Business

5 Cool Inventions to be Excited About in 2012

Who’s ready for The Blaze’s next “top whatever” list? If you’re like us, and we know we are, you’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of another arbitrarily ranked list of similar-but-different things.

For today’s installment, we thought we’d steer away from the more financially focused “top whatevers” and stray into Liz Klimas’s territory. That is, we’re going to bring you a tech list.

So without wasting any more time on introductory remarks, here are the “top 5” coolest tech items and services (that we know of) for 2012, as presented by CNN Money [all block quotes from the same]:

5. “White Spaces” Wi-Fi

5 Cool Inventions to be Excited About in 2012

Hidden between individual television channels is a small but valuable collection of airwaves that will allow for a kind of “super Wi-Fi” network.

The Federal Communications Commission recently opened up the spectrum that sits between television channels numbered 1 through 51. Wireless communications in those “white spaces” have been permitted since Jan. 26 in Wilmington, N.C., the FCC’s designated testbed location. After the bugs are worked out, the spaces will be opened up nationally in the coming months.

The FCC designated the white spaces as “unlicensed” band, meaning anyone can broadcast in it for free. It‘s a primo band that sits lower than today’s Wi-Fi, allowing signals to travel over significantly longer distances and through buildings and walls.

It’ll take time for all the necessary infrastructure — including new chipsets for smartphones and other devices — to roll out, but FCC expects the expansion to lead to innovative new kinds of wireless networks, including connected highways, schools, parks and towns. Wireless carriers scrounging for more spectrum could also begin to broadcast Wi-Fi to customer-dense areas to reduce stress on their 3G and 4G networks.

4. Microsoft Windows 8

5 Cool Inventions to be Excited About in 2012

Windows 8 has a completely new visual interface that‘s unlike anything you’ve seen on a PC before. It’s optimized for touch screens on mobile devices like tablets, but it will also work for those with a traditional mouse and keyboard setup.

The result is a computer that operates as a hybrid, with all the functions of a standard PC operating system but the user experience of a tablet. [...]

3. Lytro’s Light-Field Camera

5 Cool Inventions to be Excited About in 2012

Ever snapped a picture in a hurry, looked back and realized you forgot to focus? The much-hyped Lytro has the solution, with a light-field camera that lets you adjust a picture after it’s been snapped.

“What‘s often been said about us is that we’re camera 3.0,” says Kira Wampler, Lytro’s vice president of marketing. “You can do things that you’ve never been able to do before.”

Lytro CEO Ren Ng worked for six years to commercialize the technology, which he pioneered as part of his Ph.D. research at Stanford University. [...] It comes in two models: a $399 8 GB camera in Graphite or Electric Blue that takes 350 pictures, or a 16 GB “Red Hot” model for $499 that holds 750 pictures.

2. Anything released by Apple (hear us out)

5 Cool Inventions to be Excited About in 2012

Let’s face it, the most talked-about tech product (or products) this year will probably come from Apple.

The company is widely rumored to be prepping a television for release in 2012 that will run its Apple TV software. Though Apple TV set-top box sales haven’t been impressive, the late Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” the code for success. Jobs said that the device Apple is creating will have a simple user interface and will sync easily with other devices in the home.

[...]

Some Apple believe Apple had a more significantly overhauled iPhone in the works that just wasn’t quite ready to launch last fall. It could make an appearance this year.

1. Google’s virtual reality goggles

5 Cool Inventions to be Excited About in 2012

Augmented reality may end up being one of the hottest fashion accessories of 2012. Google is secretly working on Android-powered virtual reality glasses that it plans to begin selling by the end of the year, according to reports in the New York Times and the blog 9 to 5 Google.

Details are scant about the rumored glasses, but the basic idea is to beam contextually relevant information straight to your eyeballs. Like augmented reality apps, the glasses could deliver an added layer of information about, say, a landmark you’re looking at, or offer up a discount to a restaurant that catches your gaze.

“If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party,” the New York Times’ Nick Bilton theorizes. “They might also be used for virtual reality games that use the real world as the playground.”

A Google representative declined to comment.

Read the full story and descriptions at CNNMoney.

Comments (120)

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  • khandahar&jalalabad
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:42am

    I can’t get past white spaces, if it’s on the airwaves permitted by the fcc would it not be regulated just like
    broadcast television?

