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Media Platforms Design TeamWe’ll make this quick: Nintendo’sWiiwill be out on Nov. 19 gaming console , priced at $250, in the USA. The company also announced that at least 25 game titles would be available. What’s so special about Wii? Well, for one there’s that price, which Nintendo hopes will make the box more appealing to the masses (sure beats $600 for PlayStation3). There is also Wii’s innovative motion-sensing Bluetooth controller, which players can parry and thrust like a sword or swing like a tennis racket during gameplay....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast July a power outage in India , showing just how much strain the nation’s bursting population is putting on its power grid. India’s government needs an infusion of electrical capacity, and the cleaner the better—the country is the world’s third-leading emitter of carbon dioxide.left 600 million people without powerTo meet the demand, India’s considerable legacy of building dams will turn into the stuff of legend: The country plans a new dam-building effort that could see as many as nearly 300 new dams near the majestic Himalayan mountain range in the next two decades....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: June 2011 Price: $138,000Competitors: Porsche 911 Carrera 4S; Maserati GranTurismo S Powertrain: 4.7-liter V8, 430-hp, 361 lb-ft; seven-speed auto-manual, rear-wheel drive EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 14/21 (est.)What’s New: Aston reps say 40 upgrades have been made over the previous year’s Vantage. Notable changes include the “automated manual” seven-speed Sportshift II transmission, which is a single-clutch gearbox that’s operated by the computer. Drivers can choose from fully automatic operation or direct the shifts with paddles mounted on the steering column....

Black holes are the densest thing in the universe, and even a child knows that ultimately (and with slight caveats) even light can’t escape them. But many black holes, including our galaxy’s center Sagitarrius A, are content to slowly feast on passing gas clouds and stars, rather than violently pull them in. But the supermassive black hole at the center of PGC 043234 is different. It’s an especially active, violent black hole....

We’ve known for a while crows were some of the smartest birds, or even animals, out there. And we’ve known they have an apparent propensity for using tools. But a paper in Biology Letters outlines a new video in which the birds were caught making tools in the wild. Researchers Jolyon Troscianko and Christian Rutz attached cameras to New Caledonian crows and monitored the footage. They recorded the first footage of crows building tools in the wild, rather than in captivity....

Update 10:02AM ET: Watch the final reentry stages for the XIV live here!The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is the European Space Agency’s new wingless space plane, with a design looking like some cross between the cockpit of the Space Shuttle and a bullet. Its launch, delayed since October 2014, will take place Wednesday at 8:00 AM ET.Instead of wings, the craft is designed with pivoting flaps that can guide it through re-entry....

Google may have just changed the game when it comes to storing and sharing all of your photos and videos. At today’s I/O conference, the company announced Google Photos, its new app now freed from the clutches of Google+ (which was not mentioned once so far today).Here’s the bombshell: The app will allow you to store unlimited high-quality photo and video for free, at up to 16 megapixels for photos and in 1080p quality for video....

Media Platforms Design Team In 1959, America’s space program lagged behind the Soviet effort—and PM wasn’t picking the United States to reach the moon first. “The way things are going at present, the men who emerge to put the first footprints into the ancient lunar dust will not be Americans,” wrote contributor Dan Posin, a nuclear physicist and leading scientific commentator. Today, a different space race is underway. The goal is still to reach the moon, but this time the competitors are private teams scrambling to nab a $20 million purse....

Thick sideburns, clean-cut but full heads of hair and fresh-looking faces framed by chunky, black glasses. That was NASA of the 1960s. Considering all the flag-waving young celebrants, the photos of Mission Control just after Apollo 11 safely parachuted into the Pacific on July 24, 1969, could be mistaken for a Fourth of July frat party. You can’t help but think they look a bit young to be sending men to the moon....

Media Platforms Design TeamParis, France— Jaguar’s C-X75 concept was a surprise to everyone. We all expected the company to display a small sedan to slot in beneath the XF, a model the expanding brand desperately needs. Jaquar had other plans. Instead, the company pulled the sheet off of this lusty two-seat supercar. Like several other concepts like the Porsche 918, the C-X75 employs electric motors for forward thrust. But in the Jag’s case, there’s a 195 hp motor for each of the four wheels....

