It'd have essentials like wireless broadband connectivity and a battery, but I'm hoping that we'll have cooler stuff than a laser projected keyboard by 2020. Their time has come and gone already, no? Less of that, more interactive holographic display technology, please. More wacky 2020 shenanigans at: [Ericsson via MobileandNotebook]

Watch the trailer in high rez (links below) and it's apparent that many of the visual effects (like the mechs in the early shots) are made to look intentionally artificial, blending the real and artificial worlds in hyperreality. And I really don't know what else to say other than, my interest is certainly piqued. What about yours? [Apple via CrunchGear and io9]

UPDATE: If the video link is dead for you, try the Apple download link.

Man has long marveled at the bright and shiny. He obsesses over soft metals, like gold, because of their luster. And diamonds, while hardened for industry, are more just as often if not more reserved for rings representing sacred vows.

So hats off to the writers, actors, set designers and special effects team. But JJ Abrams' simple mantra of "aim those four-story mirrors at the camera, dammit!" deserves, at minimum, a bar graph constructed of Borg ships. [Sci Fi Wire via Geekologie]

Intended to be a bit less intense than BSG's post-apocalyptic doom and gloom, Virtuality is about 12 astronauts on Man's first starship, the Phaeton. They're on a 10-year journey (feeling confident, aren't we Mr. Moore?) and will kill the time by plugging in to their own customized virtual reality worlds—a sort of holodeck meets the Matrix. That killing of time seems to be the focus of the show.

Our sister site io9 has been covering Virtuality quite a bit over the last year from inception to production, so they're a good resource if you'd like to read more about the pilot and potential new program. [io9]

* Wait, another promising sci-fi pilot is coming to Fox? Never mind, it's doomed.

Being TNG fans here at Giz, we're not exactly sure what prompted one video editor to assemble 172 full-length Voyager episodes into one mega collage in Final Cut Pro. Then again, we're still not sure what drove Jason to spend much of this week calculating the Enterprise's ever-fluctuating screen sizes.

So in other words, we're not judging. But we really would have liked to hear the unintelligible audio track. [artvierkan via infosthetics via Red Ferret]

Yup, just a mere $100,000 to $150,000 and this one-of-a-kind movie prop could be yours, although we imagine that price tag is going to climb a bit higher before all is said and done at the Auctioneer Profiles in History event beginning April 30.

Other classic movie items up for auction include a ring worn by Bela Lugosi when he played Count Dracula; a monocle used in the Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi movie "Metropolis"; and Rita Hayworth's dress from 1940's film noir classic "Gilda."

It's truly an eclectic collection of items that, if combined, would have probably confused Harrison Ford's character even more. [Reuters]

Spotted initially by CrunchGear, the movie links to a web site called What's In The Box, but the trail pretty much ends there. They don't have any ideas either.

If anything, it's just a cool short film that successfully combines gadgets, sci-fi and film making into a nice little package. That it apparently doesn't have any point whatsoever, and ends somewhat abruptly with a "singularity," well, that's another thing. For now, enjoy this on a lazy Sunday. [CrunchGear]

Oh. Oh that's what it is. A cybernetic pop-up penis. [SheCoolHeCool via Fashionably Geek]

As of right now, "Serenity" is dominating an open vote for Node 3's new name. This ship from Joss Whedon's short-lived show Firefly has 82% of the total vote, with second place going to Earthrise (with 7% of the vote).

What can we say to such adolescent nomenclature?

This. Is. Awesome.

Voting will be open until March 20th, so let's vote early and often to seal the deal for Serentiy. And don't worry Star Wars fans, we'll have your back for whenever SDI is up and running. [NASA via Discover]

As a production, Sanctuary has taken a lot of risks—they were also the first TV show to go almost completely green-screened, depending on rendered backgrounds for many of their shots. Oddly enough, this technique allowed the RED to really shine.

The crew gushes over the RED One, speaking mostly about its ease of use and versatility, and hinting that its reasonable price allowed the cameramen to spend a bit more on cinema-grade lenses. The most important ability of the RED, as far as Sanctuary is concerned, is resolution. With digital chopping an manipulation the name of the game, it's vital that individual components of the video can be cut and integrated into a composite scene without losing clarity, something which the One's massive 4k sensor makes possible.

It's also interesting to note how using a camera like this changes the production dynamics of a show; reviewing and editing footage occurs almost instantly, rather than hours later as in a traditional film production. So interesting is the production scheme, in fact, that it's the most interesting thing about this entire show. Oh well! [Dvice]

Sci-Fi Xmas Tree: The Movie

Sci-Fi Xmas Tree: Bonus

All the ornaments

The tree belongs to own of our dearest commenters and his wife, and the first ever to hold a star in Gizmodo: Strider. Or like he wants to call himself in real life: Mike. As you can see, it's absolutely spectacular, even overwhelming with all that sound.

In 1997, when Hallmark started the light and sound Star Trek ornaments, my mom bought all my brothers and sisters (including my then-girlfriend) the original NCC-1701 Enterprise ornament. Every year since then my wife and I have tried (and I'm pretty sure succeeded) to collect them all, including the Star Wars ones, although I'm not actually sure how complete our collection is at the moment. We don't keep track, we just get the ones we want, which is usually all if not most of them.

I use eight individual strings of lights to spread out the electrical load of the light-powered ornaments. It takes at least a few hours to set the whole thing up. It's so worth it though. We're up to two of those large plastic bins of the ones that get put away. Every year we decide to keep a couple more of the battery operated ones out. -I want the big TIE fighter for my desk, personally.

[Big thanks for Mike and his wife, Melissa—who put the decorations up— for the amazing job of documenting the decoration of their tree for us]

All this stuff, along with costumes, set pieces, production art and loads more props, will all be available at a Battlestar auction in Pasadena, CA in January. Can't make it to the west coast? The auctions will be broadcast live on the internet and there will be full internet bidding capability, so you can bid on Callie's deck helmet from the comfort of your own home.

There's some seriously awesome stuff here, and if I wasn't afraid of ruining my chances of cohabitation with a female forever I would definitely snatch up that war room chalkboard.

The last half-season of Battlestar Galactica airs in January on SciFi. [Battlestar Props via Oh Gizmo!]