New Atlas

Gizmag is now New Atlas:  Why we changed our name DRONES Parrot's gliding Disco drone is ready to come to the party The Disco revealed by Parrot at CES earlier this year is yet another departure from the typical consumer drone form, and the company has just revealed a few new details about how the speedy fixed-wing glider will work in the air.   Read more AUTOMOTIVE Bonneville dishes out salt, sun and speed in spades There are many race tracks around the world, but none can claim the all-out speed pedigree of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Western Utah. New Atlas made the trip out to this year's annual Speed Week to explore this mysterious arena of balls-to-the-wall speed.   Read more AUTOMOTIVE Top 30 Classic Car Sales at 2016 Monterey Car Week Monterey Car Week has finished for another year and many new world auction records were broken, including the outright records for the most expensive cars made in Great Britain and America respectively.   Read more MOBILE TECHNOLOGY Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review: Scans your eyes, empties your wallet The Galaxy Note 7 may be Samsung's smallest step forward in the lineup's five year history, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a Smartphone of the Year candidate that's worth a look when shopping for your next phone. But is it our top choice?  Read more GOOD THINKING NuTonomy beats out Uber and Volvo with self-driving taxis in Singapore What is thought to be the world's first public trial of a self-driving taxi service has begun in Singapore, pipping Uber and Volvo to the post. For the trial, a group of the city-state's residents can use a ride-hailing smartphone app to book free taxi journeys in one of the firm's autonomous cars.   Read more ENVIRONMENT Humans have been heating up the planet for 180 years says new study Despite the common conception that man-made climate change is a 20th-century phenomenon, a new study reveals that humans have been causing the warming of the Earth for 180 years.  Read more ARCHITECTURE Swedish apartments put the wheels in motion for a cycle-friendly lifestyle As cities seek to become greener and healthier places to live, cycling is increasingly being catered for. In Malmö, Sweden, this now extends beyond infrastructure like bike lanes, with a specially designed apartment block and hotel being built for people who wish to lead a car-free lifestyle.   Read more DIGITAL CAMERAS Fujifilm’s retro-styled X-A3 targets young selfie shooters The Fujifilm X-A3 is a mirrorless camera designed to help selfie fans shoot better photos of themselves. The camera boasts a 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor along with a host of selfie-focused features, including the ability to trigger the shutter when you and a pal push your faces together.   Read more ARCHITECTURE Prototype shelter conceived as alternative housing for Finland  Finnish students have developed a prototype home that's conceived as an alternative means of sheltering the country's asylum seekers, homeless, students, and anyone else who needs a roof over their head. Dubbed Kokoon, it can be assembled from its three prefabricated modules in just one day.  Read more MOTORCYCLES Harley-Davidson's all-new V-Twin: More power, more torque, less vibration, all American Harley-Davidson has announced its ninth generation American V-Twin engine. Featuring more power, more torque, less vibrations, better heat dispersion and an enhanced exhaust note, meet the Milwaukee Eight.   Read more SCIENCE Meet Meritamun, the mummy of Melbourne University For almost a century, the basement at University of Melbourne, has been home to a mummified head. Now using CT scans, 3D printing, forensic science and sculpture, a team has reconstructed the face of an Egyptian woman who lived 2,000 years ago, to learn more about her life, death, health and diet.   Read more DIGITAL CAMERAS Canon 5D MkIV packs 30.4 megapixel sensor, Wi-Fi, GPS and 4K video The Canon EOS 5D MkIII is a favorite of professional photographers, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth. At launch in 2012, it was the highest resolution camera the company made, but things have moved on significantly in the past four years. The 5D MkIV brings it up to speed, albeit at a cost.   Read more ROBOTICS Chemically-powered, autonomous Octopus could spawn a new generation of soft robots A team of Harvard engineers have come up with a robot octopus that is autonomous, and requires no tether to operate. Called the "Octobot," it combines 3D printing, mechanical engineering, and microfluidics to create what could be the first in a new generation of soft, autonomous machines.   