boom

NASA's push to quiet sonic booms

Sonic booms aren't just cheesy ranged weapons that Guile from Street Fighter uses to defend his epic flat-top. They're the result of an aircraft breaking the sound barrier. And they can be loud enough to deafen E. Honda.

The nerve-rattling noise factor has restricted much supersonic travel to the world's oceans, limiting intercontinental flight to sub-Mach speeds. But a series of experiments being conducted by NASA are aimed at enabling a new generation of supersonic crafts that can dampen or even eliminate sonic booms.

NASA aerospace engineer Ed Haering today answered reader questions about "what it's like to try to tame a sonic boom," and included images of an F-15B prototype (left) modified with the awesome-looking Unicorn-like "Quiet Spike."

The retractable, 24-foot-long spike is mounted to the nose of the aircraft and creates three smaller shockwaves that travel all the way to the ground in parallel instead of building up to a sonic boom. That configuration greatly reduces noise when the aircraft goes Mach 1, or about 760 mph, the speed of sound at sea level. … Read more

DIY Weekend: Mutant four-wheeler for road, rail

DIY Weekend, a new Crave series spotlighting readers' do-it-yourself creations, kicks off with the Hennepin Crawler. Members of Krank-Boom-Clank, a three-person kinetic industrial arts collective in Santa Rosa, Calif., spent one night a week for six months building the quirky contraption, one of their "mutant ride-able sculptures of delight (aka 'freak bikes')."

Built for four riders, the Crawler can handle both street and limited railroad-track cruising at The Great Handcar Regatta (and, of course, the playa at the annual Burning Man countercultural arts festival).

The creators of the Crawler (Clifford Hill, Skye Barnett, David Farish, and former Krank-Boom-Clank … Read more

He's on fire! NBA JAM returns, coming to Wii

Arguably the best arcade sports game of all time, NBA JAM will be make a comeback in 2010. The 1993 classic featured 2-on-2 basketball with over the top dunks, flaming basketballs, shattering backboards, and little regard for the rules of the game. It was also one of the first games to feature commentary that sneaked its way into mainstream pop culture.

EA Vancouver, the game's developer, has promised to stay true to the original all while delivering a fresh take on the franchise. These updates include "true-to-life body types, updated physics and visible player emotion."

While developer … Read more

Fun animation tool

Flip Boom Classic provides all the tools you need to make a very simple animated film. With its basic controls and excellent layout, it's a great program with only one tiny snag.

We found Flip Boom's interface to be a successful design from top to bottom. It maintains the layout of a children's drawing kit, but it offers a sophisticated set of tools for creating animated digital video. Flip Boom also saves animations that can be viewed with an iPod, with Windows Media Player, or online. Its online tutorial offers a step-by-step guide to the process that … Read more

Crave giveaway of the week: Altec Lansing's kickin' iPod boom box

For this week's installment of the weekly Crave giveaway, we're offering another iPod/iPhone speaker system--and it's one of our favorites: The Altec Lansing Mix iMT800.

I happen to have reviewed this guy myself and here's the bottom line on it: "While the retrolicious design of Altec Lansing's Mix iMT800 may not appeal to everyone, its winning combination of good performance, lots of oomph, and portability makes it one of the best iPod speaker options out there." (Read the full review).

Normally, Altec Lansing's Mix iMT800 would cost about $300, but you … Read more

Altec Lansing's iPod boom box rocks

Back in the 1980s, when portable audio was synonymous with "cassette tapes," boom boxes were a mainstay of music culture. While luggable, battery-powered speaker systems still exist today, they tend to be somewhat dainty iPod speakers. Altec Lansing's $300 Mix iMT800, meanwhile, aims to mix and match the best of the old and new. It has the look and feel of an old-school, crank-it-till-your-ears-bleed boom box--albeit a rather stylish one--but it boasts an iPod/iPhone dock (and it's GSM-shielded to boot, so you don't need to flip the iPhone into airplane mode).

While this can … Read more

Crave giveaway of the week: Logitech Squeezebox Boom

For this week's installment of the weekly Crave giveaway, we've got a hot one: Logitech's Squeezebox Boom, which we consider the best all-in-one tabletop Wi-Fi radio we've seen to date. It earned an Editors' Choice award last year. (Read the full review of the Logitech Squeezebox Boom.)

Normally, Logitech's Squeezebox Boom costs about $300, but you have the chance to get one gratis.

So, how do you try to win a free Squeezebox Boom? Let me enumerate the basic rules. Please read them carefully; there will be a test.

iLive iB109 iPod speaker runs on emasculation

Boom box designs typically go to masculine extremes. Products like the Sony Xplod or Altec Lansing iM7 look like they belong on Vin Diesel's shoulder launching rockets at enemy helicopters. Even classically styled boom boxes like the Lasonic i931 are purposely designed to be unwieldy, oversized contraptions that require a gym membership and an unhealthy appetite for punishment.

The iLive iB109 strikes a retaliating blow against the male-centric design of these beat-blasting behemoths by mimicking one of the most emasculating objects ever devised--the purse. With its flexible strap, glossy finish, and iPod-matching color schemes, this portable speaker system is … Read more

iVerse brings comic books to iPhone, Android

There's no question that comic books and magazines will eventually have a portable platform suited to them, just as the iPod took nearly four years to reach a saturation level as the de facto portable music player.

The Kindle 2 might have been that device, had Amazon found color e-ink to be cost-effective. For now, though, we're stuck with struggling innovations, and iVerse Media has made a big push to get theirs out.

Earlier this month, just in time for WonderCon 2009, the big comic book and media convention in San Francisco, iVerse launched its comic book-reading app for Android, following on the heels of its iPhone app that debuted in November of last year.

The thought of cramming the detail-rich comic book page onto the tiny touchscreen of a smartphone seems ridiculous, because it is. iVerse solved the problem by chopping comics into panel-size chunks.

On both Android and the iPhone, you slide your finger across the screen to move on to the next panel. Slide it in the other direction to move back. Reading the story is surprisingly clear and clean, and although it may seem counter-intuitive, there should be no concerns about eyestrain from squinting because it's one panel, presented in high resolution.

From there, the Android and iPhone apps diverge in functionality, though the features remain largely the same. I tested the Hexed No. 1 comic for both the iPhone and Android. … Read more

'Hexed,' not cursed

This free iPhone app is the first issue of Boom! Studios' comic book "Hexed" reformatted for your iPhone. Instead of looking at a full comic book page, you advance from panel to panel by sliding your finger across the screen. Reading the story is surprisingly clear and clean, and although it may seem counter-intuitive, there should be no concerns about eyestrain from squinting.

When you tap the comic, a small and nearly invisible "I" appears in the bottom right corner. This information button wasn't as responsive as we would've liked, but eventually it will … Read more