Technology

The Volvo S60 Polestar is bravely being pitched as a rival to German sports sedans. Priced at $109,950, the turbocharged six-cylinder all-wheel-drive S60 Polestar is expensive for a Volvo, costing $40K more than the S60 T6 R-Design on which it’s based. But it also undercuts the Audi S4 by $10K, and the BMW M3 and Lexus IS F by $15K. Its claimed 4.9-second 0-100km/h makes the Volvo S60 Polestar a tenth quicker than the S4, neck-and-neck with the IS F and a tenth slower than the M3. A 50-unit limited edition, Volvo’s hottest model has been developed by Polestar, its official tuning company that has now for the first time made a proper production car. Australia gets the entire allotment, with our country being tagged as performance-focused – we buy more AMG and Renault Sport models in proportion to other Benzes and Renaults respectively than any other country – and therefore a test-bed for future Volvo Polestar models. If we like the car, Polestar will build more of them for other countries, The release of the S60 Polestar also nicely complements the announcement that Volvo Polestar Racing will start on the 2014 V8 Supercars grid. Chassis modifications compared with the S60 T6 R-Design include 20-step manually adjustable Ohlins dampers with 80 per cent stiffer springs; new stabiliser bars; a carbonfibre reinforced front strut brace; new top mounts front and rear; and new tie blade bushings. Ventilated brake discs move to 336mm in size, and Bridgestone Potenza RE050 tyres wrap around 19-inch alloy wheels. Engine alterations extend to a new Borg Warner twin-scroll turbo, new intercooler, larger stainless steel exhaust and new engine management software with launch control. That takes the 3.0-litre single turbocharged petrol six-cylinder from 224kW of power to 257kW at 5700rpm, and from 440Nm of torque to “500Nm-plus” from 2800-4750rpm. In addition to equalling rivals for straight-line performance, the engine modifications get the 1684kg S60 Polestar to 100km/h 1.3 seconds faster than S60 T6 – though the 10.2L/100km economy is unchanged. A chart produced by Volvo at the local launch also proudly claims that the S60 Polestar makes more kilowatts and Newton metres per litre of engine capacity than the Audi S4, BMW M3, Lexus IS F and even the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. Big-name claimed competitors means raising expectations. There is initially a hint of ‘aftermarket’ about the suspension of the S60 Polestar, which requires owners to get under the car and manually ‘click’ each damper from a setting from one through to 20, to increase or decrease its stiffness. Set in the mid-range tenth-click for our drive through the twisting roads of Mount Glorious, west of Brisbane, the S60 Polestar felt anything but aftermarket. Its ride is actually more settled than that of the regular S60 T6 R-design, ignoring minor road irregularities but remaining tightly controlled over undulations. In fact, its 80 per cent stiffer springs seem to deliver a similar percentage increase in body control compared with the S60 T6 R-design. No longer does the long nose of the S60 slap against its suspension bump-stop over big hits and take a while to regain composure. The S60 Polestar still feels nose heavy and mildly understeery, however. Tight bends require long braking application on turn-in to wash off speed and keep the nose in line. The need to work the brakes hard meant the pedal went soft surprisingly early in our drive, and having the air conditioning on the outside-air setting meant the smell of brakes of the S60 Polestar in front, which indicated it had much the same problem. Blunt initial turn-in isn’t helped by steering that is unchanged compared with the regular model. Its consistent mid-weighting – neither too light nor heavy – is backed by a nice directness when winding on lock. But the steering is slow to initially bite, and too slow overall for a sports model, which means plenty of arm twirling during tight manoeuvres. Get

Wow, that trailer for The Division. Best detail: player character closing car door.

Toyota's run of Altitude models continues this week with the return of the kitted-up LandCruiser, back in showrooms nearly a year since its last appearance. As before, the LandCruiser Altitude comes with additional features, boosting value over the GXL model it's based on. Toyota says it has added more than $5000 in features, while the price is up by $1700 over the GXL. Features in the Altitude are drawn from the higher-grade VX and Sahara models, including a black le... Read more The Motor Report is Australia's fastest growing auto website. Click through to read the full article.

