Lebron James visits Boston

The third LeBron James project lands in the Garden tonight, and there are some early bugs in the chemistry.
The Cavaliers forward has been his selfless self. But Cleveland is waiting for Kyrie Irving to stop obsessing about his shot and become what the league expects — the best point guard to ever play next to James. And then there are those recent reports that Kevin Love may opt out if the project doesn’t pay a quick dividend this season.
Like it or not, the Cavaliers are operating under a withering modern standard that was set when the Celtics won the 2008 NBA title. No team since, assembled for short-term greatness, has run the table in its first season.
Though Miami reached the NBA Finals in James’ first season with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (2010-11), the team didn’t win it all until 2012. Though the 2011-12 pairing of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin doesn’t fulfill the Big Three model, the Clippers have been on a Finals alert ever since. Dwight Howard and James Harden have needed at least one get-acquainted year in Houston.
“There’s high expectations for everyone in the NBA, and those expectations are often wrong or inflated,” C’s president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said this week. “That just seems to be part of it.
“Miami had high expectations with LeBron and things didn’t work out that first year. But that was still a great team. Only one team can win it all, and it takes more than on-paper talent.”
The 2007-08 Celtics had something more than on-paper talent, for instance. As Ainge has often said, the confluence of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen benefited from perfect timing.
All three had played for lottery teams the year before in Minnesota, Boston and Seattle. All three were veterans with a long simmering hunger. This latter factor helped spike the quick rise of chemistry, which was, in turn, aided by the rise of a young point guard named Rajon Rondo.
“I did see the stages they were in in their careers,” said Ainge. “I got the sense that they were all very hungry.”
Young stars aren’t always ready to sacrifice — a problem that appears to be evident in Irving’s approach this season.
Allen, on the other hand, was ready to become a secondary option in the fall of 2007. Pierce was thus allowed to continue his reign as the Celtics’ top option. Garnett, as always, was probably a little too unselfish.
Some would say that Garnett’s influence made Pierce a better leader, and set a tone that his two fellow stars were able to follow. Ainge disagrees.
“That diminishes the influence that Ray, Paul and Doc (Rivers) had,” said Ainge. “It’s not just about who KG is, but the emotions of all three players for each other. It was about the enthusiasm in all of them.
“All three were Hall of Fame-type guys coming off of lottery seasons,” he said. “It gave all of them a great deal of hope and enthusiasm. I could see it before they ever got on the court. There was just such life in all of them when they got together.”
The irony, according to Ainge, lies in what followed.
The team lost Garnett to a knee injury prior to the 2009 playoffs, and was eliminated by Orlando in the conference semifinals. The Celtics returned to the Finals in 2010, went into Game 6 in Los Angeles with a 3-2 series edge, and lost Kendrick Perkins for good in the first quarter to a torn MCL and PCL.
Rivers became fond of saying that the Lakers didn’t beat his regular lineup that year. But if health eventually undermined this team, it did set a quick-change standard that has hung over the heads of teams like Cleveland ever since.
“I actually thought our 2009 and 2010 teams were better than the one that won the title,” said Ainge. “That 2009 team got off to an incredible start — 27-2. But we were healthy in 2008, and that was good fortune.”
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2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat first-drive

Before I tell you about my driving experience with the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, I’m just going to get this off my chest: this is one powerful, fast and, yes, chest-poundingly badass car. Your knee-jerk reaction might be “holy cow, $60k+ is a lot for a Challenger!” While that might be true, for a car even Dodge’s own CEO describes as a “science project”, in many respects the 700 HP Lamborghini Aventador I drove months ago was equally badass, but how many of us have got half-a-mil to drop on a supercar? From that perspective, the Challenger gives you the performance, a great looking car, creature comfort driver-focused cockpit and a decent fuel economy. But that’s now what you care about. You want to hear how the Hellcat roars.

Design and Interior

The Challenger is a familiar sight, and Dodge hasn’t been too outlandish with its changes for the SRT Hellcat version. Sure, there are plenty of styling options you can add – a matte finish hood, for instance – but the standard tweaks are designed more for enthusiasts to spot.
For instance, the inner front headlamp on the driver’s side has been switched out for an air intake, feeding some much-needed cooling to the engine. Heat extractors sit either side of the hood scoop, and you can tell your friends that the hood itself is now aluminum.
Inside, Dodge has looked to the 1971 Challenger for some of its inspiration, though left space for the tech as you’d expect. The Uconnect infotainment system gets either a 5- or 8.4-inch touchscreen in the center stack, though in the case of the Hellcat more than just navigation, audio, and climate control are expected of it.

Everything feels solidly put together, though once you’re sat in the well-bolstered seats it’s best not to think about any direction but straight ahead. The Hellcat’s blind spots are vast.

