Last night after a few days of R&R with the family in Melbourne I flew back to Sydney. To my surprise QANTAS had its brand spanking new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner servicing the route. 

If you’ve been living under a rock you may not know that QANTAS recently took delivery of the new bird and it’s soon to be the aircraft of choice between Melbourne and LA. It’s also due to service domestic routes within Australia with the new aircraft likely to replace the now older and outdated Boeing 747-400. 

Whilst many of us are sad to see the 747 go, the Dreamliner is a massive step up and a welcome change.

So what did I think?

Having flown the Dreamliner to San Francisco recently with United and Cape Town with Qatar Airways, the ‘Oh My Freaking God’ had worn off a touch, but I was still keen to see David Caon’s work on the new premium economy seats and business class. 

Let’s start with premium economy (because it’s where I was seated)

I found myself in 20A in the bulkhead. The seat is nice and wide and feels like the normal business class seat on QANTAS 737 which often services domestic routes in Australia. 

The seat has been finished in charcoal fabric and the tray tables are beech finished. The cabin is nice and small too. There are only 35 seats in the premium economy section and this would arguably make it a nicer and quieter place for a long haul flight. The new LCD TV screens are easier to get in and out, but the tray table however took a little more effort. Charging my devices from the seat was no issues too, with USB charing nearby as well as headphone storage. 

On the all important recline, the chair is not electric like the business class lie-flat beds, rather it’s the old school push and slide. Legroom was ample, again much like the business class in the QANTAS 737. 

The entertainment system menu has had an upgrade too. It’s now more intuitive and there was no shortage of Family Guy to keep me occupied for the hour long flight. 

The service was much the same as any other QANTAS flight, however you get the feeling the staff are quite excited about the new plane. The customer service manager even came over to say hello and offer me a large portable leg rest…sadly my legs were too long. It was perfect for the petit gentlelady next to me though.

The other bits

• I didn’t get a chance to sit in the economy seats but I can tell you the 3-3-3 formation will unfortunately suck if you’re stuck in the middle.
• Overhead storage was much the same as the A330. If you’re in the economy cabin it always pays to get on early so you’re not the dumb schmuck asking for some place to put your bag when the overhead bins are full. 
• The business class was surprisingly half empty and to be honest it’s much the same as the QANTAS A330 Business Suite 1-2-1 format. It does feel like QANTAS have upped the privacy for each seat which is a welcome addition. 
• The much larger windows make the window seat all the more important to grab and improved cabin pressure ensures you feel more refreshed after the flight – yes, even after one hour. 

With all the hoopla surrounding the new 787, it’s hard to say whether it’s a better experience or just hype. I’m happy to say I think it’s a better experience; there’s more room and there’s nothing quite like new plane smell.

See below for a few snaps which I took with my iPhone X.

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The last time the internet was so obsessed with an orb, it involved Donald Trump possibly summoning the forces of Sauron or swearing allegiance to the Illuminati (or just taking part in an ill-advised photo op).

With its reputation on the line, the orb is back and better than ever in its latest incarnation: the centerpiece of the world’s coolest ode to books, the Tianjin Binhai Library.

Dutch firm MVRDV designed the 368,000 square-foot Chinese library with a curvy, futuristic vibe and an ethereal all-white colour palette. The five-story structure features layers upon layers of terraced shelving in a wave-like pattern, which also act as platforms, stairs, seats, and mini-gathering areas.

At the heart of the building is a glowing spherical auditorium – not at all creepily called “The Eye” – which serves as a hangout spot for visitors who want to settle in with their latest read or simply take in the astonishing view. Seen from the front, the orb forms a pupil that appears to peek out from the building’s facade.

“The Tianjin Binhai Library interior is almost cave-like, a continuous bookshelf,” said MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas. “Not being able to touch the building’s volume we ‘rolled’ the ball shaped auditorium demanded by the brief into the building and the building simply made space for it, as a ‘hug’ between media and knowledge.”

One of any library’s most interesting features is its collection of books, and the Tianjin Binhai Library is no exception. Its topographical shelves hold 1.2 million volumes stretching all the way up to the ceiling, a powerful design statement that begs the question: “How do you get the books up there, anyway?”

The answer is, “You don’t.”

