Hasta La Gadget!

Like many Star Wars fans, I’m simultaneously excited and filled with dread at the thought of more Star Wars films coming now that Disney has acquired Lucasfilm. I’m excited that new movies are coming, but I’m worried the movies might not fit with expectations. An story is making the rounds that Disney is developing standalone Star Wars films based around individual characters.

This is similar to what the X-Men franchise did with the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. The tip on the standalone films comes from Disney CEO Bob Iger. He said that Disney was working on a “few stand-alone films.” He didn’t offer any specifics, but rumors suggest that the first standalone film would focus on Yoda.

Work on the standalone movie is said to be progressing alongside the new Star Wars trilogy. The first installment of that new trilogy will be directed by JJ Abrams, and is due out in 2015. The standalone films are reportedly expected between 2015 and 2021 and are being written by Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg.

The first Star Wars film we can expect from Disney will be written by Michael Ardnt, who wrote Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine. Iger noted that Disney plans to make Star Wars 7, 8, and 9 over a roughly 6-year. He said there would be a few other films released during that period. Star Wars fans may or may not know that Kasdan worked on the scripts for the original trilogy including The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

[via BBC]

Standalone Star Wars films planned by Disney is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

May the Force, ah, Fez, be with you. This awesome shirt takes the worlds of Doctor Who and Star Wars and mashes them up into timey-wimey awesomeness. I always thought that the Sonic Screwdriver could be turned into a lightsaber with some minor modifications.

The shirt features a 6 color design of the 11th Doctor wielding a lightsaber. It’s printed on a super soft American Apparel 100% cotton tee.

This awesome shirt is available from ianleino.com for the low price of $20(USD). Frankly, I would pay $100 for this awesome shirt. Shhh. Don’t tell Ian that.

He has some other great designs available as well, but this one really rocks the TARDIS. Can we get the whole cast involved? I’m thinking Amy as Princess Leia and Rory as Han in a movie poster style shirt.

We would all love to have full sized AT-ST models guarding our front yards (or at least for our cats), but sadly that is beyond reach for most of us. At least you can make some mini AT-ST models from popsicle sticks.

These “chicken walkers” proved a challlenge to build compared with other projects because of the two skinny mechanical legs that they balance on. So there may be some difficulty here, but nothing that you can’t overcome. All you need is a few tools, popsicle sticks and some glue and Instructables will show you how to create these mini Imperial vehicles after you finish your frozen treats.

Don’t let tiny Ewoks anywhere near them though. It just takes a pair of smart Ewoks and some logs to really mess up an AT-ST’s day and smash it’s head in.

[via Unique Daily]

This week the folks at Paramount Pictures have released a very special app for the next blockbuster science fiction film in the Starfleet universe: Star Trek Into Darkness! This app is not just your everyday average movie companion app, it’s a straight up scavenger hunt that uses the camera on your smartphone as well as the sensors you’ve got under the hood of your device to sent you out into the wild to collect a series of media bits as well as real physical location markers. This technology is made real with Qualcomm Labs’ Gimbal technology and Qualcomm Vuforia augmented reality platform.

Interestingly enough, the Qualcomm technology we’re using here in this app isn’t limited to the Qualcomm processor you may or may not have in your smartphone or tablet device. Instead its built in to the app itself, allowing you to use the app on essentially any iOS or Android device you’ve got on hand. This app takes you diving directly into the Star Trek universe with a selection of media bits you unlock yourself, each available right out of the box or revealed at a later date as we drive closer to the final release of the movie itself.

The original announcement of this app took place back on January 7th at CES 2013 where Qualcomm’s CEO Paul E Jacobs made it clear that the company here demonstrates the ability to “harness the power of the smartphone to bridge the digital and physical world” with Gimbal! In addition to collecting images with your smart device’s camera, you’ll be playing sounds with your computer that your smartphone hears and recognizes and actually moving out into the real world (outside your office or home) to find the full collection of locks.

This app uses a geofencing function that has you heading to specific GPS-based lock points – and the Star Trek Into Darkness movie itself down the line. This app currently brings a series of photos and video to the viewer that they’d otherwise (for the most part) be able to grab online if they know where to look – but the finding of everything is fun, and the content can be used as wallpapers, lock screens, and more, and it’s all sized appropriate to the device you’ve got on hand – iPhone 5 for us here in this test.

The real reason you’re going to want to download this app is to stay up to date on Star Trek Into Darkness news straight from the source and to attain exclusive opportunities you wont be able to get anywhere else. You can get this app right this minute for free from the iTunes App Store or the Google Play App Store by heading to the Star Trek Movie website right this minute. You can also simply search for “Star Trek App” and poof! There it will be – believe it or not!

Star Trek Into Darkness will be released to theaters in May 17th, 2013, and you’ll be blown away by everything inside it. Without a doubt. Stay tuned to our Star Trek tag portal for more information and news updates galore up until and through that time too!

Star Trek Into Darkness app Review: dive in with Gimbal! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Considering I’m a huge fan of science fiction, first person shooters, and video games, on paper you would expect me to enjoy the Dead Space franchise. In reality, I’ve never been a big fan of the series. There are a lot of people out there who love the franchise though, and its third installment is set to launch very soon. Ahead of launch the developers are offering up a few interesting new details on the game.

Dead Space 3 executive producer Steve Papoutsis has revealed that the game will have four additional difficulty modes that will only unlock after players beat the game one time. Two of these new modes will include Classic and Hardcore. Classic mode removes the new game’s crosshairs and resource management system to make it feel and play more like past games in the series. The Hardcore mode gives players only a single life for the entire campaign. Yikes.

Game+ mode lets you play through the game again with all of your weapons and arsenal that you finished the game with. DS3 will also feature an interesting Pure Survival mode where the players have to craft everything they use from ammo to health and weapons. In this mode there are no resources hidden around the map. That sounds like a cool challenge. Papoutsis also said that after launch the game would get new downloadable content. He wouldn’t give up any details of exactly what be in that DLC, but he said think “disturbing” to get an idea of what may be coming.

Dead Space 3 releases on February 5, 2013 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

[via GameSpot]