Manual de servicio

New documents have revealed that a current General Motors vice president, Doug Parks, was aware of the ignition switch problems on the Chevrolet Cobalt as early as 2005. At the time, Parks, whom Bloomberg called a "confidante" of CEO Mary Barra and an integral part of GMs product development team, was the chief engineer on the Cobalt and Saturn Ion. Congressional investigators uncovered the documents, which include an email from Parks and meeting attendance lists for the ignition switch problems.

This new evidence sheds some doubt on GMs own internal investigation, which found that none of the companys current executives knew of the ignition switch problems on the Cobalt and Ion. This news is also curious, following GMs large-scale dismissal of employees found to be responsible for the problem, such as Ray DeGiorgio.

"As Ms. Barra has said repeatedly we have taken all of the personnel actions that we feel are appropriate at this time," GM spokesman Greg Martin told Bloomberg via email.

More troubling, though, is what this revelation could do to GMs legal proceedings. The discovery of Parks knowledge of the issue could cause potentially serious damage to GMs bankruptcy argument, in which it claims that "New GM" isnt responsible for the actions of "Old GM." According to Consumerist, lawyers could now argue that the lack of a recall, particularly when a former chief engineer and current vice president knew of the issue, could lend credence to arguments that the company was attempting to cover up the problem.

Call us optimistic, but it seems that a golden age of racing movies could be upon us once again. After classics like Le Mans and Grand Prix gave way to cheeseballs like Days of Thunder and Driven, the past few years have given us the epic documentary Senna and the recent blockbuster Rush. And the next great racing movie could be speeding around the corner.

That movie is called Go Like Hell, a film adaptation of the AJ Baime book about the epic showdown between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans in the 1960s. Just a couple of months ago we brought you news that Tom Cruise had signed on to play Carroll Shelby, and now the buzz on the streets of Hollywood has it that Brad Pitt has signed on as well.

Just what roll Pitt would play in the movie remains to be seen, but he was reportedly first approached about the project when Michael Mann was in the directors chair. Now that Oblivion director Joseph Kosinki has taken over, Pitt has reportedly signed on the dotted line.

Apple’s annual iPad updates look set to be pretty lean this year, with latest reports suggesting that while an iPad Air refresh is on the cards, no iPad Pro or iPad mini 3 will be released.


Although multiple rumours of a larger, iPad Pro have circulated in recent weeks, industry analysts have now suggested that Apple’s 2014 iPad collection will consist solely of an update to the 9.7-inch iPad Air.

Speaking in a note to investors, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that claims of an iPad Pro launch will not be fulfilled this year, with Apple unlikely to launch a 12.9-inch tablet to rival the CES introduced Samsung Galaxy Note Pro.

Claiming Apple will focus its development efforts elsewhere, Kuo offered a bit of wiggle room, stating: “Even if it (a larger iPad) does make an appearance this year, shipments will be low.”

Despite the success of the iPad mini, and subsequent iPad mini 2 which launched last November with a new Retina display in tow, it has been claimed that Apple will not launch a third-generation 7.9-inch tablet this year.

While consumers will have to make do with the iPad mini 2 for a further 12 months at least, serial Apple tipster Kuo has claimed the iPad Air will receive a specs bump this autumn.

Targeting two easy areas of improvement, the analyst has claimed that the iPad Air will be upgraded to a new A8 processor and introduce the TouchID fingerprint sensor incorporating home button found on the iPhone 5S.

According to Kuo’s insiders, Apple’s reduced tablet efforts are being forced by the company’s push to finalise Apple iWatch hardware and software for launch later in the year.

He added that “unless more aggressive promotions are launched,” a lack of new models will see annual iPad sales drop for the first time.

The Google Nexus 5 has been officially unveiled following months of rumours and leaks, with the flagship phone becoming the first to run the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system.

Google Nexus 5 Features

Google Nexus 5 Release Date and Price

Nokia Lumia 1020 was officially unveiled just last week and understandably caused quite a lot of excitement. Its the long awaited 41MP PureView Windows Phone-powered smartphone that had been in the rumorlands since Nokia 808 PureView came around.


