Land Rover's 'Silk Trail 2013' expedition ends in Mumbai

Mumbai:  Tata Motors has announced the conclusion of this year’s Land Rover Experience Expedition with the arrival here of an 18-vehicle convoy—which covered a distance of 16,853 km in 53 days on Friday afternoon.  




Called ‘The Silk Trail 2013’, the annual expedition organised by the Land Rover traced the ancient Silk Route this year, as the company wanted to put the home country of its parent Tata Motors (which bought the marquee British car brand in 2008) on the itinerary.

The expedition had started simultaneously from Berlin in Germany and the Land Rover headquarters in Solihull in UK.  The convoy of 11 Land Rover Evoques and 7 Land Rover Hybrid (of which three were prototypes on test-drive) passed through Europe, Eurasia, Russia, half of the ex-Soviet republics, China and Tibet before entering India through Nepal.

The terrains en route ranged from European plains to the blazing Uzbekistan deserts to the icy mountains of Kyrgyzstan and the mighty Himalayas.

While the German team had 11 Evoques, the English team were on 3 LR Hybrid Prototypes and 4 LRs. Team members came from 11 countries, said Land Rover global PR director Gabi Whitfield, who joined the expedition in Jaipur-Mumbai leg.  

While the new Evoques will be launched in Germany next month, the LR Hybrids will be launched early next year.  The team included Dag Rogge, leader of the German team and the head of Land Rover Experience Tour in Germany;  Hans Hermann Ruthe, the head of the Solihull team; and Jessica Schwarz, a leading actress and the LR brand ambassador in Germany who joined the expedition in Delhi.  R

ogge and Ruthe said that they drove through varied temperatures—from minus 10 to plus 46 degrees Celsius. At one point, they drove at the altitude of 5,379 meters or 17,648 ft.

The iPhone 5S Has A 'Blue Screen Of Death' Just Like A Windows PC (AAPL)

Apple's new iPhone 5S has a Blue Screen of Death, just like an old PC running Microsoft Windows. A bunch of users have complained on YouTube,Twitter and various Apple consumer forums that when they use certain apps in iWorks (the iPhone's spreadsheet and documents apps) the phone freezes, shows a blank blue screen, and then reboots.

Here's what it looks like:

The glitch was first noted by The Verge, which offered this advice:

One workaround to alleviate the iWork-related reboots is to disable iCloud syncing for Apple's Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps.

Here's a video of the flaw in action (below). You can see others here and here.

http://youtu.be/DNw457joq5I

Apple could plan a MacBook Air makeover, data shows

A research note from Display Search hints at a revamped MacBook Air with a 12-inch pixel-packing display.

A future MacBook Air may depart from the 11- and 13-inch designs to date.

(Credit: Apple)

A redesign of the MacBook Air may arrive in 2014, if a research note from DisplaySearch proves to be accurate.

As CNET reported Tuesday, analyst firm NPD DisplaySearch anticipates that Apple may plan a larger 4.7-inch iPhone, a 5.7-inch phablet, a 1.3-inch iWatch, and a 12.9-inch iPad-like device, among other products.

Buried among the speculation about future iPads and iWatches was also data about a RetinaMacBook Air due in 2014.

Instead of the 11.6- and 13.3-inch MacBook Airs to date, this would have a 12-inch screen with a much higher resolution.The speculative data about the future Air was tagged with the parenthetical "new," implying a new design. That redesign appears to be pegged to its size.

The 2,304x1,440 display would jump to 226 pixels per inch (PPI) from an unimpressive 127 and 135 PPI for the current 13.3-inch (1,440x900) and 11.6-inch (1,366x768) MacBook Airs, respectively.

And that 226 number would almost exactly match the gorgeous 227-PPI Retina display on the current 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

Whatever Apple ultimately decides, it seems certain that the ultraportable laptop will get a physical makeover. The MacBook Air hasn't seen a physical redesign or display change since late 2010, when Apple introduced a new chassis and debuted the 11.6-inch Air.