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As someone who’s owned and operated their fair share of EVs, I was looking forward to experiencing Volkswagen’s first truly mainstream electric vehicle, the VW ID.4 SUV. As a part of a #vwpartner collaboration with Volkswagen, I got the opportunity to drive the VW ID.4 for a few days. What I found was an SUV for the masses that is easy to adapt to if you’re coming from a traditional gas-powered vehicle.

The VW ID.4 also features plenty of tech, including wireless CarPlay on a large available 12-inch display, and available wireless charging. Watch our hands-on video for the details.

Wake up and go

One of the best benefits of owning an electric vehicle is waking up with a full charge each morning. That means no wondering about how much gas is left in the tank, and no annoying detours to the gas station. You simply wake up, unplug, and get going to your destination. Once you get used to this aspect of owning an electric vehicle, it’s hard to go back.

Driving and performance

One of the things that surprised me about the VW ID.4 is how easy it makes it to move from a gas-powered vehicle to an electric SUV. VW has resisted the temptation to make the ID.4 weird or overly quirky just because it’s electric. This is an SUV first and foremost, and it drives similarly to gas-powered vehicles.

Hands-on with the Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV

Although it’s not a performance vehicle, the VW ID.4 has enough power for everyday tasks like merging on the highway and passing in traffic. Volkswagen will have other offerings, including the AWD version of the ID.4, if you’re looking for additional power.

What stood out most for me was how responsive the vehicle was, especially when turning. The turning radius is very good for an SUV of this size, making it easy to do u-turns. This was a huge departure from my daily driver, which feels like driving a small boat in comparison.

Another mainstay of electric vehicles is regenerative braking, which will slow acceleration while simultaneously recharging the battery. While the ID.4 doesn’t feature so-called “one-pedal driving,” you can easily enable stronger regenerative braking, which means using the actual brakes a lot less.

Storage

The VW ID.4 is a real SUV and can accommodate five individuals comfortably. VW notes that it provides more passenger volume than the 2021 Toyota RAV 4.

There is plenty of storage in the rear of the vehicle, thanks to the split rear folding seats. Accessing that rear storage is easy with the powered liftgate. You’ll also find two hidden storage compartments in the back, which are great for hiding valuables or less-often-used items.

CarPlay

CarPlay brings a seamless iPhone experience to your vehicle’s primary display, providing safer interaction with your phone while bringing Siri voice control and text-to-speech to your vehicle. CarPlay brings Apple Maps, Apple Music, Podcasts, and even third-party apps to the VW ID.4 in a simple and safe manner. Of course, you can also make phone calls or listen and respond to text messages using your voice.

As someone who drives an electric vehicle that will probably never have CarPlay, I didn’t realize how much I missed the feature until driving the ID.4. For an iPhone user (the vehicle also supports Android Auto), the convenience of CarPlay can’t be overstated, and the VW ID.4’s available 12-inch screen makes the CarPlay experience stand out.

As an Apple Music subscriber, one of my favorite things about CarPlay, and one of the features that I miss the most on my daily driver, is Apple Music. CarPlay provides access to the entire library of over 75 million songs and allows you to request any of them on-demand with a simple voice command. Even better is the fact that your entire curated music library, including all of your playlist and albums, is easily accessible.

CarPlay is a feature that I’ve enjoyed in other vehicles, but to have it presented on the VW ID.4’s massive 12-inch display makes apps like Apple Maps even easier to use. CarPlay also works with third-party mapping applications like Google Maps and Waze.

The VW ID.4 includes a couple of additional available tech options that make CarPlay even better. For starters, there’s wireless CarPlay connectivity, which means you don’t have to plug in any cables to get connected – simply get in the vehicle, and it automatically connects to your iPhone. Secondly, the VW ID.4 features a wireless charger, which means your phone can stay charged even though it’s not connected to a physical cable.

Additional standout features

In additional to CarPlay, there are other standout features offered that I enjoyed:

  • A panoramic roof, but also a retractable sunshade to keep the cabin from getting too hot.
  • Massaging driver and passenger seats.
  • Customizable RGB ambient lighting for the footwell, doors, and dash.

