Features

LAS VEGAS — If you love your iPhone but would prefer a physical keyboard, Typo could be for you.

But you might want to order soon. BlackBerry, the company that made physical typing on mobile devices an addictive craze, is suing Typo Products LLC, accusing it of copying its world-famous keyboard.

The idea’s great: With BlackBerry’s ongoing struggles and the rise of touch-only iPhones and Android phones, physical keyboards on mobile devices were headed to obsolescence. That’s a big loss for people who can use their thumbs to type as fast as 60 words per minute on a physical keyboard.

Enter the Typo Keyboard, a Ryan Seacrest-backed phone case that was showcased at this week’s International CES gadget show in Las Vegas.

How it works

Typo’s keyboard slips over an iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S like a protective case.

Its similarities with BlackBerry phones are notable: It has angle-cut keys suitable for thumb-typing. The keyboard layout is nearly identical — for example, with parentheses above the “T’’ and “Y’’ instead of the “9’’ and “0’’ on a typical keyboard. Thick silver bars separate rows of keys.

Physically, there are a few differences. Because the Typo case covers the iPhone’s home button, it added one with the same function on the bottom right. There’s a Bluetooth function on the “0’’ key so the Typo can connect to the iPhone wirelessly. A light bulb key on the bottom left gives Typo’s keys some lighting to use in dark environments.

The dispute

In a federal lawsuit filed Friday in San Francisco, BlackBerry Ltd. alleges that “Typo chose to copy BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard design” and is making money off of BlackBerry’s widespread recognition and goodwill.

Typo responded in a statement that BlackBerry’s claims “lack merit” and that the company is excited about its “innovative keyboard design”.

Look and feel

In my hands, the Typo works fine — just like a BlackBerry — except it is blocked from using Apple Inc.’s autocorrect function while typing. So that means you have to tap misspelled words that are underlined in red later and choose from options to fix them. If you have an iPhone 5S, the fingerprint sensor will be covered up, so you’ll have to resort to inputting a passcode.

Development

Laurence Hallier, the CEO and co-founder of Typo, said testers of the device included BlackBerry users and others.

“We wanted that thumb-typing like the BlackBerry,” he said. “We went out and priced it out. We built prototypes. It took us 18 months.”

Typo Products is a Los Angeles startup co-founded by Seacrest and Hallier.

Availability

Typo sells for $99 and is expected to start shipping on Monday. It works only with the iPhone 5 and 5S, not the 5C or older iPhones.

LAS VEGAS — The techno-chic with a few thousand dollars to spare can sport outfits that can change colour on a whim.

London-based designer Amy Rainbow Winters showed just how in a FashionWare area at the Consumer Electronics Show here on Wednesday.

On display was a dress she made of fabric with fibre optics woven in and sensors in the sleeves. Light travelled through the cloth, which glowed blue. With a touch of a sleeve, Winters changed the colour.

“If you feel like having a purple, the dress will be purple,” Winters said. “If you later feel like having red, you have red. You just look at the sleeve and decide what colour you want.”

Winters designs fabric and clothes, then collaborates with technologists to make the materials needed. She works with many techno-fabrics, including some that react to sound, sun or water.

Nearby she had on display a dress with motion sensors in the cloth that changed colours if the wearer jumped.

Fabric she creates can be made into just about any garment.

“The fabric can be anything; pants, shirts, dresses, hats...” Winters said. “If someone is going to wear Google Glass they might as well wear fibre-optic pants.”

Her creations are custom, and have been used in entertainment productions such as music videos or to catch eyes in ads. She is not in the ready-to-wear market.

“I’ve had some retailers ask me about stocking, but you have to be really careful because they are so expensive to make,” Winters said.

“They are showpieces; but if people have a couple of thousand dollars to spare here it is.”

Fibre-optic dresses cost about $3,000 to make, but the price can rise depending on the design, according to Winters, whose creations are on display online at rainbowwinters.com.

LAS VEGAS — It's not a bird, not a plane. But it could be someone's personal drone coming to the skies near you.

Some of the flying objects being shown at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas include items that are for play, personal photography and other uses which could lead to a market for the products.

The notion of personal drones follows widespread use by the US military and growing reliance by law enforcement on such aerial technology.

