The new BMW 7-Series is one of the most technologically advanced cars ever, and can turn your dreams into reality.

This is a car that can park itself while the driver stands outside, and one that has a tablet for back seat passengers to control every aspect of the interior, including the lights, sounds and even how it smells.

 

1.) Automatic parking

Autonomous parking feature means the 7-Series can be driven into a garage by itself.

The new 7-Series can park itself when no one is in it. All you have to do is point the car roughly into the entrance of a space or garage, get out, then press the key fob and the car will do the rest.

Let go and it will stop, but with an array of cameras and sensors looking in every direction, the car should work things out for itself. Clearly, we are one step closer to the end game: autonomous cars collecting us from the pub.

 

2.) Smart key

The same key fob that controls the self-parking feature also has an LED display to show how much fuel the car has, plus the status of door locks and windows.

It has a 2.2in touchscreen with a resolution of 320 x 320 and lets you set the climate control or heaters to a certain temperature before you get in; it also shows notifications, such as when a service is due.

 

3.) Inductive charger

The smart key's battery will last for months but to stop it ever running out, the 7-Series has an inductive charger to slot it into as you drive. The charger can also top-up any smartphones (or phone cases and covers) compatible with the Qi charging standard.

 

4.) Samsung tablet between the back seats

Continuing the mobile theme, the 7-Series includes a 7in Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 between the two rear passenger seats. This can be detached and used as a regular Android tablet (and connected to the car's built-in Wi-Fi network), but when fitted in the car it runs a bespoke BMW application.

Here, passengers can control the music, cabin lighting, the position of both rear seats and the front passenger seat, which can fold completely flat to act as a footrest.

The tablet can also be used to control the seats' massage function and even how the cabin smells; two different perfumes can be installed when you buy the car and picked from depending on your mood. The tablet can play its own music through the car, or stream video to two 10.3in screens on the back of the front seats.

 

5.) Gesture controls for the 12.3-inch touchscreen display

But the toys are not only for backseat passengers; those up front also get to have some fun. New for the 2016 7-Series is a 3D sensor that reads hand gestures performed by the driver or front passenger. Rotate a pointed finger in front of the dashboard to turn the stereo volume up or down or prod two fingers towards the dashboard to reject an incoming call.

Several other gestures can be configured to do whatever you like with the car's infotainment system. BMW's iDrive system is here, as you would expect, and features a touchscreen for the first time. There is also the familiar scroll dial and control buttons between the front seats.

 

6. Bowers & Wilkins stereo with speakers made from diamond

Such a huge car demands an equally large stereo, and few come larger than the 1,400-watt system created for the new 7-Series by British sound company Bowers & Wilkins. It has no fewer than 16 speakers dotted around the cabin, each illuminated as part of the car's dynamic lighting package, which includes lights in the roof lining designed to resemble a starry night.

A £5,000 optional extra, the stereo's speakers include laboratory-grown diamonds in the tweeters to produce sounds beyond what humans can hear. Never seen in cars before, the three diamond dome tweeters are joined by seven midrange drive units made from Kevlar, a material more commonly found in Formula One cars and bulletproof jackets. Completing the set-up are a further four aluminium tweeters, two bass subwoofers and a 1,400 watt, 10-channel amplifier.

 

7. Heads-up display with night vision

And finally... the 7-Series' heads-up display is 75% larger than its predecessor, as used by the BMW i8, and uses a night vision camera to warn the driver about pedestrians and large animals, which may be hidden at the sides of the road.

The display, which is projected on to the windscreen and can only be seen by the driver, shows the car's speed, the limit for that road (which changes when a camera spots a different road sign), overtaking restrictions, and sat-nav instructions in full colour.

The new BMW 7-Series goes on sale this month. Prices in the US start from $81,300.

 

 

 

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Apple Inc could be facing up to $862 million in damages after a U.S. jury on Tuesday found the iPhone maker used technology owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without permission in chips found in many of its most popular devices.

The jury in Madison, Wisconsin also said the patent, which improves processor efficiency, was valid. The trial will now move on to determine how much Apple owes in damages.

Representatives for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

WARF sued Apple in January 2014 alleging infringement of its 1998 patent for improving chip efficiency.

The jury was considering whether Apple's A7, A8 and A8X processors, found in the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, as well as several versions of the iPad, violate the patent.

Cupertino, California-based Apple denied any infringement and argued the patent is invalid, according to court papers. Apple previously tried to convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the patent's validity, but in April the agency rejected the bid.

According to a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge William Conley, who is presiding over the case, Apple could be liable for up to $862.4 million in damages.

He scheduled the trial to proceed in three phases: liability, damages, and finally, whether Apple infringed the patent willfully, which could lead to enhanced penalties.

WARF used the patent to sue Intel Corp in 2008, but the case was settled the following year on the eve of trial.

