Category: Technology

Peak Design is building on the success of its innovative Travel Tripod. The photography accessory maker is launching a new Pro Tripod on Kickstarter. The latest model comes in three flavors: Pro Lite, Pro and Pro Tall. As you might expect, their prices dwarf that of the (already expensive) Travel Tripod.

The Pro Tripod is scaled up for greater stiffness and maximum height. It has stronger legs, an all-CNC-machined hub and a flanged center column. This results in double the weight capacity of the Travel Tripod, which supports 20 lbs. The new Pro Tripod and Pro Tall Tripod each support 40 lbs. Meanwhile, the Pro Lite Tripod handles a bit less at 35 lbs.

When packed, the Pro models take up more space than the Travel model, but they’ll still easily fit in a backpack. The Pro and Pro Lite Tripods measure just under 20 inches. The Pro Tall Tripod folds down to 22.9 inches. The Pro and Pro Tall models weigh just over 4 lbs, while the Pro Lite weighs 3.7 lbs.

Peak Design is also selling new accessories for those with the most demanding needs. The tilt mod will be essential for those who need the smoothest video. It converts the Pro line’s standard ball head into a fluid pan-and-tilt one. The Pro Leveling Base enables quick leveling on uneven terrain. And the Pro Spike Feet will help the tripod grip slippery or loose ground.

If you thought the Travel Tripod was expensive, well, brace yourself. The Pro Lite Tripod is estimated to cost $800. The Pro Tripod is expected to cost $900. And the Pro Tall Tripod will retail for approximately $1,000. They’re “estimated” prices since the products are only now arriving on Kickstarter. But, as is often the case with crowdfunding, pledging early will get you a discount.

If you’re aghast at the pricing, well, that’s entirely understandable. But consider that Peak Design is truly targeting professionals here. It isn’t uncommon to see tripods from brands like RRS and Gitzo crack the $1,000 barrier. Engadget plans to review the Pro Tripod to see how it stands up (sorry) to pro-level needs.

The Pro Lite Tripod is expected to ship in October. Meanwhile, the company is aiming for February 2026 for the Pro and Pro Tall models. You can learn more in the video below and on the Kickstarter page.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/peak-designs-new-tripods-take-aim-at-the-professional-set-165843064.html?src=rss 

Nissan has unveiled its third-generation Leaf EV with a completely new design. The 2026 model sheds the last vestiges of its original compact car body and leans fully into crossover SUV territory. The new look offers some design features that are commonly seen in the all-electric vehicle marketplace, allowing it to compete against other models in its class. These include available dual 14.3-inch displays, flush door handles for better aerodynamics, and liquid-cooled lithium-ion batteries.

The new Leaf is also the latest EV to adopt the NACS charging port after Tesla made it open-source in 2022. Since then, just about every major automaker from Ford to Mercedes has adopted the standard, with these brands getting access to Tesla’s Supercharger network on a rolling basis. For added convenience, a J1772 port, the most common standard for Level 2 chargers, is included on the driver’s-side fender. The Leaf’s video announcement highlights bi-directional V2X technology that allows drivers to power their homes, send power to the grid, or provide power when camping, though details are sparse.

In the same video, Nissan’s head of global design, Alfonso Albaisa, explains the lengths the company went to in making the car as aerodynamic as possible in order to achieve the car’s stated 300-mile range. The rear door handles, for instance, are built into the C-pillar, which could make for an awkward angle when trying to open the door with your hands full. The body of the Leaf has a chunky, SUV-like stance, with a wide front reminiscent of the Volkswagen ID.4. In the end, all these design choices helped the new Leaf reduce its drag coefficient by 10 percent from the previous generation.

Nissan is also bringing the new Leaf’s battery thermal management to par with other major EV brands, which will improve charging performance in cold weather. The car will capture wasted heat from the drive motor and the on-board charger, and use it to help warm the battery to its ideal temperature for charging. In frigid conditions it can also use the car’s heat pump, and a dedicated battery heater to further maintain battery temperatures.