Aston Martin has unveiled the Vanquish Volante after a numerous string of spy shots.

The third-generation Kia Sportage SUV was introduced in 2010, and so it’s time for a mid-life cycle facelift to come about. Automedia caught clad examples of the spruced-up SL undergoing road trials, by the looks of it States-side, and under all that wrapping should be a slightly revised front end. Likewise the rear, though expect the alterations to be minimal and involve new tail lights. Minor changes can also be expected in the interior, and the inclusion of FLexSteer is likely to be part of mechanical improvements. What’s for sure is that while still riding on five-spoke wheels, the design for that of the facelift has been reworked, and from the photos, in two patterns. The last photo also reveals the twin exhaust tips for the SL – is there a sportier version in the mix? The post SPYSHOTS: Kia Sportage – third-gen facelift appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News. Related posts: SPYSHOTS: Porsche Cayenne second-gen facelift SPYSHOTS: Volkswagen Touareg facelift; due 2014 SPYSHOTS: Audi R8 GT Coupe facelift laps the ‘Ring SPYSHOTS: New BMW M5 facelift shows its new eyes SPYSHOTS: BMW 5 Series GT to get mid-life facelift BMW F10 facelift interior sighted in Chinese spyshots SPYSHOTS: Nissan March facelift snapped in Thailand SPYSHOTS: Nissan Grand Livina facelift undisguised! Kia Sportage KX-4: 181hp flagship diesel Sportage 2013 Ford Fiesta facelift spyshots – hatchback model’s new tail lamp design exposed

There is no doubt that Nokia is slowly turning the corner and beginning to return to some of its former glories, and recently the Finnish company added to its range of Windows Phone 8 devices with the Nokia Lumia 925 that we have for a visual review. The specs for the Nokia Lumia 925 are only just a minor bump up when compared to the Lumia 920 but the company has housed all this in a body that has a more premium look and feel to it. In the hand the device has been found to be a lot lighter than its predecessors, and a lot of the main function buttons are now positioned on the edge of the device and work well. In the review video you can see below the display was found to be above average with reasonable outdoor visibility, and the Nokia Lumia 925 screen specs include a 4.5-inch display with a resolution of 768 x 1280 and 334ppi pixel density. Some of the handsets main negatives where more down to the Windows Phone 8 firmware than the handset itself that will hopefully improve with future updates. The review continues to look at the operating system and how the device works but we won’t spoil the outcome for you. There are also a couple of short videos below that showcase the video capture qualities of the Nokia Lumia 925 including one that was taken inside. As usual the camera supplied with the handset doesn’t disappoint with vivid colours and great low lighting results returned. We even have an unboxing video for you that shows all the accessories you get with the handset. To quickly recap the Nokia Lumia 925 has a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5GHz powering that display we mentioned earlier along with 1GB of RAM. There is either 16GB or 32GB of non-expandable storage depending on region, and the handset features an 8-megapixel rear facing camera with the Nokia PureView technology. Around the front is a 1.3-megapixel shooter and the handset uses a non-removable 2,000 mAh battery.

