahore from a “cosmopolitan city into a monocultural metropolis” and of the Fatherland into a country “where human dignity had become a wreckage”. (pp.32 & 163) Brimming with political, literary and cultural references, playing on words in several languages and getting to the heart of what is needed for human happiness and fulfillment, this is a novel that is both enlightening and enchanting.

Sally Bland 

SAN FRANCISCO – A smartphone app that rids you of acne. Another that monitors your heart rate 24-7. One that detects skin cancer by looking at your birthmarks. If they sound too good to be true, they maybe.

Patients today use a number of apps that purport to track and treat a panoply of ailments, a headache for regulators and patient safety advocates. Now, the advent of wearable devices bristling with sophisticated biotracking sensors is stirring concern in the medical community about misdiagnoses that could have serious consequences for consumers.

Some are asking whether Apple and Google should do more to police their fast-growing app marketplaces.

“Most of the health apps out there are built by people with zero medical experience,” said Paris Wallace, chief executive officer of Ovuline, a popular fertility app. Worse, many developers don’t have the resources for legal counsel, Wallace said, and are more likely to make false claims to patients without seeking FDA clearance.

The Food and Drug Administration last year published guidelines on the kinds of mobile apps it will supervise. But industry insiders fear the agency may get overwhelmed as apps mushroom.

Last week Samsung Electronics launched a health platform for third-party developers, SAMI.

This week Apple introduced “Healthkit”, a repository of data for medical apps that opens up new realms for developers to explore. It may also make it easier for those with scant understanding of regulatory protocols to dive into the market.

Health apps are big business for Apple and Google, the two leading app marketplaces. The iPhone maker is the preferred choice for developers. Analytics firm AppAnnie found that Apple generates five times more revenue from downloads of health and fitness apps than Google.

How the two companies, who both declined to comment for this story, will handle the proliferation of medical apps is unclear. One source familiar with the matter said Apple is looking to add a regulatory expert to its growing digital health team, who will be tasked with oversight of the App Store.

Research has shown that many existing medical apps may be useless. Seventy-five per cent of smartphone apps that claim to assess malignancy are wrongly diagnosing at least 30 per cent of melanomas as “unconcerning”, researchers from the American Medical Association’s JAMA Dermatology found. 

A 2012 study by the New England Centre for Investigative Reporting revealed that of 1,500 health apps it evaluated, 20 per cent claimed to treat or cure medical problems, but only a small percentage of them had been clinically tested.

Medical professionals fear patients may defer an inperson checkup because of faulty results. By the time they see a doctor it may be too late. A false negative for cancer, for instance, may prompt a user to put off professional consultation.

“If patients perceive a mobile app as a cheaper alternative to a trip to my office, that’s worrying,” said Molly Maloof, a physician who has spoken about such matters and is a consultant for digital-health start-ups like Sano Intelligence and GeneSolve.

Echoing a familiar Silicon Valley stance, developers argue that increased federal oversight will only stifle innovation.

Mike Lee, cofounder of MyFitnessPal, a weight-loss app that claims 50 million users, said his company wouldn’t exist today if it been required to seek regulatory approval: “We wouldn’t have been able to afford the tremendous time and expense.”

Patient safety advocates counter that the FDA’s concern shouldn’t be to appease Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs but to protect consumers. Moreover, apps like MyFitnessPal are focused on wellness and would not require FDA approval.

Policy makers are struggling to keep up. The FDA lacks the resources to monitor each and every one of these apps.

According to an IMSHealth report from October 2013, more than 43,000 health-related apps are available on the US iTunes store, and 33,500 on Google Play. Bradley Merrill Thompson, a healthcare-focused attorney with Washington, DC-based Epstein, Becker and Green, speculates that hundreds of unregulated mobile “medical devices” — anything with a specific medical application — populate Apple’s store.

Reuters found several dozen applications on the App Store and Google Play that fall into the FDA’s definition of a medical device. Examples include a heart-rate monitor targeted to patients with chronic conditions and an app for diabetics to detect early signs of vision loss.

Those products have not been cleared by the feds, and offer little or no clinical evidence to back up their claims.

“Most of these (apps) carry minimal risks to patients and consumers. However, others can carry significant risks if they do not function properly,” an FDA spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

“FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion for the majority of mobile apps that meet the definition of device.”

TOKYO — A cooing, gesturing humanoid on wheels that can decipher emotions has been unveiled in Japan by billionaire Masayoshi Son who says robots should be tender and make people smile.

Son’s mobile phone company Softbank said Thursday that the robot it has dubbed Pepper will go on sale in Japan in February for 198,000 yen ($1,900). Overseas sales plans are under consideration but undecided.

The machine, which has no legs, but has gently gesticulating hands appeared on a stage in a Tokyo suburb, cooing and humming. It dramatically touched hands with Son in a Genesis or “E.T.” moment.

Son, who told the crowd that his long-time dream was to go into the personal robot business, said Pepper has been programmed to read the emotions of people around it by recognising expressions and voice tones.

