It feels like an age ago when Android users could start topping up their Leap Card with their phones. It was another of the niche humble brags Android users help over iPhone owners. Today, that changes as iPhone users can now top-up their Leap Cards with their phone.
Be careful though. When I went looking for the app, there were paid apps already there. You do not need to pay for this app. It’s absolutely free to download. Here are two of the apps you do not want to download:
The Leap Card app is free. You do not need to buy these ones.
Tap and hold your Leap Card to the back of your iPhone
From here you can either check your balance, add credit or collected a pre-paid ticket.
The Leap Card app will only work with iPhone 7 and above due to hardware or software constraints. Here’s a neat “how to” video that might help you out too.
If you’re having an issue with getting this to work to have further questions about topping up your Leap Card with iPhone or Android, check out the Leap Card website.
It’s been ages since I used my Leap Card, for obvious reasons. As you can see in the image at the top, I owe Transport For Ireland money. Sorry about that guys.
I’ve recently noticed something. Nearly everyone has some sort of activity tracker. I was organising a step challenge and of nearly thirty people, no one had the issue of not having one. There’s a lot on the market too. Fitbit is probably one of the best known. Personally, I’m using the Fitbit Sense and I love it, but I’ll be first to admit it’s a bit on the pricey side. And this is the space Huawei finds itself most comfortable, disrupting. The Chinese tech giant has announced the HUAWEI Band 6. Here are some of the key features.
Meet The Huawei Band 6
Huawei has been creating fitness bands for a few years now, in line with their approach to not only develop great phones like the Huawei P40 Pro, but also great accessories like the Huawei FreeBuds Pro or collaborating with Gentle Monster for sunglasses. The Huawei Band 6 is the latest fitness tracker to join the Huawei range. I’ve been a massive fan of Huawei wearables over the past few years, stretching back to the first Huawei Watch which I bought because it actually looked like a watch, an approach Huawei has kept running with to this day.
Looks And Features
The Huawei Band 6 does seem to take some design prompts from the world’s best selling watch; the Apple Watch. Again, this is not an unusual approach from Huawei, but the important thing is that they don’t also bring the Apple prices.
The Huawei Band 6 features a 1.47-inch colour display which is a lot larger than previous models. The Band 6 also brings SpO2 monitoring which first featured on the Huawei Watch GT2 along with a wide range of other well-being metrics. You’ll be able to track heart rate, sleep, stress, and menstrual cycle tracking. The band also supports 96 workout modes to help track your activity more accurately.
Two Week Battery
You always expect that Huawei will bring a great battery life to the table and the Band 6 is no different. Huawei promises that you’ll get two weeks between charges. This is impressive given my Fitbit Sense is between five or six days between charges. If you are caught on the hop, a five-minute charge or the Band 6 will give you two days of battery, so your watch shouldn’t be holding you back at all.
I’m not sure if this will be coming in for a hands-on review or not but hit the bell in the bottom left corner of your screen and you’ll be first to know if we publish a full review. One call-out I do want to highlight is that if you’re using a fitness app you love, double check that this integrates with it.
The Huawei Band 6 launches today and is very competitively priced at €59 and is currently available from Eir, Euronics and Mint+.
Don’t worry. This is a spoiler-free review. Anna Kendrick takes to space as the crew doctor aboard a troubled mission to Mars. But is Stowaway, now streaming on Netflix, worth watching?
Stowaway doesn’t break new ground with the story here. Space always brings the same challenges to a movie’s fictional crew and the usual issues arise here. Also, it’s worth noting there are two kinds of space movie. The one with a massive budget that shows the actors floating around and the other space movie that spins the ship to simulate gravity. This is the latter.
While the “gravity solution” isn’t unique, there are some new takes that I’ve never seen in a space movie before. Also the story develops and allows for some real drama even if, in parts, you need to be a bit liberal with how close to reality it all is.
