Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re a fan of science fiction, you’re undoubtedly looking forward to the new Star Wars films from Disney.  The studio has already confirmed that J.J. Abrams will be directing Star Wars: Episode VII. This major time commitment puts a bit of a wrinkle in the things for fans of the modern Star Trek films that have been directed by Abrams and done very well at the box office.

Word has surfaced that Abrams will still be producing Star Trek 3, but has given up the director role. Reports now indicate that Joe Cornish will be directing the film.

Cornish isn’t a name that I recognize, but he co-wrote the Steven Spielberg movie The Adventures of Tin-Tin, and directed the action flick Attack the Block. Cornish is also working with Edgar Wright on a Marvel superhero film called Ant-Man, which has been getting a lot of buzz.

It’s interesting that Abrams will reportedly stay on as a producer, meaning a single person will be associated with two of the most iconic franchises in all of science fiction.

Star Trek 3 is reportedly set to begin shooting in the summer of 2014.

[via TV3]

Declare your allegiance to the Starfleet without wearing Spandex with ThinkGeek’s officially-licensed Star Trek: The Next Generation uniform hoodies. They have all three colors: red for command, gold for operations and blue for sciences. I guess the Enterprise had no need for plumbers and cooks. Or technologies.

The hood on each sweater has piping that matches the sweater’s color coding. When the hood is down, the piping makes it look like the sweater has a shallow v-neck, similar to the actual uniforms worn by Captain Picard and his crew.

You can order the hoodies from ThinkGeek for $60 (USD). Comm badge and pips sold separately.

An Illinois man named Howard Leventhal persuaded a company to help finance “Heltheo’s McCoy Home Health Tablet”. Yes it sounds as bad as it is. This is a fake health device that’s based loosely on the medical Tricorder that McCoy used on Star Trek. Leventhal was arrested for fraud on Oct. 22, not surprisingly he did not have the tech to beam himself out of dodge.

Last year, Leventhal told executives at Paragon Financial Group, Inc. that Health Canada was backing his “home health tablet” and that it was based on the Star Trek tricorder. The company gave him $800,000 in funding. Apparently no one bothered to check this guy or his story out. So then Leventhal forged contracts between his fake company Neovision USA and the Canadian government to secure even more funding. He even forged Deputy Health Minister Glenda Yeates’ signature. The contract was made to look like it promised him $8.2 million in funding directly from Canadian government.

This guy had big brass cojones, I’ll give him that. However, this whole thing was very stupid. He had to know he would get caught. And he did. After he tried to get $2.5 million more in funding, he gave the fake contracts to an undercover agent. Right now, he is out on a $100,000 bond, with a hearing on Oct.30. What a maroon. Seriously, they need to study this guy and see what makes him tick. Maybe they can learn some things and head off this sort of thing in the future.

On the other hand, I suppose the investors deserve what they got if they were that bad at their due diligence. All they had to do was investigate his story in the first place before coughing up their dough.

[via Gizmodo via Nerd Approved]

If you have a spare $5,299.99(USD) you can buy this sweet new Star Trek Pinball machine for your man cave or replica Starship bridge. It looks pretty fun and your goal is to destroy the U.S.S. Vengeance. If you didn’t like Into Darkness, this will probably be a much better experience than what you saw on screen.

This is Stern’s first all LED illuminated pinball game. It has all the requisite lights and sounds of course, as well as phaser flashes and photon torpedoes.

There are six missions for casual players and 18 missions for those already familiar with Star Trek and pinball. Along the way, you will unlock specials, collect bonuses like a series of accolades called “The Captain’s Chair”. It looks like a fun table that will offer hours of play.

All of your favorite old enemies are here, like: Khan, Nero, Klingons, and the Narada. While it’s not the first Star Trek pinball machine – there have been several before this – it’s the first one from the J.J. Abrams universe. I’m disappointed by the lack of a single tribble however. Would it have killed them to sneak one in?

Other features include:

14 stand-up targets; stainless steel shooter lane ramp; two wide-entrance combo ramps; warp feedback ramp fed by 3rd flipper, left eject kicker lock; four balls; three flippers; three high-speed pop bumpers, two high-powered slingshot mechanisms, two electric gates in orbit lanes; and a Star Trek Starfleet Pro translite backglass.

Wealthy Trekkies will want to pre-order one now. It will be available in February from Entertainment Earth, or you can buy one right now from Stern Pinball.

Who wouldn’t love to have Khans beefy chest? Well, now you can. No weight lifting or visits to Fantasy Island necessary. This Khan T-shirt will make you look just like Khan Noonien Sighn. From the neck down at least.

I know you want this shirt. Me too. It is awesome. This shirt tasks me! It tasks me, and I shall have it! I’ll chase it round the Moons of Nibia, and round the Antares Maelstrom, and round Perdition’s flames before I give it up! But thankfully I won’t have to. It is only $39.99(USD) from SuperHeroStuff.

It’s perfect for Halloween or just to look cool and ripped any day of the week. Wear it to the office, why don’t you?