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Battery-powered tools have taken a huge leap forward with Stihl’s introduction of the TSA 230 Cutquik, the world’s first cordless cutoff machine. Powered by a 36-volt lithium-ion battery and a brushless DC motor, the saw cuts brick, roofing tile, stone, concrete, reinforced concrete, age-hardened concrete, steel, stainless steel, non-ferrous metal, and ductile iron pipe. Whew.That’s a lot of capability in a machine that weighs only 12.4 lbs. It’s not unusual for gas engine cutoff machines to weigh more than twice that, and large versions of these tools can weigh as much as 28 lbs....

Media Platforms Design Team1. Beer"Buy a lot of it," says Trey Click, a magazine publisher who rode out last year’s Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas. “It’s one of the only things you can use for money in the aftermath.” Need your neighbor to help you clear trees out of your yard? A case of Bud is a better motivator than a $20 bill when all the stores are boarded up.2. Handheld CB RadioMedia Platforms Design TeamThink no one uses CB radios anymore?...

Standing tall, the big blue robot reaches 11 feet and can scoot at nearly 20 mph. But when it morphs into a car, it can carry two passengers and move at nearly 40 mph. Say hello to the real life transformer under development in Japan.Project J-Deite, by Brave Robotics and Asratec Corporation, is a plan to build this 1,500-pound transformer by 2017. The two companies revealed a prototype version last October....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s pretty hard to beat a minivan for conveying a large family through the vagaries of life. These vehicles are roomy, practical, versatile and fit in parking spaces and garages. But there’s little to be done to disguise the fact that they are four-wheeled boxes. So for those who want a little more, well, cool, there are practical, similarly priced alternatives: all-wheel-drive sport wagons, which are fast becoming the iPods of people movers....

Senior Editor Mike Allen answers readers’ car questions.Q: A year ago, my car started making sputtering noises when I accelerated from an idle. I put fuel injector cleaner in the tank and the problem went away. Now, to be safe, I add fuel injector cleaner about every 10,000 miles. Is this good preventative maintenance, or am I doing more harm than good? Sincerely, ADAM J. BENNETT, Columbus, OHA: Good plan. Keep it up....

Media Platforms Design TeamLesson A: Fabrication Nation Inventors have traditionally turned their ideas into prototypes with plenty of sketches and endless iterations in wood, clay or metal. But the digital age has introduced a totally new toolkit. Computer-aided design (CAD) software allows rapid and highly precise blueprinting, computed numerical control (CNC) milling and routing equipment transfers that precision to the physical world, and 3D printers can create fully formed objects on demand....

Media Platforms Design TeamLightweight and easy to clean, wire bins are ideal for recyclable materials. (Photograph by Jeffrey Westbrook/Studio D)Q: We’re building a new home, and we want to design the ideal recycling storage units for the kitchen. In our existing house, this area is a mess. Any tips?A: It makes sense to find convenient and attractive ways to cope with the typical household’s revolving collection of cans, glass bottles and newspapers, since recycling has become an everyday reality....

Q: I read that all new mobile phones have some sort of GPS tracking installed in order to trace the location of 911 calls. Is there any way to turn this off?A: While FCC rules require that phone companies provide all handsets with some way of tracing 911 calls, whether or not your cellphone has a true GPS inside it depends on the carrier. While AT&T and T-Mobile most often determine a 911 caller’s rough location by triangulating the signal using different radio towers, Sprint and Verizon rely on real GPS chips in their phones....

Driving on the moon is difficult for man and robot alike. The inclines are steep, the horizon is oddly close, and extreme shadows can disorient astronauts and camera-based sensors. But a new request by NASA is pointing to the solution: lasers.NASA just put out a request for information on how to build a navigation system for planetary rovers based on LIDAR. It’s short for light detection and ranging, but you might have also heard this technology called “laser radar....

In New Mexico, temperatures rarely exceed several hundred million degrees. At least, those are the temperatures that researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque usually find when they perform experiments in the Z machine (pictured). The Z machine is typically used to produce high levels of radiation that help Sandia researchers build computer models to test the safety and efficiency of our nuclear arsenal. The Z machine works by sending 20 million amps through thin tungsten wires in a “core” the size of a spool of thread, which turns to a plasma....

