Web Reviews From 1997 to the present, President/Creative Director, Jim Cota has been writing informative reviews of Web sites and other internet related issues for the Indianapolis Business Journal. If you've missed the articles in print you can catch up on past stories here. Articles are reprinted with permission of the Indianapolis Business Journal, copyright 1997 - 2005, IBJ Corp.

The Coolest Inventions of the Year

This is my favorite time of the year. With the holidays fast-approaching, magazines and web sites are full of stories about the latest gadgets and toys, allowing all of us a glimpse of the future (and, in some cases, the here and now). My favorite of all, though, is Time Magazine's Coolest Inventions awards.

About this time each year, Time's staff rounds up all of the coolest, hottest new inventions for the entire year and presents them all in one place. The top honors this year go to Apple's iTunes Music Store. You probably knew that the entire music industry has been in a funk: people are downloading (stealing) music from the Internet, the recording industry is filing lawsuits against their customers, CD sales are way down... something needed to change. And then along comes Apple and the iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download nearly any song they want for $.99 each. Launched originally for Mac users, the service sold a million tracks in the first week. In October, the service was launched for Windows -- opening up access to the other 97% of computer users -- and sold a million songs to them in three days (adding to the 14 million music downloads already made by Mac users).

Time awarded the music store it's top honors and noted, "In a year when record labels hit a sour note by suing students, grandparents and 12-year-old file sharers, Jobs had effectively brokered a peace agreement: he had shown the music industry how to win friends and make money on the very Internet that was being used to steal their songs." Not bad for a small computer company.

Dean Kamen, maker of the over-hyped Segway scooter and probably the most famous inventor of our time, has made the list for the second year in a row by inventing a water purifier that is a low-power, low-maintenance device that will cost around $1,000 to manufacture and makes 10 gallons of drinkable water an hour. With thousands of people dying every day for lack of clean water, this inexpensive, efficient wonder could change life for people around the world.

The site also highlights new bikinis made of dried, tanned salmon skin. At more than $300 they aren't cheap, but the makers say the "sea leather" is perfectly suited for water wear with a natural elasticity that won't sag when wet.

Or, if transportation is more your bag (but driving isn't), you might want to pick up the latest version of Toyota's hybrid car, the Prius. This little wonder isn't just good for the environment, it's good for bumpers everywhere: touch a button and the car will parallel park itself.

Easily the most shocking entry on the list is the No-Contact Jacket. Powered by a nine-volt battery and activated by a switch in either palm, this little number sends an 80,000-volt jolt through anyone in contact — enough to send them back a few feet. Even when it's not activated, the jacket crackles with tiny, visible electric arcs. With power like that, it's destined to be on every city-dwelling woman's gift list.

There are inventions highlighted in six categories: Music & Fashion, Health & Safety, Gadgets & Robots, Transportation, Extreme Sports, and Light & Dark. Be sure to see the glowing fabric, the Java Log, the fuel cell generator, the folding kayak, and the power suit.

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