Under the hood

Dodge has saved its efforts for what’s going on under the hood, and it hasn’t been idle. The 6.2-liter Hemi supercharged V8 may be based on an existing engine but, by the time it was ready for Hellcat duty, 91-percent of the components had been replaced.
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E FUN Nextbook 8 Windows tablet launches on Black Friday

E FUN will be launching its Nextbook 8 tablet on Black Friday for $99, giving budget-conscious users a Windows 8.1 slate in the sub-$100 range. The announcement was made on the Windows blog today, with it being revealed that the Nextbook will be available at Walmart retail stores as part of a Black Friday promotion. Under the promotion, buyers will get a 16GB microSD card tossed into the mix, doubling the slate's 16GB of internal storage, as well as some other perks.
Those other perks are a one-year subscription to Office 365 alongside 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage. The tablet itself features an 8-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Joining that is a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a 2-megapixel rear camera.Under the hood lies an Intel Atom quad-core Z3735G 1.8GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and the aforementioned 16GB of storage (the microSD slot supports cards up to 64GB). Connectivity includes both 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, and there's a 3-axis g-sensor to ensure users can play their games.
Rounding out the features is video-out via a micro HDMI port, a standard headphone jack, and included charger. It appears that bundled 16GB micro SD card will be available with the tablet through December 31.
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Android Devices With Verified Boot Coming Back With Failed OTA Update To Lollipop

The Nexus devices(and some non-Nexus devices)have begun getting their updates to the latest version of Android. Android 5.0 Lollipop is finally upon us and those over the air updates are rolling out as you read this, and if you haven’t already gotten the update yet there’s a chance it could show up in your status bar by the time you’re done reading. That’s good news. What users definitely want to pay attention to though is that if you have modified the system on your Android device in any way whatsoever, like giving your device root access for example(which changes up some system files)the OTA update will fail.
As Android Police points out this seems to be happening on the Nexus 9 and Nexus 6 only, which are both devices that were on Lollipop out of the box. However they received new updates to a newer build of Lollipop that brought some bug fixes and this plays a role in the issues. We reported on the presence of those problems earlier this morning which you can check out here. Essentially it doesn’t seem to be affecting those older Nexus devices who updated from Kit Kat, but that doesn’t mean the same problem won’t come up later on once a new Lollipop build goes out for devices like the Nexus 5 and 7 as well as the others.
Without getting too technical(and to be honest that’s partially because I don’t understand a lot of the jargon)part of the reason this is happening is because the new way that the OTA script patches files in Lollipop is one giant cluster. Prior to Android 5.0 Lollipop, the OTA script patched files individually which allowed for modders and tinkerers to have rooted devices and still receive the updates over the air. What does this mean for you if you have a device that is modified? You’ll need to be on a stock image that hasn’t been altered before getting a successful OTA. Although this may throw a kink into the way rooters like to do things, the process for having the OTA script patch files as a collective group is a much faster process, which is why Google made this change in Android 5.0.
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DJI Inspire 1 takes flight with a 4K camera

There are quadcopters with cameras out there that could be considered nothing more than toys. The DJI Inspire 1 is no toy.
Billed by DJI as the world's first 4K flying camera, the Inspire 1 is a step-up model from the Phantom 2 Vision+ released earlier this year. And it's a pretty big step-up, too, with a matching price tag: $2,900. Pricing for the UK is £2,380 and in Australia you'll be paying AU$4,130.
With carbon-fiber landing gear that lowers and lifts automatically on take-off and landing, the camera's 94-degree field of view is left unobstructed as it captures video at resolutions up to 4K at 30fps (it does 1080p at 60fps as well) and 12-megapixel stills. The camera rotates a full 360 degrees and tilts 125 degrees.
Similar to the Vision+, the camera is attached to a three-axis gimbal for smooth video even with sudden movements or high winds. The whole thing looks sturdier, though, and more importantly it's easily removable. So if you want to fly without the camera, replace it if it gets damaged or perhaps upgrade it in the future, it's a no-tool affair.
There's no more taking your hands off the controller to fiddle with camera settings on your smartphone, either. The remote controller for the Inspire 1 has camera controls built into the top left and right corners. Or, you can give a second controller to someone else for dedicated control over the camera.
The controller also has DJI's Lightbridge wireless transmitter technology that live-streams 1080p video to an iOS or Android device so you can set up shots at distances up to about a mile away (1.7 kilometers). WIth USB and HDMI outputs on back, you can directly connect a smartphone, tablet and/or display.
As for piloting the Inspire 1, it should be easier to fly than the Vision+, which is saying something, because that one is pretty easy to fly. Since this is a ready-to-fly (RTF) model, there's no tinkering here. You just spin on the color-coded self-tightening props, charge it up and that's pretty much it.
The Inspire 1 can take off and land at the push of a button, and if you choose to land it on your own, its wider base and shock absorbers mean there's less chance of tipping even if you come down a little hard or off-kilter.
To help with drift when shooting indoors or whenever you can't get a GPS lock, DJI added a camera and sensors on the bottom of the copter that create a stereoscopic image of the ground to keep the Inspire 1 steady without constant adjustments.
For safety, DJI made its return-to-home feature dynamic, so your home is now wherever you are. This allows you to calibrate and take off from one location and if you move, it will come back to you and not where you launched from. (A feature you definitely want if you plan to take off from a moving boat, for example.)
Like DJI's other copters, the Inspire 1 can be set to return home when battery power runs low. The new iOS and Android apps created for the Inspire 1 will also let you see exactly how much power is left in each one of its six cells. (You can use this to see the health of the cells as well in case one isn't performing properly.)
The app gives you full telemetry from the Inspire's sensors and control over all the camera's settings along with the capability to adjust the remote controller's settings. And for those who want to have it fly autonomously, you'll be able to plot its course on a map simply by drawing it out on your mobile device's touchscreen.
The biggest potential downside for buyers (other than price) will be its flight times. On a full charge under ideal conditions, the Inspire 1 can only fly for up to 18 minutes. That's while recording 4K video at 30fps, so that's good. It will more likely be wind and the speed at which your flying that will shorten it.
If you're new to the hobby, that might sound brief. However, given all the capabilities of the Inspire 1, that flight time isn't unreasonable and certainly on par with or better than you'll get from other quadcopters that are not as well equipped as the Inspire 1. Extra batteries are of course an option, but with the Vision+ battery going for about $130, the Inspire 1's likely won't be any less expensive.
You can read more details on the Inspire 1 on DJI's site and preorder them as well. The plan is to have them start shipping by mid-December.
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Chris Martin Trying to Patch-Up With Jennifer Lawrence?

