Sometimes I buy a soda and notice a little gunk on the rim. So what do I do? I wipe it off or grab a straw. I hear some folks even run ‘em under hot water thinking it’ll disinfect it. Serious soda drinkers, however, let their soft drinks chill in a Cole Cleaner for a few minutes. A concept by designer Leon Peng, the Cole Cleaner (not a typo) will treat your soda of choice to a little bacteria-killing UV radiation. Call me crazy, but this seems like a pretty extreme way to enjoy a soda. Granted, I’d rather not think about what gross stuff there could be on top of the can, but it only does one drink at a time, and only soft drink cans. If you’re drinking enough soda to need something like this, the stuff in the can has probably already built your resistance up to the crud on the outside. Check out the gallery below for more of Peng’s Cole Cleaner.

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‘Cole Cleaner’ lovingly disinfects a single soda for your drinking pleasure

How do you grab attention for your upcoming straight-to-DVD animated film? Say stuff like “1,500-foot-long armored zeppelins” and “steam-powered battle tripods.” Oh, and “sex in the cockpit” probably didn’t hurt, either. War of the Worlds: Goliath promises all of that and more, according to a rough synopsis on the Heavy Metal Magazine Fan Page by director Joe Pearson: It’s an R-rated, retro-history, [1914 steampunk epic], fourteen years after the first failed Martian invasion. Mankind has rebuilt her cities and [the military is] adapting a lot of the abandoned Martian technology… Think of “Band of Brothers” meets “Star Wars”… It will be cool, steam-powered battle tripods, doomed Cossack cavalry charges, Victorian deco, steampunk Manhattan, 1,500-foot-long armored battle zeppelins, Teddy Roosevelt, souped up tri-planes, blood on steaming metal, sex in the cockpit. The usual… It will have a budget of around $3 million, and be produced by Tripod Entertainment… and is being co-produced by Kevin Eastman (owner of Heavy Metal). Awesome steampunk robots? It’s almost as if they’ve been reading DVICE . Goliath is scheduled for an early 2010 release, but, until then, feast your eyes on the awesome concept art below.

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Steampunk remake of War of the Worlds promises tripod-on-tripod action

Oh, to be a kid again. Back in my day, a Nerf gun consisted simply of a foam rocket and a pump-action tube. Rhode Island-based Weston Boeges’ weapons are on the other end of the spectrum, taking on the shape of a minigun , grenade launcher, and sci-fi-ish tri-barreled cannons. He’s designed them for an upcoming Nerf N-Strike-themed video game for the Nintendo Wii, but, really, Nerf would have to look no further for awesome designs for its guns. Check out more of his weapons of Nerfy mayhem down below.

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Nerf N-Strike Wii weapon concepts look like they belong in Gears of War

What would Microsoft’s multitouch Surface table look like if a bunch of artists designed it? Well, if the Struktable is any indication, it’d have a lot less of the functionality — you know, being able to surf the web and look at maps — but it’d have some awesome proprietary applications and a slick interface. Gregor Hofbauer of Strukt describes the project: My company “Strukt” brought its multitouch table, called “Struktable” to the 2009 TOCA ME design conference in Munich. People were invited to play around with 5 simple demo applications the entire evening. We gathered a lot of responses and are already working on implementing the feedback in our next applications. Particularly of note is the way that the 70-inch multitouch surface gives the user feedback, circling your fingertip with a ring as you touch the screen. It uses infrared LEDs, an IR camera, projector and computer to make it all happen. Click Continue for a video of the Struktable in action.

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Struktable: A Microsoft Surface table for the art world

If I wanted to grow some plants or herbs in my small New York apartment, I’d probably have to do it out on the fire escape — which is rather unwieldy. The Lightpot, designed by Studio Shalub, would be perfect for someone like me, as it doubles as both a lamp and a tiny garden. LED lighting gives the plants some love whatever the lighting situation and, if you’re going to bed, you can close the Lightpot to keep things dark. On top of all of that it also looks great — check out more of the Lightpot in the gallery below.

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Lightpot is a stylish lamp and garden all in one

The first day of Spring’s only a day away and it’s time to start thinking about … in-line roller skating! But we’re weary of all that vibration, enough to rattle our fillings loose on all these pothole-pocked roadways here on the frozen tundra. So maybe designer Pouyan Mokhtarani is onto something here with Mercury, the in-line skates of the future. In this handsome rendering of a design concept, Mokhtarani shows us how the judicious application of colorful red springs and airbags in the shoes could make in-line skating feel as smooth as gliding across a pristine frozen lake. He’s also designed ankle support attachments for those of us with wobbly joints. Unlike some radical skating designs , this one looks downright civilized, capable of some pleasingly smooth cruising. The skate boot part of the design looks so swank, maybe the wheels could be removable so we could wear those snazzy airbag-equipped shoes on the street.

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Mercury Skate turns in-line skating into smooth cruising using springs and airbags