Just as the automobile manufacturers are thinking about the next generation of cleaner, more efficient automobiles so too are the boat makers. This concept design for a future boat is called the Volitan and it comes from a Turkish architectural design company called Designnobis Studio. Made with lightweight materials the Volitan does away with traditional billowy sails in favor of two solar collector columns that gather light from the sun and also utilize wind power. It kind of looks like an X-Wing floating on the water and just like Luke Skywalker’s spaceship from “Star Wars” the Volitan’s solar wings can raise up and down but also go one step better and turn around to better collect the energy and/or wind power. Two small stabilizer wings are affixed to the lower side of the Volitan’s body which help it stay afloat even in storms that blow up to 60 knots. Small rudders in the stabilizers can allow the captain to turn the craft on a dime.

Volkswagen has developed its latest vehicle concept for an electric car of the future. Designed in collaboration with German design student Marc Kirsch for his diploma project, the Volkswagen Viseo is a three-seater that produces zero carbon emissions. Created to show that being environmentally friendly doesn’t mean that you don’t look sexy, the Viseo has that streamlined look that screams sports car sex appeal. Unfortunately we don’t know what kind of miles per charge the electric cars in the future will get so while the Viseo looks great it’s still an unknown performer.

One novel new feature about the Viseo is that the back-end of the car can detach and becomes a suitcase that you can wheel around. Something like this sounds great if you need to fly a lot and park your car longterm at the airport but as an everyday idea, it’s not so hot.

I still ain’t afraid of no ghosts! The boys in khaki armed with their proton packs and spirit trap boxes are coming back. Of course I’m talking about the Ghostbusters but instead of a new movie starring the fabulous paranormal foursome it will be Vivendi Universal that delivers them to us as a new “Ghostbusters” video game. The publisher has announced a fall 2008 release for the “Ghostbusters” game and it’s signed Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson to reprise their roles in the game. Also returning is Annie Potts as the Ghostbusters’ secretary and William Atherton as their pain-in-the-ass, Walter Peck. (Remember the line “It’s true, this man has no dick”? That was Murray to Atherton.) Ramis and Ackroyd are writing the game’s story so it should be just as good as the two movies (but hopefully more like movie number one.)

Sure you could design and print off your own labels for any burned DVDs or CDs that you make but why bother when you have a Sharpie pen within easy grasp? For those of you that aren’t as filled with sloth as ourselves and are also on a budget Dymo’s DiscPainter offers an affordable alternative to those expensive CD printers out there. For a cost of $279 you get a printing station that can produce high quality disc artwork and it only takes one minute of wait time to do so. The software that comes with the printer is compatible with all of the other major art programs like Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator so you don’t need to worry about compatibility issues. Amazingly it only weighs a little over two-and-a-half pounds and is about as compact as today’s average printers. The Dymo DiscPainter hasn’t arrived on the market yet but should be here soon so start brushing up on your Photoshop skillz.

If you’re looking for something new to match with your “Star Wars” bedsheets, wallpaper and pajamas and that R2-D2 soy sauce bottle we told you about isn’t good for your bedroom then here is the droid that you have been looking for.

National Console Support is releasing an R2-D2 night light projector that will give you images of “Star Wars” goodness to drift off into dreamland while watching. Running off of two AAA batteries the projector will display moving vistas of the Death Star, an X-wing spaceship and Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon on your bedroom ceiling. Best of all the projector comes in two different models: the blue R2-D2 version or a red R2-M5 version if you actually like the “Star Wars” prequels over the original movie trilogy. The little guy’s legs move too and the dome flips over to reveal the projector (you didn’t think that the hologram projector was functional did you?)

Is this a sign that print is going to indeed die? The mighty publisher of Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America and the X-Men is moving online to distribute hundreds of its comic books as downloads. Marvel Comics has launched a new digital comics section on its website to entice kids and grown-ups to read old and new stories featuring their favorite superheroes. While movies based on Marvel superheroes are making billions of dollars as movies the medium that begat them isn’t as good as it used to be. Citing a loss of readership to video games and the internet, Marvel is hoping to bring back some of its old guard and maybe new fans as well by offering their comics database by either an annual subscription ($59.88) or a monthly fee ($9.99). When you pay up Marvel promises that you will get to read online the entire run of “X-Men” and the first 100 issues of “Amazing Spider-Man” and “Fantastic Four” as well as dozens of other new series. About 20 new comics will be placed online each week and about six months after they were offered for sale at the newsstand. The company is using a special browser which lets you read the comic book instantly and without having to download it.

The mission for “Star Trek” has always been to boldly go where no one has gone before, to seek out new life and new civilizations but really, we all just wanted the cool gadget that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock got to play with. We’ve turned our mobile phones into things that resemble those neat palm-sized communicators the Enterprise crew had and we’re working on the transporter next. For those fans that really want to own a piece of the Enterprise there are models, props and toys made to resemble Starfleet’s best including a toy model of “Star Trek”‘s futuristic gun, a phaser. But why hasn’t some toy company made a phaser that actually emits a laser beam when you fire it? You think that with the low cost of today’s lasers that some toy manufacturer would have leapt on this idea. Leave it to one creative individual to make our geek dreams come true!

