To Save Gas, VW Introduces the World’s First 10-Gear Transmission

• BY ALEXANDER GEORGE

Back in early 2011, we were impressed by the nine-speed gearbox made for Chrysler — it promised a double-digit bump in fuel economy and made even modern seven-speed transmissions look quaint. Now Volkswagen has gone one better, announcing that it will introduce a 10-speed dual clutch transmission that could hit the road as early as in the 2015 Passat.

With more gears to choose from, the engine can optimize its RPMs so that it saves fuel when in repose but can crank it up for enthusiastic driving.

VW Group Chairman Dr. Martin Winterkorn and design head Hans-Jakob Neusser said the new transmission will help meet the bold goal of improving fuel economy by 20 percent across the entire VW group model range — which includes the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche brands. The automaker made the announcement at the International Motor Symposium, in Vienna, Austria, according to Road & Track.

This new 10-speed dual sequential gearbox will be capable, VW says, of handling up to 369 pound-feet of torque. That’s enough to work in the wonderfully over-the-top Golf R 400 seen above — if we should be so lucky.

At the symposium, VW also introduced a 236bhp four-cylinder diesel engine that could be paired with the new gearbox.

There are arguments about whether this will work. Michael Paul, executive vice president of auto engineering firm ZF Friedrichhafen, which made the nine-speed box for Chrysler, has said reaching double digits would require a completely new approach to the design.

But if any brand has the resources to prove him wrong, it’s the VW Group.

UK And US Governments Advises Not To Use Internet Explorer

It's not often that the US or UK governments weigh in on the browser wars, but a new Internet Explorer vulnerability -- one that affects all major versions of the browser from the past decade -- has forced them to raise an alarm: Stop using IE.

The zero-day exploit -- the term given to a previously unknown, unpatched flaw -- allows attackers to install malware on your computer without your permission. That malware could be used to steal personal data, track online behavior, or gain control of the computer. Security firm FireEye, which discovered the bug, said that the flaw is being used with a known Flash-based exploit technique to attack financial and defense organizations in the US via Internet Explorer 9, 10, and 11. Those versions of the browser run on Microsoft's Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, although the exploit is present in Internet Explorer 6 and above.

Man City strolls to second EPL title in three years

Manchester City won the Premier League for the second time in three seasons on Sunday. Unlike the final day of the 2012 season, City didn’t need any stoppage time goals to clinch the title this time; just a comfortable 2—0 victory over West Ham courtesy of goals either side of halftime by Samir Nasri and Vincent Kompany.

Liverpool came from behind to beat nine-man Newcastle United 2—1 but the win was not enough for the Reds to claim a first league title since 1990.

On a final day lacking drama, the only other matter to settle was sixth place, with Tottenham denying deposed champion Manchester United the final Europa League spot by beating Aston Villa 3—0.

As soon as the final whistle was blown, thousands of Manchester City fans flooded onto the Etihad Stadium pitch, setting off blue flares. For a club that has spent so much time in the shadow of United — last year’s champion — it was just the fourth time in its 134—year history that fans could celebrate a league title.

Resurgent Liverpool rues missed opportunity

With their title dreams extinguished, Liverpool’s players circled the pitch inside Anfield Stadium, heads bowed, to the backdrop of another passionately sung rendition of club anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

The final match of the Reds’ season could have been a celebration of the most unlikely championship triumph in Premier League history. It ended up being a tale of what might have been.

Liverpool came up short on Sunday in its bid for a first league title in 24 years, finishing two points behind champion Manchester City despite a come-from-behind 2—1 win over Newcastle.

Brendan Rodgers’ team did their part on what proved to be an anticlimactic last day, passing the 100—goal mark for the league campaign after near-identical strikes in the space of two second half minutes by Daniel Agger and Daniel Sturridge. That clinched a club-record 26th league victory.

But Liverpool was also relying on a favour from West Ham at Etihad Stadium, which was always unlikely to happen. City won 2—0, keeping the trophy out of Liverpool’s grasp.

“I’m devastated for the fans,” Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said. “Although we’ve made them dream, I’m devastated we didn’t go that one step more.”

Liverpool had the destiny of the title in its hands just three weeks ago, when it beat Norwich 3—2 for an 11th straight win. Then came a decisive nine days when Rodgers’ side lost 2—0 at home to Chelsea before conceding three goals in the final 11 minutes to draw 3—3 at Crystal Palace.

It meant there was more hope than expectation heading into the Newcastle match.

