It’s time for another episode of Pairing Something Exciting With Something Dull! On today’s episode, the eagerly anticipated Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will draw promotional support from five global brands: Duracell, General Mills, Gillette, Nissan, and Verizon. What do each of these companies have to do with a multimillion-dollar movie? Not much.
But such is the reality of modern filmmaking. Yes, Lucasfilm has announced it has assembled partners to heavily promote the next Star Wars installment — or rather a new story arc to the beloved series. Between now and the film’s release on December 16, the partners will pool their resources to reach the few living souls who aren’t already fired up for the movie.
“We are extremely pleased to be working with such a remarkable group of promotional partners for Rogue One,” said Lynwen Brennan, general manager of Lucasfilm. “This first in a series of Star Warsstandalone films represents an exciting new era for both Star Wars and Lucasfilm, and the partners joining us on this exciting journey have each designed a stellar campaign capturing the spirit and camaraderie of Rogue One.”
Read more: 2016 Nissan Rogue specs
Of course, Nissan is the only partner who even loosely can be related to the film series. Why? Because its compact crossover shares its name with the movie. The Nissan Rogue will undoubtedly be tied into the Star Wars promotions in the coming weeks, and there may even be a special edition model or car wrap to unite the concepts more closely.
However the promotions pan out, the film itself looks to be a winner (judging solely by the plot and the trailer that was recently released). Set between Episodes III (Revenge of the Sith) and IV (A New Hope), Rogue One focuses on a band of rebels without Force powers who infiltrate the Empire and steal plans for the first Death Star. Check out the trailer below:
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.