Get Better Gear!

Premier Sponsors

Other World Computing

TechRestore

Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Plans

    • 8 out of 10
    • Death Cab for Cutie
    • With the introduction of Plans, Death Cab for Cutie became a new addition to many user's Artist list after the single "Soul Meets Body" became a hit on iTunes. Offering a fresh alternativ

  • Jagged Little Pill (Acoustic)

    • 6 out of 10
    • Alanis Morissette
    • Ten years after the original release, comes the traditional celebratory acoustic re-recording. The album has held up remarkably well. While it is not as meaningful to me as it was when I was sixteen,
  • An Evening with George Shearing & Mel Torm�

    • 10 out of 10
    • Mel Torm� & George Shearing
    • Of the three men who taught me how to sing, the last was Mel Torme. Apparently, Mel Torme is a joke to anyone more than a decade older than me, a living parody of a Vegas crooner. But I stumbled on th
  • Suspended Animation

    • 8 out of 10
    • Fantomas
    • Mike Patton may well be one of the hardest working men in showbiz these days, and his latest with Fantômas underscores just about how far out he is willing to travel.

      Suspended Animation

  • War of the Worlds

    • 10 out of 10
    • Jeff Wayne
    • With the new movie adaptation of H.G Wells' classic Sci Fi invasion tale, War of the Worlds, currently on theater screens everywhere, there's new interest in Jeff Wayne's rock opera version, and it is

Reader Specials

Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!

Free on iTunes

Boldly Go…, And More

A friend stopped me in the hall the other day and asked me if I'd seen the latest Star Trek movie. Dave knows I was a Trek fan, I had organized a few group movie outings back when Star Trek was still popular. I even wore a Trek jersey, mine was engineering: red. (I didn't die. Go figure.)

Anyway, Dave wanted to know what I thought of the new Trek flick seeing as how the new movie is a re-envisioning of the original Star Trek universe.

I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, but I will say that I told Dave that I really liked it. The new Trek is fresh where it needed to be, nostalgic where it should be, and just as bold and original as the first series was back in the 60's.

Dave agreed and went on to tell me of some friends of his who refuse to see the new Trek movie because it diverges too much from the original.

That is one of the silliest things I've heard in quite a while. That's like refusing to look at or sit in a new hybrid car because you still like your old 66 Volkswagen Beetle.

I like Star Trek reruns as much as the next guy, but you can only watch The Trouble With Tribbles so many times before you start to seriously wonder how many tribbles it would take to make a nice coat.

Still, I have to give it to the fans, they have continued to move the Star Trek universe, if not forward then certainly in other directions. Fiction written by both professionals and amateurs abound in book stores and on the web, some even get the support of real Trek actors like George Takei.

Those of you who just can't give up the old Trek shows need not worry, there's plenty of new material based on the old Trek universe available, some of it is not bad.

For instance, there's a series of podcasts that focuses on some the other Federation ships mentioned in the Original Series.

There are 2 video podcasts built around Starship Exeter; one is called The Savage Empire, the other is The Tressaurian Intersection. Both are fairly well polished thought the dialogue and acting is amateurish.

The podcasts pull liberally from scenes in the Original series and the stages are detailed and animated. And there's Trek-like special effects.

Both are broken into three to four acts and include the main title and a teaser.

These podcasts have been around for a while, but they are watchable, especially if you are old school and need a mini-skirt fix.

If you are a bit more open-minded about your Trek then you may get a kick out of Commander Rob, another Trek related video podcast found at the iTunes Store.

Commander Rob is a Trek spoof patterned after the ST:The Next Generation. In fact, the characters ARE ST: The Next Generation, the action figures that is.

It looks kinda lame, like a bad attempt at campiness, but I think that's the point. The action is sparse, but the dialog is funny. There are only four episodes and all are worth downloading.

So watch Commander Rob do his thing.

Finally, for those of you wishing you could use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a stand-in for a weapon will be thrilled to know that there is an app that will let you do just that; Star Trek Phaser.

This is a free app folks so don't expect much from it. It's a game where you shot to get a high score. There's a two player mode and some movie clips.

Ok, it really isn't much of an app.

In fact, I included it just so I could have a third Trek related thing to talk about. Still, it's free. Kinda like those free cheap plastic promotional giveaways people force on you're at events that either wind up collecting dust in your closet or jockeying for position at your local landfill.

Download Star Trek Phaser, play with it for a few minutes to validate its uselessness, then nuke it from your apps list. Or don't bother.

That's a wrap for this week. More free stuff totally unrelated to anything Star Trek can be found below, with direct links. Until next week, Quo'Pla!


Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me  Forgot your password?

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.