Nokia Lumia 1020 will hit the USA on July 26 exclusively via AT&T. It will cost $300 with a two-year contract and the carriers pre-order campaign is going live tomorrow. Lumia 1020 will hit the shelves worldwide before the end of September.

Meanwhile, the retailer Negri Electronics is taking pre-orders for the unlocked version of the cameraphone. You can book your unit for $735.50, but there is no specific shipping date. We guess youll receive it shortly after the official premiere on AT&T.

Yesterday, we also saw the Lumia 1020 go on pre-orders in Germany, but users there will have to wait longer to get their units. The European version of the device that is supposed to launch by the end of Q3.

Europeans will also need to pay quite a lot more to own the Lumia 1020, with pre-orders going for the hefty €800 (we suspect final price will be a bit lower, though).

Phone battery always dying on you? The OnBeat Solar Headphones could be the perfect solution to your smartphone woes.



















A UK-based Kickstarter campaign is trying to raise funds for a pair of solar-powered headphones that can charge smartphones and tablets in the sun.

The OnBeat Solar Headphones work via a flexible solar panel that covers the entire headband to soak up the rays. This channels the solar energy to a pair of Lithium ion batteries located inside the ear cups.

When its not sunny outside, theres also a USB connection so you can hook your tablet or smartphone and charge it via a PC.

OnBeat claims that the headphones will provide a full battery recharge for a mobile phone however the company fails to provide evidence of the charging performance for specific devices.

In terms of the standard headphone specs, the OnBeat headphones feature 40mm drivers, have a frequency response of 20hz to 20,000Khz and include an integrated remote to control the volume.

OnBeat is searching for £200,000 and with 29 days to go has reached just under £8,000. At the bottom of the pledging scale if you give £5 you can get a mention on the website. If you chip in £89 or more you’ll get a pair of the headphones sent to you if they successfuly launch.

The headphones will end up costing around £119 and an estimated delivery date of February 2014 suggests you will have to wait until next year to see the first pair. You can find out more on the OnBeat Solar headphones Kickstarter page.

The vice-like grip of the iOS and Android operating systems is only getting tighter, according to new sales figures published late last week.


New data from Comscore, released on Friday, showed Android leading the way at the end of May 2013 with 52.4 per cent of all US sales, up from 51.7 per cent at the end of February.

iOS share of the US market rose 0.3 per cent to 39.2 percent during same time period.

Despite the launch of BlackBerrys new BB10 operating system and the best selection of Windows Phone 8 devices yet, both of those platforms saw their share fall to 4.8 and 3.0 per cent respectively.

Numbers dont lie

It was a similar story for hardware sales. Apples iPhone led the way with the 32.9 per cent, closely followed by Samsung which enjoyed a sizeable 1.7 per cent jump to 23 per cent of sales.

The next three, HTC, Motorola and LG all endured a fall in sales during the three month period, all of which remain under 10 per cent.

Samsungs continued rise will have been fuelled by the launch of its new flagship Galaxy S4 handset but, worryingly for HTC, its critically acclaimed HTC One release couldnt stem the the drop-off in its share.

There is, of course, hope for those competing operating systems and manufacturers, but until the numbers start going in the other direction, its difficult to be too positive. They have to start gaining at some point, right?

Wireless power today is mostly about convenience; not having to fish out a cable and get it the right way round when you plug it in. But once it becomes ubiquitous, it will change the way devices are designed; they can have smaller batteries or save space by not needing the power port at all.


This year at CES, as well as seeing the latest wireless power products and the next step in wireless charging technology, we also got some good news on getting more users and businesses on board with wireless power - 2014 will definitely be a big year for wireless charging.

There are over 60 different phones that have Qi wireless charging (the inductive charging standard) built in today - and 40 million of them have been sold - and because its a standard, you can put your phone down on any Qi charging surface and it will just start grabbing power.

If your phone doesnt have Qi built in, Incipio introduced a line of wireless charging pads and protective cases at CES that add it (including Lumia models like the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 1520 that have a connector designed to simplify adding a charging case).

That surface doesnt have to be a pad on your desk either. It could be a light or a mouse mat: silicon valley startup Kudos Tech had prototypes for both, although no dates for putting them into production yet.