Design easter eggs throughout the car pay homage to the brand’s name by incorporating “2-3” iconography in the form of stripes, which are meant to represent the kanji writing of two and three in Japanese, pronounced “ni” and “san.”

The new Leaf is built on a 75-kWh, liquid-cooled battery pack and packs a 214-horsepower electric motor. It will be offered in a wide variety of color options along with a slew of optional features like 19-inch wheels, dimming panoramic roof and 64-color ambient lighting. Built-in Google integrating Google Maps, Google Assistant and the Play Store into the Leaf is also an available option. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will be standard on the Leaf S and S+. Nissan says a cheaper 52-kWh version with a 174-horsepower motor will become available at a later date.

This major redesign comes amid a turbulent last year for Nissan, culminating in its CEO stepping down after a failed merger with Honda. The automaker had previously gone through a downsizing last year as part of its mission to cut billions of dollars in costs.

The 2026 Nissan Leaf will hit showrooms this fall, though pricing has yet to be announced.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/nissan-unveils-the-third-generation-leaf-ev-145620303.html?src=rss 

Looking to grab an official Tires shirt or a sandwich based on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s FUBAR? Netflix will have you covered in the near future. The streaming platform’s long-promised Netflix House amusement centers will open up shop in Dallas and outside of Philadelphia by the end of the year, with a third location coming to Las Vegas in 2027.

These 100,000-square feet behemoths will operate throughout the year and will celebrate all things Netflix. There’s a retail component, a restaurant called Netflix Bites and all kinds of “immersive story-driven experiences” based on some of its biggest shows. The locations will also offer mini-golf, which maybe is a tribute to that one episode of Cobra Kai? We aren’t sure about that one.

As for the aforementioned story-driven experiences, the locations will include stuff like the iconic “Red Light, Green Light” race from Squid Game and a Demogorgan chase inspired by Stranger Things. Netflix says each location will “regularly update its offerings” so these experiences should vary.

The platform promises experiences based on hits like Wednesday, One Piece and the Knives Out movie franchise. Sadly, there was no mention of Is it Cake? or the social media-adjacent reality show The Circle. I want to sit in a weirdly-decorated room and talk to strangers on the internet! Wait a minute. I already do that.

The Philadelphia location is being built at King of Prussia Mall and the Dallas branch will exist at Galleria Dallas. The third location pops up in the Las Vegas Strip at BLVD Las Vegas in 2027. Netflix-heads can sign up for an early visit right here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-first-two-netflix-entertainment-complexes-will-open-at-the-end-of-the-year-152129495.html?src=rss 

Enough is never enough. Chevrolet has only just released the Corvette ZR1, which at 1,064 horsepower is the fastest, quickest and most outrageous production car ever to wear a bowtie on the hood.

It can keep the neckwear, but its performance crown has already found a new home. Meet the new ZR1X, an even higher-performance Corvette that will take America’s sports car to new heights. It has 1,250HP, all-wheel drive and accelerates to 60MPH in less than two seconds.

Oh, and yes, it’s a hybrid. I got an early look at the thing at a private debut recently, and here’s everything you need to know about America’s new hypercar.

E-Ray Maximus

The ZR1X joins an increasingly busy lineup of Corvette models that ensures buyers with budgets ranging from generous to extreme all have something to covet. The Stingray is still the base model, with a starting price of just over $70,000 and 490HP.

From a financial standpoint, next up is the Corvette E-Ray, the hybrid model introduced in 2023. It adds a 160HP electric motor to the proceedings, resulting in a total output of 655HP. The E-Ray is positioned as something of a grand tourer: really fast but with a somewhat relaxed attitude. That also starts at a little over $100,000.

From there, you can step up to the higher-performance, more track-focused Z06 model, which, unsurprisingly, is also higher priced. It has a much racier 5.5-liter V8 engine making 670HP and a spendier starting price of just over $110,000.