Last month, WARF launched a second lawsuit against Apple, this time targeting the company's newest chips, the A9 and A9X, used in the just-released iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well as the iPad Pro.

The case is Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation v. Apple Inc in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, No. 14-cv-62.

  

 

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The iconic men's magazine Playboy said Monday that it is planning to drop fully nude female photography from its pages.

The news, first reported by The New York Times, is bound to send shock waves through the magazine industry, since Playboy has been a part of American popular culture since its debut in 1953.

The magazine's redesign, which will reportedly take place next March, appears to be a reaction to the ever-growing accessibility of online pornography.

"You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free," Playboy's chief executive Scott Flanders told The Times. "It's just passé at this juncture."

The revolutionary publication, which was founded by Hugh Hefner, told The Times that "Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses" but no longer fully nude.

Social media pointed out that the removal of nude photography may help boost the magazine's other known elements.

"The Playboy Interview has long been one of the greatest columns in the magazine world," Politico media reporter Alex Weprin tweeted. "In some ways the rest of the magazine held it back."

As for young men going through puberty everywhere, they will now have to actually read Playboy for the articles.

"Don't get me wrong, 12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me," Cory Jones, Playboy's top editor explained to the paper.

 

 

 

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The Volkswagen AG scandal over diesel emission tests is headed for Hollywood.

U.S. movie studio Paramount Picture and actor Leonardo DiCaprio's Production Company have acquired movie rights to a book proposal by New York Times journalist Jack Ewing about the clean diesel scandal, the biggest crisis in Volkswagen's 78-year history.

Publishing rights for the book sold earlier this month for six figures to the Norton publishing house, Marly Rusoff said. The book is expected to investigate how a "more, better, faster" ethos fueled one of the greatest frauds in corporate history.

Europe's largest automaker has admitted rigging diesel emissions tests in the United States, and Germany's transport minister says it also manipulated them in Europe.

The scandal has wiped more than a third off the German company's share price, forced out its long-time CEO and prompted investigations around the world.

DiCaprio, producer and star of "The Wolf of Wall Street" through his Appian Way production company, is also one of Hollywood's leading environmental campaigners.

 

 

 

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SABMiller accepts $104 billion AB InBev takeover offer

 

 

SABMiller (SAB.L) accepted a takeover proposal at the fifth time of asking on Tuesday after Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), the world's largest brewer, set out a cash and share package worth 68 billion pounds ($104.4 billion).

After repeated rebuttals from its next largest rival, AB InBev said it was willing in principle to pay 44 pounds in cash per SABMiller share, with a partial share alternative set at a discount and limited to 41 percent of the SABMiller shares.

SABMiller said it had indicated to AB InBev that its board would be prepared to accept the offer and said it had asked for a two-week extension to the deadline set for its rival to announce a firm intention to bid. The new deadline is Oct. 28.

The parties have agreed that AB InBev would pay a break fee of $3 billion to SABMiller in the event the transaction fails to close as a result of regulatory issues or because AB InBev shareholders do not back it.

The new offer unveiled on Tuesday surpasses a Monday proposal set at 43.50 pounds in cash.

The partial share alternative remains, designed for SABMiller's two main shareholders, cigarette-maker Altria (MO.N) and the BevCo company of Colombia's Santo Domingo family, who own 40.5 percent of the UK-based brewer.

Were they to accept the discounted alternative and all other shareholders took cash, the offer would be worth 68 billion pounds ($100 billion).

The deal would rank in the top five mergers in corporate history and would be the largest takeover of a UK company.

The new group would brew almost a third of the world's beer, combining AB InBev's Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona lagers with SABMiller's Peroni, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell.

AB InBev would add certain Latin American and Asian breweries to its already large presence and, crucially, see it enter Africa for the first time.

 

 

 

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Thousands of troops marched in elaborate formations across Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square In an incredible and rare show of strength and celebration to mark the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party.

Kim watched the extravaganza from a viewing platform and gave a rare live televised speech. Last year, Kim didn't show himself during a mysterious absence that lasted over a month.

"Our party can confidently state that our revolutionary armament today can deal with any kind of war U.S. imperialists ask for, and we are fully ready to persistently defend the country's blue sky and the well-being of the people," he told the gathered crowds.

North Korea's regime is fond of saber rattling and has made plenty of threats before. Intimidating words about the United States and South Korea have been very common in recent years.

Foreign diplomats, journalists and tourists gathered in Pyongyang for the spectacle, which saw fighter jets flying in a "70" formation.

 

 

A Chinese delegation led by Liu Yunshan, who is one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, met Kim and delivered a message from President Xi Jinping, according to North Korean state media KCNA.

The preparations for the Workers' Party of Korea anniversary appear to have begun as early as May, when satellite images captured approximately 45 tents assembled at a former Pyongyang airbase, according to an analysis posted on website 38 North.