“We finished the season winning 12 games out of 14,” Rodgers said. “So the players have shown incredible level of consistency and quality in that period ... we’d prefer to finish top, but it’s a great mark of progress this season.”

Anfield has seen previous last-game drama, with Arsenal winning 2—0 here in 1989 thanks to an injury-time goal from Michael Thomas to snatch the title from Liverpool.

Twenty five years on, Journey’s famous song “Don’t Stop Believin’” blared out before kickoff. But all hope among Liverpool fans was gone by halftime, with their team 1—0 down thanks to Martin Skrtel’s own goal in the 20th minute and City having virtually guaranteed finishing first by going 1—0 up against West Ham.

After a poor first half, Liverpool steeled itself to finish the season on a high, with Gerrard crossing for Agger to volley in after 63 minutes and then producing a similar delivery for Sturridge to tap in at the far post. It was all in vain.

“When we went in front and there was no roar from the crowd, I realized the story was elsewhere,” Rodgers said.

Nadal wins in Madrid as Nishikori pulls out

Rafael Nadal won his fourth title at the Madrid Mutual Open on Sunday as he defeated Japan’s Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-4, 3-0 in a match his opponent was forced to abandon due to an injury in the final set.

It was tough on the number 10 seed, who took the game to the home favourite and despite a partisan crowd cheering in Nadal’s favor and blitzed his way to the first set with some wonderful aggressive tennis.

He was also a service break up in the second set but it was clear that he was suffering physically and Nadal was able to fight back to level the game, Xinhua reported.

Finally Nishikori was unable to continue and his retirement gives Nadal his 30th win of the season and shows he is back on track after recent disappointments in Monte Carlo and Barcelona.

Maria Sharapova claimed her second consecutive title as she defeated Romania’s Simona Halep 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a match which saw an amazing turnaround in fortunes after losing the first set

Halep had ended her semi final against Petra Kvitkova strongly on Saturday and continued in the vein against Sharapova on Sunday, taking the first set 6-1 with some aggressive tennis.

However, her Russian rival was clearly up for the fight and showed her grit and experience in taking the second set 6-2 and the decisive set 6-3 to add the Madrid title to the one she won recently in Stuttgart.

Sharapova was only number 8 seed in Madrid, but is recovering her best form ominously as the French Open, the second grand slam of the year, looms on the horizon.

Sony launches Xperia Z2

Sony India on Thursday launched Xperia Z2 in India with a price tag of Rs.49,990. The smartphone, the successor of the Xperia Z1, was unveiled globally at the Mobile World Congress held in February this year at Barcelona. With the current pricing and features, the phone would compete with the HTC One (M8) and Samsung Galaxy S5. However, to woo customers, Sony will be bundling a free smart band worth Rs.5,990 and a phone case worth Rs.2,990 with the smartphone.

Sony India Managing Director Kenichiro Hibi said, “We are very excited to launch Xperia Z2, the flagship phone from Sony for 2014. Our focus on the smartphones segment was renewed last year with the launch of Xperia range of smartphones in India which received a tremendous response from our customers, helping us achieve a 10 per cent share in the smartphones business.” The company was targeting a sales of Rs.5,500 crore during this fiscal and planned to launch over 30 new smartphones this year, he added.

The company has earmarked Rs.350 crore as the budget for marketing of its mobile phone range.

Xperia Z2 that comes in white, black and purple colour options, is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Quad Core processor, a 3GB RAM and a 3,200 mAh battery. It runs on Android 4.4 KitKat operating system. The dust-resistant and waterproof phone sports a 5.2 inch full HD Triluminos Display and will be available for sale from May 12. With 16 GB built-in storage, the handset supports expansion up to 64 GB. It also features 20.7 megapixel rear camera.

WhatsApp crosses half-a-billion user mark

Instant messaging app WhatsApp has crossed the half-a-billion user mark on the back of strong growth in emerging markets like India and Brazil.

The company, which was acquired by social networking giant Facebook in February this year for $19 billion, was founded in 2009 by Ukrainian Jan Koum and American Brian Acton.

“Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.

It has grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico and Russian in the last few months, WhatsApp said.

“Our users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day,” it said.

The firm had around 450 million monthly active users globally and more than 320 million daily active users as of March this year.

A Silicon Valley start-up, WhatsApp has been bullish on the use of technology in India for serving the society.

“Doctors in India are using WhatsApp to instantly send electrocardiogram pictures of patients who’ve suffered heart attacks, saving valuable time and potentially lives,” the firm said in a post in February this year.

How Many Language does India Speeks

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