Gizmodo: innovations

IBM First Company to Win 4,000 Patents in a Year, More Than Microsoft and Intel Combined

matt buchanan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:20:00 EST

IBM has always hoarded patents like a dwarf and his gold. But this year, they're the first company to ever win more than 4,000 in a single year, more than Microsoft and Intel combined.

IBM picked up 4,186 U.S patents in 2008, while Microsoft won 2,030 and Intel earned a patriotic 1,776. The silver medal surprisingly went to Samsung, who earned 3,515. We would tell you to just give up if you're planning on inventing anything, since it's already been patented, and knowing the USPTO, they've awarded patents for broad, overly general and totally obvious ideas.

But there's hope—IBM says they're going to increase the number of inventions it takes to publishing annually instead of grabbing a patent for to try to spur broader, more open innovation. But likely that just means some asshole in Minnesota will try to patent the world's first supercomputer sex machine and deprive everyone of it instead of IBM. [Reuters]

Self-Balancing Electric Unicycle to Make Clowns, Attention-Seekers Even Less Impressive

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EDT

The Electric Self-Balancing Unicycle, or SBU, uses gyroscopes, accelerometers, and good clean electric power to make everyone's favorite one-wheeled method of transport accessible to those who don't want to bother with all that messy balancing and pedaling. Sure, unicycle purists will scoff, but now you can finally check "ride a unicycle" off your bucket list without wasting any time learning how to actually ride one. [Focus Designs]

The 100 Greatest Tech Innovations Of All-Time List Takes Balls

Sean Fallon — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:10:13 EST

Whenever someone does a comprehensive countdown list like this, it goes without saying that they are really sticking their neck out. And Maximum PC is putting everything on the line with their list of the 100 greatest tech innovations of all-time. The title is a little misleading given the fact that the list is confined to PC innovations, but with a name like Maximum PC, what did you expect? Naturally, the top ten list will be a source of great controversy, so hit the following link and get your fingers limbered up for some heated commenting debates. [Maximum PC]

Foldable Fabric Oven, For Baking On the Go

Charlie White — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:20:17 EDT

Scientists in Taiwan have figured out how to make an oven out of cloth. Here you can see they've heated up a couple of pieces of tasty cheese toast in the thing, and the inventive tinkerers at the Taiwan Textile Research Institute say they've also baked a chicken in this lightweight and foldable oven that's conveniently portable, weighing "just a few hundred grams." There's just one little problem with this idea: You still have to furnish some serious power to make it go, but still, it might be nice to carry an oven around in your laptop bag, whip it out in the hotel room, plug it in and bake some bread on the go. Its inventors say we'll be seeing the oven for sale next year. [Texyt]

Mygo Cane Guides the Blind, Turns Them Into Potential Superheroes

ybaranovsky — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:45:00 EDT

Sebastian Ritzler, a design student in Germany, has created a feature-laden rolling white cane called the Mygo that will make the blind scoff at us eyesies. The Mygo uses a sensor-camera combo to measure the ground below it and give the user real time feedback via a wireless headset. The cane also ends in a small wheel that uses a steering engine that helps the user steer by providing feedback through the grip.

The Mygo is height-adjustable, tough, and waterproof &mdash in case you're a blind swimmer — and runs on a lithium-ion battery that will keep it going for around 6 hours. It has yet to go into production but Ritzler is aiming to make it an affordable innovation, something in the $200 range, which, if it works as advertised, is a damn good deal. [BusinessWeek via Wired]

Luring the Hot Babes: Innovations Just for Women

Charlie White — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:42:44 EST

In a major initiative to attract more lovely ladies to Gizmodo, we've been working on figuring out just how this world should be arranged to best accommodate their discriminating and sometimes eclectic tastes. Top of the list is this prototype mouse with a flip-up body and makeup inside, complete with a mirror for easy application.

After the jump, check out just a few of the innovations and prototypes we found, turning the planet upside-down in a way that's certain to lure scads more babes to the Giz, ready and hot to see what's next in our groundbreaking women's research project.

Okay, okay, so now that we've taken care of that, where are the Gizmodo groupies? Where, oh where? What will it take, ladies? – Charlie White

UPDATE: Worth1000.com is the originator of these brilliant graphics, part of a series of Photoshop contests entitled "If Women Ruled." [Worth1000.com, via SixWise] (Thanks, Denise!)

Aerocool Power Supply with Sockets Instead of Too-Many-Cables

Charlie White — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:08:13 EDT

PC case modders know that power supply units (PSU) usually have a spaghetti bowl's worth of cables along for the ride, and what do you do with that mess if you don't need them all? This Aerocool Turbine Power 550-watt PSU solves that problem, letting you add just the cables you'll use, plugging them into its convenient sockets. Hey, less clutter, more coolage.

It has all the latest neat stuff, too, such as a couple of LEDs on the fan head, and its ATX 12V version 2.0 compliance reduces power consumption by 25%. Its $110. – Charlie White

Product page [Frozen CPU, via CrowdedBrain]