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Media Platforms Design TeamSTUTTGART, Germany— Just when you thought the classic, rear-engined Porsche 911 was on its last legs—nudged from its throne by the poise and power of new mid-engine Porsche Cayman and Porsche Boxster models—along comes a new one to reassert its primacy. In this case, it’s the newborn 2009 Porsche 911, complete with more powerful and economical engines and the option of a new twin-clutch PDK transmission. Indeed, these improvements help keep the iconic Porsche one step ahead of its lower-price brethren....

On Sale Date: Now Price: $11,495–$13,995Competitors: Brammo EmpulsePowertrains: Permanent magnet, brushless motor with forced air cooling, 420 amp, 3-phase. 5.3 kWh nominal, 6.0 kWh max capacity (ZF6); 7.9 kWh nominal, 9.0 kWh (ZF9), single-speed clutchless transmission, RWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 487/273 MPGeWhat’s New: The buzzwords here are range and top speed. This bike is supposed to deliver up to 114 miles from a single charge and reach 88 mph, an improvement of more than double the distance and 21 mph compared with its predecessors....

Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swaggert turned around what could have been one of the biggest tragedies in space exploration history into a heroic recovery during the Apollo 13 mission. The trio has been the subject of a hit movie, but now they have garnered the highest honor of all: They’re all going to be LEGO minifigures.Minifigs.me created the custom astronauts, who are available alongside mission control flight director Gene Kranz, who helped the team from below....

Media Platforms Design TeamCredit: NASA/JPLAfter taking several scoops from the surface of Mars, Curiosity had its first taste of the Martian soil last night, researchers announced during a press conference today.The first scoop, taken from a dusty patch of soil dubbed “Rocknest,” was used to clean out the rover’s sample sorting tool, the Collection and Handling for Interior Martian Analysis (CHIMIRA). Think of it as cleansing the palate: The rover took in soil, shook it inside CHIMIRA, and spit it back out—removing any Earthly traces that could contaminate future soil samples....

Dubai’s Directorate of Civil Defense plans to equip its firefighters with jetpacks to combat fires in the city’s notoriously high skyscrapers. On November 9, at the Dubai Air Show the government organization signed a memorandum of understanding with the Martin Aircraft Company for as many as 20 jetpacks. Martin will also supply the Directorate of Civil Defense with two jetpack simulators and lead training courses for the firefighters of Dubai. Martin Jetpacks can be piloted as well as operated remotely, making them a versatile tool for fighting fires 100 stories off the ground....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Wednesday Apple officially rolled out iOS 8, the newest version of its operating system for iPhone and iPad. The new OS will come standard on the company’s new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but you don’t have to buy a new phone: Anyone rocking an iPhone 4S or newer or iPad 2 or above can download the update today and start using some of the OS’ great new features....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn early March International Data Corp. (IDC) announced that worldwide PC sales last year fell by about 10 percent, the largest slump on record. The firm expects that sales will continue falling, albeit less dramatically, for the next two years. IDC’s rival Gartner had previously released similar figures, also showing a 10 percent slump in worldwide 2013 PC sales. Not only is this the worst slump on record, but total sales were reminiscent of 2009, during the throes of the Great Recession, Gartner added....

Media Platforms Design TeamIsraeli Aerospace Industries’ Harop drone is a special kind of terrifying. The drone is essentially an unmanned missile plane, with a remote operator aiming it at a target before the drone strikes and explodes itself as the main weapons payload. Designed for “time-critical” missions, the ground-launched drone can see in infrared and looks a bit like a Klingon Bird of Prey. While developed in Israel, the UAVs are also part of the arsenal of India, Azerbaijan, and Germany....

A supercomputer has sorted through a large swath of art history and algorithmically determined the most creative works. Goya’s there. So is da Vinci. And Monet, Michelangelo, Lichtenstein, Munch, and more. Two Rutgers researchers, Ahmed Elgammal and Babak Saleh, put these machines to work sorting through 62,000 famous works of art, sorting through metadata such as the year a work was painted and determining the differences in color, shape, and composition in the painting....

