Technology: Upgrade - Popular Mechanics

Technology: Upgrade Archive

688 records found. Displaying 121 to 150 Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
MIT's Guru of Low-Tech Engineering Fixes the World on $2 a Day From impoverished Peruvian villages to MIT's D-Lab, professor Amy Smith is on a mission: Fight global poverty and improve living standards for developing countries—one low-cost, accessible invention at a time. (Published in the August 2008 issue)
3 Small, Low-Tech Inventions for Big, World-Changing Problems These three simple machines might not look like much, but they can solve some of the most serious problems in the developing world. (Published in the August 2008 issue)
7 Rules of Design From MIT's Guru of Low-Tech Engineering Amy Smith is a leader in the appropriate technology movement, in which engineers from developed countries work with people in the developing world to create practical, affordable solutions to everyday challenges. Here are some of Smith's rules of thumb for design in the developing world.
Best Water Guns: Middle Schooler-Approved Abusive Lab Test Long dominant in the water gun arms race, Super Soaker now faces some tough competition. We enlisted a Connecticut middle school class to screen some new weapons in the lab. (Published in the August 2008 issue)
10 Classic Games We Want on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console After a workout with the Wii Fit, you might want to kick back with Nintendo's Virtual Console. Cheap, instant downloads of the best retro video games from yesteryear. Here’s a handful that we’re still waiting for.
10 Awesome Gadgets You Should Grab for 2008: Midyear Roundup A lot of gee-whiz products come through our doors here at PM. And a lot of them make us yawn. But during the six months since CES, some toys had us sitting up, smiling and paying attention. Here are the top gizmos we¹re excited about so far this year.
The 10 Funniest Spy Gadgets in Movies ... Ever Get Smart, with the return of the classic shoe phone, plus the addition of a tooth radio and what might be the most insane Swiss Army knife ever, represents the evolving combo of contraptions both ludicrous and hilarious.
Top 10 Last-Minute Father's Day Gadgets Dad Actually Wants
Nike Plus SportBand Down-Mods Web-Based Workouts Studies show that logging workouts helps runners stick to a routine. The Nike Plus SportBand improves on their original Plus iPod training system—by removing the iPod. (Published in the July 2008 issue)
'Drive-by Wi-Fi' Takes Third-World Web Access to the Road For an MIT Media Lab grad’s startup, Internet access comes to developing nations by whatever means necessary—be it scooter, bus or farm animal. (Published in the July 2008 issue)
Best Suitcases May Not Be Most Expensive: Abusive Lab Test Does expensive luggage increase your belongings’ chance of survival? To find out, we pit one budget hard case against two top-shelf ones. The goal: Measure their durability and payload protection.
4 Reasons Early Adopters Don't Need a 3G iPhone Upgrade The die-hards out there are already hawking their first-generation iPhones and preparing to line up for the new model. But fear not: Steve Jobs' keynote won't just be about the new iPhone, it'll be about what's new for your iPhone.
Apple Touchscreen Maker: OLPC 2.0's $75 Target 'Impractical' After struggling to hit the $100 mark last year, the One Laptop Per Child initiative is back with a touchscreen tablet dubbed XO-2. But will high-priced screens will keep the group's new goal out of reach?
B-Movie Czar Uwe Boll Speaks Out on Anti-Gaming Flick Campaign The director the Web loves to hate offers his first interview after a nearly $1 million sponsorship to shut down his video-game adaptations, comparing the anti-Boll petition to the Obama campaign, talking trash to his critics and showing off his lighter side
American Gladiators' Blaster Is Most Powerful Nerf Gun Ever: Hands-on First Look This foam-shooting tommy gun feeds a 25-dart belt through a fully automatic chamber at more than two shots per second. The result: the fastest Nerf gun ever and the one best equipped for mowing down moving targets. So says NBC's new Justice gladiator. (Published in the May 2008 issue)
WiMAX Network's Rollout Abroad Hints at Future of Connected US The deployments in 110 different countries have some significant differences from Sprint's proposed network, but could still offer an interesting peek at what the United States may be in for—and what further missteps to avoid.
