Transmission

Music lovers who want to stream tunes from their smartphone to the home hi-fi or from the hi-fi to Bluetooth headphones might be disappointed. McIntosh Labs engineered the MB20 Bluetooth Transceiver to enable any hi-fi setup to do just that.

A review article has presented 10 key scientific reasons why the virus that causes COVID-19 is predominantly spread though the air. The research adds to a growing chorus of experts saying the evidence for airborne transmission is “overwhelming”.

A new internet speed record has been clocked at an incredible 178 terabits per second (Tb/s) – fast enough to download the entire Netflix library in under a second. It's achieved by modulating light in new ways before beaming it down optical fibers.

Researchers have developed a new method for transmitting data to smartphones – by embedding it in music. That means phones might one day receive Wi-Fi passwords or local information via tunes floating through the airwaves, with no perceptible change to the audio as far as the human ear can tell.

Aston Martin throws a juicy bone to the purists with a 7-speed manual version of its Vantage sports car, complete with carbon ceramic brakes. The Vantage AMR keeps the same 195-mph (314-km/h) top speed as the regular Vantage, but drops an impressive 209 lb (95 kg) of weight.

Toyota has unveiled new engines based on its Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), to be used in both standard gasoline and hybrid vehicles. The company says that the recently-developed, more efficient engines will begin rolling out in 2017.

Using a technique known as Probabilistic Constellation Shaping, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Bell Labs researchers claim to have achieved subsea optical fiber transmission speeds equivalent to streaming more than 10 million HDTV channels simultaneously across a single cable.

Downsized turbo engines capable of punching well above their weight are the new norm, along with clever gearboxes packing a huge spread of ratios. Kia is the latest brand to develop an efficient new gearbox, launching a new lightweight eight-speeder to work with its upcoming front-wheel drive cars.

​Tiny droplets linger in the air for minutes in the aftermath of swirling tornadoes of fragmented mucus. This is the latest portrait painted by a team of MIT researchers who use high-speed imaging to study the fluid dynamics of sneezes.

With the supercharged V8 under the hood of the 2017 Camaro ZL1 putting out 640 horsepower (477 kW) and 640 pound-feet (868 Nm) of torque, Chevrolet has designed a new 10-speed automatic transmission​ to handle all of that power going to the rear wheels.

The 2017 Ford F-150 pickup truck will include the latest-generation 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine as an option, adding 30 lb-ft of torque to its output. This will mate to a new 10-speed automatic transmission to aid performance and capitalize on the now best-in-class torque values of the new engine.

Converting a manual shifting bike to something resembling an automatic has not been easy. Biperformance Development Corporation (BDC) believes its ShiftFX Electronic Shift Transmission (EST) could change that.​