Netflix almost seems to take massively successful movies and recreate them for the streaming platform with a few tweaks for copyright reasons. Stowaway would appear to be trying to recreate elements of the 2013 movie Gravity which won seven Academy Awards. Stowaway succeeds in posing unique dilemmas with sprinkles of drama, but nothing to match Gravity.
Regardless, it’s absolutely a worthwhile watch. It’s a nice way to pass an evening.
Unless you’ve firmly decided to bury your head in the sand, electric cars are the future of motorsport. It’s completely unavoidable. It’s so set in stone that we now have the Formula E World Championship. Now in its seventh season, Formula E is the only single-seater racing World Championship outside of Formula One. As you read that, you might find it hard to believe that this has been going for seven years because it’s rarely hitting the news for good reasons. Which begs the question. Why is Formula E failing?
History Is Important In Sport
If ever there was a week to make this point, it’s the week that American-owners and financiers tried to create the European Super League. This whole move stomped all over the long history of some of Europe’a biggest football clubs and led to fans protesting in the streets. What drives such a reaction? It’s passion that’s driven by history, and this is what Formula E is very light on.
Formula One Is The Benchmark
While it’s impressive the championship has been running for seven years, that’s a dot on the motorsport timeline. In Formula One, Ferrari provides much of the history the sport needs. Some of the most historic rivalries involved the team with the prancing horse. Senna and Prost in their McLaren cars before Prost moved to Ferrari where the two’s intense rivalry hit new heights. These two motorsport brands alone sit atop the list of Grand Prix winners with over 400 wins between them.
Yet, Formula E doesn’t feature either team. In fact, if you look at the top ten teams to have won Formula One races, only Mercedes features in both championships. Red Bull Racing is a modern-day success story in F1. On the surface, Formula E seems a perfect cross over for them yet the team’s advisor, Helmut Marko, said it’s not a good fit, stating is a team of “racing purists”.
These are the key reasons why Formula E is failing. Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport. If the teams who define the very best in the world do not feature, it’s difficult for the championship to earn credibility.
Making History
The good news for Formula E is that the one big Formula One brand to make the leap more recently is currently the best is the business. Mercedes returned to Formula One in 2010 and has been massively dominant since 2014. There’s history and there’s modern history. Mercedes is dominating modern history and has won the Formula One constructors championship seven times in a row, a championship since Formula E began.
Mercedes, racing under the name Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team, have yet to win a championship in Formula E but there presence is worth its weight in gold to the sport. While it’s unlikely Ferrari will join the E-championship any time soon, earlier this year, McLaren confirmed they had signed paperwork that gives them the option to join next year’s competition. McLaren CEO Zak Brown didn’t want to commit completely, instead saying that the “option” approach gives McLaren “the necessary time to decide if Formula E is right […] a future competition platform”.
Jaguar not considered premium racing pedigree
Another historic Formula One team, Williams, is involved in Formula E and the new Extreme E Championship as a battery manufacturer under the name Williams Advanced Engineering but doesn’t have a competing team as of yet.
While Formula E is all about the future, it needs to absorb more of the past. The reason football fans didn’t want to see their teams going to the European Super League is that it doesn’t mean anything. It has no history. When those motorsport rivalries of old join the sport of the future it will lead to a massive hike in interest.
The Valencia Fiasco
Formula E is like a sport on probation. It doesn’t just have to be ok, it has to be good to the point where people can barely pick holes in the sport. Essentially what I’m saying is, Formula E bosses need to make it really hard for the sport to be criticised. The Saturday racing of this year’s Valencia E-Prix demonstrated the kind of farcical mistake that Formula E simply cannot afford to make.
Just before lights out the race took a turn as the rain poured and Formula E teams dusted off their wet tyres for the first time in nine months. A spate of safety car periods including a late one which meant nearly all teams didn’t have enough energy to complete the race. In the final lap, the race leader changed and just nine drivers officially finished as power limits were hit. The FIA, motorsports governing body, claims the teams miscalculated and pushed too hard. The teams are blaming the FIA for reducing the available power too much following the final safety car.