Q: I read your column every Sunday in the Boston Globe and find it very interesting and educational. My question involves why an intermittent shorted out speaker in the right rear door of my 1993 Lexus would continually drain the battery overnight when both the ignition key and radio were always turned off. I presume the speaker was shorted out because I could hear it buzzing sometimes and when I removed it everything worked fine....

Media Platforms Design TeamYour smartphone’s dead again? MP3 player out of juice? You may not have your chargers on hand, but you are (hopefully) wearing clothes. That’s good enough for nanotech researcher Ray Baughman, who foresees a day when clothing will power all our handheld devices and, eventually, he says, may even replace them.In his lab at the University of Texas at Dallas, Baughman is putting a new spin on yarn: He can create flexible yarns with a variety of functions by spraying carbon threads with nanoparticles and then twisting the threads together....

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal // Publisher: Ubisoft // Release: May 27, 2014 // Systems: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U (Fall 2014), Microsoft Windows // Price: $60Technology is a weapon. Look no further than the ongoing worries about bulk data collection and the almost weekly accounts of internet frailty. It’s this 21st-century digital destructive power that Ubisoft Montreal wanted to explore with its new open-world title. In the Watch Dogs world, the smartphone in your pocket is even more dangerous than the gun in your hand....

Phasers, blasters, ray guns—whatever you want to call them, the military is finally working on them. But these weapons won’t be used with the setting on vaporize. Rather, the military is hoping to target enemy electronics.Called the “Burke’s Pulser,” the device is (mostly) classified. It was designed by James E. Burke of the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center. It’s a modified M4 rifle that captures energy from the bullet firing, as Defense One explains:The Pulser takes the explosive energy released when the gun fires and converts it into pulses of electrical energy....

The Chicago Auto Show is the largest car show in the country. But, just as its host town is stuck in the perpetual position of America’s Second City, the auto show always been overshadowed by other gatherings. Detroit, held just a few weeks ago, has the home field advantage as the Motor City and thus hogs the splashy vehicle reveals. New York is a media center, so the spring show there is big news....

Media Platforms Design TeamInside JobInternal transmissions aren’t a new idea in bikes–witness the old Raleigh three-speed–but GT Bicycles is making a mark by using a new Shimano eight-speed trans in a freeride mountain bike with long-travel shocks, front and rear. Unlike exposed derailleur shifters, the GT IT-1’s trans is inside the frame, protected from rocks and muck. In trail testing, the gears clicked by faster than with any derailleur. Of course, at 45 pounds–and a staggering $5500–the IT-1 is strictly for extreme mountain bikers....

Maybe you drew something like this in the margins of your Trapper Keeper. Motorcycle stunt rider Robbie Maddison from Australia has done it.Maddison, who’s backflipped over London Bridge and performed as Daniel Craig’s stunt-double in the James Bond movies, took a bike to a big break in Tahiti. He caught a few tow-in waves on a surfboard while wearing his motorcycle gloves and helmet to get used to the setup. Then, he took to this left break with his bike....

Post a funny photo to Instagram and watch the likes roll in. Repost that same photo to Instagram nearly 100 times and it disintegrates into digital dust before your eyes, as artist Pete Ashton’s project “I Am Sitting In Stagram” makes clear.Every photo that you upload to Instagram loses a bit of its original quality. It’s just a little bit—not enough that you’d notice the difference in thatphoto of an old door you just uploaded....

Media Platforms Design TeamFree kicks are fairer than ever this World Cup. Thanks to disappearing white foam, players can no longer creep over the 10-yard boundary that separates them from the kicker, causing arguments and cries of “unfair!“The spray-on white foam, called 9.15 Fairplay (9.15 meters is the metric equivalent of 10 yards), was developed Argentine journalist Pablo Silva. The aerosol mixture of butane, isobutene, and propane expands when it hits the air, turning into water-covered beads that disappear in about a minute....

(Published in the January 2003 issue)More: Learn what you’ll be eating (if you’re lucky) after a disaster MREs - Meals Ready to EatSay you’re in an elevator in a high-rise office building, and the car begins to free-fall from the 65th floor. What do you do?Flatten your body against the car floor.While there is disagreement among the experts, most recommend this method. This should distribute the force of impact, rather than concentrate it on one area of your body....