Posts

Media Platforms Design TeamWith the reveal of the Frontier Diesel Runner at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show, diesel is officially an automotive craze. Or perhaps Nissan is just trying to steal some of the thunder from GM’s upcoming Canyon and Colorado midsize trucks, which will also offer diesel in the 2015.Every Nissan representative at the show practically winks when they call this Frontier an “engineering study,” which is a coy way of saying that this truck has been trotted out to get customers begging for a production version....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe makers of the single-engine Victory hope it will become the first personal jet to use a whole-airframe parachute (right).When the alternative is a fiery crash at terminal velocity, hitting the ground at 25 ft. per second sounds almost cushy. That’s the speed at which a plane will land when dangling from a whole-airframe parachute: It’s 5 ft. per second faster than a sky diver lands, and the bone-jarring equivalent of an 11- to 13-ft....

The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. Air Force is using civilian defense contractors to fly military drones in combat theaters. The civilian drones pilots are used to fly missions that don’t involve actual shooting, regulating their role to keeping an eye on enemy forces. It’s an important differentiation because the use of civilians in combat operations is technically illegal.According to the Times, civilian contractors control two MQ-9 Reaper “combat air patrols” a day, with each patrol involving 4 Reapers....

The CH-53K King Stallion, the latest in a long line of helicopters bearing the Stallion name, flew for the first time today. The helicopter was built by manufacturer Sikorsky for the U.S. Marine Corps, and will replace the CH-53E Super Stallion.Under development for nearly ten years, King Stallion refines Sikorsky’s heavy lift helicopter design and adds a number of modern features. King Stallion is powered by three General Electric T408 engines generating a beefy 22,500 shaft horsepower....

In its tense negotiations over slowing Iran’s nuclear development, the United States isn’t just walking a diplomatic tightrope. It’s walking a technological one, too, trying to allow Iran to continue researching only those technologies that can be used for peaceful purposes like energy, and none that could be weaponized.Thankfully, the diplomats have some help. At Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee, the U.S. has a secret mock-up of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, The New York Times says....

This fall, we’ll be getting a new iPhone. And while all signs point to an iPhone 6S that looks exactly like the iPhone 6 before it, the phone is likely to have a new, unprecedented pressure-sensitive screen. This could be our first look at it. Surfaced by French blog Nowhere Else, the leaked shots show the back of a purported iPhone 6S display, the same shape and size as that of the iPhone 6....

More than four years after the March 2011 meltdown at Fukushima, the effects are still visible and the area is still too dangerous to be explored. Except by robots.A robotic explorer recently traveled into the doomed reactor to capture spooky, unprecedented new video. It showed steam still rising amid scattered debris and other wreckage. The video can be seen below, with the damage fully evident. The robot was designed to withstand high radiation levels, as well as mold its shape to fit into tight places....

Since it began orbiting Saturn in 2004, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and its hitchhiker, the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe, have yielded reams of data of the planet and its satellites. Now in the last year of its second mission, called Equinox, the spacecraft is flying by Saturn’s moons. Two of them, Titan and Enceladus, have become the darlings of researchers thanks to the presence of organic chemicals, water ice and, possibly, subterranean oceans of liquid water....

Media Platforms Design TeamTo test a big project, you need a big lab. Pegasus Global Holdings, a technology development firm and frequent Department of Defense contractor, is planning to take that idea to the extreme: It recently announced plans to build an entire new working city in New Mexico—complete with a downtown, suburban neighborhoods and outlying rural areas—for scientists, government agencies and private companies to use as an enormous testbed for green development and other projects....

The skies over Fort Worth, Texas, hosted a historic aviation milestone today when the most expensive plane on Earth—a modded version of the F-35 Lightning II that lands vertically like a helicopter—made its first flight. Its pilot certainly had the chops to do the job: He learned to fly short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) airplanes when Jimmy Carter was president.Retired Royal Air Force squadron leader Graham Tomlinson, now employed by BAE Flight Systems, flew AV-8 Harriers (the first STOVL warplanes to see action) for 28 years, including time in the late 1980s as a test pilot qualifying the FA-2 Sea Harrier for carrier operations....

