The Star Trek Classic Communicator is finally out and, while it’s undeniably awesome, we can’t help but feel it falls a little short of the mark. Here’s what it does do: it’s got 20 sound effects from the TV show including noises and voice clips from the original series, working lights when you flip open the metal faceplate and a “Hailing Function,” which simulates a non-interactive call from the Enterprise. It looks just right and would make a fantastic prop or toy for any Trekkie.

What it doesn’t do? Act as a communicator. Simple two-way communication would have really sealed the deal on this one. Hopefully you’re not wearing a red shirt while you’re using it, because your away team is going nowhere.

The Star Trek Classic Communicator costs $30, though you could just wait for currency to be abolished under the formation of the United Federation of Planets in 2161 and replicate one.

Link

Let’s get this out of the way early—this is a long, green pickle that happens to yodel. It’s available for $13 and there is no word on how many different Yodels this pickle is capable of belting out. What is important is that the manufacturers, Accoutrements, felt the need to mass produce a product like this.

If you want to be serious about it, an electronic yodeling pickle is obviously a gag gift that is great for those that enjoy yodeling, pickles, or cheap electronic junk. On the other hand better uses for this pickle include those of a different nature. It could also be a good pistol and mortar for a pharmacist. With those few options, don’t question the Electronic Yodeling Pickle, just embrace it.

Link

What do you get when you take a Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycle, put an extra wheel on the front, install a couple of seats and top it off with a gorgeous fiberglass body? You get a Cirbin V13R, a tricycle that looks a lot like some of those sexy, tiny electric vehicles we’ve been showing you, but this one’s available now. The V13R borrows a lot of tech from its Harley V-Rod underpinnings, packing that stainless steel beauty’s 1.25-liter engine under the hood and its electronic instrument cluster up front and center.

Add that characteristic Harley sound growling its signature potato-potato-potato roar as you shift through its five speeds, and you have yourself a fast and footloose three-wheeled thrill ride. Save up your money, though, because these babies aren’t costing small potatoes — even though this trike’s price starts at $40K, most of them are selling in the $55K range.

Looking for a fine piece of art to class up your apartment or home? Are you also looking for a way to let all of your guests know that you’re a pretty morbid person and quite proud of that fact? Have I got the sculpture for you.

This insane Bio-Mechanical Skull sculpture lets everybody know that you like both skulls and robots with a healthy dose of apocalyptic sci-fi movies thrown in for good measure. Sure, it’s off putting and creepy, but you’ve never been one to follow trends or happily do what people expect. Fight the system, etc.

Link

When it comes to vehicles from famous movies, they don’t get too much cooler than James Bond’s Lotus convertible that can also function as a submarine. Unfortunately, the very idea of a convertible submarine is nonsensical, so we’ll probably never see it in real life. Or will we?

We will! Check out this Rinspee sQuba! It’s a convertible that’s also a submarine! You need to wear scuba masks attached to the built-in air tanks to drive it underwater, but how badass is this? In addition, it’s a zero-emissions vehicle, running on a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, so you can pretend to be a secret agent without wrecking the environment. That’s it, I’m sold. Where do I sign?

Link

The Paramount Parabolic Multi-Monitor Display by Humanscale gives you an easy way to attach anywhere from two to eight screens onto its unfolding monitor arm, no tools required. Everything snaps into place, including the displays. The screens are curved toward you for your comfort, and the rack is adjustable to accommodate a wide range of monitor sizes.

Why in the world would you want eight monitors? I don’t know — buy an army of house-watching robots and see all that they see at the same time, or play so many puzzle games at once that your brain explodes. The power is yours!

The Humanscale Paramount is due out early this year. No idea what pricing looks like, though, like most of Humanscale’s products, it’s meant for offices to buy and not the individual.

What makes a watch worth $500,000? In some cases, it’s just because its loaded up with diamonds or other valuable materials. But if there’s no bling on the watch, what can possibly make it worth half a million dollars? Anything? I say no, there is absolutely nothing that can make a watch worth that much.