Retail giant Amazon meanwhile, has hatched a plan to create delivery drones, and French-based technology firm Parrot unveiled its "mini drone" toy which can be controlled from a smartphone.

"We have civilian drones and now we have toy drones," Parrot's Nicolas Halftermeyer told AFP, describing the Parrot drone as a device designed for teenagers who enjoy a challenge of using a tablet to direct the device.

While one division of the French firm makes fixed-wing drones for mapping and other purposes, this devices, which can be held in one's hand, is purely for play, says Halftermeyer.

"It has plastic propellers, they are not dangerous. With four propellers, it can balance itself automatically."

For more serious uses, Chinese-based maker DJI unveiled its line of flying devices which look a lot like drones.

"We prefer the term aerial systems," DJI's Gabriel Chan told AFP.

Designed for aerial photography, the self-balancing flying devices can access hard-to-reach areas and produce "beautiful cinematography”, Chan said.

DJI's Michael Perry said the groups has established "a platform for any user to create amazing videos from the skies”.

While most of the usage so far has been for personal photography and professional cinematographers, Perry said DJI devices were also used for search-and-rescue operations in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan.

Perry said that in the United States, people can uses the devices to fly at altitudes up to 120 metres but that the Federal Aviation Administration is examining rules governing drones at higher altitudes.

The company offered a test flight of its Phantom 2 Vision which it calls "the world's first consumer quadcopter with a built-in high-performance camera".

The device can fly 25 minutes and send images and location back to a smartphone which directs navigation. It also is programmed to return home if the user loses the location.

DJI says the device can revolutionise photography by getting to places normally inaccessible, like the middle of the Grand Canyon, or close to sporting events. But there could be other uses, such as for disaster relief.

DJI has three other flying devices including one designed for professional cinematography and photography.

WASHINGTON — More people smoke worldwide today than in 1980, as population growth surges and cigarettes gain popularity in countries such as China, India and Russia, researchers said Tuesday.

For instance, China boasted nearly 100 million more smokers in 2012 than it had three decades ago, even though its smoking rate fell from 30 to 24 per cent in that span, said the findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The rise in the number of smokers comes despite overall declines in the smoking rate in recent decades, as many people have realised the health dangers of tobacco, said the report.

The data was published as part of a series of tobacco-related articles to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first US Surgeon General’s report on the risks of smoking.

“Since we know that half of all smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco, greater numbers of smokers will mean a massive increase in premature deaths in our lifetime,” said co-author Alan Lopez of the University of Melbourne.

The study, led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, measured data from 187 countries.

It found that the global smoking rate among men was 41 per cent in 1980, but has since declined to an average of 31 per cent.

Among women, the estimated prevalence of daily tobacco smoking was 10.6 per cent in 1980, and by 2012 that had fallen to 6.2 per cent.

The most rapid decrease began in the mid-1990s, but smoking has actually risen again among men since 2010, said the findings.

“This deceleration in the global trend was in part due to increases in the number of smokers since 2006 in several large countries including Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and Russia,” said the study.

China had 182 million smokers in 1980, and nearly 282 million in 2012, it said.

India gained 35 million smokers — bringing its total to 110 million — even though the smoking rate fell from 19 to 13 per cent of the population.

Russia, where about one third of people smoke, has added one million smokers since 1980.

Globally, the number of smokers has climbed from 721 million in 1980 to 967 million in 2012.

The number of cigarettes smoked annually has also risen 26 per cent over the past three decades.

“The greatest health risks are likely to occur in countries with high prevalence and high consumption,” said the study.

Those countries include China, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Korea, the Philippines, Uruguay, Switzerland and Russia, it said.

The highest smoking rates among men in 2012 were in Timor-Leste (61 per cent) and Indonesia (57 per cent), followed by Armenia (51.5 per cent), Russia (51 per cent) and Cyprus (48 per cent).

Top countries for women smokers were Greece (34.7 per cent) and Bulgaria (31.5 per cent).

Austria had a female smoking rate of 28.3 per cent, followed by France (27.7 per cent) and Belgium (26.1 per cent).

A larger proportion of women in France smoked in 2012 (28 per cent) than 1980 (19 per cent), while the rate for men went the opposite direction, declining from 42 per cent to 34 per cent.

In all, France had 14 million smokers in 2012, two million more people than in 1980.

The study also measured how many cigarettes on average were consumed per smoker each day in 2012, and found Mauritania was the highest with 41, or two packs a day.

