The big thing here I'm a fan of is the lack of wires between the Wing and the Wiimote. It's always awkward finding somewhere for the Wiimote to sit, and it frequently falls off my lap/couch/table, causing a distraction. The Wing uses a RF dongle that plugs into the bottom of the Wiimote and has a range of 10 feet. The controls generally felt as tight and responsive as the original classic controller, but did suffer the occasional glitch (Nyko attributes this to the controllers being engineering samples and assure it will not be a problem with the final product).

As far as design goes, the shape is more akin to a PS2 or Xbox 360 controller, and make the Wing fit in your hand more naturally than the classic controller. The four R buttons on top have also been adjusted and spaced so that its easier to distinguish and tap each one. The build quality is pretty decent, but not quite as nice as an official Nintendo product — which is to say that the Wing is more clicky and plastic feeling. But it's hardly a bargain bin product either.

And one of the neater additions is the mini-USB port included for charging batteries in the Wing. If you have rechargable batteries, you can plug in to a mini-USB cable and charge up the controller for another 30 hours of wireless play, making the battery process easier. As mentioned earlier, the Nyko Wing will arrive in stores around mid-October and with a $30 pricetag, it's a pretty appealing product. [Nyko on Giz]

Would this thing fly? Most probably not. Should someone try to make something similar for real? In a word: YES. [Dezeen]

The 10-minute video documents the perfect flight of Skyray 48, the Boeing-NASA prototype of what could be the future of commercial aviation. Thanks to its design, designs derived from the X-48B will have less power consumption and less emissions, while increasing carrying capacity and speed compared with current cargo and passenger aircraft.

The plane took off last year from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, in California, controlled from the ground by Boeing pilot Norm Howell. [NASA]

You can see the full set on the Minneapolis/St Paul link. [Minneapolis/St Paul via Neatorama]

The fascinating illustrations above, some of them extremely good, come from a thread titled "Star Wars: Steampunk" at the CGSociety forums. They were part of the inspiration for models like this X-Wing, which is one of the entries of the Steam-Wars contest being held at From Bricks to Bothan forums, a place dedicated to LEGO Star Wars enthusiasts.

But as nice the Alliance star fighter is, I think the reconstruction of the TIE Fighter definitely beats it in terms of design and sheer steampunking:

Although I'm sure some of you will disagree. So,

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[CG Society Forums, FBTB Forums and Star Wars contest The Brothers Brick]

- Why the Y-Wing?

Since the local rocketry club had decided to do the giant X-wing for the 30th anniversary of the original release of Star Wars, my building team decided on the Y-wing. Personally, I like the shape of the Y-wing better. It's more interesting to me. I like all of the exposed "junk" all over it.

- How did you power it? What kind of engine?

The rocket was propelled by a motor composed of APCP, ammonium perchlorate composite propellant. It's the same fuel that is loaded into the SRB's on the space shuttle. Most people have experience with the small Estes black powder motors, with each letter designation doubling the power of the motor. Estes motors run from A-E. This motor was a L! Roughly 400 pounds of thrust!

- Did it had any kind of autodestruct control (in case it was
headed to the crowd)?
- Was the parachute RC controlled?
- What did it have inside? Apart from the cameras, any
instrumentation?

We had two electronics packages installed in the Y-wing. Our primary package to deploy the parachutes was an altimeter that sensed barometric pressure. When the altimeter stopped sensing a pressure drop (when the rocket stopped going up) it was to record the altitude and deploy the parachutes. Our backup in case the altimeter failed or in case the rocket started to go off course was a radio controlled "chicken switch" that allowed us to manually deploy the parachutes. The RC backup seems to have been the source of our premature parachute deployment. I was the one with my finger on the button, so to speak. I had my thumb on the safety guard to avoid accidentally pushing the button, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't pushed, but the ejection charge went off about halfway through the motor burn.

- What are you planning for next year?

We've been tossing around several ideas for next year. There have been comments ranging from doing themes of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5 to Star Blazers. We haven't settled on anything yet. We have to take a look at what theme has a variety of ships that can be built safely as well as kept under a reasonable budget. (This year the G4 network sponsored our motor and Polecat Aerospace helped us out with some donated parts.)

[Punk Rockets - PlasterBlaster - X-Wing posts on Giz]

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I was going to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars like anybody else: Hide the fact that I knew it was the 30th anniversary and go about my normal life. Instead, I decided to kick my sex life in the balls by moseying down to Plaster City, CA to see the launching of the homemade X-Wing.

Driving down an hour and half east of San Diego into the desert was a long ride, especially with the manchild in me crying as I passed Sea World and LegoLand. I get there and find myself at Plaster Blaster 6. Think Burning Man, but replace the art and drugs with rockets. It smells like the 4th of July and you got RVs and camps surrounding a launchsite. The atmosphere is kind of Mad Max (without the lovely Tina Turner) and all redneck.