Who’s the better driver: you or your car? That question isn’t answered quite as easily as you might think. Modern, computer controlled stability systems can act as an on-board professional race driver. They can brake individual wheels or cut the engine’s power to help you swerve around an accident or keep your tires on that twisty mountain road. But can your own safe driving skills and intuition do the job just as well—or better—than some computer?...

When the Air Force wants to drop a bomb on someone but not blow up his neighbor, the options are pretty limited. They want to change that by developing smaller, more targeted bombs, including one that is housed in a carbon fiber case, decreasing shrapnel, and intensifying the explosion at the target – not around it. Metallic powder might also take the place of metal shrapnel: The powder flies at a deadly velocity close to the target, but its energy quickly dissipates as it fans out, allowing the military to tightly control the danger radius of an explosion....

One way to prevent runoff is to divert water from your gutters to a rain garden–a 6-in.-deep depression filled with water-loving plants. A properly designed garden will absorb standing water within hours, so it won’t turn into a mosquito breeding ground.Site ItPlant the garden on a gentle slope (less than 12 degrees) at least 10 ft. from the house. To test the soil, dig a 6-in. hole and fill it with water....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast week, Davin Coburn headed to the Pacific Northwest to learn about one company’s revolutionary new build process for their high-performance kitplane—and then to go for a test drive, to figure out what it was like 180 degrees from a midtown Manhattan office. Catch up with his journey by clicking here, then take to the skies below… The plan today calls for us to meander north — but first we have to backtrack for a fuel stop at Powell River....

Media Platforms Design TeamSony Cybershot DSC-G3 /// $500 The Claim: It’s the first camera with a built-in Web browser. The camera connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi so users can upload content to photo- and video-sharing sites like Picasa and YouTube. It’s not the first camera with a Wi-Fi Internet connection, but because it has a full Web browser, users can log on using public hotspots that require surfing through a browser-based login page....

Media Platforms Design TeamDETROIT — Here’s one you can help us out on: We spotted this slightly unusual Ford Mustang last week while it was being carted around here in the Motor City. And we wouldn’t have given it a second thought, except for the taped-over identification on the trunk. The side lettering (see below at right) identifies this red beauty as a Mustang GT, but it’s obvious that the car is something different....

The flying car is finally here, or so we are told. There has been much buzz of late about the Terrafugia “Transition,” a two-seater aircraft with four wheels that can be driven on the road, after the Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA) issued a decision that seemed a major milestone in Terrafugia’s march to the marketplace. As the Discovery Channel reported in its article Flying Car Gets FAA Approval:“The Federal Aviation Administration has just removed a major hurdle from the path of a vehicle that may well be the first commercially viable flying car....

The Ansari XPRIZE helped kick off a new era of space exploration by opening up a challenge for private suborbital flight. But since then, the XPRIZE Foundation set its sights a little higher – about 238,000 miles away. And now, Israeli team SpaceIL looks to be the closest to the finish line of the Google Lunar XPRIZE, becoming the first team in the competition to certify a launch with the foundation....

An editor relayed to me this advice about commuting by bicycle: Think of cycling as expedited walking, not as a human-powered attempt to match the automobile. Look at pictures of bicycle-friendly cities such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen and you’ll see that everyone has upright-posture bicycles that accommodate this philosophy. Riders wear suits and move at a dignified speed. As someone who used to ride hard to work through San Francisco’s hills—so intensely that I had to shower upon arrival—this philosophy sounds appealing....

Saturn’s moon Titan has a thick atmosphere, lakes on its surface, and many ingredients that might make it a great place to find life The problem is, it’s frigid there: Temperatures reach nearly -200 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh, and its seas are all liquid methane. That means that life as we know it probably can’t live there. But Cornell University researchers are proposing something else: that the moon could have nitrogen-based life living on the surface, feasting on the vast methane seas....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhy do quadrotors have four rotorswhy not just one, like a helicopter?You might think that, you know, a helicopter has one rotor, so what could be more simple than that? But the helicopter actually is more complicated mechanically.When a propeller turns, it generates a lift which is perpendicular to the blades of the propeller. This is not unlike a conventional propeller airplane or helicopter. But imagine opening a door....