Posts

Media Platforms Design TeamNot so long ago, it took very little effort to rattle off a list of things that Blackberries were the absolute best at. Killer keyboards? Nothing beat the ‘Berry. Worry-free e-mail service? Ditto. Epic battery life? Gotta grab a BlackBerry.But as iPhones and Android-based phones have steadily increased their functionality—and their ability to thrive in the business world, which was once BlackBerry’s exclusive domain—BlackBerry hardware and the operating systems that fuel it have begun to feel positively dated....

Media Platforms Design TeamHow’s this for eye-popping hyperbole in an economic downturn: Bluline Innovations claims that its $150 PowerCost Monitor will “save up to 20 cents on every dollar you’re spending right now on your electricity bill—without changing your lifestyle.” That seems a bit disingenuous, since the whole point of this product is to help you change your lifestyle, by showing off just how much power your home is using at any given time....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith its twin 900-foot towers and silvery steel cables, the $3.5 billion bridge is a striking symbol of Detroit’s rebirth. But it is something more than that. Along with a new rail tunnel and an intermodal freight-transfer hub, it’s a monument to those who knew that Detroit needed a dramatic stroke. By 2025, new transportation infrastructure has turned the city into a humming trade gateway between the American Midwest and the world....

Real barbecue involves cooking tougher, fattier cuts of meat like pork butt and beef brisket over a duration of 4 to 6 hours or longer at temperatures near the boiling point of water. The payoff: tough meat becomes flavorful and succulent, fat is rendered out and the low, smoky fire leaves the aroma of smoke permeating the meat. A good cook can make good BBQ in anything. I decided after years of working with a small water smoker–and recently acquiring a vacation house–to build one of my own....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhy can’t a computer be more like a television? When you push the power button on a TV, it just turns on. Computers, on the other hand, boot—as in, they take so long to get started that you want to stick your boot into them.You would think that the march of technological progress would have reduced boot times over the years, but newer operating systems can take longer—Microsoft Vista actually tends to boot more slowly than its predecessor, Windows XP....

On the corner of a nondescript block in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a bank, or what used to be a bank. Now it is the home of Roland G. Murphy Watch Company, the country’s only truly independent elite watchmaker. Inside, Murphy’s son-in-law, Adam Robertson, is bent over an old watchmaker’s drill press that looks like it was made during the Korean War. He uses an abrasive bit to create burnished, circular perlage on the underside of the main plate of the watch movement....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat inspired you to create the Elio? In 2008, oil prices were going through the roof. It was just really making me angry that so much money was pouring out of this country to people who don’t even like us so much. I guess I was complaining about it too much to my wife, so she finally told me I should do something about it. I went to work the next day and decided to kick the project off....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe $400,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom and $24,000 Ram 1500 don’t appear to have much in common. One is the acme of automotive extravagance; the other epitomizes blue-collar, working-class values. But as the cliché goes, appearances can be deceiving. Underneath the disparate bodies lies a shared automatic transmission—the ZF 8HP eight-speed, from German-based auto-parts supplier ZF Group. And these two are not alone. You can find the 8HP paired to 25 different engine families in vehicles sold in the United States....

Media Platforms Design TeamThis week, in the desert skies near Yuma, Ariz., the KillerBee unmanned aircraft system completed its first demonstration of combat capability, Raytheon Company spokesman John Nelson confirmed to PM. The KillerBee UAV, as PopularMechanics.com first reported in March, is Raytheon’s entry into the competition to create unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. During Tuesday’s test run, Raytheon crew members created a simulated combat experience for the KillerBee: They drove it out into the desert with Humvees, set up the system in less than 45 minutes, launched the aircraft and remotely guided it for about four hours....

Media Platforms Design TeamThere is one thing missing from the survival stories that you published in the April 2010 issue–the desire to live. You may think that is in all peoples’ thoughts, but it is not. I am a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. I was on watch just after midnight when the ship was hit [by torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-58]. At first I thought it was a boiler exploding because I saw flames shooting up through the stack....

