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Media Platforms Design TeamCreating an app for a smartphone or tablet starts with a great idea. But once you have a fabulous idea, the app development process then becomes a matter of weighing a number of options.“It’s difficult to design a compelling app that’s simple and easy to use by a wide variety of people,” says Bill Tanaka, mobile application development director for the WeatherBug app from Earth Networks. “The best mobile apps are intuitive, easy, and compelling....

Media Platforms Design TeamCommunication failed (and is still failing).The Obama Administration has been under attack by the Romney campaign and others who’ve alleged that the government misinformed the public by claiming the attacks ware part of a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Islamic film rather than a “terrorist attack.” But more recent accounts seem to demonstrate that administration officials, like Ambassador Susan Rice, weren’t aware of some intelligence intercepts until several days after her initial remarks....

This week the Wall Street Journal reported that Iraq is starting to inquire about the purchase of F-16 fighters from the United States–another step in the process of the expected military withdrawal. The warplanes would help Iraqi forces defend against neighbors such as Iran and would provide air support for antiguerrilla campaigns–roles currently performed by U.S. forces. These warplane requests have not yet been formalized, but they fit a recent trend of large-scale weapons purchases by Iraq....

Media Platforms Design Team960–1279: Royals from China’s Song Dynasty play hitting balls into holes with a set of 10 bejeweled clubs.chuiwan,1400s: Despite earlier evidence of proto-golf in the Netherlands, Scotland gets credit for inventing the game.1800s: Par for the course, golf makes its way to the United States. Players use 20 to 30 wooden clubs of various functions to hit featheries, hard leather balls stuffed with feathers.1856: America’s hickory trees get the shaft when Robert Forgan exports them to Scotland to make golf clubs....

The sunny days of the soccer mom are gone. Fact is, America’s four-wheel-drive SUVs were done with their full-time duties as combination family-haulers, mall rovers and (my personal favorite) mobile storage units on the same day that gas anchored itself at four bucks a gallon. Sales of full-size SUVs are off by double digits for just about every consecutive month this year. In April, sales of these mastodons of the macadam plummeted by a whopping 32 percent....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Curiosity rover has detected organic compounds on Mars, NASA scientists announced at a press conference today. But the source of these carbon-containing molecules, which are essential to sustaining life, is still up in the air.Using Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments, researchers found traces of water, sulfur, and small amounts of organics in the form chlorine-containing compounds, though the researchers were quick to point out that they’re still trying to determine the source of the organics—they could very well could be from residual earth contaminants, the scientists warned....

Media Platforms Design TeamFiat hasn’t quite out-Mini’d mini (yet) with their newfound lineup diversity, but the brand’s Cabrio, Abarth, Abarth Cabrio, Turbo, L, and L Trekking variants have bolstered the brand’s credibility here in the US market after initially ambitious (and admittedly naive) sales goals were missed.Now that Fiat has sold over 50,000 500s nationwide, they’re hoping a techy EV model will attract the attention of environmentally savvy drivers.The 500e shown here at the LA Auto Show uses a 111 horsepower electric motor whose battery recharges in less than 4 hours with an onboard, 240 volt charging module....

AUSTIN, Texas — The highest praise I can give South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) is that it remains the only technology conference I look forward to each year. SXSWi is just one of three heady think sessions that occur over several days each March here (the other two are dedicated to music and film, not to mention beer and blogging). The interactive conference, which ended Tuesday, covers the intersection between design, social networking (real and virtual), gaming (real and virtual!...

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamGoodyear’s new-for-the-U.S. Eagle F1 Asymmetric tire is sticky and quiet. It sits next to the company’s Eagle F1 GS-D3, which is designed for maximum wet-weather grip. As you probably guessed, the F1 Asymmetric emphasizes maximum dry weather traction — the kind makers of supercars demand. Like a few tires in the ultra competitive Ultra-High Performance class, the new F1 uses large, chunky blocks of rubber on the outside of the tread for ultimate grip, while the inner tread focuses on evacuating water....

The routine of everyday life suddenly becomes really, really difficult when you try to do it in microgravity. Consider the problem of using the toilet in space. As Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti explains in this video, going number one and two on the International Space Station is a complicated process involving hoses and a bucket-like contraption. And because things float in space, there’s some suction involved, too.To pee, astronauts have to use a massive rubber hose with a funnel, which is equipped with a switch to turn on the suction, Cristoforetti explains....