I saw a dozen guys working on the X-Wing. They got permission from LucasFilms, bought a plastic model, and scaled it up. The first guy I run into is a middle-aged man with braces named Mike Brock. He's just one of the 20 people that helped build this 21 foot replica. Andy Woerner, the man in charge, is barking orders to everyone, including his 17 year-old son Alex, to help rig the recovery system.

"I've been doing rocketry for 10-7 years" Alex tells me. I can tell by his farmers tan that the Force is strong with him. I take a peek inside and it's entirely hollow except for a few motors that'll get R2 to spin its head and the wings to close and open. I look inside the cockpit where they keep all their parachutes (donated by army veterans).

Andy Woerner gets on the PA system: "The X-Wing is ready. Please donate. My bank account is empty. I spent 4,000 dollars of my own money. Please empty your wallets in the donation box."

While they're lifting up the model and attaching the wings, Mike Scarpati, one of their sponsors and owner of RMS Lasers, finds me. "I did pro-bono for all the laser routing and cutting: the internal structure, motor tubes, wings... Actually, my wife's a co-owner too, but she's not here, so I'm taking all the credit." He looks at me and whispers, "I also make drones for the government" in a creepy way.

Off to the side are Andy and Steve Peart. "We're brothers, not married," they say for the record. Their ¼ scale Y-Wing is attracting no attention. The crowd is with the X-wing.

Before long, the x-wing is ready to launch. And I'm ready to scream like a little girl being chased by bees in case things go haywire. The countdown begins with a T-minus 10 seconds. And I'm thinking about how many dollars, manhours and horsepower went into this thing: 1,700 lbs of thrust good for 90 mph, $7,000, 20 people, 8,000 man-hours (650 from Andy) all in the span of 6 months.

X-wing fires off its four red flames, launches in the air, then dips down, and then falls apart like wet tissue paper.

"We knew it was going to happen. The framed hollow body was too hard to make stable. "Success ratio was slim to none. Just happy to see the 4 red lines." says a giddy Andy Woerner.

They scavenge for parts by grabbing the chutes, motor casing and important stuff. The rest is going into a bonfire, so they "don't have to take the damn thing home."

"Lots of souvenirs out there," Andy tells me.

I decided to just come back home with nothing but memories of those oh so impressive 3 seconds.
UPDATE: We've got a video of the Y-Wing launch, complete with in flight camera footage.

[Rocket Powered X-Wing on Giz]

Associate Professor Xu Zhengyu is the vice-president of the research team at Shanghai's Tongji University. He claims the WIG is just as safe as ships, but can travel five or six times faster than a water-based craft.

As well as the gigantic cargo planes, there are plans for a 50-seater version by 2013, and Xu did not rule out the possibilities of military and border control WIGs, as the State Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence have green-lit the project.

The name of the aircraft refers to the reduction in drag experienced by an aircraft at a height of around two wingspans above the ground or any other level surface, such as water. The China Daily newspaper has explained it further. "Taking advantage of the aerodynamics of the ground effect, which adds extra lift when flying at very low altitudes, the aircraft can fly close to the water's surface," it said.

"This cuts back at least one third on fuel consumption, compared with standard planes of the same size, because the plane can benefit from air buoyancy."

There is, however, one potential set-back. China's Civil Aviation Administration has yet to pronounce on flying at low altitudes - there are, as yet, no regulations. [Brisbane Times]

So what did the media think about the Wing? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview: where we mix together the best of Mobileburn, LAPTOP, Boy Genius Report, CNET, Pocketnow, PCMag, Mobilitysite, infoSync, PCWorld, Engadget and, of course...ourselves.

MobileBurn
While the device is still a bit hefty, at 169g (6.7oz), the form factor is a bit less monoblock in shape. The front and back faces of the Wing have been slightly sculpted in an effort to thin the device out and improve the feel of the phone when held in the user's hand.

Laptop
...the Wing [is] perfectly suitable for e-mail hounds and Internet junkies. But when you're outside of Wi-Fi range, you're left with T-Mobile's occasionally spotty EDGE network, which delivers relatively slow data rates of about 100 Kbps.

BoyGeniusReport
Obviously the biggest selling point is that Windows Mobile 6 Professional is loaded right on.

CNET
Disappointingly, the new operating system didn't bring any major enhancements to Windows Media Player Mobile. And once again, unlike the other carriers, T-Mobile does not offer a music or video service to get new tunes or clips. That said, the player supports a number of popular audio and video formats

PocketNow
Windows Mobile 6 Professional also comes with the full version of Microsoft Voice Command 1.6. That means you get voice recognition and text-to-speech features. Some of my favorites are the ability to read incoming text messages and email subjects into my Bluetooth headset, as well as announcing incoming callers by their name ... you can also speak commands to the...There's no need to record voice tags, the software just recognizes plain speech automatically.

PCMag
The Dash makes do with the less-capable WM6 Standard OS, no touch screen or stylus, and a smaller (but more accessible) keyboard. On the other hand, it's slimmer and lighter than the Wing and packs in the same CPU and Wi-Fi. It also costs less. We still prefer the Dash with Windows Mobile 6

MobilitySite
The lackluster processor is my only true complaint. I am sure that a faster processor would have me complaining about the battery life though. Most of the applications I through at it ran speedy and without hitch.