By October, that area had swelled to about 800 tents, 700 trucks and 200 armored vehicles, with people appearing to move in formations "possibly in preparation for the parade," wrote Joseph Bermudez Jr, an analyst on North Korean affairs.

He concluded that "regardless of whether ballistic missiles are present or not, (it) will be one of the largest in North Korea's history."

 

 

The parade is one of North Korea's most significant holidays -- next to the birthdays of the country's founder Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il.

"We want to celebrate in the most significant way," Sin Un Gyong, a North Korean student told CNN's Will Ripley in Pyongyang before parade.

The Workers' Party of Korea is the political party that governs and runs North Korea.

 

 

"The Workers' Party is the locus of power in North Korea," Sung-Yoon Lee, professor of Korean Studies at Tufts University. "The party runs everything."

It was founded 70 years ago, after World War II and following the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea. With the Korean peninsula in disarray, a group chaired by Kim Il Sung in the Soviet-occupied northern part formed the Communist political party that came to be known as the Workers' Party of Korea.

 

 

 

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Dell's move to pay over $53 billion to buy EMC in the world's biggest-ever technology merger is coming to its last stages. 

Dell is expected to announce EMC's acceptance of a buyout offer by Monday or Tuesday, US-time. Dell is a global household name that manufactures PCs and servers. EMC on the other hand, is a lesser-known technology company that has focused on creating data storage, cloud computing and big data systems.

The combination of both would create a hardware and software titan. Analysts warned such mega-deals come with risks. "Large purchases like this often don't work out that well," said Kevin McIsaac, an IT infrastructure analyst with Intelligent Business Research Services.

Reuters reported that EMC's board had agreed to accept the deal with an offer of $US33 per share, citing sources close to the deal. Around $US25 per share would be paid in cash, and the rest would be paid to EMC shareholders with a special stock that tracks the market value of VMWare, the virtualisation software company majority-owned by EMC.

EMC is expected to have included a "go-shop" clause that would give it 60 days to find rival suitors in an effort to convince shareholders that Dell had offered the best deal.

Microsoft and Cisco are the most likely potential buyers but industry watchers have expressed doubts that either party will beat Dell's offer, which was 27 per cent more than EMC's share price before news leaked out last week.

The largest technology tie-up prior to this move involved the May merger of Broadcom and Avago, which was worth $US37 billion ($50.4 billion) and is yet to be completed.

If completed, the deal would be the second large buy-out by Michael Dell, one of the pioneers of the PC industry, in barely two years.

He bought out the PC company that bears his surname two years ago for $US25 billion to help undertake a drastic overhaul that he said would have been tough to complete if it had remained publicly-listed.

Taking Dell private also made it far simpler for the technology giant to acquire its rivals and would-be collaborators without running the risk of facing the wrath of major shareholders.

Mr Dell will be hoping that this advantage extends to the newly-merged entity, which will then have the firepower to restructure and reinvest in successful segments of its business without being scrutinised on the New York Stock Exchange.

Combining both companies also makes strategic sense. Where Dell has traditionally focussed on building IT servers, the hardware of data centres, EMC specialises in making the smarts that make the systems sing.

Its big data systems are designed to analyse vast tranches of information and find disparate patterns that corporate and government customers then use to improve products and policies.

This would allow Dell to be a one-stop shop for both the data centre systems that store the rapidly rising amounts of information produced by society and the software that turns it into productive sense.

But the deal also comes with tremendous risk because it creates a technology conglomerate in an era when many players, such as Google and Hewlett Packard, are splitting up their divisions to become more nimble.

The Financial Times also reported that Dell is in talks to raise over $US40 billion from an array of banks at a period of continuing uncertainty about the global economy.

  

 

 

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Facebook has finally unveiled its solution to people’s calls for a “dislike” button — in the form of six new emoji, each representing their own feeling.

Mark Zuckerberg hinted last month that his site was looking to expand the Like button, making a way for people to communicate that they were upset by news. And the site is now rolling out its solution in the form of emoji that represent “Love”, “Haha”, “Yay”, “Wow”, “Sad” and “Angry”.

Zuckerberg said for a long time that the feature wouldn’t be integrated in the “Dislike” button that many people had asked for, and that users wanted so much that it has spawned its own scams. Since that could be used for bullying and might make users feel bad, the site was exploring ways for people to communicate that they were upset without being explicitly negative.

Facebook’s way of doing that seems to be a series of expressive “Reactions”, rather than exactly replicating the Like button. That button is still available, but the new buttons sit alongside the regular thumbs up as extra options.

As with the Like button, the reactions will appear on any post in the news feed on mobile or desktop. The number of reactions that any post has received will sit underneath the post and users will be able to see who reacted and how.

The site will start rolling out the feature in Spain and Ireland, as a test. The countries have been chosen because they’re relatively closed groups and including Spain will allow the site to try out how the emoji work for non-English users, according to Techcrunch. 

 

 

 

 

 

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