Regardless of who is to blame for the events of the closing lap in Valencia, it served up Formula E critics the perfect ammunition on a silver platter.
Formula E: The First Track Outing
The Valencia E-Prix was not a regular race on the Formula E calendar. While the track is where the teams do their testing, this was the first time they’d race in anger on a recognised racetrack. Until now, Formula E has raced on City street circuits. Early on Saturday, it was quite the sight to see Formula E cars racing on open tracks and dodging gravel pits. I tuned in and it looked great.
Indeed the entire race has garnered quite a bit of interest and as both existing and new fans tuned in, they were greeted with what many are describing as a farce.
When Formula E started out, energy was a massive issue. Earlier seasons required drivers to pit, jump out of their car and into a second fully charged car to finish the race. The second-generation Formula E car packed enough power into a single battery for a full race. Still, Formula E struggled to shake ridicule from the car swap days. The events of Valencia do little to promote the mission of the sport and win over petrol heads.
It’s Just Not Formula One
Again, attention turns to Formula One. While there are many shared aspects across both sports, even the once divisive halo system critics can only see where Formula E just isn’t Formula One. Attention often turns to the gimmick aspects of Formula E, like Fanboost. This allows fans to vote for a driver to get an extra speed boost during the race. The boost is somewhat insignificant leaving the whole concept flawed in many ways.
Formula E also features Attack Zones where drivers can leave the racing line to get a speed boost. It’s was just like Mario Kart.
Both of these features are visible on the track when the driver’s halo glows a different colour. This is a personal take, but that’s a bit gaudy and the features themselves have “Bernie Ecclestone energy”
Formula E Is Elite With Poor Accessibility To Watch
I started watching Formula One when I was young because it was on terrestrial TV. Network 2 at the time would show Formula One in Ireland. Little did I know that it was only because of Bernie Ecclestone’s “charity” was letting me. RTÉ had secured the broadcast rights for a song because there was an Irish team. Ecclestone believed the people of Ireland should be able to watch and support Jordan F1.
Pay To Watch Only
Today, to watch Formula E in Ireland, you need to subscribe to either Virgin Media Sports or Eurosport. There is no way for people to organically stumble upon the sport. You can argue that Formula One is purely for people who can pay to watch, but again, that sport has dedicated fans and a history which compels people to watch.
Many people in Ireland can only watch the sport if they are paying for Virgin Media broadband and getting sports for free, have a paid subscription to Sky and have Eurosport or are paying for these subscriptions specifically.
Business To Business
The sport itself is massively focused on business. The fact that this is an electric series means that most companies getting involved are simply doing so to be associated with the concept. This is the primary focus of the sport and only in the past year has Formula E started to really focus on merchandise at all. The reason is simple. Fans don’t make the money. Broadcast rights and businesses do.
The obvious rebuttal here is that attending the races is free and prior to the pandemic, Formula E had put on a decent show for the public to attend. But Formula E has just 12 races and some races during “normal times” were sparsely attended. All of this suggests a sport that is struggling to connect with fans, a sport that is left feeling shallow.
What Does Formula E Need To Do?
It might seem obvious, but Formula E just needs to keep going first and foremost. The technology has developed at an incredible rate and continues to do so. While Valencia was a big step, the track did still need to be modified to suit the Formula E cars. The goal for the sport needs to be something like sharing a Formula One race weekend, much like Formula Two does.
Big names like McLaren have to be convinced to join the sport. While the likes of Ferrari is unlikely to be convinced of the merits in joined Formula E any time soon, Red Bull needs to be won over and brought in as soon as possible. Once some of these big names add their clout to the sport, their fans will follow. Hopefully, Formula E becomes more of a headache for top motorsport talent too. Right now, it’s more of a place for drivers to play out the end of their career or to pass some time when they’ve fallen out of favour in Formula One. The obvious example being Stoffel Vandoorne.