Those behind the Zenith El Primero Zero-G Multi-Dimensional Tourbilon would probably disagree, however, as that’s exactly how much it costs. Looking like the kind of watch your outdoorsy gym teacher would wear, it certainly looks like it’s got a lot going on. It’s gravity resistant! And water resistant! Also, it tells the time, one assumes! OK, I stand corrected; totally worth it.

Link

If you’re looking to make a good impression at your upcoming job interview or business meeting, you should find a suit that fits you well and stands out. You could just go to Macy’s and get a plain dark suit and have it tailored, or you could go a little more extreme.

Might I suggest this gas mask suit, designed by Aitor Throup? Much of it looks like a standard-issue grey business suit, but when you get to the jacket you see that a number of gas masks have been stitched in, giving a rather apocalyptic air to the ensemble. It’s definitely creepy, but also totally awesome in a really strange way. I’m not sure you’ll get the job if you wear it to an interview, but you certainly won’t be an applicant who’s forgotten easily.

Now here’s an awesome idea: a windshield that doesn’t need wipers due to a thin nanotech coating that gets rid of water for you. It’s a major element of a new car dubbed the Hidra, designed by Italian designer Leonardo Fioravanti. How will it work? With four layers of treatments on the windshield.

The first treatment filters the sun and repels water. The second is made of nano-dust which is able to push dirt to the edges of the glass. This dust is activated by the third layer, which senses dirt and activates the second layer as necessary. Finally, it’s all topped off by the fourth layer which is a conductor of electricity to power the whole mechanism.

He claims this could go into production cars in less than five years, with a prototype already working on the Hidra concept. If it works as promised it could signal a huge change in cars in the near future.

Link

Choosing a desk for your office is important; it sends a message about what kind of person you are to everybody who enters. If you want that message to say “I’m a gigantic nerd!” then you really can’t do much better than a desk made to look like Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

I guess one could spin buying this for their office if they wanted to come across as a real hardass of a boss. You know, like “you mess with me, you end up like my former assistant, Han Solo here, and I’ll make you into a coffee table.” But really, you’re the only one who will ever find a replica of a sci-fi movie prop threatening in any way, but if that helps you justify something that you really want, more power to you.

Link

If you’re really, really into driving video games, you know that using a regular controller or a keyboard is for chumps. It’s a driving game, so clearly you need a steering wheel. But while most people are satisfied with just a wheel, some people need more. A lot more.

Enter the VirtualGT Racing Simulator. This behemoth is designed for realism, coming loaded with a 37-inch plasma TV and a whole seat/wheel/cockpit contraption. It also has tons of high-fidelity speakers to make you feel like you’re in a real car. Of course, for the $20,000 price you could be in a real car, but I guess some people have different priorities than others.

Link

The woman in this photo is freaking out because she’s wearing the 3rd Space FPS vest by TN games. The technology was supposedly developed for doctors to work via the Internet, but it didn’t fly. In a nutshell, it’s a vest that lets you feel the force of getting shot. The vest has an air source that can fire eight pneumatic cells that are embedded in the vest. Those cells simulate the direction and force of a bullet fired at you in a first-person shooter game.

Am I missing something here? Because I don’t think this one will fly either — who would want to feel what it’s like to get shot? Back to the drawing board, boys. No word on price or availability yet, anyway.

No, this isn’t the new Batmobile from The Dark Knight; it’s a super-slick concept car from Mazda dubbed the Furai. It’s got a “Cougar C65 chassis and a three-rotor rotary engine capable of 450 hp,” which means it’s fast. Really fast.

Of course, since it’s a concept, you’ll probably never get to drive one. And even if they did release it to the general public, it’d cost much more than you could afford. Cars like this aren’t for driving to the supermarket in anyways: they’re for racing and for ogling on the Internet. We’re happy to provide you with the ability to at least do the latter.