Rumors of e-vote Fraud in Pennsylania, but Voters Like Machines The reliability of Pennsylvania's voting machines was as important as getting people to the polls during yesterday’s much-anticipated Democratic primary. For a process that has received so much criticism, residents throughout the state were impressed.
Kawasaki Recreational Utility Vehicle: Test Drive The Kawasaki Teryx 750 Recreational Utility Vehicle is powered by a category-first liquid-cooled V-twin engine, which offers about 50 cc more displacement than the single-cylinder engines found in similar vehicles. (Published in the April 2008 issue)
Electric Bike Hits 75 Miles Per Charge, Could See Third World Because the Giant Twist Freedom DX runs on a cyborglike mix of muscle and machine power, it can travel twice as far as most powered cycles. The bike comes out in May, and the manufacturer tells PM that it sees the tech taking off in developing countries. (Published in the April 2008 issue)
Top 5 Tips (and Cameras) for Taking Better Digital Photos New digital cameras may pack in more advanced features, but many amateurs never bother to switch from the "Auto" setting. Here are five ways to go beyond the point-and-shoot plateau, plus the cams that will help you do it. (Published in the April 2008 issue)
Anatomy of the Dyson Ball DC-24 Vacuum Cleaner: Test Drive Many vacuums have the turning radius of a Mack truck. The ball-shaped pivot on the Dyson DC-24 Vacuum purports to bring effortless zigzagging. It's not cheap, but if it actually entices you to clean your house, it could very well pay for itself. (Published in the April 2008 issue)
Sennheiser MX W1 Headphones Are Ultimate Wireless Earbuds The cable-free Sennheiser MX W1 Headphones ($600) use a wireless transmitter that plugs directly into an MP3 player's headphone jack to beam uncompressed sound to earring-size earbuds. (Published in the April 2008 issue)
Top 5 Last-Minute Valentine's Day Gadgets for Your Geeky Sweetie Love can't be stored on a hard drive, or soldered on a circuit board. But that's not to say that we can’t deliver a little bit of sentiment with the circuitry. All of the gifts below are guaranteed to impress the nerdy woman in your life.
Fellowes Jam-Proof Paper Shredder Test Drive: Scam Watch As you load paper, a sensor gauge acts as a traffic light, telling you when you've gone overboard—and apparently making this deskside shredder jam-free. To test it, we stuffed as much cardboard, crumpled paper and CDs as the feed could handle. (Published in the March 2008 issue)
Neonode N2 Phone Turns You Into Touchscreen Zoolander ... With Haptics! This phone isn't just cute, it's weird. You actually hold the back of it against your ear to talk (so the LCD screen points away from your head). The most striking feature, however, is its tactile feedback.
Best Dressed @ CES 2008 (or Worst—They're All Geeks Anyway): Slide Show The gadgets, as always, were the stars at this year's CES. But there was no denying the tens of thousands of characters prowling Las Vegas for the last week. And there was certainly no denying their, um, innovative fashion sense.
MythBusters: 7 Tech Headaches—and How to Fix Them The MythBusters show is all about the crazy stuff that happens when technology meets man. But there are times when innovation produces aggravation, and when that happens, technology can flat out drive us nuts. (Published in the February 2008 issue)
Top 10 Sneak-Peek Photos the Night Before CES: Spy Report We were lucky enough to catch an exclusive glimpse of the convention center floor a day before the gates are open to the press. Click through our slide show to see some behind-the-scenes shots from the construction of CES and some spy shots of new products.
MacBook Touch Mockup: Is This Apple's Top-Secret Laptop? The Apple rumor mill is at it again, with reports surfacing that Steve Jobs could unveil a touchsreen laptop as soon as the end of 2008. Good thing we already dreamed one up. Here's a look at our would-be MacBook Touch.
Razer-THX Speakers Turn Your Desk Into Sonic Boomerang Most computer speakers shoot their sound straight ahead. That’s fine if you’re parked in an office-chair sweet spot, but moving from your seat can create an unbalanced sound, muddying your music and movies. So audio gurus teamed up to spray the sound. (Published in the January 2008 issue)
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