Though they were initially intended to be accessible from rooms concealed behind the shelves, the project ran out of time and money, leaving the architects to devise a sly solution. MVRDV replaced the texts on higher shelves with aluminium replicas that are intentionally-unreachable but preserve the aesthetic integrity of the space. The firm says they hope that their “full vision for the library may be realised in the future.”

RELATED: World’s Coolest Libraries You Need To Visit

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Nicole Kidman, Pharrell Williams, Jessie J, Maria Sharapova. It might sound like your average entertainment awards night in Hollywood but this is actually the launch party for the world’s largest shopping festival known as Singles’ Day.

“The event this year hit US$25.3 billion in purchases in a single day with 90% of those made via a mobile phone.”

Backed by enthusiastic billionaire and China’s richest man, Jack Ma, the annual Double Eleven festival held in China was conceived by the business magnate’s e-commerce company Alibaba eight years ago. It was simultaneously given the name of Singles’ Day as a form of anti-valentines day where big discounts would be applied to any products purchased across its extensive e-commerce stores during a 24-hour fire sale.

Since its inception, Singles’ Day has grown to a behemoth on the global shopping calendar to the point where it this year hit US$25.3 billion in purchases in one day alone with 90% of those made via a mobile phone. This puts it in the region of a gross sales figure that’s three times higher than America’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined.

A closer look at the stats reveals just how serious an event Singles’ Day is for the Chinese and more importantly for the international brands looking to crack into lucrative Chinese market. With a 39 percent jump in sales from last year, Double Eleven was able to test Alibaba’s digital payment service (Alipay) in processing up to 1.48 billion transactions in a small window of time. It succeeded without crashing.

It’s also the clearest indication yet of the future of retail as the world begins to move on from physical cash onto the mobile phone wallet platform. To cope with such a surge in products being moved to customers across the nation, the Chinese railway had to enlist extra bullet trains to satisfy the fast shipping demands of today’s customers. 812 million parcels were eventually delivered to buyers without a hitch.

What makes the world’s biggest shopping event more of a spectacle though is the pulling power of celebrity endorsements and a new wave of Chinese influencers pushing the big sell. As a lead up to the event, a four hour concert was televised across the country and featured the aforementioned international guests who often seemed out of place yet still willing to take part (for the right amount we’d assume).

Take Pharrell Williams and Chinese pop star Kris Wu rapping on stage for instance. It was a rather odd performance with a hip-hop beat alongside stoic back-up dancers and cringeworthy lyrics about shopping, one’s love for China…and nothing much else:

If you could believe/and organise like the bees/You can do it you’ll see there’s strength in numbers
[China]
The possibilities are swimming around inside my head/All the money raised imagine what could be done with it
[China]
So many miracles could happen because of this day/You know the world’s watching wishing they could participate
[China]

Even the adoring crowds looked like they had been forced by communist officials to be there (see video below).

All of these observations are beside the point though. The Double Eleven event is a real time data collection exercise for the world’s largest population and their diverse shopping habits. A massive screen at the festival presented the number of sales in real time with glowing numbers that ticked until the final seconds.

Touch screens would also reveal critical personal data such as the city where the buyers were from, their age bracket, gender and cumulative distance of the travelled parcels. By 11:08pm, an hour before the sale’s end, the dispatched parcels had done a collective 114 million kilometres.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, this highlights Alibaba’s core business as big data and the event acts as a test of how its system will cope with it. Similar to Google or Facebook, Alibaba collects data from its 500 million consumers in a bid to revolutionise the traditional shopping experience.

“We know a lot. We can model the lifestyle of 500 million people,” chief marketing officer Chris Tung told SMH.

“Bricks and mortar retailers are suffering today, but there is a way to make them just as successful as online.”

To entice consumers to visit the traditional bricks and mortar stores, Alibaba devised a “catch the cat” mobile phone game. This game transformed 100,000 physical stores into “smart stores” which would offer digital gimmicks and novelties like augmented reality makeup mirrors.

The fashion chains meanwhile gave their shoppers a chance to try VR changerooms – a platform where people can try on clothes without needing to actually get changed. The facial recognition technology set up in these stores can help customers search online for out of stock colours whilst simultaneously tracking their buying habits for the business.

These cameras can essentially guess what age consumers are, what they buy and who they are. Those who are signed up to the store’s loyalty program are under even heavier surveillance with data being tracked on exactly what they are doing in the store.

