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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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A 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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