“Our aim is to develop affectionate robots that can make people smile,” he said.

The 121 centimetre tall, 28 kilogramme white Pepper, which has no hair but two large doll-like eyes and a flat-panel display stuck on its chest, was developed jointly with Aldebaran Robotics, which produces autonomous humanoid robots.

Besides featuring the latest voice recognition, Pepper is loaded with more than a dozen sensors, including two touch sensors in its hands, three touch sensors on its head, and six laser sensors and three bumper sensors in its base.

It also has two cameras and four microphones on its head and has WiFi and Ethernet networking capabilities. Up close, it bears a resemblance to C-3PO in “Star Wars”, especially in its clueless look.

But a demonstration Friday at a Softbank retailer in Tokyo highlighted the robot’s shortcomings as much as its charm.

Voice recognition takes a while to kick in, when its eyes light up in a listening mode after the robot stops talking, making for less than spontaneous dialogue, similar to the frustration one experiences talking with iPhone’s Siri.

Pepper was more fluid with its own chatter, such as asking “Do you do Twitter?” or “Is this the first time you ever spoke to a robot?” But it wouldn’t really wait for an answer, rattling on to the next topic.

Sometimes the robot failed to catch a speaker’s words and would say: “I could not hear you. Could you say that again?”

When a person shouted to test out how well it read emotions, it didn’t do much except to say: “You look like an honest person.”

In Thursday’s demonstration, Pepper sang, “I want to be loved,” and it did more singing and gesturing with its hands Friday.

But all its song-and-dance acts seemed to prove was that the machine needs to learn a lot more tricks to impress robot-savvy Japanese. The Softbank shop barely drew a crowd besides a pack of reporters with their cameras.

Cuddly robots are not new in Japan, a nation dominated by “kawaii”, or cute culture, but no companion robot has emerged as a major market success yet.

Sony Corp. discontinued the Aibo pet-dog robot in 2006, despite an outcry from its fans. Honda Motor Co. has developed the walking, talking Asimo robot, which appears in Honda showrooms and gala events.

Many other Japanese companies, including Hitachi Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp., have developed various robots. There is little emphasis on delivering on practical work, in contrast to industrial robots at factories and military robots for war.

But the potential is great for intelligent machines as the number of elderly requiring care is expected to soar in rapidly-ageing Japan. Robotic technology is already used to check on the elderly and robots might also play a role in reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Softbank, which owns Sprint of the US, boasts more than 100 million subscribers globally. Aldebaran Robotics, which has offices in France, China, Japan and the US, is 78.5 per cent owned by Softbank.

“I’ve believed that the most important role of robots will be as kind and emotional companions to enhance our daily lives, to bring happiness, constantly surprise us and make people grow,” said Bruno Maisonnier, founder and chief executive of Aldebaran, who appeared on the stage with Son.

Pepper can get information from cloud-based databases and comes with safety features to avoid crashes and falls, and its capabilities can grow by installing more robot applications, according to Softbank.

The time-shifting sci-fi thriller “Edge of Tomorrow” has perfectly encapsulated what it is to be a summertime moviegoer. We’re dropped into a battlefield of digital effects with the fate of the world at stake. Torrents of gunfire and explosions surround. Some alien clonks us over the head.

We black out and it all happens again. And again.

“Edge of Tomorrow”, in which Tom Cruise plays an officer who continually relives a day of combat against extraterrestrials, probably isn’t a commentary on the repetitiveness of today’s blockbusters. Its star, after all, has been the unchanging, unstoppable avatar of big summer movies.

But in the film directed by Doug Liman (“Swingers”, ‘’The Bourne Identity”), the action-star persona of Cruise is put into a phantasmagorical blender. As military marketer Maj. William Cage, he’s thrown into battle against his will by an unsympathetic general (the excellent Brendan Gleeson), and then finds himself stuck in a mysterious time loop.

Cruise dies dozens of times over and over, often in comical ways. Does this sound like a great movie, or what?

The selling point of “Edge of Tomorrow” may indeed be seeing one of Hollywood’s most divisive icons reduced to Wile E. Coyote. He’s like a real-life version of the video game “Contra”, with the code of seemingly endless life. Dying again and again, Cruise has rarely been so likable.

Based on the 2004 Japanese novella “All You Need Is Kill”, ‘’Edge of Tomorrow” begins in the de rigueur fashion of news clips that catch us up on five years of alien invasion that has — with historical symmetry — encompassed Europe and left the beaches of northern France as the primary point of battle.

Cage is dumped on an aircraft carrier, callously sent into battle by a commanding officer (a very fun Bill Paxton, spouting lines like, “Battle is the great redeemer” in a Kentucky accent), and outfitted in a high-tech exoskeleton he doesn’t know how to operate. When he lands on Normandy or thereabouts, he’s an easy target for the aliens, dubbed Mimics.

