Archive for the ‘Popular Science’ Category


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Commenter Cynox was browsing through the 137 years of Popular Science magazine which are now available online, and he noticed this robot in the September 1984 issue. Called Odex I, it was developed by a (now apparently defunct) company called Odetics. Odex was six and a half feet tall, had six legs, and was fully [...]

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Back in the old days, when people got their tech news from stacks of paper stapled together called “magazines,” Popular Science was a nerd’s dream. It was full of all sorts of exciting things, had less nudity in it than Omni (Note: This is not a good thing but your parents would buy it for you), and let you dream of jet packs. This is not to say that that old stalwart PopSci isn’t still around, but back in the old days it was our only lifeline to the world of high tech.

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All the rumblings about an updated iPhone at today’s WWDC unveiling were true–Apple announced the iPhone 3GS, essentially the exact same iPhone with a beefier processor they claim will boost the new 3.0 OS to double the speed as the current iPhone 3G. And if that’s not enough to lure you over, the current iPhone [...]

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New motorcyclists are taught early not to out-drive their headlamps. Now, night riders (of the non-Hasselhoff variety) may soon owe Kawasaki a debt of gratitude for improving their safety after dark. The Japanese bike builder is reportedly fast-tracking new infrared night-vision technology to use on production motorcycles. read more New motorcyclists are taught early not [...]

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Evolution

9, Jun 2009

Mobile Phone Matryoshka Dolls:  Kyle Bean via CR While not exactly to scale, I love this expression of the evolution of cellphones via Russian Matryoshka dolls. It’s a concept toy by designer Kyle Bean. Even though we’re all still digesting the Palm Pre–Apple’s WWDC event is sure to bring news of the next iPhone iteration [...]

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Palm Pre: Here it is.  John Mahoney So we got our Palm Pre review phone today. Even though you’ve probably read all the first-wave reviews from Pogue, Mossberg, our friends at Gizmodo et al, you still may have some questions–especially if you’re thinking of plunking down $200 tomorrow. Rather than rush up a review after [...]

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Heard of Bing yet? If not, you soon will. Backed by a reported $100-million-dollar promotional campaign, Bing is Microsoft’s latest grasp at double digits in the war for search engine market share, of which Redmond now owns between 5 and 6 percent (according to Net Applications’ Market Share report). After months of beta testing followed [...]

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Are you reading this on your laptop? Are you ready to roll that laptop up and put it in your pocket? As we told you the other day, scientists revealed flexible coatings filled with e-ink that will turn just about any surface into a screen. Now other components of computers are breaking free from their [...]

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The world certainly isn’t simple, and trying to express real-world dynamics in the form of an equation has long been a challenge. Realistic computer-simulated sound has been particularly tough to get right, and some of the hardest dynamics to recreate have been the movements and sound of water. Scientists at Cornell have now announced a [...]

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What you consider solid, liquid or gas depends entirely on where you live. For example, men from cold, cold Mars might build their houses out of ice. Women from Venus, where the average temperature is about 870°F, could bathe in liquid zinc. We think mercury is a liquid metal, but it’s all relative. At one [...]

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