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Media Platforms Design TeamThe first thing I thought when I saw Microsoft’s new Zune HD player ($220 for 16GB and $290 for 32GB) was, “Man, that thing would make a great phone.” Its size is just right for a cell phone. It has a 3-in., gorgeous OLED touchscreen with intense contrast (although it is not, as the name of the device might imply, high-definition). The Zune interface is quick and responsive to every tap and flick of the finger....

Google surprised the automotive world with the recent announcement that the company has produced its own fleet of driverless Toyota Priuses. The company says that its cars have driven themselves for 140,000 miles—with a driver in the seat, just in case—making Google’s fleet the most thoroughly tested autonomous cars to date. Considering that the first DARPA competition in 2004 ended without any of the competitors finishing the 150-mile course, the technology is moving fast....

LAS VEGAS — Interestingly, one of the biggest news stories at CES isn’t actually happening here. It’s happening in San Francisco, where Steve Jobs will deliver the opening keynote this morning at 9:00 AM Pacific Time. By now, it seems well established that Steve will launch an Apple phone with Cingular (as wasreported yesterday in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal).In fact, the biggest surprise at Macworld would be if Jobs didn’t introduce an Apple phone....

Media Platforms Design TeamAfter Elon Musk finally revealed his plans for the Hyperloop ultra-high-speed transportation system on August 12, the billionaire entrepreneur released his proposal out in the world, open-source, hoping someone would pick up the idea and run with it. Well, now someone has.Marco Villa, formerly the director of mission operations for Musk’s SpaceX company, and Patricia Galloway, formerly the president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, have emerged as the leaders of an effort to actually finance and build Hyperloop, which, in Musk’s vision, would be able to carry passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles at speeds in excess of 700 miles per hour....

Media Platforms Design TeamTo transform into our 16th president for the history-bending , out June 22, exhaustively researched Lincoln’s life. He endured a 6-hour process while artists applied foam latex facial prosthetics to produce the former president’s visage. And he worked out up to 4 hours per day to get Abe’s frame. But perhaps the most important part of his training involved getting comfortable with Lincoln’s favorite tool: an ax. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire HunterBenjamin WalkerIn the film, the president uses the silver-coated blade as a spinning, twirling weapon of vampire destruction....

Brick archways and fireplace mantels are ideal locations for Christmas lights, but hanging them to this type of material is challenging. Here’s a simple tip to that will save your brick and allow you to hang lights wherever you want.Masonry fasteners and anchors are permanently placed into concrete, brick, and stucco, but are complete overkill for hanging Christmas lights. They can damage walls and interior surfaces, plus they leave unsightly marks and screw heads....

For all the smoothness and power V12 sedans deliver, they gulp gasoline at a voracious pace. So Lexus goes a different route. The LS 600h L uses a 5.0-liter V8 mated to a hybrid drive system to deliver a total of 438 hp and mileage in the low 20s. Like the Prius, the longest Lexus can operate solely on electric power at low speeds for short periods of time. And, Lexus has developed a new hydrocarbon absorber to further decrease emissions....

Charlie Isaacs, the young physicist working on the Thin Man bomb, begins the episode sitting in a doctor’s office in Los Alamos, contemplating his health. He’s not alone. Questions about the health of persons, programs, relationships, systems, and organisms drive the sixth episode of WGN’s Los Alamos drama.Charlie, who doesn’t seem to enjoy his trips to the doctor’s office, finds out he’s getting baseline radiation levels checked before he makes a trip that could expose him to serious amounts of it....

Media Platforms Design TeamA world without both spam and AIDS would be a much better place, and it turns out that one may lead to the other. How exactly? The ability of a computer to recognize that “Viagra” is the same as “V1agra” or “Vi@gra” requires the same skills needed for a vaccine to recognize the constantly evolving AIDS virus.In other words, spam-fighting pioneer David Heckerman of Microsoft Research says, an immune system is just like a spam filter....

Media Platforms Design TeamHardware:The basic specs are familiar, but worth repeating. The Xoom has a Tegra 2 processor with dual 1GHz cores; 1GB of RAM; a 1280 x 800, 10.1-inch screen in a movie-friendly16:9 aspect ratio; front and rear-facing cameras; HDMI output; a microSD card slot; and built in 3G, upgradable to LTE 4G. On paper, this thing blows away the current Apple iPad (which is rumored to be up for an upgrade next week, but still…) and when it comes to launching and switching between apps, the Xoom is noticeably faster, but it is still surprisingly slow when it comes to things such as orientation switching and boot time (I timed its cold startup at 48 seconds, the iPad took 33 seconds)....