Read more AUTOMOTIVE Delphi and Mobileye target turn-key self-driving system by 2019 It's not just the big marques and cities trying to make autonomous cars happen. Delphi and Mobileye have teamed up to bring a ready-to-run autonomous solution to market by 2019, with a demonstration set to take place at CES in Las Vegas next year. ​   Read more AROUND THE HOME Ten of the best Kickstarter products you can buy right now ​In no small part, crowdfunding has changed the way products make it to market. Some of the most innovative ideas of recent years owe their success to platforms like Kickstarter, so to highlight those success stories, we’ve picked out the cream of the crowdfunded crop, which you can buy right now.   Read more GAMES Playstation Now for PC puts big titles on the small screen Sony wants to open up its library of Playstation Now titles to PC owners, who can connect up a PS4 controller through a new USB dongle and enjoy big console titles on the small screen.   Read more SPACE 521 days and counting as US astronaut sets new NASA record ISS Mission Commander Jeff Williams today slid quietly into the record books as he became the most experienced NASA astronaut to date as he racked up 521 days cumulative days in orbit.   Read more SCIENCE Ancient stones were less like tools, more like deadly baseballs As anyone familiar with Thor's hammer Mjolnir knows, sometimes the line between tool and weapon can be mighty thin. Now, new research provides evidence that rocks found at an archeological site 30 years ago thought to be tools were more likely projectiles.  Read more ENVIRONMENT Oil spill clean-up material functions like a fern ​When an oil spill occurs on water, one way of cleaning up that spill involves the use of materials which soak up the oil. Those won't be very effective, however, if they absorb both oil and water. That's why scientists have turned to nature, resulting in a fern-inspired material known as Nanofur. ​   Read more ENVIRONMENT Game shows how things could play out for Antarctica's penguins In an effort to present changes to the Antarctic Ice Sheet in an engaging and digestible way, scientists have produced an interactive game that hands players the environmental reins with the lives of Antarctica's penguins at stake. ​  Read more GOOD THINKING Mitsubishi develops real-time data analysis system for crowd safety Mitsubishi Electric has developed a new technology to help security cameras predict risk and improve safety at crowded events. The system analyzes data from surveillance cameras and presents a heat map for monitors to act on.   Read more LAPTOPS VR on a MacBook? This external GPU would allow Rift, Vive and classic gaming Are there Apple devotees out there yearning for a way to supercharge their laptops for gaming? Wolfepack and its backers say yes. The company is developing the Kickstarter-funded Wolfe, an external Nvidia GPU, to do just that.  Read more SPACE Potentially habitable planet discovered just 4 light-years away ​​A team of astronomers has discovered clear evidence of a potentially habitable Earth-sized planet orbiting the closest star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri.   Read more MEDICAL Infrared instrument lets doctors see through eardrums to spot infections  A new device switches out visible light observations for shortwave infrared, letting doctors peer deeper into the ear than normal. It’s designed to be similar to existing otoscopes, and should allow for much more accurate diagnoses of ear infections.   Read more MEDICAL Safe, edible battery designed to power ingestible medical devices A team of researchers has developed a tiny battery that’s entirely non-toxic, and which provides enough power for tiny, edible sensing or diagnostic devices to get their jobs done.   Read more SPACE China unveils Mars 2020 rover design NASA's Mars 2020 rover is on track to meet its deadline and it won't be alone on the Red Planet. The Chinese State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND)​ has unveiled images of a probe and rover it plans to send to Mars at around the same time.   Read more BICYCLES Wall-mounted bike lock caters to those who are hung up on security ​There are already lots of bike locks out there, plus there are plenty of brackets that let you hang your bike up against the wall. Hiplok's Airlok, however, combines the two in one device.   Read more AIRCRAFT Airlander 10 damaged during second test flight The world's largest aircraft, Airlander 10, crashed today during its second test flight. No-one was hurt in the incident, but the airship, from Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), sustained damage to its flight deck, which is positioned underneath the hull.   Read more SPECIAL PROMOTION FOR NEW ATLAS READERS Conveniently Add Up to 200GB of Storage to Your Macbook without a Bulky Hard Drive Finally, you can dump that clunky USB drive floating around your backpack. A MicroSD card adapter that seamlessly plugs into your MacBook, the MiniDrive integrates with Time Machine to add up to 200 GB of extra space to store important files. You won't have to carry cumbersome storage devices anymore, simply plug in MiniDrive and you're good to go.   Read more