GM showcased a “green” Hummer run by algae at last year’s Los Angeles Auto show: it was really just a concept by someone with neat Photoshop skills.

This year at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, GM introduced a physical version of an “environmentally friendly” Hummer concept car, the HX. The HX has some elements of a sports car: It’s convertible and has only two doors. It’s lighter than previous Hummer models, with a V-6 engine that can run on E85 ethanol. Because news about the environment can get so dreary, the HX comes without a radio. Instead, it has a USB dock for MP3 players. Though the HX is just a concept design, it does signal GMs intention of equipping future Hummers with E85 FlexFuel engines.

Meanwhile, this year’s 2008 H3 uses old fashioned gasoline and gets 14 mpg on a good day.

Here’s a sure sign that the International Space Station is a solution looking for a problem: The space platform might be launching a Space Shuttle-shaped paper airplane that will glide back to earth at 5300 miles per hour. The Japan Origami Airplane Association was tapped by researchers at the University of Tokyo to fold up a 3.1-inch plane made of specially treated paper that’s tough enough to fly in space and return to earth.

Before the fastest paper airplane in history is released on its historic journey, first it must survive an ultra high-speed wind tunnel test that will take place tomorrow, to see if the tiny craft can withstand the hellish heat and buffeting forces of re-entry. But damn, NASA. There’s not even any way to track the thing, as far as we can tell, so what’s the point? Other than it being just a cool thing to do, of course. But after this experiment is done, could we go to Mars already, or get cracking on that moon base we’ve been hearing about for the past four decades?

Link

With a pair of Anti-Gravity Boots worn over your shoes, you’ll feel taller, have more of a spring in your step, and will probably have a higher chance of getting horribly injured just by simply walking around. The Boots utilize a heavy-duty rubber T-spring that you can swap out if anything happens to it, and it transfers a bit of downward energy back into your step, sending you bounding along. The Boots claim to be easy on the joints and offer a nice workout akin to power walking (or bouncing?) for people looking for a nutty way to lose weight.

The Anti-Gravity Boots by GeoSpace sell for around $180 and are suitable for anyone 190 pounds and lighter.

Link

Dyson vacuums may seem like the best of the best for the bagless vacuums, but Philips is ready to jump into the ring with a canister vacuum that is more powerful and cheaper than anything Dyson has to offer. Philips’ Marathon FC9208/01 is a canister vacuum that includes a 2000W motor capable of 350W of suction power, which is significantly more than the comparable Dyson DC21 that only has 220W of suction power. Its 15-pound weight is also significantly lighter than the DC21’s 23 pounds. It may be strictly an opinion, but I would have to admit the Philips is quite a bit prettier than the Dyson, if you care about the aesthetics of a vacuum cleaner.

At 76 dB, the Philips is one of the quieter bagless vacuums and the HEPA 12 filter is capable of capturing 99.5% of the dust. You can buy the Marathon for approximately $350, which is $150 less than the Dyson DC21 and others.

Link

The big brains at DARPA are at it again, this time teaming up with Oklahoma State University to develop unmanned aerial vehicles that will be small enough to fit into a soldier’s pocket. The heart of the project is the experimental propulsion system that has no moving parts and utilizes plasma thrusters. The need for such a tiny UAV comes after the realization that most of the unmanned reconnaissance vehicles used at the moment are poor indoors and in urban areas. OSU’s UAV would allow all soldiers to carry UAVs and see what they’re getting into before hand.

And what else is OSU cooking up for DARPA? “One of our projects is to keep an aircraft in the air for five years without landing,” an aerospace student told the Daily O’Collegian. “The other is to put an aircraft in a ballistic missile, which would serve as a launching system, the aircraft would fly out of the missile and provide us with immediate surveillance anywhere in the world within 45 minutes.”

Link

f your desk is located inside a pirate ship, these “Goth Style Speakers,” shaped like skulls with knives through them, are sure to look just perfect with all of your other decorations. If you live in a normal-looking house or apartment, well, these will look ridiculous.