You dont have to only charge a phone; IDAPT has added a Qi charging module to its clever Modulo battery system, which lets you connect up to five external 2000mAh batteries to charge your phone or tablet.

Snap on as many batteries as you need to take with you and drop it onto a wireless charger to keep them topped up before you leave.

Or it could be a car cradle (Nokia has a wireless charging cradle already and Tylt was showing off a prototype of its own at CES, with a perpetually sticky surface to hold your phone in place) or a tray built into your car. Both have NFC which can trigger your phone to launch a specific app, like GPS navigation, or pair with the cars Bluetooth automatically when you start charging it.

Car makers like that, John Perzow of the Wireless Power Consortium says, because it will let them take information from your phone – like your personal music collection – and display that on the screen on your dashboard. "They want a path for extending your personal device into the car and shifting some of the load to your phone, but you can only do that if you can charge the device."

The Jeep Cherokee will have a wireless charging shelf in the 2014 model, Toyota will put it in the Avalon and Prius and the German auto consortium that advises Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi and BMW is recommending Qi, after a three year study on wireless charging.

We even saw an FAA-approved wireless charger for use on planes; expect to see it in private jets first rather than on your next economy flight though.

Making wireless power resonate

So with a standard like Qi and products already in the market, why is wireless charging still not common?
Perzow says that confusion over standards has been slowing adoption. Yes, theres the Qi standard, but there have been plenty of other wireless charging launches that havent been part of Qi. Even Qualcomm has its own wireless charging system for electric cars (it charges the motor, not your smartphone, but still, its something else to confuse people).

The WPC is trying to tackle that by bringing new wireless charging developments into the Qi standard, and we saw some of that at CES.

Today Qi uses near-field coupling, between the coil antenna inside your phone and the one inside the charging mat; you have to either put multiple coils in or rely on people lining up devices in just the right spot.

The latest Qi mats give you a little more freedom of movement but to be able to put devices down anywhere on the surface and to be able to fit the charging pad underneath a thick surface like a table or a kitchen worksurface requires the next technology to be included in the Qi standard, magnetic resonance.

Resonant charging lets you put the phone off to one side of the charging spot or have something else in the way and still get charge.

We saw a new charger from Convenient Power that has resonant charging thats fully backwards compatible with Qi, so we were able to stack two notebooks on the charger and put a Nokia Lumia on top of them and have it charge. Bolt the pad under a table and you can charge through the surface.

Convenient Power also showed us a five-device charger that automatically detects the power requirements of the phones and tablets you put on it and delivers the right charge, and again you dont need to worry about lining them up neatly.

New Zealand wireless power experts PowerByProxi also creates resonant chargers, although it will licence its designs to other companies rather than selling them directly like Convenient Power. Phones will need to have a new charging antenna but theyll still charge on older Qi pads.

The big advantage of the PowerByProxi system is that it puts devices in charge of setting the power level they need, and it can send different power levels to different devices. That means your almost-flat tablet can get lots of power instead of just the trickle of power needed to top up your almost-fully-charged phone
Getting new developments into a backwardly compatible standard like this is vital if we want to see wireless charging on offer at Starbucks and every hotel the way wireless networking is – something that would really make wireless power ubiquitous and something Perzow is working on.

"Infrastructure has been stalled because its a very conservative market. A hotel wants maximum usability and long life before theyre going to put this on every night stand. There needs to be an experience that adds value beyond charging," he says.

The new chargers that can be bolted under tables without having to chisel out a slot will help, as will more freedom of positioning. "You just put the phone down on the charger; you dont have to get the placement just right."

And so will management software that shows which devices are sitting on a table, charging, and whether the power is getting through to them properly. Making wireless power easy to fit, easy to support and easy to use could be what we need to see it everywhere in the next couple of years.

The Google Nexus 5 is on its way - possibly today - and weve been treated to a host of leaked images and Android 4.4 details to whet our appetites.


It looks as though several people around the world have got their hands on pre-release Nexus 5 handsets, with one enterprising self-starter taking to Reddit to do an AMA about it.

He described the handset for his eager audience: "[The handset] doesnt feel cheap like a Samsung device, feels great in the hand, its similar to holding a G2 but no volume controls [on the back]."

