Star Trek

Ad hoc 04: Star Trek Into Darkness

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, May 31, 2013 a 8:52 pm

Take a bunch of tech geeks who also happen to enjoy scattering their atoms across the galaxy, put them in front of mics, hit the record button, and what do you get? Another impromptu episode of the Federation's favorite podcast, that's what.

Join Guy English, Georgia, Clayton Morris, Derek Kessler, Bryan Bishop, and Rene to talk Star Trek Into Darkness. From plot holes to set pieces, lens flares to bikini flashes, Kirk to Klingons, we're nerding out over, and nitpicking, JJ Abrams' second take at Trek.

Star Trek Into Darkness launches next week; iTunes has all the old Trek to get you caught up

By Derek Kessler, Saturday, May 11, 2013 a 4:39 pm

Thursday, May 16th marks the US premiere of the 12th Star Trek flick: Star Trek Into Darkness. Like the 2009 film simply titled Star Trek, the new Into Darkness is directed by JJ Abrams and follows the adventures of the crew of the [new] original Enterprise under the command of a reimagined Captain Kirk played by Chris Pine. While the action-oriented direction of the last film, cockier Kirk, aggressive lens flares, and design of the new old U.S.S. Enterprise might have ruffled a few feathers, the 2009 entry kicked up the production quality of Star Trek films by an order of magnitude or two.

Google's goal is to make the Star Trek computer commonplace

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Apr 14, 2013 a 5:39 pm

Apple says its goal is to delight its users, but in reality it's probably closer to continually making the personal computer more personal, more accessible, and ultimately, more human. What then is Google's goal? To index all the world's data? Turns out, it might also be something far more human... and more Star Trek. Farhad Manjoo of Slate writes:

New Star Trek into Darkness teaser shows JJ Abrams is already making Star Wars

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Mar 10, 2013 a 2:09 pm

What you see above is the exclusive Star Trek Into Darkness teaser attached to Oz: The Great and Powerful, and posted online by avindustries13. It's the second Star Trek movie from director JJ Abrams, who has most recently been signed to direct the first of the Star Wars sequels. One look at this teaser, however, shows Abrams has already been doing just that. At the very least, he's bringing the grit dynamism of Star Wars to Star Trek. And hey, Spock does a pretty good job filling the Chewy seat.

Official Star Trek Into Darkness app wants you to scan the sights and sounds of Trek

By Derek Kessler, Friday, Feb 1, 2013 a 5:59 pm

Official movie tie-in apps are a dime-a-dozen these days, with every film studio looking to every avenue possible to promote their multi-million-dollar blockbusters. The latest is for the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, which while not due in theaters until May of this year, has launched an app that attempts to draw you deeper into the the J.J. Abrams Star Trek universe. Or at least the promotions for the film.

Free for iPhone - Download Now

Star Trek: Into Darkness trailer hits iTunes

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Dec 17, 2012 a 4:29 pm

Star Trek: Into Darkness is the sequel to J.J. Abrams reboot and re-imagining of the classic sci-fi series, and the official teaser trailer is now available on iTunes. Thankfully, it looks a lot better than the decidedly not-Star Trek looking announcement trailer that preceded it. This one has, you know, the Enterprise and its crew, rather than just Benedict don't-call-me-Khan Cumberbatch acting all Sith-vengency.

You'll have to wait until next year to catch Star Trek: Into Darkness in theaters, and find out if everyone's favorite Sherlock really is everyone's favorite eugenically altered warlord (or, who knows, Harry Mudd?), but if you want to discuss it now, join me in our movie and TV forum Star Trek: Into Darkness thread.

In the meantime, you can also grab the first movie on iTunes now, as well as a lot of other previous generation Star Trek.

Star Trek movies - Buy now
Star Trek TV shows - Buy now

PADD is heavy on Star Trek eye candy, light on content

By Derek Kessler, Thursday, Dec 13, 2012 a 10:00 am

Since the beginning of the web, people have tried to bring the 24th century LCARS (Library Computer Access Retrieval System) Star Trek interface to today, but it hasn't gone well. LCARS has always been a touch interface for huge screens on the Enterprise and hand-held PADD tablets; it's never worked well for mouse-driven applications. The beauty of LCARS was that it looked futuristic on both screens big and small and was easy to fill with generic graphics that made it look like the Enterprise was busily going about its mission. With the availability of touchscreens in the form of modern smartphones and tablets, LCARS was ripe for a exploitation. With the Star Trek™ PADD for iPad and Star Trek™ PADD for iPhone apps you can get a serious doseage of Trek on your iDevice. The original PADD app was recently updated to version 2.0, coinciding with the release of PADD for iPhone, bringing the LCARS interface from the big screen to the small screen for real.

iPad $4.99 - Download now
iPhone $1.99 - Download now

Sherlock actor uses iPhone to audition for Star Trek

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, May 4, 2012 a 10:26 am

If the name Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't mean anything to you yet, just wait. He plays the title roll in Sherlock, the BBC's brilliant, modern re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes. He'll also be the voice of the dragon, Smaug, in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings prequels, The Hobbit. And if that's not enough, rumor has it he's landed one of the most iconic roles in science fiction in J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek sequel. You got it. "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Or maybe not?

Samsung claims Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as prior iPad art

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Aug 23, 2011 a 10:26 pm

No, you didn't read the headline wrong -- Samsung is claiming their Galaxy Tab 10.1 couldn't be a copy of Apple's iPad because... it was copying the earlier movie prop from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Well, okay, not copying -- more like maintaining the design elements were commonplace in pop culture, especially science fiction. One of the ways to invalidate a patent is to prove prior art -- that someone had the idea before the company who was awarded the patent.

Star Trek production artists talk iPad

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Aug 15, 2010 a 7:22 am

Ars Technica's Chris Foresman has a terrific interview up with Star Trek production artists Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler about how they conceptualized iPad-like devices for TV and movies... some 23 years ago. Their device was known as the PADD (Personal Access Display Devices):

Drexler said that to him, the iPad is "eerily similar" to the PADDs used in Star Trek. "We always felt that the classic Okuda T-bar graphic was malleable, and that you could stretch and rearrange it to suit your task, just like the iPad," he said. "The PADD never had a keyboard as part of its casing, just like the iPad. Its geometry is almost exactly the same—the corner radius, the thickness, and overall rectangular shape."

"It's uncanny to have a PADD that really works," Drexler said, unlike the non-functional props made for the TV series and later films. "The iPad is the true Star Trek dream," Drexler told Ars.