Those were recently joined by the new ZR1, which adds turbochargers plus numerous engine updates to deliver that whopping 1,064HP and a wild 233MPH top speed. Its asking price is also wild, starting at around $175,000. That already makes it the most expensive Corvette ever, but things are about to get more extreme.

The ZR1X is something of a melding of the ZR1 and the hybrid E-Ray. It borrows the electrical layout from the E-Ray and mounts it inside a ZR1, including that car’s turbocharged V8 and wild aerodynamic appendages. Layer on some tasty upgrades to both the electric drive system and other aspects of the car, and you have the new 1,250HP ZR1X.

Extra upgrades

Combining the ZR1 and E-Ray gets you a good way towards creating the ZR1X, but there is a lot more to it than that. The ZR1X uses a battery pack with a revised internal construction, resulting in a capacity increase of 26 percent. But keep in mind this isn’t a plug-in hybrid. You’re still talking about something with a battery capacity of less than three kWh. You won’t be driving in your ZR1X emissions-free.

The hybrid system is there for more performance, and to that end, the car has a few new drive modes to help optimize the delivery of energy from that new pack. First is Endurance Mode, where the ZR1X will provide full power to the front motor but not tax the battery so much that you have to worry about running out of charge mid-session.

Then there’s Qualifying Mode. Select this, and the ZR1X will dump all the energy it can through the front motor to give you the outright maximum single-lap pace. There’s also a “Push to Pass” button, providing a brief period of maximum acceleration for those times when you absolutely need to get past that lollygagger ahead who’s costing you precious seconds on your commute.

All that extra speed necessitated some upgrades in the stopping department. The ZR1X wears a set of massive carbon brakes from Alcon, the company that makes these parts for some of Chevrolet’s racing machines. The 16.5-inch discs at the front equate to 1.9G of braking force. Installing a race harness might be a good idea so that you don’t go flying out of the chair the first time you hit that left pedal.

Despite the extra power at the front axle from that electric motor, the ZR1X rolls on the same size tires as the less-powerful, rear-driven ZR1. “We were tempted to go wider,” the Corvette’s chief engineer Josh Holder told me. “That’s a delicate balance between unsprung mass and driving dynamics off-power, and we believe we’ve made the right choice.”

Holder said it came down to working with Michelin on tire development plus some tweaks to the car’s traction management software. “That’s one of the things that we had to tune very carefully, given the power output now in ZR1X, just to make sure that we’re not spinning up the front axle when you’re at a high lateral load,” he said.

Familiar dynamics

Keith Badgley, development engineer on the ZR1X, said that, despite the extra power and everything else, the ZR1X will still have the same accessible performance feel that defines the Corvette line: “We designed this to be as composed as the Stingray with but with two and a half times the power. We wanted ultimate traction, maximum acceleration.”

“I would say it doesn’t drive differently, in terms of being able to claw out over the corner, being able to balance the car with power delivery from the front axle,” Holder said. “You can do things in the E-Ray and the ZR1X that, if you did in the rear-drive car, would not work out so well for you… But that balance and dynamics, they behave similarly to the ZR1X has more capability.”

But what it probably won’t offer is the same level of attainability that the Corvette has historically been known for. Chevrolet isn’t saying how much the ZR1X will cost when it goes on sale later this year. But it surely won’t be cheap.

Again, the ZR1 starts at about $175,000. The E-Ray carries a price that’s roughly $30,000 over the base Stingray. If we apply the same premium here, we’re in the ballpark of $200,000. Add on the other upgrades, like the fancy Alcon brakes and better battery pack, and it’s easy to assume that this thing will be priced within reach of some European exotics.

Will it be worth it? We’ll have to wait and see until we get a go behind the wheel, but Chevrolet has already been testing the thing extensively around the Nurburgring, covering over 600 miles at the greatest vehicular performance playground on the planet. Hopefully, it does just as well on the streets and circuits closer to home.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/meet-the-corvette-zr1x-americas-1250-horsepower-hybrid-hypercar-140018897.html?src=rss