The price is right

He also claimed to be "99% certain" that the pricing would start at $349. Thats about £220 or AU$370.
And the question on everybodys lips: what does the Nexus 5 taste like? "Fresh plastic mixed with finger sweat."

As for KitKat, it sounds as though therell be some kind of cloud-based backup option and voice control.
Not long to wait until we find out weve been had: were expecting the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 to launch later on today.

SanDisk has officially unveiled what it claims is the world’s fastest microSDXC memory card, the SanDisk Extreme 64GB.


The SanDisk Extreme 64GB is the largest-capacity model in the company’s microSD range, and uses the ultra-high-capacity microSDXC standard.

The card is rated for write speeds of up to 50MB/sec and read speeds of up to 80MB/second.

Far surpassing the Speed Class 10 SD standard, which ensures read/write speeds of 10MB/second, the SanDisk Extreme 64GB also meets the UHS Speed Class 1, which is designed to ensure you can record 4K video happily.

The card is also waterproof and shockproof, although virtually any microSD card will survive being dunked in water.

The SanDisk Extreme 64GB takes over from the SanDisk Ultra 64GB as the top-capacity, high-speed small memory card on the company’s books. That card is rated for transfer speeds of up to 30MB/sec, making the Extreme model significantly quicker.

Although 64GB microSD memory cards have been available since 2011, this remains the storage limit.

At the Extreme 64GB card’s launch, SanDisk marketing manager Ruben Dennenwaldt said the company is working on the next level of storage – 128GB – and is currently “making very good progress.”

Prices for the SanDisk Extreme 64GB have not yet been posted on SanDisk’s UK website, but the range tops out at $200 in the US.

If speed is more important to you than storage, SanDisk also offers an Extreme Pro range, which offers write/read speeds of 90/95MB/sec.

However, Extreme Pro cards only come in 16GB and 8GB capacities in the microSD form.

Just as it does every year, Twitter has unveiled the top tweets of 2013, highlighting the years trends on the bite-sized social network.


Twitter began the "Year on Twitter" trend in 2010, and since then its format has gotten snazzier and snazzier.

This years categories are less vague than 2012s, with top 2013 tweets divided into news, entertainment, sports and "showcase," a publishing partner-picked selection of the best tweets of the year.

But the best category is undoubtedly the one that simply reads "#2013," as it highlights the major events of the last year month-by-month - in tweet form, of course.

Tweet tweet

Twitters 2013 year in review features hundreds of tweets covering everything from Jon Stewarts jabs at Microsoft to humble brags from Nascar super stars.

The sports section is divided by sport, and the news section by category. Politics and big science stories are all covered, as well as "human interest" tweets like a marriage proposal and a lost dog returned home.

The entertainment category is divided into music, TV, movies, and pop culture. No video games or tech? Even with the launch of the Xbox One and PS4?

At least theres plenty of Breaking Bad love in there.

Golden tweets

Its fun to go through the #2013 category and check out the years events month by month. What was your favorite thing that happened this year? Chances are its in there, from #SFBatkid to the NHL Stanley Cup.

The Golden Tweets section features the most re-tweeted messages of the year, and its full of heavy hitters as well, including celebrity deaths like Cory Monteith and Paul Walker.

The tweets in this section garnered hundreds of thousands of re-tweets each.

"This years most-retweeted Tweets showed the world coming together to share in loss, love, and celebration," Twitter wrote in the review.

Theres plenty to explore in Twitter 2013 showcase, but dont lose too much time combing through the past - the years not over yet, and youve probably got work to do still.

New images of the Nokia Android UI have leaked online, with some suggesting they contain a launch date clue.

Its seemingly impossible to go a week without a new smartphone announcement, with manufacturers falling all over themselves to announce the "next big thing."


Some may be tempted to write off yesterdays reveal of the Nokia Lumia 1020 as just another debut of yet another Windows Phone 8 device, albeit one with a humungous camera, but the Finnish firm is hoping consumers will find that it actually enhances the mobile phone experience.

When CEO Stephen Elop took the stage to put the focus on the bombastic 41MP Pureview camera fitted into the Lumia 1020s frame, he showed the world the Nokia is ready to evolve beyond the traditional idea of a smartphone.