Saudi Arabia’s smokers averaged 35 cigarettes per day, and Taiwan’s 32.

“As tobacco remains a threat to the health of the world’s population, intensified efforts to control its use are needed,” said the study.

The research also examined where the biggest gains against smoking have been made since 1980, particularly in countries where more than one in five people smoked.

Iceland, Mexico and Canada had the most significant declines (3 per cent), followed by Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

The United States, New Zealand, Australia and Britain rounded out the top 10 for the drop in smoking rates.

The US smoking rate went from 30.6 per cent in 1980 to 15.8 per cent in 2012. Similar trends were seen in Australia.

“Globally, there has been significant progress in combating the deadly toll of tobacco use,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who was not involved in the study.

“Where countries take strong action, tobacco use can be dramatically reduced.”

My experience with small apps over the last couple of years has brought me to appreciate, among others, three lovely, truly useful apps that I run on my laptop computers.

The number of small software application programmes, apps as they now say, has grown to a ridiculously large size over the last five or seven years. Smartphones and tablets are two of the main reasons behind the craze, but of course many of these apps also work on full-size computers, laptops and desktops included.

From free, to cheap and then expensive, the price range is wide. Price however is not an issue per se. What is becoming a nuisance is the incredible number of apps that are totally useless, ridiculous, or are buggy. And we’re talking in the thousands here, not in the hundreds.

Moreover, if you happen to look for one given type of app to cover your specific need (say photo retouching) you’d typically end up with tens of different products, from various sellers that offer to do more or less the same thing. Which one to choose then? It’s a headache — guaranteed.

In the jungle of apps you can always find a few jewels, small apps that make a difference in your daily living with the machine. There aren’t many around, and finding these rare jewels often is a matter of luck. A friend might have told you about them, or your wise, savvy and clever search on Google would have led to it.

Back to my favourite three apps I mentioned at the beginning. The main award I gladly present to Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder (ADPF). Here’s why.

I was putting some order in my personal photo collection that counts about 9,000 photos on hard disk. I needed to find eventual duplicates so as to eliminate them. The problem was that eventual duplicates would have different file names, or would have been cropped or heavily processed for colour adjustment and other settings. How then was I supposed to find these duplicates, short of manually browsing through 9,000 files and trying to remember which ones “look” more or less like the others? A nerve-breaking, time-consuming task by all means.

Then I remembered that Google had an online search-by-image function, a feature that most of us have probably used at least once. You simply upload a photo from your hard disk to the web and then Google tries to locate a similar one, provided of course it is somewhere on the web. So I assumed that a similar function would be available, a fortiori, if one wanted to search for similarly looking photos on one’s local hard disk. Surely it should be even easier or at least faster than searching the entire cloud!

And so after experimenting with of couple of apps that pretended to do the job I finally found the Holy Grail, ADPF. I asked it to search through the 9,000 photos. It only took it 25 minutes to finish the processor-intensive exploration and come up with a report. It found a total of 700 photos that it assumed were duplicates, two by two. It even indicated the ratio of “matching certainty”. Those for which the match was 100 per cent were absolutely the same, while others were found to be anything from 10 to 90 per cent similar. The results were very accurate and the app didn’t make one single mistake. I adopted ADPF immediately, especially when I found that it was legally, genuinely free. ADPF is a must for all those who handle photo collections on hard disk. Well done ADPF.

The other two applications I sing the praise of are Better File Rename (BFR) and Macro Express (ME).

They may not be as spectacular as ADPF but for those who handle a large number of files of any sort — don’t we all? — these two apps are valuable utilities.

BFR lets you rename or renumber the contents of entire folders and subfolders in a snap. An example: You can add “Project1_xx” to the beginning of all the files within a specific folder, with xx being an automatic numbering that BFR would do for you. Or you can replace the string “Ongoing” by the string “Done” in all the files names in a given folder. The possibilities and the combinations are limitless. The app is fool proof, intuitive and fast. For $20 as the average price online, BFR is a time-saver that pays for itself in a few minutes.

