I have no news, good or bad, but I did ask a very nice rep for The Wand Company when I investigated repairs for my Phaser remote. (BTW, she solved the issue, by mailing a replacement "main body", all the way form England...free of charge even though it had been well over a year since i bought it!) Anyway, I asked her, but if anything were under development, I sure an NDA clause would had forbid her from revealing anything.
However, if Wand were to release one, I suspect it would have to incorporate some "practical" real world function. I have no evidence to prove the following, but my gut tells me Wand does not have a license to develop straight forward "props", items simply for display or a bit of roleplay. No, they have to "do" something "useful". The phaser is a universal remote. the communicator is a Blu-Tooth extension for cellular phones. Thus I think a tricorder would have to do something beyond looking good, "chirping" and flashing a few lights.
But what could be added to it. Well, given it has that darling lil' "TV screen", maybe it could function as a visual playback device? Is it large enough to house a DVd or Blu-Ray player. (I honestly don't know.) If not, I assume it could be engineered with Wi-Fi capabilities and thus be able to "stream" video. the drawback would be the minute size of the screen. But I can't imagine Wand making it larger given one of its goals is to construct screen accurate "casings". maybe it could include "ports" to push into larger video screens (but still retaining a functioning screen.
Maybe others here have some thoughts about real world features. Post them, gang.