JENNIFER SPLIT FROM CHRIS AFTER DATING FOR FOUR MONTHS, APPARENTLY DUE TO HIS PROXIMITY WITH ESTRANGED WIFE GWYNETH PALTROW

Chris Martin has been trying to make things up with Jennifer. (Image courtesy:AP)

JENNIFER SPLIT FROM CHRIS AFTER DATING FOR FOUR MONTHS, APPARENTLY DUE TO HIS PROXIMITY WITH ESTRANGED WIFE GWYNETH PALTROW

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is reportedly trying to patch up with former girlfriend Jennifer Lawrence, after two weeks of their split.

Jennifer, 24, split from Chris after dating for four months, apparently due to his proximity with estranged wife Gwyneth Paltrow.

Chris, 37, has been trying to make things up with Jennifer, and supported her at the world premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, but he did not walk the red carpet, reported Female First.

"Jen cooled things with Chris because she thought he was keeping his options open and wanted to have his cake and eat it. But since then, Chris has been saying all the right things to Jen. He said he'd support her through the Hunger Games tour and make her a priority," a source said.

Chris and Gwyneth announced their separation earlier this year after ten years together, but have remained close.
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2015 BMW X6 Photo Gallery

The extrovert design of the new BMW X6 blends the robustness and versatility of a BMW X model with the sporting elegance typical of the brand's Coupes.
The new BMW X6 additionally comes with a suitably exclusive roster of standard equipment which goes well beyond that of the previous model: bi-xenon headlights, 19-inch light-alloy wheels, automatic tailgate operation and the 8-speed Steptronic sport transmission with steering wheel shift paddles are all included, as are leather trim, two-zone climate control, auto-dimming rear-view mirror and the Driving Assistant safety package from BMW ConnectedDrive.
The line-up of engines available from the December, 2014 launch of the new BMW X6 will consist of the latest-generation V8 developing 450bhp for the BMW X6 xDrive50i, a 258bhp 6-cylinder in-line diesel engine for the BMW X6 xDrive30d and another straight-six diesel with three turbochargers and 381bhp in the BMW X6 M50d.
The standard - and permanently active - intelligent all-wheel-drive system BMW xDrive optimises traction, directional stability and cornering dynamics, as the situation requires. For improved dynamics, xDrive can optionally link up with adaptive suspension packages, including Dynamic Performance Control.
Dynamic Performance Control is offered together with Dynamic Drive active roll stabilisation as part of the Dynamic adaptive suspension package to deliver a targeted improvement in the car's sporty handling attributes.
Ensuring that the noticeably increased performance of the new BMW X6 is accompanied by an up to 22 per cent reduction in average fuel consumption are BMW TwinPower Turbo technology, the standard-fitted eight-speed Steptronic sport transmission, extensive BMW EfficientDynamics technology, weight-saving optimisations and enhanced aerodynamics.
Inside, the features list includes the Navigation System Professional with Touch Controller, Bang & Olufsen high-end surround-sound system and new Rear Entertainment System Professional. The wide variety of features available through BMW ConnectedDrive includes a - in some cases - unique range of driver assistance systems and mobility services.
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