ME lets you programme long sequences of keyboard strokes and mouse clicks and actions you would otherwise have to manually repeat countless times. An example: A given task requires you to do “Alt+C, open a blank word document, Alt+V, Ctrl+A, select the Consolas font, select red as font color, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+W, mouse click down”, and to repeat this 100 times. Imagine the pain if done manually. ME allows you to programme the sequence, to give it a hot-key or shortcut name (for eg. Alt+Ctrl+8) and then to launch it, telling it how many times to repeat. You then let your hands off the keyboard and watch ME do the job. Again, these are precious time-savers, not to mention the wrist pain they’d spare you.

Admitted, ME targets the computer power-user more than the casual one. It is not as easy to use as BFR or ADPF and is not as intuitive, but the little learning effort required would be worth the trouble in many an instance. Still, the $40 it costs would be money well spent.

Whenever I reformat a machine and reinstall the entire operating system from scratch, and after reinstalling the essential Microsoft Office, understandably, the next three important apps I always reinstall are ADPF, BFR and ME.

From a very early age I always looked forward to the turn of the year. As the twelve months of the Gregorian calendar complete their annual run, and the daily diary runs out of pages, it is time to usher in new beginnings.

January has a sense of freshness associated with it. It is named after Janus, the Roman god of the doorway. He is depicted with two faces, one peering at the past and the other looking into the future.

I was born in this month. Of course I had to share it with one of my siblings who appeared a few years before me, also in January. But since in a family of five, these were the only two birthdays in a common month, it was given exceptional status. My brother thought it was because of his glorious presence while I was convinced it was because of my angelic one. Our early childhood was spent in such a mutually disillusioned manner.

I am told that as a young infant I did not like to get my feet dirty. Even a tiny speck of dirt on the soles bothered me. And so after a fierce quarrel, if my shoes were flung at my brother accidentally, he still had to carry me. I would keep sitting on the chair or bed unless slippers were provided or else I demanded to be piggy backed.

Now that I think about it, my heart goes out to that young boy who carried his sulking sister on his bony shoulders. Also, he was the chief protector of my party frock. What is a party frock?

Well, when I was growing up, my sensible mother made me wear my older sibling’s hand-me-downs. Our school hours stretched through most part of the day where we were attired in a ghastly uniform. When we got back to the house, we were made to change into home clothes, which were identical for my brothers and me, consisting of shorts, faded t-shirts and an occasional sweater in winter months.

The only concession made for me, being a daughter, was the solitary party frock my mom stitched for me every few months. It had all the ruffles, frills, bows and sashes and looked like a fairy dress. My brothers and I would be filled with awe just looking at it. It would hang prominently in my cupboard among the other shabby clothes.

On very important occasions I would be fitted out in the party frock. I would be immediately asked to twirl round and round in it, in front of my family. My mother would issue strict instructions to my older brother who would be assigned the thankless task of protecting it from any spill, tear or ruin. So from dusting the chair I would sit on to tucking a napkin like a bib around my throat before I ate cake, my sibling would do it all.

I always wanted to ask him why he did not refuse. On my birthday I finally cornered him.

“How could you be so nice to me when we were children?” I asked, before blowing the candles on the cake.

“I am still nice to you, and please don’t get the icing on your dress,” my brother cautioned.

“Why not?” I countered?

“Ok, go ahead,” he said wrapping a protective serviette around my neck.

“Mum would be proud of you,” I smiled.

“I am proud of you,” he smiled back. 

LAS VEGAS — The robots are coming, and they're here to help.

Help clean your windows, teach children, or even provide entertainment or companionship.

This week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas highlights enormous growth in robotics in a range of fields.

Meet Bo and Yana, for example — they're cute robots that can fit in your hand and help teach youngsters about programming.

"It's all about programmable play," said Vikas Gupta, founder of California-based i-Play, which designed the toys.

The duo can play with each other, fight, display expressions with their single eye, or even hit notes on the xylophone.

"Music becomes a way for kids to be engaged," Gupta told AFP.

"We want kids to learn programming and not be bothered with cognitive overload."

The robots are designed for children as young as five, and are being launched this year in a crowdfunding effort, the former Google and Amazon executive said.

But play is just one of the many areas of robotics on display at the show, from simple one-task robots to clean a roof gutter or barbecue grill and others that can be a kind of companion to the elderly.

There are also so-called telepresence robots, including the Double Robotics device seen on TV shows such as NCIS Los Angeles.

The Double Robotics gadget includes an iPad attached to a wheeled device that allows a telecommuter to show "face time" in the office even when working remotely. The results, at least on television, can often provide comic relief.

