This hasn’t been the most exciting year for Windows Phone hardware, most likely because Microsoft has been devoting a lot of energy to finalizing its plans for what to do with the recently acquired Nokia handset division. However, things may be about to change because new reports suggest that we’re going to see some brand-new Windows Phone devices hit the market very soon.
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The iPhone 6 isn’t even officially out yet, and more than 30 sellers are already ready to offer preorders for the handset before it’s officially announced by Apple. Luxury retailer Brikk has decided to throw its hat into the iPhone 6 preorder ring as well, and allow potential buyers to request their custom, and extremely expensive, 24-karat gold iPhone 6, CNET reports.
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Rolling Along — Pontiac’s Iron Duke. Also referred to as the Tech 4 or Tech IV.
Introduced: 1977 Pontiac Astre
Last Year In Production: 1994 USPS Grumman Postal Truck
After being stung by the unreliable Vega engine, Pontiac played it safe with the Iron Duke 2.5L I4 engine .
Compared to the Vega engine, this was a step back to an iron block and push rods.
But, the Iron Duke was designed to last a long time and give American drivers the low-end torque they expected.
When Iron Duke was put in the Pontiac Fiero for 1984, it got a bad reputation for throwing rods and catching the car on fire.
According to inside GM sources, a bad patch of connecting rods (due to poor metallurgy) made it past quality control. 
The bad rods were mixed in with the good rods and sorted for length and put into sets.
Some engines had one bad rod, some did not — it was a lottery for the owner of the vehicle.
When a rod would fail (this was often hastened by hard driving and low oil), it would punch through the block, dump oil on the catalytic converter and cause a fire.
Specs:
Power: 85-110 hp
Torque: 123-135 lb·ft
Innovations:
• One of the first all-metric fastener engines from GM.
• Throttle Body Injection
By 1988, the Iron Duke had a roller camshaft, balance shaft and even a distributorless ignition system.
Other improvements over the years included new pistons, rods, crankshaft and an in-pan oiling system.
The engine was super reliable and produced most of its power below 3,000 rpm.
Some Iron Dukes still deliver your mail as the engine in the Grumman postal truck.
Why does this engine deserve some respect?
While many of the high-revving, aluminum cast four-cylinder engines of the 1980s have long been sent to the scrap yard, you can still hear the drone of an Iron Duke as it delivers your mail or being flogged by a young driver.
You can’t kill the Duke.
Source: Underhood Service
The post Riding with the Iron Duke appeared first on Engine Builder Magazine.
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We’ve seen a lot of different ideas for how BlackBerry can turn itself around over the years but none of them has ever struck us as flat-out crazy… until now. IntoMobile’s Dusan Belic says that BlackBerry needs to make a big move to counter Apple’s huge deal with IBM and that the best way to do this would be by partnering with HP. Yes, that HP.
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Facebook may want to look up the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” TechCrunch reports that Facebook plans to take away the messaging feature from its core app and force users to download the separate Facebook Messenger app if they want to chat with their friends. Facebook has apparently been testing out using Messenger as its sole messaging app in Europe and has been encouraged by the results so far, TechCrunch says.
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Google and Motorola are apparently indeed working together on a Nexus 6 smartphone, a phablet of gigantic proportions unlike anything Motorola has done while under Google. Following a recent report from Android Police, which has obtained details about the Motorola “Shamu” Nexus 6, The Information said that it has been able to independently verify the device, adding that Google’s rumored Android Silver line of premium devices may be delayed.
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After a leaked imaged suggested Apple may be getting ready to release new Retina MacBook Pro models this week, the company went ahead and updated its online stores with the 2014 versions of its top of the line laptop. All models received processor and memory bumps, with some versions also getting a price reduction, similar to what the company did with its 2014 MacBook Airs.
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Let’s start with the obvious: the iPhone has been a massive, unequivocal success. Every subsequent release seems to break the records that the last one set before it, and now with the biggest hardware overhaul in the phone’s history rumored to be coming this fall, the books are primed to be rewritten once again. But before any of that happens, Jordan Weissmann of Slate has decided to take a step back and see just how big the iPhone really is (and we’re not talking about the 5.5-inch phablet).
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HBO gets it: You want to be able to subscribe to its content without having to pay for a bunch of other channels you don’t want. However, just because HBO understands what you want, that doesn’t mean it care. Re/code’s Peter Kafka has an excellent post explaining why HBO isn’t going to pull a Netflix and offer a standalone online subscription, no matter how much you beg it to do so.
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Samsung’s biggest fear is that it will become just another small-margin smartphone vendor along the lines of LG, HTC, Xiaomi and countless others. This is why it’s invested so many resources into creating its own Tizen mobile platform and why it’s tried unsuccessfully to heavily modify Android with overlays like Magazine UX to move its mobile devices beyond being vehicles for Google’s Android platform.
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