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Issue Date: January 28, 2007
Innovations 2007
Future Forward
Our annual roundup of what will be hot this year
includes a robot that obeys voice commands, a winery for your
home, a strawthat can help the Third World and two easy rides.
By Reed Karaim
Modern life is just too complicated. Everything
from cars to clock radios comes with manuals often as thick as
paperback novels. And who has the time to read, much less
memorize, any of it? Most of us spend our lives using fancy
gadgets that we onlyhalfway understand.
But new doesn't have to mean more complex. The best
innovations actually make life simpler. In our annual look at
products and trends likely to capture your attention in the
new year, we focus on a handful of inventions -- from a
bicycle that's harder to tip over to an electronic servant --
that could make life a little bit easier in 2007.
That simple isn't the same as shallow is clear from our
glimpse of some of the books, music, theater and cultural
trends that could enrich life this year. So sit back, slow
down and take time to ponder the new year's offerings. You've
earned it.
Two wheels in the front provide
more stability.
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Safer scooting
If you're looking for simple
transportation that doesn't involve using your own legs, it
doesn't come much simpler than a scooter. But, hey, youstill
have to be able to keep it upright. Now, Piaggio, the Italian
company that gave the world the iconic Vespa scooter, has
taken care of that with the MP3, a three-wheeled scooter that
offers the elegance and urban practicality of traditional
two-wheeled models but is easier and safer to handle.
The twist is that two of the wheels are in front, and
each tilts and turns independently for better stability. MP3s
don't even need a kickstand; the wheels lock in place to
balance the scooter upright at stoplights or the curb.
What really matters, of course, is that whether you're
on two wheels or three, you get to wear one of those mod
scooter helmets. Price: $6,999
Where your money should be
We asked our
cover model, Jim Cramer, the mad genius of CNBC's "Mad Money,"
for a quick financial snapshot for 2007:
Foreign markets aren't worth the
risk.
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Foreign markets. They aren't worth the risk,
Cramer warns, because you're dealing with a lot of unknowns.
But he says Mexico is a good bet, thanks to its recent
election of a strong capitalist leader and his confidence in
its untapped wealth.
Youth. "As the baby boomers age, there's a major
vanity trade that's going to define 2007. You want to be in on
that." Companies with products to help with eyesight, skin
care and plastic surgery will be big winners.
The heart rate monitor is
knitted into the fabric.
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high-tech bra and T-shirt
Serious runners like to keep
track of their heart rate, but strapping on a monitor beneath
clothes can be cumbersome. Last year, the high-tech
electronics company Textronics addressed this problem for
women by introducing the NuMetrex Heart Sensing Sports Bra
(and watch). Knitted into the fabric is a monitor that
wirelessly transmits the information to a special watch. Now,
men get a sleeveless T-shirt version, the Cardio Shirt, which
can be worn alone or as an undergarment. Price: The
sports bra and watch go for $115, and the shirt costs about
$55, at numetrex.com.
Expect to see lots of
100-calorie products.
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The 100-calorie snack
We are a nation in
love with snack foods. Unfortunately, we are also an
increasingly overweight nation, with near-epidemic levels of
health problems that are related to obesity. We all should be
snacking less, but who wants to count calories? Maybe that's
why the hottest trend in the snack industry is the 100-calorie
pack, containing an amount of cookies, chips or other food
that adds up to only 100 calories. Although sales of potato
chips increased less than 2% last year, sales of 100-calorie
packs of chips were up 644%, according to Phil Lempert, the
editor of supermarketguru.com. Many of the most popular
snacks, from Wheat Thins and Doritos to Oreos, now can be
purchased in 100-calorie portions, and Lempert expects this
trend to continue growing. "We are going to see 100-calorie
everything," he says, "because that seems to be the magic
number." Price: about $3 a box
Look for Gym Class Heroes to
break through.
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Music defies categories
The year's biggest
musical acts are beyond definition. Two to keep your ears open
for: Gym Class Heroes and Lily Allen. "Gym Class Heroes are
going to break through in 2007," says Amy Doyle, MTV's senior
vice president of music and talent, of the quartet from
Upstate New York. "They can't easily be described. Are they
hip-hop? Are they rock? They blend styles, which is a trend
that's really working for our audience." Cheeky British
singer/songwriter Allen is "less packaged and more in control
of her own image than other female artists," Doyle says,
noting Allen's mix of light hip-hop and pop. "We are very
excited about her."
Two new books to enjoy and to ponder
"The
Kite Runner," by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, was
that magical combination: an international best seller that
also received rave critical reviews. In May, Hosseini returns
to Afghanistan, the place of his childhood, in his second
novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (Riverhead Press, $25.95).
Focusing on a friendship between two women that survives 30
years of war, loss and social upheaval, the novel seems likely
to become another success around the globe.