The global market for consumer robots was $1.6 billion in 2012, dominated by the task and entertainment segments, according to ABI Research, but this is expected to grow to $6.5 billion in 2017 with security and telepresence becoming more significant.

ABI analyst Philip Solis said robotics is moving slower than segments like tablets and smartphones, and is dominated by single-task robots.

But the big news in this field, he said, is Google's acquisition of several robotics firms, which could help boost the artificial intelligence needed for multi-tasking robots.

A number of new, innovative robots are also being shown in Las Vegas.

From the Japanese firm AIST is an interactive robot called Paro — designed to look like a baby harp seal — to simulate animal therapy for people in hospitals and extended care facilities where live animals are banned.

Paro has five tactile, light, audition, temperature, and posture sensors, responds to being stroked and can respond to its name.

The French-based firm Keecker is displaying a robot that can project video or other content from a smartphone or tablet to a wall or ceiling.

This means "you can enjoy life without being tied to the television set," said Pierre Lebeau, Keecker's founder and chief executive.

The device runs on Android to allow users to draw from any of the available apps.

"You can put your kids to bed with the Milky Way, and allow them to wake up to a beautiful sunny sky," he said. "It helps people dream."

One of the crowd-pleasers is the "humanoid" Robo-Thespian from the British-based group Engineered Arts.

Thespian can make hand-gestures, and can deliver speeches — with a British accent.

To make it life-like, the robot has pneumatic actuators "so its movements are more fluid", said engineer Morgan Roe. "We try to avoid having it look robotic."

The robot can be used at museums and exhibits, where Thespian can deliver a soliloquy and direct people. But, at this point, he can't interact in the manner of Apple's Siri or Google Now.

"We are working on it," Roe said.

PARIS — Geologists on Sunday reported insights into super-volcanoes, the brooding, enigmatic giants of Earth's crust whose eruptions are as catastrophic as they are rare.

The buoyancy of molten rock, or magma, is the key explanation as to why these monsters blow their stack, according to the report in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Super-volcanoes include Yellowstone, in the US state of Wyoming, which spewed out more than 1,000 cubic kilometres of ash and rock when it last erupted about 600,000 years ago.

Events of this kind can chill the planet's surface by up to 10 degrees Celsius for a decade or more because the ash, carried into the stratosphere, reflects sunlight, according to a 2005 study.

By comparison, the biggest volcanic eruption of the last quarter-century was that of the Philippines volcano Pinatubo in 1991, which discharged a relatively puny 10 cubic kilometres.

Seeking to understand why volcanoes can be so different, a team from Switzerland, France and Britain built a computer model of volcanic activity, basing the age of eruptions on a telltale mineral, zircon, found in volcanic rocks.

Separately, a team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) used a hi-tech X-ray facility to study the density of molten rock below super-volcanoes.

In conventional volcanoes, activity is determined by the size of the magma chamber, meaning the rocky vault below the volcano, the investigations found.

Relatively small in volume, the chamber in conventional volcanoes is replenished regularly by bursts of upwelling magma, which is expelled in moderate amounts when the pressure becomes too much.

Density of magma

But in super-volcanoes, the magma chamber is simply too big to be pressurised by magma injections alone. In these leviathans, what happens is that a buoyant kind of magma steadily accumulates in the chamber.

Like a kettle, the chamber is initially strong enough to resist the pressure but eventually breaks apart in a cataclysmic discharge.

"Until now, nobody had measured the density of the magma that is present in the magma chambers of super-volcanoes," EZH's Wim Malfait said in an email exchange with AFP.

The density is important, he explained, "because magma is less dense than solid rock, the magma in a magma chamber pushes on the roof of the chamber."

"This is similar to holding a football under water — the air in the football is lighter than the surrounding water, so the water pushes it against your hand. Overpressure is enough to start a super-eruption if the magma chamber is thick enough," Malfait said.

The Swiss-French-British team calculated that the maximum volcanic eruption would entail a release of between 3,500 and 7,000 cubic kilometres of magma — the first time an upper limit has ever been established for a volcano.

The two studies should provide useful pointers as to the frequency of super-volcano events, the authors hope. Almost nothing is known about how swiftly these beasts recharge with magma and blow up, for only 23 such eruptions have occurred in the last 32 million years.

