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A kit designed to quickly and cheaply turn petrol cars into hybrid vehicles has won the prestigious James Dyson Award and could one day help cut Australia's transport emissions.

RMIT student Alexander Burton, 21, on Wednesday claimed the national design award for his creation called REVR, or Rapid Electric Vehicle Retrofit, that he initially designed for his 20-year-old Toyota Corolla.

If successful, the REVR kit could add an electric motor and battery pack to standard petrol vehicles to deliver up to 150km of zero-emission driving.

The award comes as transport emissions continue to rise in Australia despite efforts to cut pollution and move from petrol and diesel cars to electric and hybrid.

Mr Burton, who is studying sustainable systems engineering and industry design, told AAP he had been working on a system to transform petrol cars as a "passion project" when he became aware of the James Dyson Award.

"I've been wanting to convert my car for quite a while, a 20-year-old Toyota, just because it would be great to have an electric vehicle and they're still expensive at the moment," he said.

Converting petrol cars using electric engines was typically an expensive and time-consuming process, he said, involving replacment of existing parts with custom-built mechanics.

His vision for the REVR kit was to create an axial flux motor that could be mounted to the rotor of the disc brake, a battery pack that would fit inside the spare wheel well, and a sensor that could be added to the accelerator.

The kit, he said, would add between 100 and 150km of electric range and could be fitted within hours by car enthusiasts or an auto shop.

"You could drive the vehicle around, do all your commuting with the electric motor, and you could remove most emissions of the vehicle," Mr Burton said.

"If you were going on vacation and there weren't many charging points, you could switch it over to the petrol engine."

Mr Burton said he would use the award's $8800 prize to build a "fully functional kit".

Dyson design engineering head John McGarva, who helped judge the 2023 awards, said REVR represents an innovative way to reduce emissions.

"Alexander has done a brilliant job in packing the motor into such a tight space and has built virtual and physical prototypes to understand the design space and performance limitations," he said.

"I look forward to the next round of prototypes which, if successful, will enable this innovation to be commercialised."

The vehicle conversion kit could come at a challenging time for the automotive industry after figures showed transport emissions rose by 6.4 per cent in the year to March despite higher sales of electric and hybrid vehicles.

© AAP 2023

Grocery chain ALDI has become the first major Australian supermarket to exclusively stock local avocados in all of its stores.

Consumers will only be able to buy Australian-grown avocados at the chain's 586 stores from Wednesday.

But it is not known what the decision will mean for prices.

"It is always our intention to support Aussie growers first, so it makes complete sense for us to stock only Australian avocados in our stores," Matt Atley from ALDI Australia said.

Avocados Australia boss John Tyas welcomed the decision and hoped other supermarket chains would follow suit.

"Our production base has really been growing and we've gotten to a point where we don't need imported avocados now, Australian growers can supply everything that's needed here domestically," Mr Tyas said.

He couldn't say whether the move would result in cheaper prices.

"Supply and demand will determine what prices do and it's a pretty competitive landscape, particularly with the massive volumes of products that are expected to be harvested over the coming months," Mr Tyas said.

He said Australian producers supplied all avocados during autumn and winter with New Zealand supplementing supply for the rest of the year.

But with a huge bump in production in Western Australia during the past decade there was no longer a need for imported avocados.

"We can satisfy what the domestic market needs all year round, in fact, we're now really pushing export markets because of the abundance of fruit," he told AAP.

A total of 213 million avocados, or 47 million tonnes, are expected to be harvested between September and the end of the year, with a record crop anticipated for Western Australia.

Annual avocado production in 2021/22 was a record 122,000 tonnes, which is expected to grow to a new mark of 145,000 tonnes this year and balloon to 170,000 tonnes by 2026.

"There's a lot of trees in the ground that are yet to come into full production, so we're expecting to see Australia's supply continue to increase," Mr Tyas said.

© AAP 2023

Apple has unveiled a new iPhone 15 Pro with a titanium case and faster chip that enables better cameras and mobile gaming, moves designed to respond to a global smartphone slump.

The new line-up includes iPhone 15 starting at $US799 ($A1244 although Apple says it will cost from $A1499 in Australia) and iPhone 15 Plus starting at $US899.

Apple chose not to raise prices during a tough period globally for smartphone sales.

For the Pro series, prices start at $US999 and the Pro Max at $US1199, the same prices as last year for the same levels of storage, available starting on September 22.

Both the Pro and other iPhone 15 models will have a brighter display and a 48-megapixel camera as well as 100 per cent recycled cobalt in their batteries.

Apple said the iPhone 15's satellite connectivity can now be used to summon roadside assistance.

Apple said that USB-C charging cables - as the tech giant moves towards European Union rules on cable standardisation - are coming to both its iPhone 15 and the charging case of its AirPods Pro devices, allowing the use of the same charging cables already used for iPads and Macs.

It will feature the same A16 Bionic chip inside that previously formed the brains of the iPhone 14 Pro.

The event at Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters comes amid lingering economic uncertainty, especially in China, Apple's third-largest market where it faces challenges from expanded restrictions on using its iPhones in government offices and the first new flagship phone in several years from Huawei.

The announcements largely met expectations and shares were down 1.7 per cent after the first hour of the event.

Apple said the iPhone 15 Pro Max - the largest phone the company makes - will have a new camera lens with a longer optical zoom than previous models.

The lenses uses a series of prisms to emulate the performance of a longer lens.

Apple also said that the new USB-C connector on iPhone 15 Pro models will allow videographers to record high-quality video directly to an external hard drive, making it easier to use the phone as a professional video camera.

Apple also said the iPhone 15 Pro can capture what it calls "spatial videos" by using two of the device's cameras to capture a three-dimensional video.

Those videos will be viewable on Apple's Vision Pro headset that is due out early next year, marketing chief Greg Joswiak said.

An Apple executive said the company used machine learning to detect a person in the frame, allowing users to turn a picture into a portrait immediately or later in the Photos app.

Apple also showed off a new Series 9 Watch with a feature called "double tap" where users tap thumb and finger together twice, without touching the watch, in order to perform tasks like answering a phone call.

It uses machine learning to detect tiny changes in blood flow when the user taps their fingers together, freeing up the other hand for other tasks like walking a dog or holding a cup of coffee, Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams said.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has new features for cycling and diving and what Apple said is the brightest screen it has ever made.

The Series 9 will start at $US399 and the Ultra 2 watch will start at $US799 and be available on September 22.

Apple will no longer use leather in any of its products, the company's environmental chief Lisa Jackson said.

The company is replacing some of those products with a textile called "FineWoven" that it says feel like suede.

with PA

© RAW 2023