Popular Science Blog

Macworld 2008 Wrap-up: Beyond the Keynote

popsci — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:10:14 -0500

Some of the best devices at MacWorld aren’t from Apple When it comes to gadgets with massive sex appeal, Apple knows how to get our motors running. The new MacBook Air, is certainly high in style and by far the...

PPX: MADDEN and WIISALES close

popsci — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:50:08 -0500

PopSci just received NDP's video game industry sales results for 2007, meaning we finally have the data to close two New Year's stocks: MADDEN and WIISALES. Both pay out at $0. Madden Football didn't even break the top five, let...

Lots in the Air at MacWorld

Sean Captain — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:14:03 -0500

Ultrathin Laptop, New Updates for iPhone, Apple TV Macworld Conference and Expo officially kicked off today as Apple CEO Steve Jobs took center stage and unveiled two new products, including an ultrathin laptop called the MacBook Air, and a few...

Stroke Victims Could Get Laser Treatment

Gregory Mone — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:51:46 -0500

A company called PhotoThera is testing a laser-based treatment for stroke victims that's designed to stimulate the brain, and help patients recover faster. The device directs an infrared beam through the scalp, towards several different target areas in the brain....

Clone Burgers: Not Quite Coming Soon

Gregory Mone — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:50:13 -0500

The FDA announced today that meat and milk from cloned animals are just as safe as the normal stuff. Other nations have already come to the same conclusion, but this is still a major regulatory step here in the U.S....

The Two Day Battery

Gregory Mone — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:46:28 -0500

Stanford researchers have figured out a way to incorporate silicon nanowires into rechargeable lithium ion batteries and extend their life from 4 to 40 hours. The work, described in a paper in Nature Nanotechnology, could lead to iPods, laptops and...

Apple Wins the Blu-Ray Vs. HD-DVD War?

Sean Captain — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:45:11 -0500

Why wait to buy when you can download now? While the MacBook Air was certainly the sex symbol of Steve Jobs’s MacWorld keynote today, the product with the biggest impact may be the new Apple TV. One of the big...

Razing Razrs

popsci — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:22:50 -0500

What's the crummiest phone out there? Probably an issue of personal preference, unless you're basing it on which breaks most easily. In that case, it's the Razr V3. SquareTrade, an independent warranty company, just released data on phone reliability based...

PPX: Halts and Payouts Aplenty

popsci — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:09:22 -0500

We have a few delistings and halts going on today. First, despite the bad news for HD-DVD that surfaced last week, there were more titles available on HD-DVD than Blu-Ray at the year's end. And so our HDVSBLU prop pays...

The Grouse: Where is My Mind?

popsci — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:16:20 -0500

Welcome to the inaugural posting of The Grouse, where once a week I’ll be ranting (and very occasionally raving) about tech, gadgets and the like that I find to be frustrating, or lacking, or stupid, or offensive, or even downright...

Grassroots Effort to Save Windows XP

Gregory Mone — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:54:56 -0500

Microsoft wants to stop selling Windows XP on June 30, but not all of its customers are happy about that, or excited about the prospect of switching to Vista. Infoworld has started an online petition designed to rally support behind...

Black holes and Light Echoes

Gregory Mone — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:54:11 -0500

A black hole wreaks all sorts of havoc in its cosmic neighborhood, pulling in and stretching out matter, spewing jets and slowing time to a near stand-still. Now astrophysicists have added a new phenomenon to the black hole's list of...

First Suite of Google Android Applications

Gregory Mone — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:52:13 -0500

USA Today is reporting that A La Mobile, a small software developer, plans to announce today a host of new applications designed to run on the Google-backed operating system, Android. For now the applications are installed in an HTC smartphone,...

Hot on eBay: Flying Car!

popsci — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:16:41 -0500

"> As best we can tell, this pup's legit. It's a prototype from the Sky Commuter program that Boeing evidently sunk $6 million into back in the 1980s. The program was dismantled—presumably because the concept didn't, er, fly—and this is...

Making the Wii Look Stupid

popsci — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:27:08 -0500

We did catch someone saying "this makes the Wii look stupid." And, actually, it kind of does. The 3DV Z Cam is a minuscule video camera equipped with an infrared beam, roughly the size of a web-cam, that sits on...

The Maestro Will See You Now

popsci — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:14:37 -0500

Guitar Hero's a terrific game, but doesn't do much in the way of teaching. (Unless you want to learn how embarrassingly uncoordinated you can be; in which case, kudos.) Enter a real maestro. Guitar Wizard and the forthcoming Piano Wizard...

PopSci Test Drive: The Chevy Equinox

popsci — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:07:22 -0500

We test plenty of cars here at PopSci, but it's not everyday we get to try one as forward-looking and promising at the Equinox. The car runs on hydrogen fuel cells; turn the ignition and the car instantly (and silently)...

Top Electric Bikes

Gregory Mone — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:58:39 -0500

Green tech guide MetaEfficient has two guides to new electric bikes—one that reviews Schwinn's latest offerings, and another that pushes a collection of European-made bikes. The eZee electric bike, made in South Africa but available here, can help riders with...

Another Major Stem Cell Advance

Gregory Mone — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:57:58 -0500

Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology announced yesterday that they've derived colonies of stem cells from human embryos without doing any damage to those original embryos. The work is significant because it may meet the ethical guidelines of the Bush Administration,...

When a $100 Laptop is Too Expensive

Gregory Mone — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:57:20 -0500

The former CTO of the One Laptop Per Child initiative, which builds inexpensive notebook computers for kids in developing countries, now plans to build an even cheaper version. Mary Lou Jensen hopes to succeed where OLPC failed: She wants to...