The work is useful for understanding the risks of Yellowstone, but far more work is needed, said the authors.

"We could potentially use estimates of the vertical extension of the magma chamber to infer if a volcanic system such as Yellowstone is in critical condition or not," said Luca Caricchi, an assistant professor of volcanology at the University of Geneva.

"However, the pressure for a volcanic eruption to occur is a function of many factors," he said. "It would be premature to make any forecasting using our model."

A study from 2012 indicates that before Yellowstone erupts, the ground would lift by possibly hundreds of metres, said Malfait.

"But this would not help to distinguish directly if an eruption is going to happen next week, next year or next century," he said.

LAS VEGAS — The new Chevrolets coming out this year will be faster — on the information superhighway.

The General Motors division said Sunday it would deploy fourth generation (4G) Internet connections on several models to help motorists who want to stay connected with the growing number of apps for automobiles.

Chevy will allow the 4G connections with Long Term Evolution (LTE) in a partnership with AT&T.

"Chevrolet is expected to implement the broadest deployment of 4G LTE in the automotive industry," said Alan Batey, senior vice president of Global Chevrolet, who added that the move "is indicative of our broad commitment to deliver more value and convenience through smart technology applications".

The high-speed connections will allow for a Wi-Fi hotspot that allows passengers in a vehicle to use tablets or other devices, or to watch videos via the Internet in vehicles which have screens.

The 4G cars will for now only be sold in the United States and Canada, according to the Chevrolet announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"This technology is not just for the rich and famous," Batey said at a news conference.

"You're going to be connected everywhere."

Initially 10 vehicle models will get the 4G connections by mid-2014 but more will be added, he said.

The auto sector's presence is growing at CES with a large number of carmakers and related technology firms showing their wares at the huge electronics expo opening Tuesday.

The service links with GM's OnStar service to apps and services that require a high speed cellular or data connection. Current AT&T customers will be able to add their vehicle to a shared data plan or purchase a standalone option.

Chevrolet said its AppShop includes programmes for data, music, news, weather, travel information and more. Some of the current apps include iHeartRadio, Priceline.com, The Weather Channel, NPR, Slacker Radio and Cityseeker.

The livelier and sportier version of Volkswagen’s classy hot hatch, the Golf GTI Performance makes the best use yet of the Mk7 generation Golf’s lighter partial aluminium construction with a 10BHP power hike over the regular Golf GTI. The more focused and driver-oriented edition of the new car, the Golf GTI Performance also features a mechanical limited-slip differential to complement the standard electronic XDS+ torque vectoring system.

A more engaging and athletic drive than its Mk6 predecessor — especially with the six-speed manual gearbox, as tested — the new Golf GTI makes performance, efficiency and space improvements, and delivers a well-balanced combination of agility and refinement.

Familiar but fresh

A car that virtually defined the hot hatch segment since 1974, the Golf GTI has over years grown larger, heavier and became more practical and luxurious. However, the new Golf GTI is a noticeably sportier, edgier and focused driving machine than the one it replaces, but at the same time is roomier, more advanced, better equipped and more refined than ever.

The improvements can in large part be attributed to the combination of Volkswagen’s part-aluminium MQB modular platform, which allows for a 42kg weight loss, in addition to engine efficiency improvements that yield 18 per cent fuel efficiency for both versions of the new model.

Elegant and somewhat conservative, the new Golf GTI’s design is evolutionary and consistent with the model’s gradual development, but however looks strikingly fresh, crisp and tidy.

With sharper lines, creases, angles, shapes and components in place of its predecessor’s more rounded edges and themes, the new GTI looks more up-market and sculpted. Slightly lower, wider and wheels pushed further out to corners, the Mk7 Golf GTI looks more athletic and toned.

More angular and squinting front and rear lights clusters look more dramatic, while sportier bumpers, body kit, dual exhaust pipes, tailgate spoiler and red pinstripe detailing subtly distinguish the GTI from a common garden-variety Golf.

Broad band

of bang

With a third generation evolution of Volkswagen’s direct injection turbocharged two-litre four-cylinder engine, featuring reduced friction, variable thermal management and a re-designed head, the new Golf GTI makes significant torque and power increases available earlier and over a broader rev range, while fuel efficiency and carbon emissions are similarly improved.