Finally, the sport needs to win over the fans. It’s very hard for the person in the street to care about Formula E if they can’t even watch it. We live in an era where attention has become a precious commodity. A commodity as previous as oil used to be. It’s a beautiful metaphor given this is an electric sport looking to replace the sports driven by fossil fuels. But going after attention isn’t easy. TikTok zaps my attention and it doesn’t cost a penny. Formula E is perilously close to online E-sports.
The biggest movie of the year is here. Literally. Godzilla vs. Kong is the latest movie in Legendary’s so-called Monster-verse, and it promises a showdown we’ve all been waiting for since… well since the last time it happened actually. That time, the 8th wonder of the world had to be given special electro-shock abilities to combat Godzilla’s atomic fire-breath; this time all he needs are his fists, and his ability to use tools. I’ll do my best to refrain from major spoilers but there’s one major point that I’ll have to go into to truly do the movie justice. So, does this movie measure up to its stars? Or is it more like the goofy head of King Gidorah from the last film?
Let them fight!
On a surface level, the plot of the movie is quite simple. Godzilla’s and Kong’s species have a millennia-old rivalry that flares up every now and then. The ensuing battle will only end when one titan either yields or dies. No more explanation needed. However, as with all these movies, there’s a deeper plot that involves the human world too. In a nutshell, a billionaire tech mogul (whose name I honestly couldn’t remember by the end of the film) wants to find Kong’s homeland in the center of the Earth because he believes it holds a secret power source that could end the world’s energy crisis (and he definitely won’t use it for any nefarious purposes at all). To do this, he recruits a scientist whose brother once ventured to the Hollow Earth but died on the mission. This scientist then theorises that Kong should be able to lead them to his homeland due to Genetic Memory. The only trouble with this is that this necessitates Kong being moved from his home on Skull Island which will alert Godzilla to his existence.
…and my axe!
Meanwhile, Godzilla has gone rogue. Yes, the titan once hailed as the King of the Monsters and Saviour of our City has been attacking Apex Cybernetics facilities (which are owned by Mr. Billionaire) around the globe, seemingly turning on the people he once fought to protect. During one attack, an Apex employee discovers that the company has been working on an enormous, off-books project and vows to find out what it is.
Seriously, how can Kong compete?
The employee in question is Bernie Hayes and, quite fittingly for the year the film released, he’s the host of a conspiracy theory podcast. Practically every insane idea gets mentioned at least once in this movie from the aforementioned Hollow Earth and Genetic Memory ideas to the Illuminati. He even suggests that the Nazis intended for fluoridated water to be used to control people’s minds. Be prepared for a lot of poking fun at these kinds of flights of fancy throughout the movie.
The Sound
One of my favourite things about the Monster-verse is the sound design. Even the old Godzilla movies had this nailed. The original Godzilla roar from the 1950s is, to this day, one of the most iconic sounds in cinema. This movie is only too happy to follow in the footsteps of the films that came before it and offers a best-in-show experience. The rumbling of Godzilla’s spines, while he’s charging his atomic firebreath, is top-notch as always, and Kong’s roar is even more primal and bestial than it was in his stand-alone flick a few years ago. I watched this with a good friend of mine who had a much better setup than I did. During one scene in particular the subwoofer was working overtime and causing some DVD cases on top of it to move. If you’re watching this movie without at least a soundbar you’re doing yourself a disservice.
The Sights
The visuals are similarly impressive. The Monster-verse films are great at giving a true sense of the awesome scale of these titans and GvK is no different. Godzilla is almost always in an urban setting (or at least one with manmade objects to provide reference) so the wide, establishing shots of his appearances are always a joy to see. Kong, on the other hand, is a little tougher to size up. I feel like this is due to him usually being in a natural environment or, in the hollow Earth, in an environment that’s designed around his size. Don’t get me wrong, he does get a chance to measure up but if you hadn’t already known that he’d been up-scaled for this movie you’d be forgiven for wondering how he’d measure up to the King of the Monsters.