Among non-fiction titles, "Reading Judas: The Gospel of
Judas and the Shaping of Christianity" (Viking, $24.95) by
Elaine Pagels and Karen King could be one of the most
talked-about books in 2007, says Charlotte Abbott, a senior
editor at "Publisher's Weekly." Pagels and King are leading
scholars on the Gnostic gospels, those writings on the life of
Christ that didnot make it into the Bible. Their analysis of
the newly translated Judas Gospel is likely to provoke some
passionate discussion.
It obeys commands to play music
and read e-mails.
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SCOTY joins the digital family
WowWee
Robotics has teamed up with Philips Electronics to build the
Smart Companion Operation Technology (SCOTY) -- a kind of
desktop electronic servant that can obey voice commands to
play music, turn off the TV, read you your new e-mails or even
alert you to intruders.
Scotty, of course, was the name of the engineer in the
original "Star Trek." "It's a natural fit," admits Marc
Kemper, the sales manager for WowWee Robotics, who says SCOTY
uses its built-in camera and facial recognition software to
identify and interact with human beings. A wireless connection
and yet more software allow the robot to take images of
intruders and e-mail you an alert.
All we know is that the tower of blinking lights, with
two smaller lights on top that seem vaguely head-like, looks
like something Captain Kirk might have had in his cabin. Check
wowwee.com later this
year to find out about the availability of SCOTY.
Price: $400
No need for expertise or acres
of farmland.
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A winery in a bottle
You love good wine. You
even dream of making your own, but you lack the money,
expertise, and acres of farmland and grapes that are needed to
do it. No problem. WinePod has managed to fit the entire
process into a single sleek metal container that provides you
with everything that is essential to fine winemaking -- except
for the snobbery.
The WinePod integrates a wine press as well as
fermentation and aging systems into one unit that looks a bit
like a 4-foot-tall steel wine glass. It takes about six months
to make one batch of wine, which can fill up to 60 bottles.
Special software allows the owner to monitor the process while
taking wine-making tutorials along the way. The company even
will sell you the crushed grapes that are necessary to begin
the process.
WinePod (mywinepod.com) was the
idea of CEO Greg Snell, who is a former high-tech executive in
Silicon Valley (we imagine this is where the iPod-ish name
came from) and was developed in consultation with some
longtime California producers of wine. Price:
$3,499
Broadway lights up
The most intriguing show
this Broadway season is "The Year of Magical Thinking," an
adaptation of Joan Didion's tragic memoir about the year her
husband died of a massive coronary as their only daughter was
in a coma (she eventually died, too). "It's a very moving
story," says Ben Brantley, chief theater critic for "The New
York Times." "Having the truly statuesque Vanessa Redgrave
play the tiny but imposing Joan Didion is a fascinating
proposition. She has an emotional transparency that lets you
look into a person's soul." Adapted by Didion herself and
directed by writer David Hare, the play opens March 29.
Brantley also looks forward to the February revival of Eric
Bogosian's "Talk Radio," in which Liev Schreiber plays a
demented radio DJ. "He's [arguably] our best American stage
actor," Brantley says of the Tony winner. Price:
tickets available from around $65 to $100
A
better bicycle for beginners
Learning to ride a bike
is a nearly universal rite of American childhood.
Unfortunately, so is crashing and skinning your knees.
Training wheels, as every kid discovers, merely delay the
painful part of the process. Plus, they look dorky.
Testers fell less and learned to
ride more quickly.
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Now, four Dartmouth engineering students have built the
GyroBike to make life easier for every kid gripping the
handlebars for the first time. The bike uses a smaller,
spinning flywheel built into the front wheel, which imparts
gyroscopic force to make it more stable for beginners or the
physically challenged. The secret of the GyroBike is that the
gyroscope means the bike has the stability of one going at 10
mph from just about the moment you push off. Local kids, who
volunteered as testers, fell less and learned how to ride much
more quickly.
The inventors hope to have GyroBikes and a Gyro device
for existing bikes in stores by Christmas 2007. For more
information, check out thegyrobike.com
(prices not yet available).
This just might make the world a
healthier place.
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A water filter for impoverished nations
For
much of the world, safe drinking water is difficult or
impossible to obtain. Dysentery and other diseases that come
from unclean water are major global killers. This innovation
just might make the world a healthier place.
Vestergaard Frandsen, a European company inspired by
work done with the Carter Center in Atlanta, has developed the
"Lifestraw," a device that uses filters and other components
to purify water as someone sucks it through a tube. Similar
but more limited devices exist for the U.S. camping market,
but they don't have the ability to protect users from the
variety of Third World threats that Lifestraw does, says Brian
Hollingsworth, American sales coordinator for Vestergaard
Frandsen. The straws are expected to last for a year, and
international development agencies already are distributing
them. For more information, check out lifestraw.com.
Price: $3.50 each
Frappa Stout and Kathy Rowings contributed to this
article.
Cover photograph of Jim Cramer by Brad
Trent for USA WEEKEND
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