By Andrew Liszewski

According to the Hollywood Collectibles Group website, Terminators are actually powered by a nuclear fuel cell embedded in their chest. Do you remember that scene in T3 where Arnie digs his out of his chest and tosses it out the window when they’re driving through the desert? Yeah, that was a terrible movie. Hey Terminator? Do you now know why I cry?

But if you’re a still a fan of anything greater than T2, you can now own a miniature replica of those very same nuclear fuel cells as seen in Terminator Salvation (I assume) without the risk of massive radiation poisoning. Because instead of any radioactive materials, the lighter is filled with butane, and instead of bringing a Terminator to life, it can be used to light cigarettes and kill humans.

It’s available for pre-order on the HCG website for just $19.99, and is expected to ship sometime in the 2nd quarter of 2009.

And I guess I’ll declare this unofficial movie tie-in Wednesday here on OhGizmo!

[ Terminator Salvation Fuel Cell Lighter ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The dragon-like structure you see under construction in these photos is the ‘World Games Stadium’ in Taiwan, which is being built for the upcoming World Games. And what looks like dragon’s scales from afar are actually 8,844 solar panels which is enough to satisfy all of the stadium’s energy needs, and then some. The 14,155m2 roof has the potential to generate 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year, which is actually enough to power 80% of the stadium’s surrounding neighborhood when it’s not in use. It was designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, cost around $150 million to build and can hold 55,000 spectators.

And in case you were wondering, the World Games is kind of like the Olympics, except that the 30 different competitions include diverse sports like sky diving, billiards, frisbee, sumo and tug of war. In other words, events I’d actually like to see.

[ Deputy Dog - taiwan's cutting edge solar powered stadium ] VIA [ Inhabitat ]

By Evan Ackerman

A Spanish company called iUnika has come out with a family of netbooks, most of which are entirely unremarkable except for one, which is powered (at least partially) by the sun. It weighs 1.5 pounds, runs Linux, costs about $220, and has a sizable solar cell on the lid that (I assume) charges an internal battery.

Unless there has been some huge breakthrough in cheap and efficient solar panels, my guess is that you’d have to leave this thing out in the sun for, oh, about a week before you’d be able to do much with it. Okay, maybe not a week, but seriously, solar charging is slooowwww and laptops (even netbooks) use a bunch of power, so the ratio of charging time to operating time is not going to be good. But it’s better than having to rely completely on available electricity, and if you’re in the market for a cheap, efficient, and versatile travel netbook that can offload pics and check email and stuff, this may not be a bad idea at all.

[ iUnika ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Evan Ackerman

1080P is great and all, but if you can still tell that you’re watching something on TV, what’s the point? You might as well just go read a book or something. Evans & Sutherland (you know they’re cool because their domain name is es.com) has come out with a laser projector with a staggering 8000 x 4000 (32 megapixel) resolution, which they claim “exceeds the human eye,” meaning that their display is better than real life. Now, I have a whole raft of problems with their claim, but suffice it to say that they’ve got a pretty sharp display goin’ on. Plus, you know, lasers, man! Aside from being badass and potentially dangerous, lasers mean that colors are more accurate (up to twice as accurate as HDTV) and never shift and bulbs never need replacing.

The E&S Laser Projector was designed for military applications (i.e. simulators), and puts out 5000 lumens of brightness with 2500:1 contrast to match its impressive resolution. But with a price tag of of around $750,000, the only way you’re ever going to get to play with one is if you click here and then suffer through to the simulator bit.

[ E&S Laser Projector ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

These electroluminescent glowing tees are pretty common these days. You can get ones that feature everything from a working graphic EQ, to a simulated game of Pong to a backlit whiteboard.

But since there’s a Star Trek film in theaters right now that seems to be pretty popular with the kids (I’ll get around to seeing it at some point) I figured I’d throw up this light-up tee which features the classic Star Trek logo and the Enterprise blasting through the darkness of space. Or maybe it just happens to be a black t-shirt. Either way it’s a good effect, and you can order one from Gadgets.co.uk for about $46.

[ Star Trek Starship Enterprise T-Shirt ] VIA [ Gear Live ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I always liked the concept of Windows Media Center, I really did. I just couldn’t ever quite justify upgrading to MCE or Vista on my little HTPC, so I made do with what I had. Eventually my 360 would turn into my main media player in the living room, supplemented by my old HTPC running Boxee. Well for those of you that are depending on Windows Media Center, you’ll be happy to know that Microsoft has finally added support for streaming Netflix.

I feel like I should be more excited about this than I really am. You see, I use Netflix, and I already stream my movies to my Xbox 360. Hell, I’ve been doing that for like six months. Sure, it’s great to see them add this to WMC, but shouldn’t this have been done a long time ago?

[ Microsoft ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

It’s been really hard to see Palm as anything other than a dying brand for quite some time. After the Foleo idea went south, it looked like the company was finished. Luckily they still had one ace up their sleeve, and that’s the Pre. I’m an iPhone user, and I’ll admit that I am intrigued by this device. No, I won’t be tossing aside my phone any time soon, but it might just be able to give Apple some good competition.

Palm and Sprint have finally decided to grace us with an official launch date for the device. It’s quite apparent that they’re wanting to take Apple head-on, since that’s only two days before the WWDC. Will their gambit work? We’ll know in a few short weeks. Starting June 6th you’ll be able to pick the Pre up at Sprint stores (including Sprint.com), Best Buy Radio Shack and even select Walmart stores for $199.99.

[ Sprint ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m not quite convinced that video games will be the downfall of society, but at the same time, sitting on a couch all day with a controller in their hand isn’t the best way to foster a child’s mind. So the GameDr is another device designed to limit just how much time your kids can spend playing video games every day.

It locks onto the power cord of any video game console, or really any electronic device that plugs in by the looks of it, and features an easy to set countdown timer that will essentially ‘pull the plug’ when the time runs out. It also has a set of warnings at the 10 minute and 1 minute intervals so your kids have plenty of time to save their progress. The maker claims the GameDr is “tamper-proof” though they’ve apparently never heard of a little device I like to call a hammer. But if your kids are resorting to random acts of destruction to fulfill their gaming lust, you’ve got bigger problems than the GameDr can deal with.

The GameDr will be available sometime in June from DigitalInnovations.com for $29.99.

[ PR - Maintain Healthy Limits on Children’s Video Game Time with the GameDr® Video Game Timer ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Iomega (click of death) recently updated their line of eGo Portable Hard Drives (click of death) with 4 new colors including Ruby Red, Silver, Midnight Blue and Helium (click of death) in capacities ranging from 250GB up to 500GB, depending on which color you buy. They also come with (click of death) Iomega’s Drop Guard feature which protects the drives from drops of up to 51 inches, as well as (click of death) the Iomega Protection Software Suite which includes apps like McAfee Virus Scan, MozyHome and Iomega QuickProtect. The drives should be available sometime in June (click of death) and will range in price from $84.99 for the 250GB models and up to $134.99 for the 500GB.

P.S. Can you tell I’m still holding a grudge? Does it show? My therapist says I’ve made great progress, but I’m not so sure.

[ Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drives ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]