A great homage to the olden days
The CG in this movie is top-notch in my opinion. Admittedly the opening close-up shot on Kong’s hand is a bit iffy but that’s a 3-second exception to this otherwise fantastic film. This is the first Godzilla film (in this continuity) to feature him prominently in daylight and it’s a great change. Usually, a director will use the cover of night to cut down on some CGI costs, or obscure aspects of a scene that may be poorly done, but even the night-time scenes are well lit. The final fight takes place in Hong Kong (arguably giving the ape a home-field advantage) meaning the neon and glaring lights on the skyscrapers make the showdown feel like some kind of synth-wave nightmare in the best possible way.
A couple of nit-picks (fair warning there are a couple of spoilers here)
I do love this movie and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants 2 hours of in-your-face action and entertainment. However, I do have a couple of complaints. My number one will be the same as all of these films; we don’t care about the humans so stop showing us little details to try and make them more sympathetic. Maybe this is just me but the idea that Bernie’s world-saving drink was given to him by his late wife doesn’t add anything to the plot, nor does the fact that one of the Apex employees sent to the Hollow Earth is the Billionaire villain’s daughter. Thankfully, this film doesn’t pull away from the action at any point to focus on the human stories as the previous films did. That’s a big step in the right direction.
Secondly, I can’t help but feel that this film played it too safe. King of the Monsters was something of a box-office flop, barely making back its budget. I think there were a lot of things planned for this movie that were cut in order to make a more bankable film while minimizing hype for a sequel if it didn’t perform. For example, the pilot of Mechagodzilla was the son of Dr. Serizawa from previous films. This is never explored but could have been initially proposed as a “Godzilla killed my father”-style revenge story. There’s also no post-credits scene or any hint that there may be future films in the franchise. Seeing as this movie has outperformed its predecessor already and is the highest-grossing movie from a Western movie studio, I think we can be hopeful of more monster mayhem in the future. This would be a disappointing way to leave the franchise and is an indication that there’s certainly an appetite for more titan fights.
Definitely give it a go
There’s nothing I can really say to sell this movie beyond “you get to watch enormous creatures duke it out for dominance”. If that doesn’t grab your attention in some small way, then this film definitely isn’t for you. If your interest is piqued, however, you’re in for one hell of a ride. You can check out Godzilla vs. Kong on Now TV. Sky Cinema and HBO Max (for all you VPN users) right now. You can also check out director Adam Wingard’s Reddit AMA right here if you want to know more about the behind-the-scenes work!
It’s been a week and a bit of football news and there’s still a few days left. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to leave my memories of Kilkenny City behind, get a Watch LOI subscription and adopt my local club St. Pats. It’s a decision I’ve not looked back on and with the news of the past week in Europe, I feel more justified than ever in doing so. I used to live in Cabra, so despite the obvious rivalry I do still have a few feelings about Bohemians too. Today, the club revealed a stunning drone video showcasing the North Dublin football team.
The Bohs Drone Video
Posted on Twitter today, the drone video released by Bohs is simply stunning and does a lot more to show how the League of Ireland can look as good, if not better, than clubs considered to be far grander. Before I go on about it, take a look at it yourself in all its glory.
Just your average day in Dalymount.
Here's a piece we did with @TallerStories – football by the people – for the people ✊
The continuous shot is just stunning. I don’t for one second believe this was a 30-minute shoot that got nailed in a single take either. It’s nigh-on perfect.
It opens with a drone barreling down on the entrance to Dalymount Park in Phibsboro. You overhear two Bohs fans chatting, a “welcome to Bohs” and the sound of a crowd in an empty stadium. Somewhat fitting for the year we’ve all had.
The drone zooms into the stadium, ducking under a narrow entrance and heading out onto the hallowed turf to see two footballers juggling a ball. The second player hoofs the ball into the corner as the drone follows to introduce us to a poet in the stands. He says “the bond with Bohs only grows stronger. Absence makes the heart grow fonder”. The drone zooms into the club shop, back outside to an artist do their work before we hear the crows again chanting Bohs songs. Fade out to The Peoples Club
An Inspired Video
I think this video hit me because it goes to show that the League of Ireland can looks as beautiful as any football when it’s show in the right light. If you’ve read my review on Watch LOI you’ll know my opinion on that is that the RTE built streaming platform absolutely doesn’t do the game any favours.