“Robots will take over the world.” It’s a familiar refrain from movie scientists, conspiracy theorists, or your paranoid friend after he saw a TV special on autonomous cars. As artificial intelligence research accelerates in sophistication, it has also set off alarm bells and calls for caution from some of the brightest minds in the world, such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking. For South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, however, optimism overpowers the concerns....

Media Platforms Design TeamWASHINGTON — The images of the war in Iraq typically center on U.S. Army troops or Marines working their way through cities, kicking down doors and searching for contraband, and calling in airstrikes. But there have been key changes in the invisible, electronic front lines that most observers don’t talk about. The newer systems used in combat by the U.S. Navy today are the forebears of gear that will be used on new warplanes and unmanned aircraft....

Media Platforms Design TeamTo make sure its successful SUV remains competitive in the full-size segment, Dodge decided to focus on making the 2014 Durango look a little meaner and get better fuel efficiency. Exterior styling updates include a new front fascia with Dodge’s new “floating” crosshair grille, projector headlights with optional LED running lights, a restyled rear fascia, and the same rear racetrack taillights seen on the Charger and Dart.The Durango’s new 8-speed transmission is a first for the class and is controlled by a radial shifter knob....

The United States has 100 nuclear reactors in 62 plants, supplying over 19 percent of our electricity. Several more plants are scheduled to start operating within the next decade. How does nuclear fit within President Obama’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy? We see every fuel and technology and efficiency as having a place in a low-carbon marketplace. As far as nuclear goes, I believe there are two issues. One will be the cost and scheduled performance of the new reactors being built in Georgia and South Carolina....

Media Platforms Design Team In our last update, we announced that the Cornell team had selected a Geo Metro as our mule car for the Automotive X Prize. Picking the right ride was an important step in developing our plug-in hybrid entry, but over the next semester the real hands-on work gets interesting. We’ve set an aggressive goal to have the vehicle up and running for reliability testing as early as this summer....

Media Platforms Design TeamMuted film critic Roger Ebert recently got his voice back. Ebert, who lost the ability to speak after years of battling thyroid and jaw cancers, worked with the Scottish text-to-speech company CereProc to create a nonrobotic synthesized voice that mimics his natural tone. The company sifted through 10 years of the commentator’s TV and DVD audio to create the prototype. Popular Mechanics caught up with Chris Pidcock, co-founder and chief voice engineer of CereProc, to learn how they did it and when we could get one for ourselves....

Media Platforms Design TeamJuly 19 launch of the Foton-M4. Credit: RoscosmosIt was supposed to be a romantic vacation to space. But for five Russian geckos, orbiting Earth might have deadly consequences. Launched on July 19, the Foton-M4 research satellite set out to see how geckos (four male and one female) would mate in zero gravity. The spacecraft also carried plants and insects for 60 days of experiments, The Washington Post reports....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team LOS ANGELES — If Ducati’s awesome 1098 is just too much motorcycle—and let’s be clear, 160 hp is a bit too much for the average rider—its saner sibling might be the perfect choice. Hiding an 849cc L-twin beneath the same sexy bodywork as its more powerful stablemate, the 848 takes many of the 1098’s personality traits and tones them down a notch. The dry clutch, for instance, has been ditched for a more conventional, multi-plate wet clutch....

Media Platforms Design Team CHICAGO—The 2009 Ford F-150 looks even tougher in full Harley-Davidson regalia. The newest Harley-Ford collaboration comes in either menacing Tuxedo Black Metallic or Deep Lava Red, with a bunch of unique styling licks too. So what makes this Harley edition special? Well, the SuperCrew body wears chrome block letters along the top edge of the pickup bed spelling out the famous motorcycle maker’s name. There’s a unique six-bar grille treatment too....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe all-new 2011 Volvo S60 four-door sport sedan made its first North American appearance today at the New York Auto Show. The T6 version, available in the U.S. market this fall, has a 3-liter, turbocharged engine and six-speed automatic transmission, boasting 300 hp and no less than 325 lb-ft of torque. The S60 also presents the array of safety features we’ve come to expect from the automaker. The new Pedestrian Protection System incorporates full auto-brake capabilities at speeds up to 22 mph, and the roll-angle sensor alerts the car’s anti-skid sensor to hazardous driving conditions at an early stage....