Media Platforms Design TeamSuddenly, Jupiter’s moon Europa became an even more tantalizing prospect for those hoping to find life elsewhere in the solar system, as NASA scientists announced that it has shifting plate tectonics. It would be the first world other than Earth where this has been discovered.Europa—the sixth largest of Jupiter’s 67 confirmed moons—was already one of our solar system’s best bets for a potential habitability. Since the launch of NASA’s 1989 Galileo orbiter, which visited Jupiter and its satellites, scientists have discovered that Europa has not only ice-encrusted oceans of saltwater, but icy geysers and minerals associated with organic-materials....

Media Platforms Design TeamUPDATED, 4 PM…The wreckage of a small plane registered to famed test pilotScott Crossfield that went missing late Wednesday morning in the mountains 60 miles unorth of Atlanta has been found. Authorities have confirmed Thursday that the body of Mr. Crossfield was among the wreckage of the Cessna C-210 A, which was flying from Prattville, Ala., to Manassas, Va. and was last in radar contact at 11:15 a....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf New Horizons has taught us anything, it’s that Pluto is one of the weirdest objects ever explored by NASA, and that it’s system is no less chaotic. But a recent NASA demonstration displays just how chaotic its moons are. It’s moons don’t so much “revolve” as “spin like they’re in a free-fall.“Charon, Styx, Nix, Hydra, and Kerberos all likely came from the same ancient collision, and recent research suggests that at least three if not four of the smaller moons are contact binaries formed when two or more moons consolidated into one oddly shaped object....

The past two decades of exoplanet hunting have turned up hundreds of new worlds, and in recent years, that tally has grown to include many that appear to be close to the Earth in size. Yet most of these new planets are discovered indirectly, though the wobbling or dimming light of their parent stars. The planets themselves are just too far away to see.For scientists seeking truly Earth-like worlds out there in the cosmos, that’s a problem....

At 8 pm, the Queen of the North departed Prince Rupert, British Columbia, near the southern tip of the Alaska Panhandle, on its regularly scheduled service to Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island. The route, which weaves past deep fjords and islands draped in rain forest, is popular with cruise ships plying the Inside Passage; in summer, the Queen typically made the 15-hour trip as a day liner fully booked with 700 passengers and crew, but in the off-season it sailed at night....

Media Platforms Design TeamPOPULAR MECHANICS: You’ve done a lot of films with disasters and destruction, so I’m curious how the disasters in 2012 compare to some of your other films, from a visual-effects standpoint.ROLAND EMMERICH: It’s all done on the computer this time. That’s the biggest change. You know, when I compare this to Independence Day, that was like the Stone Age. We still used motion control in Independence Day. So that’s really, really outdated....

“System Error"That’s the story badge for a post on Fusion today about a recent video of a Volvo XC60 driving into a group of bystanders. Labeled “Self-parking car accident!”, the clip shows the vehicle backing up and then accelerating into a group of people who expect it to stop. But it doesn’t.Here’s the problem: There was no system error. If there was any error, it was with the humans operating the vehicle....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat Is ItMitsubishi PX-MiEV ConceptThe SpecsThis plug-in hybrid is loaded with hardware. We’ll start with the battery, a lithium-ion pack that has enough energy storage to power this SUV for the first 30 miles. The electricity flows to a pair of 80-hp electric motors–one per axle. When the battery is depleted, a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine kicks on and can either charge the battery or contribute motive power. That’s right, this car has three modes–EV, series hybrid and parallel hybrid....

Media Platforms Design TeamDEARBORN, Mich.—Specification sheets rarely tell the whole story. Examine the details on the upcoming 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 and one might think it’s last year’s model with a new body, a fresh interior, oh and of course—another 30 hp. Yes, the 2010 model delivers a full 540 horsepower. But examine the details of the GT500 as we did and you’ll notice Ford engineers embarked on a substantial rework of the GT500’s suspension....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale: February 2011Price Range: $30,000–$40,000 (est.)Competitors: Ford Mustang, Dodge ChallengerPowertrains: 3.6-liter V6, 312 hp, 278 lb-ft; 6.2-liter V8, 400–426 hp, 410–420 lb-ft; 6-speed manual or automatic, rear driveFuel Economy (city/hwy): V6 17–18/29; V8 16/24–25What’s New:Just one short model year after the relaunch of the iconic Chevrolet Camaro coupe, there’s a droptop version arriving in time for spring. And that’s good for Chevy, considering the Camaro has now overtaken the Mustang in sales for the first time since 1985....