The Mimics resemble black, scampering dreadlock wigs or electrified Rorschach Tests. When a particularly big one swallows Cage, his day resets. This is “Groundhog Day” with guns.

This time around, though, it’s not Sonny and Cher that wake him up each day but a drill sergeant calling him “maggot”. Whereas Bill Murray got to learn how to play the piano and fall in love, Cage must become a better killer. He strives to make it through the battle, getting a little further each time before dying. He quickly pairs with the most celebrated fighter in the war (Emily Blunt), who recognises his strange predicament.

“Edge of Tomorrow”, which was penned by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth, entertains in its narrative playfulness — another entry in the burgeoning fad of puzzle-making sci-fi, as seen in “Inception” and “Looper”. Few filmmakers have Liman’s knack for smart plotting; his much earlier “Go” inventively connected three intertwined stories.

The zippiness does fade in the second half of “Edge of Tomorrow.” And the title (perhaps the most belaboured way possible of saying “tonight”) could also use a replay. But among countless sequels and remakes, the high-concept “Edge of Tomorrow” — both a Tom Cruise celebration and parody — is the right kind of a rerun.

“Edge of Tomorrow”, a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief suggestive material”. Running time: 119 minutes. Three stars out of four.

TAIPEI – A new generation of wearable technology is promising not only to log data about users’ health but to predict and avert crises — from drivers falling asleep at the wheel to runners wearing themselves out in a marathon.

But there are concerns over the accuracy of the personal information collected by the burgeoning range of smart wristbands, watches and clothing — and how companies might use that data.

Wearable technology is the fastest growing category at this year’s Computex, Asia’s largest tech trade show which kicked off in Taiwan on Tuesday, with health-tracking a dominant theme.

“Health and fitness sensors and data are fundamental for wearables and largely define the category,” said Daniel Matte of market research firm Canalys.

Market tracker IDC predicted in April that sales of wearable tech items would triple this year to 19 million units worldwide, growing to 111.9 million by 2018.

At Taiwanese smartwear company AiQ’s Computex stand this week, a muscular mannequin showed off a lycra cycling top. 

Stainless steel fibres in the fabric and electrodes in the sleeves sense heart rate and other vital signs as well as calories burned, sending the data to a Bluetooth clip which can transmit it to a phone, tablet or other smart device.

The technology will appeal to sports fans, but it is Taiwan’s bus drivers who will be the first to benefit, when companies ask them to wear smart shirts later this year in a move that could prevent accidents.

“We will provide a shirt which can monitor the drivers in case they are falling asleep, or in case any vital signs are not OK, and it will provide a signal or a warning to the bus company,” said AiQ vice president Steve Huang.

The clothing was trialled for a year on discharged hospital patients to track their condition and it received positive feedback from wearers, he added.

But analysts and consumers still have reservations about whether smartwear can really tell us the truth about our bodies.

“Current sensors are not very accurate, but there will be improvements,” said Matte.

Privacy fears 

Samsung unveiled a new digital health technology platform last week that uses sensors to track a range of body functions such as heart rate and blood pressure.

And another giant of the sector, Apple, also a launched its “Health” app this week, with speculation mounting it will move into hardware later this year.

Leading Taiwan tech firm Acer also revealed its first wearable at Computex — a fitness-tracking wristband which links to a smartphone.

But while tech firms jump on the health-monitoring bandwagon there are questions over how the huge flow of data from the new devices will be handled. 

“There is a massive opportunity to analyse and monetise the large amounts of data that wearable sensors and platforms will generate. Privacy is always a concern,” says Matte. 

Huang acknowledged the tension between the potential commercial benefit for smartwear firms and the risk of invading users’ privacy.

“There will be a lot of legal and moral issues,” he said.

Tech companies are also emphasising the potential benefits of analysis to help users make sense of their data, and the possibility of linking up with experts who can give them feedback.

New approach for athletes

Sonostar was showing its new brightly coloured SmartFit trackers — silicone wristbands with a pop-out coin-sized sensor which is battery-powered and designed to be worn all day, monitoring everything from steps taken to sleep patterns.

The device has one year’s memory storage, said Luh, who added that users’ privacy would be protected through a registering and sign-in procedure to access their personal data online.

Smart wearables could also be set to re-educate athletes away from a “no pain no gain” approach, with one new device at Computex claiming to be able to measure “stamina” so that it can warn racers when they might be pushing too hard.

“We detect the current flowing through your heart... then we use our algorithm and transfer the raw information into stamina,” said Kuo Hsin-fu of Taiwanese start-up Bomdic, which makes the clip-on Bluetooth “GoMore” device.

By analysing the user’s heart activity the device can predict lactic acid build up and other physical factors which can affect performance, said Kuo, with stamina shown as a percentage level.

“Most of the (smart) bands focus on general users, but our target audience is athletes. The ones who have tried it love it — it’s good for training and competition efficiency,” he added.

“We are doing everything that other sports apps can do, but more.”