• James Bond : C902 in limited Titanium Silver color
• Bond’s Wifey : W350 in Graphic White color
• M : G700 in Mineral Grey color
• Matthus : G700
• CIA : W910
• Villiers : G700
• Green (new character) : G900
• Elvis (new character) : W707 (Alicia)

Still, while the future is looking as bright as ever, the present is still a bit scrunched up. Peter Pachal investigates why the tech industry just can't seem to nail down proper aspect ratios.

More top stories from the week:

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VideGo 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Touchscreen

When people hear the words “overhead projector”, your first thought is the little glowing box, that your teachers used in grade school, which had the mirror and lens mounted above it. In the US presidential debate that took place earlier this week, Republican candidate, John McCain, tried to attack Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, by saying, “[Obama] voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.” The Adler Planetarium was the facility that requested the funds. But it was to replace their obsolete 40 year old  Carl Zeiss Mark VI star projector with a new Zeiss Universarium Model IX projector, not an overhead projector. The new unit cost $3.5 million and is the top of the line when it comes to planetarium projectors. The model uses fiber optic technology to display millions of stars in color and motion. The Universarium projector is also able to display a variety of other projections including, planets, constellation figures, galactic coordinates, comets, shooting stars, celestial poles, and many others. The Adler Planetarium released this press release shortly after the debate: “To clarify, the Adler Planetarium requested federal support - which was not funded - to replace the projector in its historic Sky Theater, the first planetarium theater in the Western Hemisphere. The Adler’s Zeiss Mark VI projector - not an overhead projector - is the instrument that re-creates the night sky in a dome theater, the quintessential planetarium experience. The Adler’s projector is nearly 40 years old and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It is only the second planetarium projector in the Adler’s 78 years of operation.”

[via Gear Log]

Designers at Inovaxion present the Woodstation: “[In a collaboration between] human-sized French company, INOVAXION, and a high-quality Chinese factory, AEROTIME, [this product was born.] When you get close to the WoodStation®, a movement sensor will detect you and will automatically [display] the product’s screen through the wood to give you information. … [The product's main characteristics are] based on coloured luminous icons given through the wood screen and activated by a simple motion of the hand. In lighted mode, this powerful device will track fluctuations of barometric pressure, indoor relative temperature and indoor relative hygrometry data to provide you the weather forecast 12 to 24 hours in advance. The product also manages Hour, Calendar and Alarm clock functions. Big colored icons show sunny - partly cloudy - cloudy - rainy / snowy and stormy. Hour, Calendar, and Alarm clock are shown in red. This practical and useful product is suitable for both A/C Adaptor and batteries, which gives you the option to show it everywhere.”

Sébastien Wallet, a designer at Inovaxion, tells us that this awesome hunk of wood will be available at big shops on the French market in as little as 1 month! Lucky French and their awesome economy… wait nevermind. Buy this clock and stimulate your country’s economy!

Designer: Sebastien Wallet [ Via: Trends Now ]

[Obama] voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.

I'm already tired of hearing these guys talk, but that caught my ear. A $3 million dollar projector? What does that even look like? Gearlog did some digging and found out that appropriation was requested by the planetarium to replace an awesome (but obsolete) 40-year old Zeiss Mark VI star projector with a newer model (pictured above).

Anyone with a planetarium in town will remember the Mark VI from school field trips: the 2.5 ton, 1350 watt giant (pictured below) can project a dynamic image of thousands of stars and constellation onto the ceiling of a massive dome for the viewing pleasure of a reclined audience. Its replacement would have been much more impressive, had it been granted: the Universarium Model IX, which is a $3.5 million dollar astronomical projection unit capable of accurately representing a night sky in full color and motion. The proposal was never granted. But politics aside, that's not exactly your school's transparency projector. You can check out the spec sheet at Zeiss's official site. Model IX photo from Picassa user Lito [Gearlog, NYT]

As recently announced, PopStar Guitar will feature original mastered tracks from mega pop artists Rihanna, The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and leading bands Maroon 5, 3 Doors Down, Simple Plan and Blink 182. The game puts players in the role of a lead guitarist on a musical journey that begins with forming a garage band and progresses to the ultimate performance on the main stage of a worldwide “Battle of the Bands” competition. PopStar Guitar features twelve playable characters, 25 visually stunning venues and more than 50 pop songs. Players can customize their band, giving it a unique look, as well as win a number of VIP vehicles, so their band can travel like real pop stars! With three difficulty levels, PopStar Guitar will feature a single player Career Mode along with single player and multi-player mini-games.

While PopStar Guitar will be released on both the Nintendo Wii and PS2, only the AirG peripheral is available on an exclusive basis to the Wii, whereas folks who are still rocking to the venerable PS2 can pick up PopStar Guitar for just $29.99, with their gaming sessions fulfilled by officially licensed PS2 non-USB guitar peripherals. You game?

Press Release

Their demo is quite good. They used a webcam connected to a laptop. The program then analyzes the video, detecting the outline of the landscape and using it as the terrain for a shoot-em-up kind of game, in which you maneuver a spaceship to obtain stars. Best of all, they even implemented a two-player game mode.

It's a lot simpler than the airplane racing simulator we covered yesterday, but my guess is that this could be made even more sophisticated by using laser meters to actually detect depth of the landscape and make more complex, multidimensional game stages. [Carcade via OhGizmo!]