I mean come on, I can understand being super into the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but to such a degree that you’d want a set of tacky skull-shaped speakers? That doesn’t make a lick of sense. These things even light up from the inside when they’re being used, making them even more embarrassing-looking. Trust me, you don’t want these.

Link

HBO is testing a new Broadband On Demand service on Time Warner Cable in Wisconsin right now, allowing current HBO subscribers to download any of its movies or shows whenever they want. It includes pretty slick features like season passes that start downloading new episodes of selected show 5 minutes after they air.

There are catches, of course. You can’t watch the videos on portable devices, nor can you burn them for viewing on your TV. The videos automatically expire after a few weeks, and you need to be connected to Time Warner Broadband to both watch and download the episodes. But hey, if you’re already paying for HBO, it’s a pretty sweet free bonus. If you live in Wisconsin, that is.

LawnBott has been upgraded. When we covered the previous incarnation of the lawnmower robot, we weren’t sure the concept would fly — but we were wrong and congratulations are in order. KA Home Robotics announced a new model, the LawnBott LB3200, which adds Bluetooth tech to its mowing arsenal, letting you program and control it from any Bluetooth-enabled cellphone or laptop.

For the initial setup, you use the included perimeter wire to set the boundary around the lawn edge, flowerbeds and bushes. Utilizing two lithium-ion batteries for power, the LB3500 leaves the docking station at its preprogrammed time to start the mow. It will work on slopes up to 30 degrees and cut an area as big as 38,000 square feet and then it return to its dock automatically. For safety there’s a free-floating 360-degree bumper, a blade-stop sensor, and an onboard alarm system if an unauthorized user picks up the Lawnbott. Lawnbott 2.0 is available now for $3,250.

Link

The Day-for-Night solar dress is made up of 448 white circuit boards that can be swapped out for all kinds of goodies — kinda like Batman’s utility belt, but a hell of a lot sexier.

The tiles can be solar cells, photocells, RGB LEDs or even jumper connectors, and the whole thing is tied together by a microcontroller that provides power, keeps an eye on the tiles and can transmit data via radio frequencies. A USB board on the dress allows it to be plugged into a PC for programming. Tiles can also be added to or removed from the assembly to adjust skirt length.

So are women’s purses filling up with enough gadgetry to warrant turning them into walking power chargers, or is this dress just a trap for nerds? I can only confirm the latter.

Link

f the Australian Tourist Board wants to dispel the Crocodile Dundee bigger is better, Texas with a funny accent image many of us have of their country, they’d better slap an export ban on Lenard Audio speakers pronto. I also hope the buildings north of Sydney are earthquake proof, because Lenard’s new Opal speakers are available with not just one, but a pair of massive 27 inch woofers in an enclosure that’s almost eight feet tall. These custom built to order behemoths are built one pair at a time to order, so if your sweetie isn’t willing to go with the quad 27 inch assault, you could always tell her that you’ll stick with the more modest 18 inch woofer option, just for her of course

Lenard Audio doesn’t appear to have US distribution, but I’m sure they’ll be willing to ship you a set of Opals the next time the Queen Mary II is steaming your way.

Link

Have you ever been in a snobby restaurant where when it comes to dessert time, the offerings include some highly unlikely frozen concoction like camembert sorbet? If so, chances are the dessert chef got a Pacojet for Christmas. This device is to blenders what a flame thrower is to kitchen matches, taking slicing and dicing into a whole new realm.

Take any type of food, whether it’s Mars bars, a whole lobster, a pile of anchovies, or yes, even a whole sea bass (take that Bass-O-Matic), freeze it solid, and then the Pacojet will whip it into a smooth and creamy frozen delight through a process they call Pacotizing. With more savory items, you can also create your own mousses and spreads (pickled onion topping anyone)?

The Pacojet is available now for $3450

Link