When pressed on the issue of privacy, Tung told SMH that the “personalisation” technology that Alibaba offers to retailers is no different to the targeted advertising that people experience on Google and Facebook today.

“Why should that personalisation only be online?” he says, explaining that marketers are also interested in targeting shoppers right down to a specific store.

Tung says that Alibaba “won’t cross the line” when it comes to data privacy.

“We will never release individual data about anyone.”

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For any other commercial airline, this may seem like an odd combination, but for Emirates, this move makes perfect sense for making waves in the future of first-class travel.Over the weekend Emirates unveiled their latest first-class suites for the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft with a luxurious fit-out designed in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz alongside their new ambassador and the automotive world’s biggest mouth, Jeremy Clarkson.According to Emirates President Tim Clark, the new top-tier cabins cost millions to bring to fruition. The result? A space featuring hardwood floors, extensive mood lighting options and “windows” for the centre cabin suite created by capturing vision from outside of the plane before beaming it back into the faux windows.At the Dubai Air Show where the first-class suites were unveiled, Clark told Traveller that “there is a view that many carriers are pursuing a response to the demise of first-class by coming up with some better business class product.”“I have to tell you that demand for first class on Emirates remains very strong.”Whilst the cabin design draws inspiration from Mercedes’ luxury car interiors, the partnership will also extend beyond the flight path with Emirates confirming the use of the German carmaker’s vehicles on all of its future premium chauffeur services. Where Top Gear reject and controversial media personality Jeremy Clarkson fits into all of this is via an ambassadorial which sees the Brit spruiking all of the latest creature comforts of the Emirates suites in a tuxedo.The re-designed first class suites were initially designated for the Boeing 777 aircraft but the flyer has since extended its aesthetic reach into its entire fleet which will include all 140 of their Airbus A380 planes. The current Airbus A380s feature 14 first-class suites but this will be cut back to 11 once the latest roomier designs make their way into the fleet. It’s also a move that takes the competition directly to Singapore Airlines’ recently unveiled first-class suites.The latest Emirates first-class suites will begin on the Brussells and Geneva routes with Chicago and Perth expected to follow later on.

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The Swiss Alps represent nature at its finest, so why hole up in a hotel when you could experience the scenery up close? Whitepod’s geodesic camping domes in Les Cerniers, Switzerland, are the coolest way to see the mountains as Mother Nature intended.Located at 1250 m (4100 ft), each pod is a harmony of ecology and luxury with unbeatable views. The domes are highly energy efficient and require minimal building materials during construction, while heat and water consumption are carefully regulated to eliminate waste. Whitepod purchases almost exclusively from local wine and meat suppliers, using only seasonal ingredients in its restaurant. Even the colour of the pods is adapted to each season, turning white in winter and green in summer to mesh seamlessly with the environment.But crunchy granola camping this is not. The standard pods come in three sizes – cosy, family, deluxe – and are equipped with luxe hotel essentials like king beds, en suite bathrooms, satellite TV, Nespresso coffee machines, and large private terraces.For a fully glam Alps experience, book one of Whitepod’s three premium suites. The Swiss Suite recreates a classic chalet atmosphere with wood panelled walls and traditional Swiss bells. The Forest Suite transports you to the world’s ritziest birch woods, complete with trees, a hammock, and a “nest” bed. The 007 Suite is sleek and high tech, perfect for a romantic getaway in the vein of a suave secret agent.All suites include a private sauna, a bar with unlimited champagne and wine, an iPad with Netflix, and breakfast delivered directly to the pod.Group activities take place in the Pod-house, where you’ll find the breakfast room, the sauna and massage area, the bar, and the meeting room. The reception area and restaurant are located in the Les Cerniers chalet, where you’ll also find the ski slopes and lifts reserved exclusively for Whitepod guests.The surrounding area offers abundant outdoor activities, including hiking, biking, paragliding, tennis, snowshoeing, dog sledding, and more. Then again, you may get your fill of physical exertion straight after check-in. The camp is a 20-minute walk from parking and reception, which means trekking with a map, a headlight, walking sticks, and in winter, snowshoes, before ever reaching your pod.At least the luggage gets lucky – it gets to travel via snowmobile.Your next Swiss glamping stay awaits. Check rates and book here.RELATED: 8 Ultra-Luxe Glamping Destinations Around The World

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Once the domain of sci-fi movies, the flying car is now closer to reality than ever before with ride-hailing giant Uber teaming up with NASA to develop a traffic control system for its ‘Vertical Take-off and Landing’ vehicles.