    Report Post »  
  • 80mesh
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:33am

    bread and circus’s

    kill your tv

    Report Post » 80mesh  
    • budzy1911
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 10:38am

      Cut the cable last month and have never looked back. I don’t miss TV and the family is focused on the family at dinner and not the TV. Best thing I ever did.

      Report Post » budzy1911  
    • SREGN
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 11:03am

      After Iran detonates the EMP over the midwest what will become of those whose lives revolve around electronics?

      Report Post »  
    • Docrow
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:14pm

      TV has been off for almost a year now. Best thing I ever did for my family.

      Report Post » Docrow  
    • jcldwl
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:18pm

      We got rid of our direct TV and haven’t missed the trash they put on TV one bit. In fact it felt like we freed ourselves from the wretchedness of Hollywood. We don’t go to movies anymore either. Hollywood supports communism therefore we don’t support Hollywood.

      Report Post » jcldwl  
    • RobMac68
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 2:37pm

      5 years 2 months without TV…and I am still alive, go figure.

      Report Post »  
    • RobMac68
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 2:38pm

      I wonder how many annoying political commercials I’ve missed in 5 years?

      Report Post »  
    • GoodStuff
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 3:58pm

      Cancel your cable!!

      Cable bundling is evil. It forces you to subsidize garbage channels like MSNBC, MTV, BET even if you don’t watch these channels. Stop feeding the beast and cancel your cable.

      Internet-to-tv streaming is the future and allows you to purchase ONLY the channels you want, with minimal or NO commercials!

      Report Post »  
    • Mikev5
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 5:11pm

      budzy1911

      Did the same and love it those commercials just tweak your brain in some way after a year if you try TV at a friend’s home the commercials agitate your head and you want to leave the room. Believe me those commercials do something to you get off the TV binge for a year you will never go back.brain

      Report Post » Mikev5  
    • TROONORTH
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:00pm

      Apple? Yawn. Apple hasn’t been technologically innovative for years and has peaked. The latest ipad and phone are proof of that. Nobody can remain at the top for long and a company like apple that develops nothing but just stirs existing technology with a dash of design to produce no longer cutting edge products is on the way down. B-BYE!

      Report Post » TROONORTH  
  • GUYFROMMAINE
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:07am

    GRRREATTTT!!! Just think, in a few short months, we will have the priviledge of dodging those who are playing games on their sunglasses, while texting on their phones, and driving down the highway!

    Report Post »  
    • SFsuper49er
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:12am

      Probably why there trying to make cars drive you from A to B by themselves

      Report Post »  
    • budzy1911
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 10:40am

      Think about the ad revenue they will get if you are surfing the web while the car drives itself to work?

      Report Post » budzy1911  
    • swoods08
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:22pm

      Who would ever wear those things to a party? Here’s your nerd sign.

      Report Post »  
  • tbtall
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:03am

    What we won’t ever find in the coolest new ideas are these IDIOTIC devices claiming to create more electricity than they use. The desire to get something for nothing has no bounds. These ads should be cancelled in order to maintain a shred of integrity.

    Report Post »  
    • thx1138v2
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:00am

      “1500 years ago, everybody ‘knew’ that the earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody ‘knew’ that the earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you ‘knew’ that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you‘ll ’know’ tomorrow.” – Agent K in MIB

      Just because the patent office doesn’t allow anyone to patent a “perpetual motion machine” doe not make them impossible. Think about the structure of an atom with electrons orbiting a nucleus. It may not be infinitely perpetual but it’s close enough for humans.

      As far as getting out more energy than you put in, we do it every day with solar panels and windmills. “We” didn’t put the power in the light or the wind but we are extracting power from it. It’s a matter of semantics. Your statement does apply to closed systems. It does not, however, apply to open systems that receive power from the ambient medium and the universe is awash with power.

      Half of the earth’s atmoshere is continually charged by the charged particles in the solar wind colliding with it. There are from 50 to 200 lightning strikes every second somewhere in the atmosphere, any one of which can contain billions of Watts of power. That is an indication of how much power is stored in the atmosphere that we are essentially ignoring.

      We live in a battery rotating inside a magnetic field. The ionosphere is the positive pole of the battery. The crust is the negative pole of the battery.