In addition to attempting to blaze a new path in the cellphone sphere, Nokia believes its latest flagship will offer prospective users true control and confidence in capturing their lives at the press of a button.

Two camera apps, one focus

That the Lumia 1020 has a better camera than most point-and-shoots, and low-end DSLRs for that matter, shouldnt intimidate potential users.

For Nokia, one of the core concepts of its latest phone is putting confidence back in the hands of the amateur photographer.

According to the companys research, consumers will take 7-10 pictures with a camera just to make sure they got the right image.

As Nokias reps explained to us, with the Lumia 1020, the first picture you take will hopefully be the picture you keep. Granted, it make take the phone a little longer to save the 15MB image, but the aim is that its worth the wait.

The phones Pro Camera app should alleviate some of the unease and uncertainty users might have about getting the shot just right, as well.

Useful features like Reframe allow you to craft multiple images from just one massive 41MP shot, while more experienced photographers will still find all the ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed options they could hope for, allowing them the same level of customization they have with a full camera in a device decidedly smaller. The features arent inaccessible to the non-photogs among us, either.

The Smart Camera app provides a range of "been there, done that" options at a slightly lower resolution, but is still capable of offering more creative ways to personalize your pictures.

Though you wont be able to take 41MP images with Smart Camera on, youll have much more freedom and flexibility for action shots and editing within Nokias built-in Creative Studio.

Technically, theres a third camera app in the default Windows 8 camera, but its not fine-tuned for the new Pureview lens like the other two Nokia-developed apps.

It will still take pictures just like youd expect, but it doesnt offer any of the bonus features found in either Smart Camera or Pro Camera.

Regardless of which app you use, all photos are taken with the new stabilization, multi-layered lens, and flash, which should help give even novices a chance at capturing the elusive "perfect" image.

The forest for the trees

Unless youve got an actual photographer in your family, most of your photo albums are probably full of either close-ups or wide-angle shots.

Your smartphone camera album is probably even worse, as most digital zooms end up looking awful and distorted.

Pro Cameras Reframe takes all the guesswork out of the equation, and lets you snap pictures now and decide what the story is later, without the loss of pixel density or fidelity.

To be fair, in our time with the Lumia 1020, we found zooming in all the way for the tiniest of details left things muddled, but the range of post-photo zooming is miles above whats available elsewhere.

Reframing works as soon as the photo is saved, giving you the choice of repurposing the still to your exact specifications quickly and easily.

While more savvy photo fiends are already doing these kinds of things in editing programs on their computers, having the option available instantly and on the go certainly helps the Lumia 1020 appear more flexible for the average consumer.

Simple and smart

Even if youll be losing some of the ridiculous pixel density by using the Smart Camera app, there are still some advantages to the secondary application.

Weve seen camera features like action shots, multi-shots, face-swapping, and the ability to wipe moving objects before, but that doesnt make them any less relevant for a phone like the Lumia 1020.

By including a wealth of options like those above, Nokia has effectively eliminated the hoping and praying typically associated with trying to get just the right shot.

In theory, users will be able to take solace that no matter what, theyre going to get the shot they wanted... with a little help from Nokias software.

Of course, theres something to be said for the lens and flash coming with the Lumia 1020 as well, as those components will do a lot of the heavy lifting in making sure photographs turn out the way you intended.

Intelligent design

The Xenon flash isnt as harsh as an LED flash, but it is brighter and faster, which means images taken in low-light will come out stronger, even if people are moving.

Outside of turning the flash on or off, thats not something youll ever have to manage; thats just the way the phone is built.

Additionally, the five lenses (one glass, four plastic) compacted together to create the Pureview design have stabilization measures built-in to ensure they all move in unison.

By ensuring the lenses will never be out of sync, you have a markedly lower chance of shaky cam happening with stills or with video.

Again, this should aid in taking all of the worry out of picture-taking, which in turn allows users have faith in their abilities, and should keep them snapping away without having to worry about standing perfectly still.

Point of sale

The Lumia 1020 is still a pricey piece of hardware (priced at $299.99 in the U.S. or about £199/AU$327) when compared to some competitors, but Nokia and its products appear set to take a different path than phones like Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One.

