Hasta La Gadget!

Some of you may have thought that the (non) news about the U.S. government wisely turning down a petition to use its resources to build a Death Star had reached its conclusion with the Death Star fundraiser. Apparently this space cow has not been Force Milked dry just yet, because now someone’s asking for money to build a fleet of X-Wing fighters.

The representatives of the Rebel Alliance analyzed their enemy’s plans and have set up several effective countermeasures. For instance, they are merely asking for $11,000,000, way less than the $31.4M target fund for the Death Star. And whereas the Sith supporters only had a drawing of a circle – albeit, a well drawn one –  as their initial design, the Rebel Alliance used the power of the Force Google and posted this on their project page:

If that’s not enough to persuade you to donate to the light side, the Rebels have also indicated a desire to build a heavily modified YT-1300 Freighter:

The Rebels are also offering lightsaber construction classes to people who pledge $5,000 and a Jedi training camp to rich padawans who can pledge at least $10,000. I say we start a Kickstarter to help start an organization that prevents people from using Kickstarter for their jokes. Then let’s start another one that calls that other Kickstarter a buzzkill. Plot twist: we’ll only ask for $500 for each fundraiser, then we’ll split the cash and vanish. Jokes on you, backers!

[via Kickstarter via Inquisitr]

Growing up I built more than my fair share of paper airplanes. I’m sure a lot of you guys built plenty of them yourselves, and we still build quite a few paper flying machines around my house. I’ll let you in on a little secret – being able to fly paper airplanes off of the landing is the main reason why I purchased a two-story home.

But if your paper airplanes don’t stay in the air long enough for you, you’ll want to get one with a propeller to help things along. TailorToys has announced their updated PowerUp 3.0 electric paper airplane conversion kit that allows your paper planes to actually fly under their own power.

These kits have been around for a while, but version 3.0 now allows you to control your airplane using a smartphone. This version of the paper airplane kit works with any smartphone supporting Bluetooth 4.0. While there’s no video footage yet of the PowerUp 3.0 in action, here’s a clip of the previous generation flying high in the sky:

The kit is scheduled to ship in August 2013. The company also unveiled a similar PowerUp Boat kit that converts your paper boats into electric powerboats. The Boat Kit will be available in July 2013. Pricing for both kits is undisclosed at this time.

Many scientists have theorized that the reason the Hindenburg went down in flames was because of the combination of flammable hydrogen gas and paints on the surface of the blimp’s skin. Well you won’t have to worry about either of those with this little R/C toy that’s designed to look like an airship.

Created by China’s AMAX Toys, the Airship is a remote-controlled flyer that uses a pair of horizontal propellers to lift it into the air. Of course, the only reason this design works is that the Airship itself has no skin. Instead, you see the skeleton of the dirigible – and that’s pretty cool.

The Airship measures about 11-inches-long, and can fly for about 5 to 6 minutes on a 60 minute charge. I comes with a 3-channel infrared remote – which limits running distance to about 30 feet, and has gyroscopes to help keep it balanced while flying.

The Airship is available in wholesale quantities from AMAX Toys, but they’re not selling them retail at this point.

Aside from the huggable Totoro, the Catbus is one of the most memorable characters in the 1988 classic My Neighbor Totoro. After all, what’s not to like about a huge multilegged cat that can take you wherever you want to go? And what’s not to like about a LEGO version of said cat?

The LEGO Catbus was made by Tomoyuki Wakata. He wanted to make a version of the Catbus that kids could interact with, so he ended up adding two things that the cartoon Catbus didn’t have: wheels and a handle. The idea is for kids to hold Catbus by Its handle then move him back and forth. Upon doing so, they get a reward: its head, legs and chubby tail move!

Man, people will always find awesome ways to put LEGO together. I wonder where those whiskers and eyes are originally from.

[Tomoyuki Wakata via Daily of the Day]

We’re almost certain that next-generation Xbox and PlayStation game consoles will be launching this year. Rumors continue to point to the first unveil of the consoles sometime before E3 with a launch later this year for both products. While the next-generation Xbox had been expected to debut before the next-generation PlayStation, that no longer seems the case with the PS4 all but a sure thing for a February 20th reveal.

A new rumor is making the rounds today that the next Xbox (aka the “Xbox 720″) will support more sophisticated voice control technology than is currently offered by the Kinect. According to the rumor, the Durango, which is the codename for the next-generation Xbox, will feature support for “wake on voice.” That would mean you could turn the console on using your voice. The console is also tipped to support natural language controls, which should be a major improvement over the current voice commands. The voice control technology is said to be similar to Apple’s Siri technology, allowing you to ask things like “what are my friends playing.” A speech-to-text capability could also allow for faster text messages and data entry without need for a keyboard.

Microsoft is also reportedly investigating the ability to allow Kinect sensors to detect the individuals in a room and suggest appropriate multiple player games.

[via The Verge]