Electrify America

I stopped at my local Electrify America charging station, which is one of over 600 such charging stations around the country (with another 100+ coming soon).

Charging is easy, and you can monitor the charging status on the 12-inch display. In addition, Plug and Charge is coming, which will make charging even easier than pumping gas. Compared to the average gas vehicle, the VW ID.4 electric SUV can provide as much as $4000 in estimated fuel cost savings over five years.

Conclusion

Driving the all-electric Volkswagen ID.4 means zero direct emissions, which is great for the environment. While that might make you feel good, the car also has to be practical and work for you to be truly tenable. That’s why I think the VW ID.4, and vehicles like it, will play a big role in the advancement of electrification here locally, and in other areas around the world.

The Volkswagen ID.4 is practical, it also has the tech, the storage, and the down-to-earth design language. Combined with the familiar functionality, and it’s easy to see why this electric SUV will make it easy to transition from a gas-powered vehicle.


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Kate Nash says selling photos of her bum on OnlyFans paid for an extra tour crew member

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Kate Nash says selling photos of her bum on OnlyFans paid for an extra tour crew member

Kate Nash says selling photos of her bottom on the X-rated site OnlyFans has allowed her to add an extra crew member to her tour staff.

The 37-year-old singer says the fact she is having to subsidise her shows in this way shows that the music industry is “completely broken”.

She announced she was launching her OnlyFans account last week as she began the UK leg of her tour, and has previously said on Instagram that, “touring makes losses not profits”.

Speaking about her new venture to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she said it was “very funny” and “fun to do,” adding, “My industry is completely broken, I don’t think it’s sustainable, and I think it’s a complete failure, I think it will collapse as well”.

Going on to talk about “people finding solutions to fund their art,” she said: “I think it’s quite empowering, and I’m also creating jobs with my bum now.

“For example, I couldn’t bring a crew member that’s on tour with me in the UK to Europe, but now I can, because of my OnlyFans website.”

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She has previously described the career move as a “punk protest,” containing “lots of comedy”.

Speaking to LBC last week, she said: “The cost of touring has gone up. Just like the cost of living crisis, there’s a cost-of-touring crisis – where the cost of travel, accommodation, crew wages, bus rental, all the things that you need to pay for when you go on tour, everything’s gone up.

“But a lot of bands’ and artists’ fees for gigs have not gone up, whereas ticket prices have gone up.”

Nash also said music was an “exploitative industry,” adding, “I have had lots of experience of being exploited”.

She said it could “learn a lot from the sex industry”.

Beginning her career in 2005, Nash has had one UK top 10 single – 2007’s Foundations – and two UK top 10 albums.

She has just finished a three-week US tour and is now touring the UK before moving on to Europe. Her London gig later this week is sold out.

And Nash isn’t the only one branching out to bring in cash. Lily Allen said earlier this year that she had joined OnlyFans to sell photographs of her feet.

The 39-year-old Smile singer, who moved to the US in 2020, says she has “very strict guidelines” and is charging subscribers $10 (£8) a month to view images of her feet on the platform.

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Davina McCall says she has short-term memory problems after brain tumour surgery

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Davina McCall says she has short-term memory problems after brain tumour surgery

Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.

Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.

She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.

Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.

“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”

She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”

In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”

When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.

The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.

She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.

Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”

McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.

Kate coming out of the Big Brother house in 2002
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McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features

With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.

“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”

Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.

McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.

Davina McCall  with her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson after being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire
Pic: PA
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McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA

She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.

Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.

Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.

She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.

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Barbara Taylor Bradford, the ‘grand dame of blockbusters’, dies aged 91

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Barbara Taylor Bradford, the 'grand dame of blockbusters', dies aged 91

Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.

The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.

Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.

The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.

The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.

Barbara Taylor Bradford,.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
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Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA

Barbara Taylor Bradford on her 21st birthday.
Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
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The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA

Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”

Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.

Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
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Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA

File photo dated 01/06/93 of Barbara Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert at Claridges Hotel, London, during a visit to launch her new blockbuster book "Angels". Bestselling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who wrote A Woman of Substance, has died at the age of 91, it has been announced. Issue date: Monday November 25, 2024.
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Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA

Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.

At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.

She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.

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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.

Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.

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