The Lumia 1020 doesnt quite hold up to the screen and hardware power of its top rivals, but as the line between spec-heavy devices has blurred, Nokias phone is a bold statement about where it sees itself going in the future.

Based on our earliest impressions, every aspect of the Lumia 1020 has been fine-tuned to appeal to the snap-happy consumers that have flooded social networks with pictures of everyday life, while also offering power and performance that should impress pros.

As it will be arriving in just a few weeks in the U.S., we wont have long to wait to discover if consumers are willing to shell out premium prices for the convenience, and confidence, the Lumia 1020 provides.

It has long been suggested that Apples so-called budget iPhone will arrive in a range of colours and a number of purported leaked photos have emerged in the last week to back that up.


Those leaks were supplemented on Wednesday by Apple enthusiast SonyDickson on Twitter, who posted a photo showcasing the purported plastic device in various colours.

The post follows multiple reports and leaks that have showcased the rear casing of the device. Each time the snaps have depicted the device in shades of yellow, pink, green and blue as well as white.

Although theres little to corroborate the authenticity of the photos, the appearance of different snaps from different sources, should be noted.

Previous leaks from, the NowhereElse blog and the Taiwanese Apple Daily site over the last week all showcase the same colours, while the Apple logo and iPhone name tag appears in the same position, helping to lessen the possibility of fakes.

Apple is certainly no stranger to livening up the look of its devices with a bright splash of colour. Most of its recent iPod lines have been available in a range of vibrant hues.

It has also been suggested by some observers that the multiple bright colours reflect the new design aesthetic of the new, Jony Ive-influenced iOS 7 design.

Confirmation one way or the other is likely to come before the year is out, probably at a special Apple event in around September or early October where we expect to see the iPhone 5S/iPhone 6 revealed.

The rumoured red edition of the Google Nexus 5 appears to be a step closer to reality following the leak of an official-looking press render.


Following multiple blurry-cam and unboxing leaks over the last couple of weeks, that man @evleaks appears to have gotten hold of the best look yet.

The images shows the device with a red rear casing and earpiece, but the faceplate itself retains its black bezel.

The Red Nexus 5 has been tipped to launch on February 4, following the leak of an internal document from U.S. network Sprint.

Strong

The Nexus 5, crafted by LG and and also available in black and white, has been a big success for Google, continuing its growing hardware momentum.

It was Googles best-selling device of the last quarter with the company citing "very strong" sales in last weeks earnings call.

It has proved an attractive option for smartphone because of its agreeable price-point compared to handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

Nexus 5 has also proved popular among Android enthusiasts who value the raw version of the software and the immediate updates when Google refreshes the operating system.

The LG G Pro 2 specs have leaked online in AnTuTu benchmarks, suggesting it will match the LG G2.


Ahead of an anticipated MWC 2014 arrival, the LG G Pro 2 specs have been leaked online and reveal a high-end hardware array.

In January, the first images of the LG G Pro 2 emerged online, revealing a design very similar to the LG G2. That image, coupled with the leaked benchmarks, reveal that the G Pro 2 has taken cues from the LG G2 on design and hardware.

According to the AnTuTu benchmarks, the LG G Pros 2 will have a full HD 1080p x 1920p display, which is reportedly around the 6-inch mark.

The benchmarks also suggest a 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, Adreno 330 graphics and 3GB of RAM, which is exactly the same as the LG G2.

The LG G Pro 2 will seemingly have 32GB of internal storage as standard and run Android 4.4 KitKat.

This is a slight upgrade from the LG G2, which offers internal storage options from 16GB and runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box.

We expect the LG G Pro 2 is the smartphone the South Korean electronics giant is using to keep the flagship spot refreshed until the launch of the LG G3 later this year.

It sounds like the G Pro 2 is pretty much the larger screen, “phablet” version of the existing LG G2.

Although an MWC 2014 launch for the LG G Pro 2 has been heavily rumoured, the device may well launch earlier than that. LG recently sent out press invites for a Korean event that will take place on February 13.

LG could be attempting to beat the MWC rush, as Samsung is hotly tipped to launch the Samsung Galaxy S5 during its Samsung Unpacked 5 event on Monday, February 24.