      Report Post »  
    • BehindBlueEyes
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:21am

      @THX1138V2
      I agree the earth is awash in energy as you pointed out but I don’t think its a matter of it being ignored. I just don’t think a viable technology exists at this time to capture and store it.
      As for perpetual motion doesn’t absolute zero put that to rest?

      Report Post » BehindBlueEyes  
    • scruffycat
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:50am

      Energy comes from the sun. Thanks to plants, over the aeons the sun’s energy has been stored up in our petroleum, natural gas, coal, etc. Those are the sources of high energy density material that are economical to use, meaning you get more power out of the material than what you have to put into it to use it. There is no power density to speak of in solar or wind, not enough to run this huge nation. Even nuclear comes from the sun if you want to consider the creation of the heavy metals in super novas.

      Report Post » scruffycat  
    • sWampy
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 10:23am

      Hell we don’t even get out more than we put in with 90% of the windmills and solar panels we build. They take so much energy to build and to maintain, most never produce as much usable energy over their useful lifetimes to reclaim the energy required to build them. Unless we send solar panels into space, or put wind turbines in the relative few places where wind blows most of the time, they are both energy negative products designed to make rich people richer, keep poor poor, and keep mental midgets feeling good in their ignorance.

      Report Post »  
  • zdschultz
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 5:39am

    Windows 8 made this list?? Seriously? It’s not only ugly but it will be a flop.

    Report Post »  
    • grudgywoof
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:14am

      It may be a flop but if you are not an Apple head then it’s all you got so like it or not people will use it and it will be profitable because what else are you going to use? I think it’s not to shabby anyway once I saw the demo.

      Report Post » grudgywoof  
    • BehindBlueEyes
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:03am

      I’ve been in the computer IT business for over 35 years. All those years I worked on mainframes and Microsoft PC platforms. I believe that Microsoft has become a bad company producing a bad product. I suspect they have a bunch of Seattle Birkenstock liberals producing this convoluted crap with no quality control.
      I bought my first Apple product (Ipad) this month. As soon as my Dell laptop dies i’ll by a MAC.
      I will never own a Microsoft product again.

      Report Post » BehindBlueEyes  
    • tiredofspam
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 9:43am

      I downloaded the beta and created a virtual machine on my server…ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.

      I’ve been an IT engineer for over 30 years (until my job took wings to India) and have been using M$ products since the first version of DOS. M$ has spent the entire time “perfecting” the user interface (borrowing liberally from Apple who originally stole it from Xerox).

      Now, they want to turn my perfectly usable (and familiar) pc into a phone. Forget it – I’ll stick with Windows 7.

      Also, NOTHING on Windows 8 is where it was or should be…very confusing, NOT intuitive, and, did I mention UGLY?

      Report Post »  
    • addie
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 10:56am

      Behind – I couldn’t agree with you more. Working in IT for 20+ years I switched to a Mac a year ago after a few months of VMWare, I finally cut the apron strings, went 100% Mac and have never looked back. Mac is far batter than pc, even the “I am a PC” commercials were made on a Mac.

      Report Post »  
    • MAMMY_NUNN
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 2:11pm

      @ grudgywoof
      Try Linux like Fedora or Ubuntu free downloads the rest of the world uses Linux.
      Microsoft is not your friend they are in with this administration and trying to make Microsoft the only Operating System allowed in the U.S. see SOPA and PIPA.

      Report Post »  
    • Ajax_W_R
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 5:36pm

      @BehindBlueEyes – you diss the liberals making Microsoft in Seattle, but what about the communists making Apple products in China?

      Report Post »  
    • k_semler
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 9:41pm

      Why not install Linux Mint? It’s free, and you won’t need to buy a crapple product either.

      Report Post » k_semler  
    • maxthebrax
      Posted on May 11, 2012 at 10:03pm

      Everything about windows 8 is untrue. that photo in the article is just a screenshot of a rainmeter theme, (download “rainmeter” and then download the “omnimo” theme) I know because I have it.

      Report Post »  
  • The_Almighty_Creestof
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 4:02am

    And every item in the list is totally uneeded crap. New shiny objects to distract the braindead from their daily lives.