This video by Bohs is pure quality though. The timing of the transitions and production quality by Taller Stories and Aerial Photography Ireland is truly second to none. It might be no coincidence that this drone video reminds me of another POV capture recently released that blew minds around the globe.
Anyway, check out the video. And sure look. If you feel a bit out of place supporting your usual team, give your local League of Ireland team a chance.
Despite confirmation from Three, which has over 2.6 million customers in Ireland, confirming they remained “committed to continuing to work with Carphone Warehouse here in Ireland”, the company has had to close its doors in Ireland. Prior to the pandemic, the company employed over 580 staff here in Ireland. Today’s news sees 486 people lose their job across retail and head office positions.
Why Is Carphone Warehouse Closing?
Carphone Warehouse has had spluttering performance over the past few years. In the UK, parent company, Dixons Carphone, closed more than 530 stores last year with nearly 3,000 job losses. Here in Ireland, the launch of ID Mobile should have been a winning formula but it failed to land with the buying public. Ireland’s “one stop shop” for all mobile networks, on paper, should have been a success but Vodafone’s recent withdrawal from Carphone shelves proved to be a death nail for the company.
Like many stores over the past 12-months, Carphone Warehouse has had to close or work on the basis of restricted footfall. The company’s online presence was largely based on driving customers to store instead of being able to purchase directly online. Naturally, this meant the past 12-months were incredible difficult for the UK-owned company here in Ireland.
Carphone Warehouse is headquartered in Omni Shopping Centre, Santry
The company website has closed and now says “As part of Dixons Carphone’s broader transformation, of one joined up and profitable business, it has made the difficult but necessary decision to close Carphone Warehouse in Ireland, in line with its decision to close all standalone Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK in 2020”.
The Changing Mobile Landscape
In closing, Carphone Warehouse highlighted that “customers are changing the way they buy mobile devices and connectivity, replacing their handsets less often and buying them separately or as part of more flexible bundles”. This comes as the ability to buy phones in many new ways does indeed change how customers buy their phones. Right now, I’m testing an iPhone 12 from Refurbed.ie and it’s perfect. That’s just one sustainable way of reducing the number of phones in the market while others continue to buy new but spread costs across credit cards or payments plans, saving money versus long term contracts.
More on this breaking story as we learn it. Hit the bell in the bottom left corner for updates.
Yesterday, Apple launched their first products of the year at the Sprint Loaded Event. There were lots of new bits and pieces launched, but one of the more unique items launched is the Apple AirTag. Here’s everything you need to know about it, including the AirTag launch date for Ireland.
What Is Apple AirTag?
I’ve had Tile on my keys for years. In case you don’t know it, Tile is a genius piece of tech. You slap a little gadget onto your valuables and connect it to your phone with Bluetooth. Then, if you lose your keys, handbag, wallet or whatever, the app can tell you where it was when it disconnected.
Apple AirTag is this, on steroids.
AirTag is a small gadget from Apple which slots into the “Find My ecosystem”. This whole ecosystem is to help you find your lost tech. AirTag, is a piece of tech that you attach to your belongings and, if you lose them, it helps you find them. Sounds just like Tile right? Well, fundamentally, the idea is the same and, in fact, Tile is not at all happy about Apple entry into the “findables” space. Apple’s unique difference is the hardware network they can use to find lost items. Let’s dig into this a bit more.
How Does Apple AirTag Work?
There are two fundamental ways the AirTag can help you find your lost belongings in what Apple describes as a “comprehensive finding experience”.
Bluetooth Connection
When you get your AirTag, you can connect it to your phone via Bluetooth. All you need to do is open the package and bring it near your iPhone or iPad. This whole part of AirTag is just like Tile. As long as the AirTag is connected to your phone, everything is fine. The system assumes everything is good. This does offer a massive benefit if you can’t find your keys at home and your AirTag is within range of your iPhone. Using the Find My app, you can activate the AirTag and play a sound so you can find your lost stuff.
