Apple Lightning Adaptor Kills iPod Out on BMW, Mini Models

Image: Apple

Would-be iPhone 5 owners are in store for disappointment when they connect their shiny new Apple device into their BMW or Mini model. The new Lightning connector and the adapter necessary to convert the nearly decade-old 30-pin arrangement to the new 8-pin setup won’t work with the vehicle’s iPod Out functionality.

iPod Out allows drivers to get a familiar, iPod-like interface displayed on the in-dash screen if they equipped their BMW and Mini models with the feature. The new Lightning connector eliminates the analog video signal required to transmit that display to the screen, so iPod Out functionality is dead … for now.

BMW spokespeople made it emphatically clear that owners will still be able to listen to music, podcasts and other audio over the built-in stereo, along with accessing BMW Apps and Mini Connected features using the combination of the new Lightning adaptor fitted to the existing 30-pin connector and the duo of USB and 1/8-inch audio jack supplied by both BMW and Mini. So yes, the tunes will continue to flow, but the automaker’s PlugIn feature – enabling video playback while stationary and the mirrored Apple interface – is officially out.

According to BMW spokesman Dave Buchko, “There is a lot we still don’t know, but BMW has a long history of finding compatibility solutions for iPods and smartphones where none existed.”

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F1 Doctor Who Revolutionized Safety Regulations Dies at 84

Ayrton Senna talks to “Prof” Sid Watkins in Spain, 1990. Photo: Sutton Images/Corbis

Sid Watkins, the Formula One doctor who not only treated drivers, but implemented safety measures that saved drivers’ lives, has passed away from cancer at age 84.

Most famously, Watkins treated Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian three-time F1 champion who died in 1994 at age 34 after a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy. After Senna’s crash, Watkins performed a tracheotomy in hopes of reviving the driver after a wheel-assembly piece had penetrated his visor and forehead. Senna’s was the last F1 driver fatality.

Ron Dennis, chairman of McLaren, the company that made the cars that took Senna to each of his championships, said, “Many drivers and ex-drivers owe their lives to his careful and expert work, which resulted in the massive advances in safety levels that today’s drivers possibly take for granted.”

Since joining Formula One officially in 1978, Watkins innovated safety practices and construction requirements that have made the sport so safe. Before his introduction, F1 medical teams were short on staff, and spent vital time arriving at the scene of a crash. Watkins orchestrated medical preparation before practices and race days, which meant, unlike years prior, staff knew details about nearby hospitals, kept contact information for specialists, and sat with MedEvac helicopters on standby – a last-resort as he sought to have a track set up for emergency procedures to be performed on-site. Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire president and CEO of Formula One Management, said of his talks with Watkins, “We agreed that we needed a proper hospital at the track in the form of a fully equipped medical centre to stabilize injured drivers with immediate treatment, and a helicopter to transport them subsequently to specialist facilities, and that the helicopter pad had to be as close to that trackside hospital as possible.”

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Review: Ferrari F12berlinetta

Photo courtesy Ferrari S.p.A.

In a hushed corporate dining room not far from the foundry where his company’s engines are born, Ferrari S.p.A. chairman Luca di Montezemolo distills the essence of his latest flagship, the F12berlinetta. The dapper Italian conjures the requisite analogy to the female form while expounding how the front engine two-seater complements the current Ferrari lineup. But his conclusion says it all: “I wanted this to be the highest performance Ferrari ever made.”

Maranello’s storied manufacturer is responsible for extreme designs that inspire wild superlatives, yet even in this landscape, the F12 is a bit of a curiosity. The numbers are breathtaking: 730 horsepower from a naturally aspirated, 6.3-liter V12 driving the rear wheels through a 7-speed transaxle. But the look is not: more Speed Racer than textbook supercar, this cab rearward sled is highlighted by a hood-mounted heat extractor flanked by two “aero bridges” whose negative space divert airflow to deep, upwardly swept grooves along the door panels. The appearance isn’t as otherworldly as the insectoid Enzo, but this aluminum 2-seater is almost two seconds faster around the Fiorano test track than its more unattainably priced, carbon-bodied ancestor.

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Your Hot Wheels Childhood Dream Comes to Life

Photo: Lindsey Boice/Mattel, Inc.

Hollywood stuntman Brent Fletcher drove a life-size Hot Wheels buggy on a world record-setting 92-foot corkscrew jump. The record is for the “longest ramp to ramp spiral 360 in a four-wheeled vehicle.” And all the action was caught in the video below.

Fletcher, of Fast Five fame, hit the asymmetrical jump at 54 mph, then rotated at 230 degrees per second before landing. Hot Wheels’ Team Green, the engineers behind the stunt, outfitted the 2,600-pound buggy with a center-mounted driver’s seat to ensure even rotation during the spiral.

Hot Wheels set a previous record in June when two drivers performed a loop-de-loop at the X Games Los Angeles, and set another for longest four-wheeled jump at the 2011 Indianapolis 500. The stunt was made to promote their new line of Hot Wheels clothing, which you’ll find on the brand’s YouTube series of Michael Bay-style videos.




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Masten Space Systems Loses Rocket After Record Flight

Photo: Matsen Space Systems

Masten Space Systems has lost one of its research rockets after a mostly successful test flight this week. Company spokesman Colin Ake told Wired the flight was designed to expand the flight envelope of its Xaero rocket when the incident occurred.

“One of the primary goals was to test how the vehicle would handle at higher wind loads and at higher altitudes,” Ake said.

Xaero is part of Masten’s development program to build a reusable, sub-orbital rocket that is capable of precision landings. The 12-foot-tall rocket had made 110 flights before this week’s accident. The flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port was supposed to fly to an altitude of one kilometer while testing the flight controls at higher ascent and descent velocities and then return to a precise landing point.

With about two-thirds of the flight complete, Xaero was in the descent stage when control was lost.

“As we were throttling up for landing, we had a throttle valve failure, it was essentially stuck,” Ake said. “We are entirely dependent on high-precision throttling, that’s the core of the handling in the descent stage. The flight was terminated and the vehicle was destroyed.”

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