There are plenty of ways that the revolution in unmanned vehicles can reach beyond specially made frontline aircraft and tracked robots. Why not retrofit existing vehicles to make them unmanned? Utah-based Kairos Autonomi sells a conversion kit called the Pronto4 Strap-On Autonomy System that can transform any steered vehicle into an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle. By installing a control box and drilling four holes in the vehicle’s floor to allow wires to pass through, a crew can make a vehicle unmanned or remotely operated in 4 hours....

The MythBusters are back with a new season this Sunday, and they’re tackling our favorite subject—duct tape!—in a way they’ve never done before.In the season premiere, PM contributing editors Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage will be left on a deserted island with nothing but a pallet of duct tape. They’ll use it to try to gather water, find food, build shelter, and maybe even escape. If this video of outtakes is any indication, their time on the island wasn’t easy as building a duct tape bridge or sailboat....

https://soundcloud.com/popular-mechanics-podcast/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-pluto-and-the-probeWhether you believe Pluto to be a planet or not, the pictures that NASA has been releasing since New Horizons’ flyby are a stunning reminder that even a dwarf planet can be beautiful and awe-inspiring. Also awe-inspiring: the work it took to get the New Horizons probe to the far reaches of our solar system, 3.5 billion miles from home. On this episode of the How Your World Works podcast, we explain how the New Horizons mission worked....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamIn the world of browsers there are many choices, but four rise above the others: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Now, new data released over the weekend shows which browsers are becoming a powerhouse and which are going the way of the dinosaur.Despite its limitations (only available on Windows) and recent security threats, one that led Homeland Security to issue a statement urging users to switch browsers until the problem was resolved, Internet Explorer still holds the lion’s share of browser users, claiming up to 58 percent desktop usability in June, according to Computerworld....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. Media Platforms Design TeamPhoto Credit: Pincetomseaview via Wikimedia CommonsTalk about multitasking: Earlier this month, The Economist reported on a new technology that converts urine to electricity. The British team that created the method has dubbed it “urine-tricity.“The system contains fuel cells with living microbes that eat nutrients in the urine as it flows through. The bacteria munch away and release electrons in the process, which migrate to electrodes in the fuel cell and create an electrical current....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. Media Platforms Design TeamShewanella bacteria are already kind of weird—they breathe solid iron and can thrive in both oxygen and oxygen-free environments. But things just got weirder. A team of researchers has filmed a video of these microbes shooting out strange tendrils from their cells. And it definitely feels like it’s out of a sci-fi movie: View full post on YoutubeSo what are these wires?...

My apartment, like many others, is a thriving robot ecosystem—and it can tell us a lot about our robotic future.Each morning, two Frisbee-shaped Roomba robotic vacuums emerge from beneath the living room couch like a pair of magical elves. The whine of robot rotors wakes me up instantly; they are first and foremost my alarm clocks. I sleepwalk to the shower and stay under the hot water until a busy robot inevitably butts its head into the bathroom door, startling me out of my daydreams....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe slick, white race car “Mach 5”–boasting a top speed of 300 mph and max torque of 1000 lb.-ft.–featured in the upcoming Speed Racer movie is on display. Its specs are impressive, until you take a closer look and realize the lights are decals and body joints are simply lines of black paint. With the sophistication of the movie’s digital F/X, Warner Bros. opted to forgo a drivable vehicle, creating just the shell of the machine....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn August, we asked why Afghan President Hamid Karzai is so eager to shut down law enforcement operations aimed at stopping the underground flow of billions of dollars from Afghanistan. The answer seems to be: his administration is directly involved in the illicit transfers.“For all its poverty, there are people making lots of money in Afghanistan,” we wrote. “The trick is getting it out of the country―and billions of dollars have migrated out of the nation, much of it believed by U....

Media Platforms Design Team The warmer months are upon us. Grasses are greener, trees are billowing with newborn buds, and telephone poles are ripe with freshly stapled signage announcing the weekend’s upcoming yard sale. Take a deep breath, ignore that fragrant smell of lavender and lilac, and focus on the sweet, sweet scent of savings. Here’s where to start your yard-sale-season dominance.Begin by [1] AGGREGATING LOCATION INFORMATION and [2] SAVING THE DATES....