Media Platforms Design TeamYour first impression of the 2008 Highlander models may be that it’s simply bigger. But Toyota is making no excuses for the all-new version of the mid-size SUV (not quite crossover) that we’ve had in our garage for a while: new style, new size, new engine.In a complete makeover, the new vehicle is 4 in. longer, plus 3 in. wider and taller, while Toyota has lengthened the wheelbase by 3 in....

Media Platforms Design Team DEARBORN, Mich. — High gas prices combined with a worldwide economic meltdown have sent shock waves through the automotive industry. Cars and trucks that were hot sellers mere months ago now have money on the hood—huge cash-back incentives to try and lure back buyers. And the market for full-size pickup trucks has been perhaps the hardest hit. Industry trade journal Automotive News recently reported that “pickup truck sales won’t bottom out until 2010, at a meager 1....

Click here for show floor coverage.LAS VEGAS, Oct. 31–Looking at the activity surrounding the 2001 Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week gathering here in the Nevada desert, you’d have a hard time verifying reports of a stalled economy and withering tourism. Sure, the taxicab lines are blessedly shorter, but the airplanes arriving are packed solid, the restaurants have 2-hour waiting lines, and the aisles of the exhibit halls are crowded with tens of thousands of manufacturer reps, chain-store buyers, retail shop owners and an eager cadre of journalists....

The most coveted boat in America is probably a low-slung bass boat powered by a big outboard. You can easily spend Mercedes-Benz cash for such a craft, only to find that it imbibes gasoline with all the enthusiasm of a drunk on a bender, becomes airborne if it runs into more than a 6-in. wavelet, and requires the reflexes of an Indy racer to keep from chine-walking out of control.Media Platforms Design TeamBass Boat Sterndrive There is a better way....

Media Platforms Design TeamLike a robotic inchworm, this flat strip of material reels up and scoots along a lab bench all by itself, turning corners when needed. With other origami-like tricks, the same material rapidly folds itself into a minuscule box, grabs objects, and worms its way through tiny pipes. All this from lightweight, versatile graphene. A team of Chinese engineers and materials scientists at Donghua University in Shanghai have just devised a fascinating new method to transform sheets of incredibly strong graphene—atom-thin sheets of carbon often hailed as the supermaterial of the future—into self-folding materials with fantastically promising properties....

Media Platforms Design TeamAnn Arbor, Mich.—While GM trudges through a very public trip in bankruptcy court, the company must still introduce its new products. The latest is the 2010 Cadillac SRX. This new crossover is critical for Cadillac since luxury crossovers account for 25 percent of the luxury-car market. The segment’s best seller, the Lexus RX350—sold 84,181 copies in 2008—and that model was clearly in GM’s crosshairs. The SRX has ditched its handy third row seat so the exterior could be shortened....

Let’s talk about Apple Watch’s supposedly apocalyptic sales. There’s a story flying around about the Apple Watch’s declining sales. According a market-research firm (which is to say “professional guesser”), sales of Apple’s Hot New Wearable have nosedived by 90 percent. While estimates indicate that the Cupertino fruit company moved some 1.5 million wrist-computers in the first week it was on sale, new estimates suggest the rate has dropped from 200,000 a day to 20,000 a day or less....

ONLINE BACKUPIf you have only a few gigs’ worth of files to protect, you can back up your data using an Internet-based service. Xdrive gives Windows users 5GB of free storage (a Mac version is in the works) using a secure link to Xdrive’s downloadable automatic backup application. Alternately, Mozy offers 2GB of free storage to both Windows and Macintosh users, or unlimited storage for $4.95 per month. Regardless of service, be aware that online backup requires a fast broadband connection – or a lot of patience....

Media Platforms Design TeamSmall tables are always handy–whether for an intimate takeout dinner, or salsa and chips when the guys show up for the game. The rest of the time, though, they’re in the way–unless they’re built to nest. The idea is simple: Just remove one rail, make the next table smaller, then slide it under the first. Our set is built of nominal 1- and 2-in. stock (3/4 and 1-1/2in....

Media Platforms Design TeamStep 1: UPDATEFirst, check for operating system security updates and patches. Most modern OSs offer automatic update support, but confirm you have the latest version manually. Then update your security software. Check your firewall and router for updates as well, and, if necessary, reset the security settings to ensure your Wi-Fi is locked down using WPA security. Step 2: ERADICATERun a full scan with your security software and delete any suspicious files it finds....