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Media Platforms Design Team"If you rip off consumers, you’ll get caught and you’ll get punished." That was the message from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski as he took to the stage this week, reaffirming his agency’s stance against “cramming,” in which third parties tack unauthorized charges onto users’ phone bills under obscure names such as Extra Services, Voicemail Service or Minimum Plan. Anyone who has been a victim of these kind of surreptitious charges will be glad to know the FCC is planning to get ....

On Wednesday, HP announced that it was buying Palm—an innovative but financially troubled mobile phone and software company that has struggled to compete in recent years—for $1.2 billion. So what does the acquisition mean for the industry and consumers? The way we see it, there are four major implications.HP is now legally insulatedPerhaps Palm’s most valuable asset is legal insulation against an increasingly litigious Apple. As two companies with similar products that increasingly trampled over each other’s broadly defined patents, Palm and Apple have long had a sort of legal stalemate....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith companies like Adidas, Apple and Motorola pumping out a mishmash of hybrid gadgets from GPS cellphones to heart-rate shirts, the biggest current trend in fitness technology—the rise of “running systems”—has left even marathoners mystified: Do flashy calculators from big-name brands warrant paying hundreds of dollars? How advanced a runner need you be to justify buying one? Are the built-in pedometers and GPS units even accurate? We sent two of our fittest to New York’s Central Park for two chilly weeks worth of testing, suited up with six of the top running systems and plenty of skepticism:Media Platforms Design TeamMotorola KRZR with BiM Active$199 (with two-year agreement from Verizon or Sprint; BiM, extra $10/month)GP$: Is It Worth It?...

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. Media Platforms Design TeamNASA has tested a microwave thruster that seemingly violates the law of conservation of momentum… and yet they think it works.Originally reported by Wired, the technology bounces microwaves around to create thrust. British engineer Roger Shawyer designed the original and dubbed it the Emdrive. If the Emdrive actually works, it could be a game changer in the spacecraft business because it doesn’t require propellant....

Media Platforms Design TeamSole MachineThe adidas_1 ($250)–a “smart” running shoe that uses a microprocessor to adjust to terrain changes–has been upgraded to “intelligence level 1.1.” What makes this shoe so darned smart? A heel sensor measures compressions caused by the foot striking the ground; a chip averages the compressions and directs a motor-driven cable system to contract or extend, hardening or softening the heel. The “1.1” shoe has faster chip programming and a stronger motor than its first-generation predecessor....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Tesla Model S seemed like a futuristic pipe dream when we rode shotgun in a prototype three and a half years ago, but now that fast-selling EV has helped Tesla repay nearly half a billion dollars in government loans nine years early, company founder Elon Musk’s ambitions are escalating faster than Moore’s Law.Not only is the California billionaire making strides to build a coast-to-coast network of superfast charging stations, Musk has also announced he’s working on a small sedan that will put the Audi A4 and BMW 3-series in its crosshairs....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt begins today: The FXX broadcast of all 552 episodes of “The Simpsons” in chronological order—probably the most embiggened TV marathon in history.You could read articles and books about all the nerdy jokes and references that the math geeks who write “The Simpsons” have snuck into the show, and you should. But for a quick briefer on what not to miss over the next few days (the golden part of the yellow marathon, as they run through the excellent early seasons), these are my quick picks for the most Popular Mechanics moments in Springfield....

Media Platforms Design TeamUpdate: After this story was posted, BMW announced improvements to the 4.4-liter V-8 (including the company’s Valvetronic variable-lift intake valve system) that increased output by 45 hp to a total of 445 in regular trim. So Cadillac doesn’t get bragging rights anymore, but it still has a heck of an engine.In boxing, they call it punching above your weight. The new twin-turbo 3.6-liter V-6 in the 2014 Cadillac CTS is 37 pounds lighter than the BMW twin-turbo 4....

Yesterday hackers were able to ground 10 airplanes in Poland’s state-owned LOT fleet. Earlier this month, a similar and unexplained problem grounded United Airlines flights across the United States. The two might have a variable in common: A security flaw that affects all commercial planes. According to Wired, the problem lies in the way that flight plans are distributed to planes, mainly in that it doesn’t require any sort of authentication....