The audacious plan will see test flights carried out in Los Angeles by 2020 whilst the service itself is slated for arrival in 2028. By this time its creators hope that the flying cars, dubbed VTOLs, will have performed “tens of thousands” of flights per day across town.

The notion of flying cars are nothing new these days and have often fallen short of their lofty expectations due to a lack of infrastructure. This latest news however seems a bit more palatable since NASA is involved.

According to the latest report from Forbes, “Uber’s plan is to string together a network of electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicles, commonly called eVTOL, and make them available on-demand.”

“Similar to helicopters, the eVTOL aircraft would take off and land on the tops of buildings and be able to cover distances more quickly and directly compared to cars stuck in traffic on Los Angeles congested roads.”

“According to Uber’s own analysis, a 200-mph all electric ride across Los Angeles would be ‘price competitive’ to an UberX ride of the same distance,” the Forbes article explained.

“It will also be much faster than a car ride on the ground, Uber claims.”

“In one example, Uber’s research predicts that an UberAir ride from Los Angeles International Airport to the Staples Center would take less than 30 minutes using UberAir. An UberX ride between the same distances generally lasts closer to an hour and a half.”

Jeff Holden who is the head of product at Uber stresses the need to take this concept seriously due to the sheer progress alone irrespective of whether there’s even a craft to test.

“We feel really good,” Holden told Verge in a report.

“It’s been a really interesting process getting our vehicle manufacturing partners aligned on performance specifications, so that they’re building vehicles that align with what we need to make Elevate successful. So lots of good progress there.”

Whilst there’ll be endless red tape and regulations to pass before the service can even consider getting off the ground, it’s certainly the closest the human race has come to making it a reality. Uber even made a concept video to convince you of that.

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Lotus used to be the British car company that was heralded for its simplicity in providing thrills behind the wheel.

In recent years their cars have diverged slightly from founder Colin Chapman’s purist vision that, “Adding power makes you faster on the straights, subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”.

Today that all changes for the better with Lotus welcoming their wildest track beast yet. The Exige Cup 430 borrows a supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine from its bigger Evora GT430 sibling and stuffs it into a smaller and lighter chassis in the Exige.

The result is a 316kW/440Nm race-ready road car which weighs in at a very healthy 1,056kg. The only transmission available for the Exige Cup 430? A close-ratio six-speed manual sending power to.

Whilst its no quarter mile star like its more common DSG competition, Lotus claims that the car can still manage to hit the 100km/h mark in just 3.2 seconds before topping out at 290km/h.

To enhance the overall driving dynamics the car’s aero has also been reworked to provide up to 220kg of downforce at higher speeds.

Inside the car it’s all business with a very sparse layout with Alcantara, carbon fibre and aluminium dominating the aesthetics alongside some snuggly bucket seats.

The Exige Cup 430 is priced from an eye-watering £99,800 (AU$170,000) and it is only available in the UK, Italy, Germany and France.

It’s not yet known if the fastest-ever Exige Cup 430 is destined for Australia – yet.

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Parties. Debaucherous behaviour. Independence. Freedom. The male rite of passage once known as the bachelor pad is officially dead.

That’s according to the latest figures from the U.K’s Office for National Statistics which found that almost a third of men today don’t move out of their parents’ home until their mid-30s.

Whilst this study focuses on the greater British population, similar trends can also be identified in Australia with a 2009 social trends study by the Bureau of Statistics finding that 32 per cent of men aged between 20 and 34 are still living at home with their parents, compared to 20 per cent of females in the same age group.

Whilst the rising price of local real estate is proving to be a driving factor behind this trend, Frank Furedi who is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent believes that this phenomenon also comes down to another reason – a lack of aspiration amongst today’s men and the “feminisation of society”.

“A lot of young men find the transition to adulthood particularly difficult because male values and masculine values are regarded less favourably than feminine values,” said Furedi. “Masculine norms have been devalued quite considerably.”

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