If you properly lose something and that Bluetooth connection is broken, the system kicks in. You’ll be able to see where it was last connected. But AirTag goes far beyond that too.
Apple Find My Network
The modern suite of iPhone and iPads now form a massive Find My network of nearly one billion Apple devices. For example, if you lose your handbag in the park and it has an AirTag attached, someone passing by with an iPhone 12 won’t be told that your handbag is sitting in the bushes. However, the phone will privately and anonymously take note of the AirTag near by and send you a notification of the location the tag was spotted.
If someone does see the handbag or any lost AirTag, tapping it with an iPhone or any NFC device will bring that person to a website where they can see the contact details of the owner.
Two important points here. This only works if the AirTag has been marked as lost, so someone can’t just scan your tag in a cafe to get your details. Also, you need to have made your contact details available for your lost AirTag for this to work.
My understanding is that all of this functionality should work in Ireland, but I’m seeking to clarify that for sure with Apple.
I’m a big fan of my wearables. It just kind of happened but for years I’ve been wearing either a Huawei Watch or, more recently, my Fitbit Versa. I had seen Fitbits years ago and was stunned to see how far they had come since. Today, Fitbit unveiled a new device with a new goal in mind. The Fitbit Luxe is a fashion-first fitness tracker designed to track your activity and look great too. Here’s what we learned from the launch.
The Fitbit Luxe
Fitness wearables have never really cracked the whole idea of style. Apple ploughed their own route with an anti-traditional style. My Huawei Watch looks like a watch and I like that. Fitbit is one of the lucky companies to have cornered so much of the market that when you see their devices on someones wrist, you know what it is too. It’s a style of its own. But what about people who just want a bit of style or want to track their activity when out dressed to the nines.
This is why Fitbit has developed the Luxe.
The Fitbit Luxe
The Luxe is a simple fitness wearable. I mean simple in terms of design form, not features as this gadget is functionality rich.
As was the case with the Sense, Fitbit is continuing their split focus on fitness and wellness. The pandemic has been a stressor for all of us and a survey found that 50% percent of us felt the physical and mental effects of stress. This new wearable from Fitbit gives you stress management tools in a neat little tracker, including Fitbit’s Stress Management Score based on activity levels, sleep and heart rate. You also get breathing rate, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate (RHR), skin temperature and oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements from the Luxe, the last of which will be made available with an update.
The Luxe offers Fitbit’s first colour screen, is completely buttonless, is the thinest tracker ever from Fitbit, and promises up to five days of battery. It does sing memories of the Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit, a wearable that was popular back in my phone shop days.
The Samsung Galaxy Fit
The Luxe is undeniably more modern and stylish and as I flagged at the outset, this really is a fashion-first wearable packed with Fitbit features. There’s a wide range of stylish straps to pair with the Luxe including a stunning modern luxury bracelet from Laguna Beach-based jewellery brand gorjana.
It’s clear as day that Fitbit’s goal here is to create a fitness wearable that’s not only offering a clear window into your activity and well-being but that can also easily be mistaken for a piece of jewellery. This will be a welcome change for many who’ve only ever seen wearables and big, chunky lumps of plastic and steel.
Fitbit Luxe Pricing Ireland
The Fitbit Luxe is available to pre-order today from Fitbit.com and major retailers. For a tracker, it’s a bit on the pricy side at €149.95. This does include a free trial of Fitbit Premium, but that’s only ok. Not something I’d be rushing out to pay for and won’t add massive value for many. That’s not to say the Luxe isn’t worth the outlay. I’ll be reserving judgement for when we get hands on.
The gorjana for Fitbit Luxe Special Edition is available for pre-order today, launching in June, and will set you back €199.95.