Design-focused e-commerce service Fab.com is now valued at more than $1 billion after it announced a $150 million Series D round of investment led by Chinese Internet giant Tencent. The Wall Street Journal reports that Fab.com — which has 14 million registered members and is two-years-old — has taken funding from a number of other investors, although neither it nor Tencent will confirm how much the Chinese firm contributed. The deal is significant because Fab.com is still to reach profitability, although sales are tipped to more than double this year. Last year, the Manhattan-based start up booked $120 million in revenue, and it estimates that the figure will increase to $250 million in 2013 — though that will not make it profitable. CEO Jason Goldberg told the Journal that the firm could take on as much as $100 million in further investment “over the next few months”. This newly confirmed round will be used to build out Fab.com’s digital stores, develop exclusive products and further its international footprint. Given that Tencent is now a shareholder, China would be a logical future step and Fab.com says it will look for ways to work with the company. That’s similar to its intention to focus on India after taking funding from Times Internet back in December 2012. Tencent is conducting final in-house tests before it introduces payments to its WeChat mobile messaging service — which has clocked more than 300 million downloads and has 195 monthly active users — while it its QQ instant messaging service boasts some 800 million users. Both of these services could provide an interesting avenue through which Fab.com could explore the Chinese market. As for Tencent itself, the investment isn’t just about bringing Fab.com to China, the move will help the Beijing-headquartered firm learn more about global e-commerce models. WeChat has developed into its primary service, and, in a show of its prominence, it is even stealing market share from China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo service, another massive Internet service in the country. Yet, despite its popularity, Tencent has not begun drawing revenue from the chat app. Japan’s Line and Korea’s Kakao Talk are both seeing success in the early stages of monetizing their mobile messaging services thanks to virtual content like stickers (rich emoticons sold in packs for $1/2) and gaming platforms. Tencent’s alliance with Fab.com hints that the company — which is an investor in Kakao — might be aiming to do more than that by facilitating sales direct to users. Already mobile messaging services are being used in Asia to conduct ‘social commerce’ sales — unofficially at this point — which suggests that Tencent may just be on to something with a potential model for WeChat. Thanks to its vast income and capital at its disposal — Tencent posted revenue of $2.16 billion ($645 million in profit) for Q1 2013 — the company is the comfortable position of being able to scrutinize and evaluate business models before introducing them. Tencent has stepped up its rivalry to China’s established e-commerce leader Alibaba in recent times, and partners like Fab.com may help it eke out market share. Fab.com has raised more than $150 million from investors. Its recent series C round saw Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, Japan’s Docomo Capital, Atomico and others put in $105 million. Much of that was spent on internationalizing the service, which is available in more than 25 countries, with Asia a region that it is keen to expand into. The Series D round also includes investor from Japanese retail conglomerate Itochu, suggesting that — like China and India — Japan will be a focus for Fab.com in Asia in the near future. Also read: Smash-hit Chinese chat app WeChat’s long march to profitability Headline via Thinkstock

Oh, cats — those furry little enigmas — we love 'em, but can hardly understand 'em What exactly are our feline friends up to when we're not around? A joint study between BBC Two's Horizon programme and the Royal Veterinary College answered that question by equipping 50 cats with GPS tracking devices and micro-cameras to monitor their activity away from homeResearchers used the trackers to record the cats' movements over six 24-hours periods, according to the BBC. Of the 50 felines that roamed England's Surrey Hills for several weeks, 10 were selected to be featured in a Horizon series called, "The Secret Life of the Cat." You can click through each of their in-depth profiles, here; then check out the video, above, for more. Read more...More about Bbc, Gps, Cats, World, and Watercooler

Microsoft updates Blink for Windows Phone 8 with GIF-like clip creation (video) -

If Vine still leaves you pining for the choppiness of GIFs, Microsoft's got you covered -- on Windows Phone 8, at least. Redmond's Blink app, which helps smartphone photographers capture bursts of images, has hit version 2.0 and scored the ability to create short animated clips, aptly dubbed Blinks. In addition to the bite-sized videos, the latest update bakes in camera settings in capture mode, sharing to social networks and web galleries for shared creations. Microsoft Research also released Blink Cliplets for Windows 8 and RT, which allows users to layer static and dynamic elements atop footage. Hit the break to check out the new release of Blink in action, or jab the first source link for the download. Filed under: Software, Mobile, Microsoft Comments Via: Windows Phone Blog Source: Blink (Windows Phone Store), Blink Cliplets (Windows Store)