Imagine being able to harness the same power as the sun, but in tiny contained power plants here on Earth. Practical nuclear fusion still has a long way to go; we’ve only recently been able to great brief, controlled fusion reactions that generate more energy than they consume. But the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), a cyberpunk nightmare of twisting pipes and bolts, could be the next big step forward.As explained in a fantastic feature inScience, the W7-X is a special kind of nuclear fusion reactor....

Media Platforms Design TeamToy Story 3 Four-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy (2010)Media Platforms Design TeamWith the release of Toy Story 3, which remains the highest-grossing film of 2010, Disney’s Pixar remains one of the most consistent (and profitable) studios in Hollywood. The third and presumably final installment in their fabled Toy Story franchise, the Pixar team take great care to move the series forward in a logical and satisfying way....

Last month the public watched as astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis conducted risky spacewalks to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. But there was another, quieter task that the astronauts pursuedóa commercial drug experiment aimed at finding a vaccine against a deadly staph infection besetting hospitals. Previous NASA spaceflight experiments have shown that microbes grow better in space, but the cause is still being debated. One popular theory is that nutrients can be absorbed more efficiently through cell walls and from multiple directions without the presence of gravity....

Disaster strikes. A hurricane or an earthquake hits a major city, taking out power stations and emergency-services communications. No one knows how many are dead and how many need immediate help. First responders need information, and they need it fast—not just about casualties, but also about what resources they can muster quickly. Emergency workers faced with such a situation have to cobble together whatever resources are available—after Hurricane Katrina, for example, rescuers relied on an ad hoc citizen-radio network to relay information....

New Horizons begins its historic flyby of Pluto on Tuesday morning, and soon it will return amazing images of the icy faraway world and its neighbors. But the spacecraft’s sophisticated science instruments have already sent back some tantalizing clues about Pluto. Here’s what we’ve learned so far.Related StoryThe Epic Story of How We Got to PlutoPerhaps the two biggest things are the confirmation of a polar cap on Pluto and a (more) exact radius measurement for the icy world....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen high winds and heavy rain sweep exposed topsoil away, hillsides erode. Planting a garden of grass, ground covers, shrubs, and/or trees can help stabilize embankments by providing a root system to stabilize things. Varying heights of vegetation can stagger rainfall, lessening its impact on the ground. Here’s what you can do to strengthen a hilly landscape:GrassesOrnamental grasses like mondo, blue fescue, and yellow foxtail are ideal erosion fighters....

Some paint brushes are cheap enough to throw away when you’re done, but a good brush is a tool that needs to be cleaned so it’s ready for the next job. If you’ve skipped that step, you can still salvage the brush—just use paint remover.2. After cleaning a brush with mineral spirits, don’t throw the dirty solvent away. Let it sit for several days to see if the paint or varnish solids settle out....

In the old days, every well-equipped shop had an assortment of wooden planes, each made to cut a different molding or joint. Enter the compact electric motor, and it wasn’t long before those many tools were replaced by one: a high-speed milling machine called a router. With interchangeable bits, it was used to cut a wide range of profiles, plus it handled curved edges and internal cuts, all at a fraction of the time it once took....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith all the anger and confusion regarding the TSA’s use of enhanced search techniques—backscatter x-rays and millimeter-wave imaging devices that have been derided as “porn machines,” plus highly intrusive pat-downs—a lot of people have been asking me if this sort of thing is legal or constitutional. That’s understandable, since I’m a law professor who writes a lot about technology. But the real question isn’t the law: It’s what kind of security we want....

Media Platforms Design TeamHOW THE FLU VIRUS WORKS 1) Surface proteins bind the virus particle, or virion, to the membrane of the doomed cell.2) The virion passes into the cell, releasing strands of RNA with the virus’s genetic material.3) The RNA moves to the nucleus and hijacks the cell’s biochemical machinery to copy itself.4) New strands of RNA migrate to the outer cell, joining newly manufactured proteins to form complete viral particles....

Keith Baker noticed sour smells emanating from the walls of his newly built home in Fort Myers, Fla., soon after he took up residence there in March 2008. Then the copper pipes from the hot-water heater turned black, “as though someone threw soot on them.” Soon, Baker and his wife started experiencing sinus problems, dizzy spells and muscle aches. They are among thousands of homeowners in Florida and elsewhere who are blaming such problems on low-quality, imported drywall....