Two men have been killed in a car crash over in the United States. We wouldn’t normally report on things like this but the crash involved what looks like Tesla Model S. It’s hard to tell from what’s left of the car following a massive fire. Unfortunately, the crash seems to have occurred because there were only passengers in the car and no driver, leaving many wondering if Tesla should be allowed to continue calling their driver-assist feature “Autopilot“.
What Is Tesla Autopilot?
A couple of years ago I took a Tesla Model S out for a spin along the M50. I activated Tesla’s driver-assist functionality which they’ve branded “Autopilot”. It didn’t work great, with the system being confused over road-markings coming up to an exit, so I immediately disabled it after a few seconds, feeling a little uncomfortable with the idea.
I’ve since tested out a few systems on cars designed to keep drivers safe. Some of them keep cars in the lanes, control cruise control based on cars around you, or if there’s an obvious collision imminent. Tesla’s onboard systems are more advanced than most cars, but the question now is whether or no the term “Autopilot” is misleading to the point where it’s likely to cause an accident. Today’s news would suggest the answer is that the term shouldn’t be used.
Texas Tesla Crash
Reports are emerging of a crash in Texas involving a Tesla and the unfortunate loss of two lives. Normally, this would involve a driver and passengers, but this crash seemingly only involved passengers and the Tesla “Autopilot” system. The Tesla crashed into a tree with one person sitting in the passenger seat and another passenger sitting in the rear of the car.
Image courtesy of www.click2houston.com
It appears that the two passengers engaged the “Autopilot” functionality but did not remain in control of the vehicle. The car didn’t recognise an upcoming corner and drove off the road into a tree. The Tesla website describes the feature as an “advanced driver assistance system that enhances safety and convenience behind the wheel”.
In this accident, it does look like the passengers believed the car could driver itself, whether that was a responsible thing to do or not.
Not The First Time Autopilot Is Misunderstood
The name itself suggests that the car drives itself. There is a massive difference between automated driverless cars and what Tesla offers. Yet, this misunderstanding has occurred before. Many drivers have been videoed sleeping behind the wheel of their Tesla while the car does all the driving. This is just one of the countless videos.
In other cases, people have “tricked” the Tesla safety features requiring a hand on the wheel so they get free reign of their car while the assistance system does the driving. This video claims it “was done by professionals on a closed-circuit course”, likely in an effort to not only trick the Tesla, but YouTube’s dangerous activity filters to chase some social clout online.
Should Tesla Rename Autopilot?
Clearly, there’s a knowledge gap here. Some drivers believe Autopilot really is fully autonomous. Others believe the system is so safe and advanced, that it’s ok to trick Tesla’s safety features, just letting the assistance system do all the driving.
While Tesla has taken steps to prevent drivers going all in on the car driving itself, the name “Autopilot” is simply too misleading for what the system really is. Tesla finds itself at an awkward halfway point between assistance and automation. Elon Musk and Tesla surely don’t want to remove the name “Autopilot” because it’s an impressive selling point for the fully electric car manufacturer. But with the public clearly in danger of misunderstanding what the system can do, “Autopilot” is dangerously close to misleading and false advertising.
How Much Water Does An Electric Car Fire Take To Put Out?
Electric cars are absolutely key to our eco-friendly methods of getting around. They’re not perfect for many reasons and our general dependency on cars needs to be reduced, but electric cars will play a part. That means we need to learn lots about them, far beyond how to use them on our roads.
Beyond the Autopilot features of Tesla, this particular crash provides another broadly concerning insight into accidents involving electric cars.
The fire burned for hours and took over 120,000 litres of water to extinguish. The reason for this is the battery cell within the car and the duration of burns caused by high-voltage lithium-ion battery fires. The energy involved can cause a car fire to continue and re-ignite over long periods of time.
The Dublin Fire Brigade has undergone training for hybrid car fires and is researching training for full-electric car accidents too.
Research is underway into it at the moment and training for hybrids has already taken place
— Dublin Fire Brigade #StayHomeSaveLives (@DubFireBrigade) April 18, 2021
