An intriguing bamboo mobile phone named ADzero is set to launch in the UK before the year is out following a positive response to the design, which was originally intended for the Chinese market. Though the intention is that the phone will run Android, relatively little is known about the phone itself. ADzero's Jerry Lao indicated to Gizmag that the designers are leaving all hardware options on the table until production is ready to roll. Read More

Visitors to Tokyo's Shinjuku ward my find themselves figuratively transported to the uncanny valley, if they take a stroll past Takashimaya department store, that is. Until Valentine's Day, a prominent display window there will play glassy prison cell to the impressive and unnerving Geminoid-F android. Geminoid-F is so strikingly lifelike in appearance, yet so thoroughly inhuman in many respects (head and eye movement among them), that it can only be the work of that master of the uncanny, Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro. Read More

The Fiat 500 dynasty is expanding once more. Recent additions include the Abarth and Cabrio versions, and now the 500L (the L stands for Large) is something completely different again. It's a compact five-seat people carrier, combining the passenger space of an MPV with the feel of a small SUV on the road and the restrained dimensions and efficiency of a B segment car. The 500L will debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March and will hit European markets in late 2012, with a choice of two petrol engines and the 1.3 liter MultiJet II turbodiesel engine. Read More

Due to the number of stairs that needed to be climbed to reach the top, buildings of over six storys were a rarity until the 19th century when the development of passenger elevators - along with advances in building materials and techniques - enabled the construction of taller and taller buildings. As skyscrapers continue to reach ever higher, elevators are required to carry more people further, faster. Mitsubishi already has the first problem licked with the development of elevators able to carry 80 people at once. Now it has tackled speed with technologies that enable ultra-high-speed elevators to travel at more than 60 km/h (37 mph or 1,000 meters a minute). Read More

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 team combines the strong driver pairing of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton for the third year running in 2012, along with a substantially revised car to meet the FIA's rule changes. The most noticeable change between last year and the new MP4-27 is at the rear, where tighter rear carbon-fiber composite body shaping has been designed to meet the new-for-2012 exhaust rules, whilst smoothing airflow to and from the coolant and oil radiators. Read More

Despite criticism in the U.S. regarding escalating costs, which has seen the Pentagon’s bill for a planned 2,443 F-35s going from US$233 billion to $385 billion, Lockheed Martin is pressing ahead with tests of the world’s only fifth generation jet fighter. It’s been over six years since the first F-35 took to the air for the first time and one and a half years since the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant broke the sound barrier for the first time. Now the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant has completed the first night flight in the history of the F-35 program. Read More

Facebook has filed an S-1 document with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission announcing its intention to sell shares to the public. The eagerly anticipated move by the world’s dominant social networking site sees Facebook’s books open to potential investors – and the just plain curious - for the first time. Although the IPO will mean the internet giant will answer to shareholders and a board, the stock structure will see Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg controlling 57 percent of voting shares. Read More

Wenger is one of the two recognizable brand names behind the iconic Swiss Army knife. Ordinarily the brand is content in updating its timeless knife line with a new implement or grip material, but this time it aims to create a whole new category of outdoor preparedness equipment. You can call it toolery or wearable survival gear, but Wenger calls it HypeX. Read More

Maserati is swapping the bitumen for the deep blue by backing an attempt to set a new record for a trans-Atlantic crossing. A crew of seven, skippered by Giovanni Soldini, has set sail from the port of Cadiz in southwestern Spain in a super maxi yacht named after the Italian supercar manufacturer. They are headed for San Salvador in the Bahamas on a 3,884 nautical miles (4,469 miles/7,193 km) journey. Read More