InfoSyncWorld
The only time we saw a real hit to the Wing's performance was switching between landscape and portrait mode, which can take a couple of seconds.

PCWorld
The Wing lasted for the full 10 hours that marks the ceiling of the PC World Test Center's battery life evaluation. Its performance thus matches...our most recently tested top performers.

Engadget
...if you're a T-Mobile customer, if you're willing to plunk down this thing is kind of a no-brainer.

Gizmodo
So all in all the hardware's been improved with minor—but noticeable—changes, and the software's been improved with major and definitely noticeable changes. Is it worth it for you to upgrade if you already have an MDA? Yes, if you really want the benefits of Windows Mobile 6.

Seems like a solid upgrade, but nothing "new".– Mark Wilson

Pictures Ganked From PCMag

With the T-Mobile Wing, HTC's combined the features in the MDA that everyone's liked—Wi-Fi, QWERTY slide-out keyboard, and touchscreen—with the benefits of Windows Mobile 6, which the T-Mobile Dash just got recently.

How does it compare to its older brother the MDA and its cousin the Cingular 8525? Is it worth upgrading if you've already got an MDA? Yes. Make the jump to find out why.

Let's get the specs out of the way first. It's got a 201Mhz TI OMAP 850 processor, 128MB ROM, 64MB RAM, 2.8-inch QVGA display, quad-band GSM, EDGE, slide-out QWERTY touchscreen, 2-megapixel camera, USB 1.1, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.0. Compared with the MDA, it's got a better camera, the same processor, more face keys, and a different slider. Compared with the Cingular 525, which has a Samsung 400MHz processor and 3G, the Wing comes up a little short.

The major difference between the Wing and the MDA or the 8525 is the addition of Windows Mobile 6. You should be familiar with all our coverage of WM6 by now, so we'll not dive into it too deeply. However, even though the Wing and the MDA have nearly the same hardware specs, the Wing performs noticeably faster thanks to the new OS. Add to that the capabilities of actually closing programs instead of minimizing them (to free up RAM, which speeds things up even more) and the bundled Windows Live Suite (we covered search on it before, but this includes Windows Live Messenger as well), you've got a much better software experience. But how about the hardware?

Well, overall, the body takes the textured rubber feel that's found on the back of the T-Mobile Dash and applies that everywhere on the finish. The result makes the phone easier to hold and harder to slip out of your hand. Plus, it's a bit thinner than the MDA, which helps if you enjoy the tight pantaloons.

The keyboard, which is the reason why you'd get a phone like this, is much better than the MDA's chiclet-style keys but only a little better than the 8525's keys. I could get a marginally faster typing speed on the Wing thanks to its more rubberized keys compared with both the 8525 and the MDA. However, the special menu keys (Calendar and Contact on the main screen) are positioned horribly when the keyboard is extended. Instead of being large and easily pressable, the left one is positioned a little bit west of center, which means you're going to have to reach with your thumb in order to hit menu options. Add to that its tiny size—a third of the size of a regular key—and you're going to be having a hard time hitting it.

The good news is that even though they've switched the sliding to the right instead of to the left, it still pops open crisply. Plus, it's now spring loaded, which gives it a Helio Ocean-esque feel. Quite addicting for you, but annoying to the people around you.

HTC's gone and taken the Windows and OK keys found on the 8525 and added them here, which makes navigating the phone much easier when you don't want to take out the stylus. Speaking of the stylus, thanks to the fact that the slider slides out to the right, you're going to have to grab it with your left hand when in keyboard mode. A small complaint, but noticeable when you've been using it for a while.

The camera hasn't been improved all that much from the 8525 or the MDA, and HTC's not known to have fantastic quality pictures from their phones. Let's just say it's decent for when you really need to take a picture, but use a real camera when you've got an option.

The reception and calling are pretty standard for HTC phones like the 8525 and the MDA, which means you should be pretty happy with it if you've had luck with the previous phones. The speakerphone is still strong, as usual, and gives you fairly clear audio processing even when you're driving. The battery is much the same as old HTC phones as well—which seems to be a common theme with this phone.

So all in all the hardware's been improved with minor—but noticeable—changes, and the software's been improved with major and definitely noticeable changes. Is it worth it for you to upgrade if you already have an MDA? Yes, if you really want the benefits of Windows Mobile 6. However, we have heard that there's a WM6 upgrade coming for the MDA sometime soon, but that's unconfirmed. Add to that the small hardware improvements like a little LED display to tell you whether the shift or alt keys are pressed or the addition of MyFaves support, and it's even more compelling. That's why we recommend the Wing if you're looking for the latest and greatest on T-Mobile.

But if you're an 8525 owner or an AT&T customer, you're safe knowing that T-Mobile doesn't have anything you don't have or won't get in the next few months. – Jason Chen

One Geek to Rule Them All [Trigger]