Euro six compliant, the new Golf GTI — in standard and Performance spec — develops 258lb/ft torque throughout 1,500-4,400rpm, returns 6L/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency and 139g/km carbon dioxide emissions, compared to its predecessor’s 207lb/ft, 7.3L/100km and 170g/km figures. Power rises from 207BHP at 5,300-6,200rpm to 227BHP at 4,700-6,200rpm for the tested GTI Performance version.

Lively, perky and muscular, the Golf GTI Performance suffers little by way of turbo lag and pounces tidily off the line and soon hits its broad mid-range maximum torque band. With 258lb/ft on tap in its crucial mid-range, the GTI Performance overtakes easily and quickly, while its power seamless build-up is brisk and under-written well with no flat spots.

A broad maximum 227BHP power range also allows one to better exploit the GTI Performance’s abilities and better time up-shifts. Smooth and refined, the GTI Performance feels effortless for town and highway driving yet eager to be wrung hard and high, completing the 0-100km/h sprint in 6.4-seconds.

Punch and move

Driven through a six-speed manual gearbox with a crisp, firm and precise shifter and intuitive clutch biting point, the GTI Performance launches with an exact level of aggression or smoothness as desired. Delivering its punchy power to the front wheels, the GTI Performance features two systems that reign in torque-steer on launch and prevent under-steer and keep it tidy and poised through quick cornering.

Supplementing the standard XDS+ electronic system that utilises selective braking, the Performance version also gets a more effective mechanical limited-slip differential that apportions more power to the wheel with best grip and best able to put it down to the tarmac.

Sticking and moving along the French Riviera and winding Maritime Alps like a toned and honed pugilist, the GTI performance does not miss a beat pouncing from one corner to the next. Sure-footed and poised the GTI Performance’s turn-in is tidy and grippy, with precise and quick steering, while brakes are reassuringly capable.

Faithful through tight corners, the GTI Performance has terrific body control and grip, while its limited-slip differential allows one to effectively utilise and come back on power early out of corners. Composed and quick, the responsive GTI Performance is ever eager to be harried along sprawling country lanes and tight mountain hairpins alike.

Up-market appeal

Smooth but firm, the Golf GTI Performance is a natural and stable highway driver, with a planted, reassuring and refined ride. On fast-paced B-roads the GTI Performance’s 225/40R18 tyres and suspension set-up is sporty and tight, with terrific vertical rebound control over crests and dips, but is not punishing or harsh. Comfortable and well insulated from noise, vibrations and harshness, for daily driving, the GTI Performance’s sporty ride can however feel noticeably firm over sudden and particularly bad cracks and potholes at slow town speeds.

With well-bolstered and highly adjustable seats and steering, good visibility, upright cabin and seating position, the GTI is easily placed on road.

Classy but sporty, the Golf GTI’s cabin features good fit and finish, soft textures, ergonomic driver-oriented controls and layouts and clear instrumentation. Tartan cloth upholstery and red stitching on the GTI Performance’s chunky and contoured flat-bottle sports steering wheel hark back to the original Mk1 GTI.

With five-door convenience, good headroom, improved legroom and well-spaced boot, the GTI is a rounded and versatile performance and family car. Elegant, well-built, refined, quick, and well-kitted with many standard convenience and optional high tech equipment like adaptive cruise control, city-braking braking and lane-keeping assists, the GTI Performance’s up-market appeal treads heavily on more “premium” brand hatchbacks’ toes.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, turbocharged transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82.5 x 92.8mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, front-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 227 (230) [169] @ 4,700-6,200rpm

Specific power: 114BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 164BHP/ton

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 258 (350) @ 1,500-4,400rpm

Specific torque: 176Nm/litre

0-100km/h: 6.4-seconds

Maximum speed: 250km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 6L/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 139g/km

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Length: 4,268mm

Width: 1,799mm

Height: 1,442mm

Wheelbase: 2,631mm

Track, F/R: 1,538 / 1,517mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.318

Unladen weight: 1,382kg

Headroom, F/R: 975 / 967mm

Luggage capacity, min / max: 380 / 1,270-litres

Payload: 543kg

Steering: Variable electric-assisted rack and pinion

Brakes, F&R: Ventilated discs, 340mm / 310mm

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson strut / multi-link

Tyres: 225/40R18