Technology - Google News

You can't drive Ford's first million-dollar car on the street - Fox News
Samsung sued over water-resistant phone claims - BBC News
A Very Personal MacBook Pro Disaster - The Mac Observer

You can't drive Ford's first million-dollar car on the street - Fox News

Posted: 04 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT

2017 Ford GT test drive

The new Ford GT is the quickest and fastest Ford ever, but is it really worth half a million bucks? Gary Gastelu went to a racetrack in Utah to find out

The first million-dollar Ford has arrived.

The Ford GT Mk II is a track-day version of the GT supercar that's more powerful and offers better handling than the road car. It's not street legal, nor is it certified for any racing series. Instead, it's one of a new breed of supercar that lives between the two worlds and is simply meant to have fun with.

The GT Mk II features a 700 hp version of the GT's 647 hp 3.5-liter turbocharged V6 and is equipped with extra cooling features, including a water spray for the charge air cooler and a roof-mounted air intake. Its aerodynamics package has been modified with a large wing and an eye on improving downforce, and it rides on a set of Michelin Pilot Sport slicks. The cabin is equipped with two Sparco racing seats, a roll cage and a performance computer.

Aside from the ability to generate cornering loads of 2g, Ford hasn't detailed its performance specifications, but the stock GT can hit 60 mph in 3 seconds and tops out at 216 mph, while regulations restrict the racing GT to about 500 hp.

Ford will only build 45 GT Mk IIs priced at $1.2 million each. The standard model costs $450,000 and the GT line will be limited to 1,350 cars before its production run ends in 2022.

FOLLOW FOX NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Samsung sued over water-resistant phone claims - BBC News

Posted: 04 Jul 2019 03:41 AM PDT

Samsung is being sued by Australia's consumer watchdog for allegedly making misleading claims about the water-resistant properties of its phones.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges Samsung's adverts made "false" claims about using its phones while swimming and surfing.

The ACCC said it had reviewed more than 300 Samsung adverts before launching its legal action.

Samsung told Reuters it would defend the case and stood by its adverts.

Deep probe

In its statement, the ACCC said Samsung adverts depicted phones being exposed to seawater and swimming pools and claimed that this would not affect the device during its working life.

Although Samsung adverts say its phones have an IP68 water resistance, said the ACCC, this rating does not cover salt water or that found in swimming pools.

Samsung's own website advises people against using the Galaxy S10 in a swimming pool or on the beach, said the consumer watchdog.

Samsung had not done enough testing to make its advertised claims about the longevity of its products, alleges the ACCC.

"Samsung showed the Galaxy phones used in situations they shouldn't be, to attract customers," said the ACCC.

If Samsung is found guilty of misleading consumers it could face a huge fine.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

A Very Personal MacBook Pro Disaster - The Mac Observer

Posted: 03 Jul 2019 02:33 PM PDT

For the first time in 15 years, I've had a Mac product fail utterly. A 2018 MacBook Pro. The experience confirms the observations of others.

Apple's 2018 MacBook Pro.

It's Personal Now

Normally, I don't pay too much attention to complaint about Mac failures. In any production process, there's a small percentage of machines will will prove defective. That's what warranties and AppleCare are for. But I've rarely been bitten, a healthy reminder of previously favorable statistics for Apple.

But now I'm in a position to nod approvingly when customers complain about MacBook Pro keyboard issues (and other problems) because a 2018 MacBook Pro in my family has totally failed, a few months after purchase, via the USB-C ports. The external display flickers. External disk drives and SSDs take 20 minutes to mount, then disappear randomly. An external keyboard will work for an hour, then just quit. All four USB-C ports are affected. This Mac is going in for repair, (under warranty) and I'm sure the motherboard will be replaced.

That means the soldered-in SSD will be also be replaced, and we'll have to restore from a backup to a new SSD. Ycch.

I am sure this rare. I've read a lot about MacBook Pro keyboard issues, but not port failures. I'm sure there are a few that get quietly fixed because the customer doesn't get vocal.

The Community Also Speaks

Just today, I read this: "Apple's latest laptops are the worst the company has ever made for 4 major reasons." Some of the arguments therein that one normally would dismiss start to make a little more sense.

Recently, Apple blogger John Gruber blamed departing Apple designer Jony Ive for the keyboard issues on recent MacBook Pro, saying it was Ive's obsession with making thin devices that led to a poorly designed keyboard.

I mentioned that notion on a recent TDO podcast without having seen Gruber's writings. It makes sense, however. Make the case too thin, and you take away the design freedom of the keyboard engineers and force them into an engineering corner. (Where have we heard this notion before? 2013 Mac Pro.) Hence the Butterfly design. But there's more from the BI article.

Back when Apple introduced a MacBook Pro that ran on Intel's powerful Core i9 chips in 2018, it was discovered that the laptop didn't have the proper cooling systems to keep the chip cool during workloads….
Apple addressed the issue with a software update fix, and the problem was improved. But the MacBook Pro chassis is still too thin to properly cool a powerful chip like the Intel Core i9. [An unproven assertion. Still….]

This thin design also forced previous generations of MacBook Pros into using LPDDR RAM memory, which maxed out at 16 GB. The best HP notebooks have been a little thicker, clunkier, better cooled, but they featured 32 GB RAM. A MacBook Pro that maxes out at 16 GB RAM isn't a "pro" machine. You all wrote me in article comments about that. Over and over. I heard you.

And so, I admit, my perspective has changed in a very tangible way. Do I think all these anecdotes constitute iron-clad engineering data? No. But I'm here to report my own experience, and that's worth doing.

This 2018 MacBook Pro has been beautiful and fast. When it worked.

Let's block ads! (Why?)