Everyone is thinking of new ways to reduce our energy consumption needs with renewable sources of power. Solar technology is one of the cleanest of these new forms of energy since all of the power comes from sunlight and there are zero emissions. Who complains about the sun being too noisy or creating smog? There has been solar powered cars, homes, ships and even flashlights but until now there has never been a solar powered mobile phone headset.

British-based phone retailer Orange has unveiled the world’s first ever solar powered Bluetooth headset called the Iqua 603 Sun. If you’re exposed to the sun the cells on the top of the headset will keep it fully charged for all your talking needs. If you work indoors or in the dark a fully charged battery will give you nine hours of talk time or 200 hours in standby mode. The solar cells are sensitive enough to pick up indirect sunlight as well which will boost your talk time to 12 hours. The volume control is on the side and just one button will let you answer or end a call or redial a number.

As consumers start their shopping for another holiday season one of the big questions raised last year at this time still doesn’t have a satisfactory answer: Blu-ray versus HD-DVD? While prices for both players dropped throughout 2007 there still wasn’t any clear indication which new DVD format was reigning supreme with the common man. Sony’s much-hoped for plans that their new Blu-ray PlayStation 3 would lead the charge failed to materialize while Microsoft’s HD-DVD add-on wasn’t exactly flying off of store shelves either. Sales of HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs started off with the latter edging out the former but lately both groups have been selling roughly the same amount of units. So now that we’re well into the next gen DVD war, which side is winning? The answer according to one of Blu-ray’s biggest supporters is no one.

Radiohead blasted back against a report by ComScore that said only 38% of people paid anything when they downloaded thr group’s new album “In Rainbows”. As we reported earlier this week ComScore released a survey that indicated just slightly over one-third of Radiohead fans decided to pay anything for the band’s new album, only available right now as a digital download. Radiohead decided to release their new work exclusively via the internet and leave it up to the individual to decide how much they should pay to own the record, if anything. In a widely reported news story ComScore found that the results were that Radiohead fans were only willing to pay about $6 for “In Rainbows” and of that number the majority decided to not pay anything at all for the new tunes.

When Radiohead made their latest album “In Rainbows” available for download on the internet and left it up to the person on the other end of the connection to decide how much (or not) to pay it was viewed as a bold experiment. Now the results are in and we know how many people decided to open their virtual wallets and purses and how much they thought Radiohead’s work was worth.

According to figures only 38% of people paid anything at all for “In Rainbows” with the average price per digital consumer working out to be $6. Among the citizens of the world Americans were the ones that felt it necessary to pay the most for the new Radiohead album, paying an average of $8.05 for it.

“Manhunt 2″ has become the target of a ban by Target stores. Executives for the retail company have made the decision to ban sales of Rockstar’s controversial game which lets players control a homicidal escaped mental patient as he goes on a killing rampage.

In a statement released on Tuesday Target offered the following explanation for the decision: “All video games and computer software sold at Target currently carry ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board — from early childhood through mature audiences. While ‘Manhunt 2′ was given a ‘Mature’ rating by the ESRB, we received additional information that players can potentially view previously filtered content by altering the game code. As a result, we have decided not to carry the game.”

Optimus Prime’s day job may be fighting the forces of evil Megatron and his Decepticons but I bet that you didn’t know in his offtime he also volunteers teaching math and spelling to little kids down at the Y, did you? This new gadget is the Transformers Trans-Portable PC that combines the fun of soundbites and images of Prime and the other Transformers with learning your 1-2-3s and A-B-Cs.

There are 36 different activities that can be tried out on the tablet including old standbys like Hangman and the ever popular Word Jumble and it supports English to Spanish real-time translation for its instructions and select words. Special Transformers hot keys lets your child press on Starscream or Brawl and not have to worry about a plasma shot taking their cute little head right off. You can also input the name of your lucky offspring into the PC and it will relay the questions to them using their name (which is something that the action figures can’t do.) The SMART chip inside the unit will also adjust the difficulty level depending on how well the user is doing which is nice since no one wants Prime to be no fun and have all the answers.

Need to funk up your living room or are you looking for a novelty to attract customers to your cafe? Consider purchasing one of Kloss’ DeLighTables and adding to your selection of furniture. Your guests will be able to regress back to the days when they made art with fingerpaint as the table’s pressure sensitive surface glows when the slightest touch is felt. The company is now manufacturing both side tables as well as coffee tables with the light panels only 20 mm thin. Set a drink on top of the table and watch as an unearthly glow emanates from the bottom before you can finish saying “Bacardi Breezer”.

The electrical system for the DeLighTable runs off of 12 volts and it’s completely waterproof. I can see bar and club patrons going gaga over one of these while trying to play pick-up artist but it could also be a lot of fun in your own den. Finger races anyone?

The popularity of Activision’s “Guitar Hero” game franchise was never in doubt but now the company can safely say that its rockin’ out simulation is now bordering on becoming a phenomena. In the first week of availability for “Guitar Hero III” the title took in more than $100 million dollars worth of sales in North America alone. That shatters all previous earnings for software launches that Activision has ever had in its three decade long existence. To give you a better idea of how that translates financially for the company, Activision also released its second quarter earnings from July through September which turned out to be $317 million — or nearly one-third of what “Guitar Hero III” took in in its first seven days of release.