Tesla delivers its first Model S electric cars to customers in Japan

image

Tesla Motors is making inroads in Japan after handing over its first electric-powered Model S cars to customers in the region. Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and the spaceflight company SpaceX, did the honors of handing over the first set of keys earlier today:

image

Tesla has been present in Japan before now, however. The company operates a store in the Aoyama district of Tokyo, as well as two service centers: one in Naka Ikegami, Tokyo and another in Yokohama. The latter offers four superchargers, while Tokyo is covered by two stalls at the Grand Hyatt hotel.

Of course, until Tesla was able to fulfil Model S orders in Japan, these facilities were largely dormant. While customers could probably obtain a vehicle through importing, today’s milestone represents its first real push in the country.

A spokesperson for Tesla says the company plans to build a larger Supercharger network in Japan. That’ll be critical if the company is to make its electric vehicles a viable alternative to the current swathe of gas-guzzling road warriors.

Unsurprisingly, the bulk of Tesla’s Supercharger network currently rests in North America. Today 111 stations are active in the region, while 61 are set up in Europe and 13 are open in parts of Asia – specifically China and Hong Kong.

iPhone 6 ‘Welcome to 2012’ Nexus 4 Comparison

image

On Tuesday Apple decided to launch their ‘new’ flagship device, the iPhone 6 along with a glossy launch event which included U2 playing a live song from their new album. However, even before the show got underway social networks began to see activity mocking Apple and the iPhone 6. This first began with Samsung who very early in the morning tweeted they would giveaway a free pear for every tweet about an apple. This was very quickly followed byHTC tweeting an image of the iPhone 6 side by side with the HTC One M8 and a message which essentially read welcome to the big league. To add further insult ASUS also joined the party by posting a Facebook page advising readers they could buy six ASUS ZenFones for the price of one iPhone 6. If this was not enough Samsung again threw some more punches by releasing 6 videosmocking the new iPhone.

You may be thinking what’s with all the big Android companies picking on little ole Apple. However, it seems it weren’t only the big boys who were not impressed by Apple’s latest creation. An image created by Ron Amadeo (Reviews Editor for ARS Technica) mocking the lack of current iPhone features seems to have gone viral. While the likes of HTC and OnePlus have sent out various images comparing the iPhone 6 to their latest flagship devices, Amadeo compared the iPhone 6 to the Nexus 4 (circa 2012) with the title “Dear iPhone 6 users: Welcome to 2012”. With the two devices side by side and although two years apart the similarities are remarkable. Both devices offer a 4.7”screen, NFC payments, notification actions, widgets, 3rd part keyboards and cross-app communications. More interestingly the resolution of the Nexus 4 is slightly greater with a 760p resolution compared to the iPhone 6 (750p resolution).

However, probably the funniest element of the image is down the bottom where Amadeo mocks the future of iPhone “In 2016, you guys will love: Wireless Charging, water resistance, multi-user support, split screen apps and virtual buttons”. Amadeo even pushes the joke a little further by advising iPhone users if they need any help with their new features to ask an Android user “We’ve had this stuff for years”. To make it worse for Apple the joke has not been lost on the public with the original tweeted image by Amadeo already being retweeted almost 17,000 (and favorited over 7500) times in the last two days. On Google+the image has also been liked over 4000 times and reshared nearly 4000 times (just from Amadeo’s account alone). Of course, it’s not all bad for Apple users. Afterall, the iPhone 6 does have some features which the Nexus 4 does not have, but either way the similarities between the 2014 iOS device and the 2012 Android device cannot be ignored. 
Continue reading iPhone 6 ‘Welcome to 2012’ Nexus 4 Comparison