Media Platforms Design TeamBack in 2002, John Moore, an anthropologist at the University of Florida, that a starship could leave Earth with 150 passengers on a 2000-year pilgrimage to another solar system, and upon arrival, the descendants of the original crew could colonize a new world there—as long as everyone was careful not to inbreed along the way.calculatedIt was a valiant attempt to solve a thorny question about the future of humans in space....

LAS VEGAS – Don’t get me wrong, this show is bristling with beautifully executed, elegant designs and amazingly brilliant engineering applied with aerospace-like efficiency and proficiency. But what stops the strollers and gatherers and the gawkers—other than the show’s hallmark scantily clad young women—are the vehicles (pictured at right) that make you wonder, “Why?“For instance, how about this Chevy Colorado pickup truck’s turbo kit? Nice way to bolt on some more power....

Robots are becoming more common–they may not have scary lasers and godlike artificial intelligence, but they’re taking over all the same. The proliferation of autonomous machines–the robot uprising, if you will– has brought nothing like the hostile army feared by science fictions writers. Rather, uncomplaining machines have taken over the jobs we’d rather not do: disarming bombs, barging into hostage standoffs, and cleaning floors and gutters. Now, MIT’s latest robot tackles another unsavory task: driving forklifts in a war zone....

Media Platforms Design Team"Rápido! Rápido!" came the voices of two Puerto Rican students as they flew downhill toward a sharp turn that wrapped around the huge Saturn I rocket standing in the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Upon reaching the bend (later named “Dead Man’s Curve”) the drivers did their best to hold on. But their tall, thin-wheeled moonbuggy couldn’t handle the force and flipped, slamming both passengers into the pavement below....

Media Platforms Design TeamJust when it seemed that Palm was about to be put out of the smartphone business they practically invented by Apple’s iPhone, Palm introduces the new Foleo, a laptop-style device that launches the company into a whole new area. From its introduction today at D5, Foleo actually looks to be essentially a laptop alternative—a cheap ($600; but only $500 after a rebate), instant-on device for mobile Web surfing and e-mail, as well as word processing, spreadsheet and PowerPoint duty....

Impressive as Roombas are, with their dirt-detecting sensors and room-mapping algorithms (click here for video), they still bump into walls and furniture like tipsy janitors. The new Roomba 560 ($350) is not only a harder worker than its forebears, with more aggressive brushes and a 33 percent larger dustbin, but it’s more focused too, thanks to two Virtual Wall Lighthouses that regulate when the bot can cross open doorways. When the 560 signals that it’s done with the current room, and ready for another, the virtual walls come down long enough to let it pass....

You’re up to highway speed and suddenly a car cuts across your lane to make an exit. You manage to slow enough to avoid a nasty accident, but the brakes definitely don’t feel right. The brake pedal has had this kind of vibration for a couple of weeks, but only at low speeds. Now it feels like you’re stepping on a running chain saw, and the front wheels don’t want to go where you want them to....

Media Platforms Design TeamSmartphones are taking over everywhere—even in space. The PhoneSat project launched on Sunday, when a launch by Orbital Sciences sent three Google-HTC Nexus One smartphones into orbit. Encased in metal boxes (all made of off-the-shelf parts) and equipped with extra-large external lithium ion batteries, the mini satellites are currently orbiting at about 150 miles above the surface of the earth.Why phones? Jim Cockrell, project manager of PhoneSat, says that the idea started in the hallway conversations of some of his younger engineers....

This riddle is more of a traditional riddle than a logic puzzle, but it still involves some geometry, so brush up on those equations. ProblemA farmer challenges an engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician to build him a fence that encloses the most area with the least amount of fencing.The engineer makes a circular fence, claiming that it is most efficient.The physicist made a long straight line of fence and said the length was infinite, as fencing half the world was the most efficient way....

Media Platforms Design TeamJaimie Henderson, M.D., Years on Job: 10A bullet penetrates a man’s skull. An 8-year-old cracks his head. A Parkinson’s patient suffers incapacitating tremors. These are just some of the cases that might appear on neurosurgeon Jaimie Henderson’s operating table. One potent new tool: computer-aided navigation, which pinpoints brain damage and helps plot a route to the site, allowing for smaller incisions, less trauma to healthy tissue and faster recovery....