    Though it won’t be complete in 2012 (and…yes, I know that disqualifies it from this list) how about you all look at this: http://www.organovo.com/

    Here is a company which has developed a “bio-printer” that right NOW can take donor cells, run them through their “printer”, and out comes arteries for surgery…and now they can even make muscle tissue.

    Their goal is to be able to “print” whole organs “on demand” from donor tissue, for use in surgeries…and are shooting to be able to do so within 10 years. Can you imagine? If YOU donated the actual cells/tissue for your own surgery, then there is no fear of your body rejecting it! Can you imagine? There would no longer be any LISTS to get a kidney, a heart, a liver.

    BTW, this company finally went public on/or around february 24th of this year with an IPO costing $1.00 a share…and already reached as high as $2.62 a share…and is currently around $2.50 a share.

    Ok, I’m done…you can go back to looking at new gadgets to play Angry Birds on.

    Report Post »  
  • lukerw
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 3:57am

    If it’s Google… it’s Devious!

    Anyone remember that movie… where if you wore special Sun Glasses… you could that many Human types were actually Aliens… and all printing had Subliminal Texts, alike: ObamaVille is Good.., be Happy… Obey?

    Report Post » lukerw  
  • Joyzee
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:51am

    Google Yourself Please!..

    Report Post »  
  • LeadNotFollow
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:21am

    …
    I no longer get excited over new technology. We have too much technology in our lives.
    Technology is becoming too much of a distraction, from what’s really important in life.

    Report Post »  
    • countrysideflair
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:55am

      Yes, what happens when fuel is too costly for the poor and middle class; what will be used to create electricity to run all this high tech stuff?

      Report Post » countrysideflair  
    • jcldwl
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:26pm

      Here here. I own no iphone, no ipad, no i anything and am still using windows xp on this computer. It works fine for me and what I do. I am so glad I no longer get a new computer every 2 or 3 years anymore.

      Report Post » jcldwl  
  • Inlandmar2
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:19am

    What’s WiFi? Who cares?

    Report Post » Inlandmar2  
  • SpeckledPup
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:02am

    oh-oh.. ”white” spaces… how racist!!

    Report Post »  
  • Zwiseguy
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:37am

    Those. Glasses. Sound. Awesome.

    Report Post » Zwiseguy  
  • tbb
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:34am

    I don’t see anything to get excited about.

    Report Post »  
  • NeoKong
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:30am

    Uh hoh please….those goggles will be used for porn.

    Report Post » NeoKong  
  • Blue Istari
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:30am

    Windows 8 already? Can‘t Microsoft just give up and stop trying to fix something that’s not broken (read: will always be broken no matter how it’s tweaked)? It’s bad enough that I have a legacy computer for Win95/98… the last thing I need is to throw more money at a new OS to run new programs, only to find out another chunk of my software library doesn’t work.

    Report Post » Blue Istari  
  • Lion420
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:15am

    All the way down to the friggin Google mind-control specs, I felt really funny about this article…has The Blaze been hacked?

    Report Post » Lion420  
  • Netsurfer2
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:12am

    ahhh, captivate the audience, when you know it is you that is captivated and no time to enjoy life outside the gadgets, because it will be taking up all your time! There is never enough time in reality these days?

    Report Post » Netsurfer2  
  • Stupid Windmill
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:59pm

    You are all traitors! these are obviously tools designed to control us hard working Americans and cloud God from our eyes. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

    Report Post » Stupid Windmill  
  • lylejk
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:50pm

    I agree with Lytro; heard there even was talks between Steve Jobs and the creator of Lytro which only can lead to possibly incorporating this technology in the iPhone or iPad one day. Lytro still is rather low in resolution as most here understand it, but the ability to focus after the fact is nothing short of revolutionary. :)

    Report Post » lylejk  
  • BSimpson
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:25pm

    Anyone else getting a funny feeling about the “white spaces” technology? My spidey sense is all a tingle…

    Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:31pm

      That tingle…. is just White Space noise!

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • Christhefarmer
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:12pm

    Point about the glasses. For blind people: The camera in the glasses will translate what is seen through it into audible words. “There is a tree in front of you” “The Frosted Flakes are on the bottom self to your left.” Then as your hand moves towards what your target is it will give directions/corrections. Oh and they will read for you. For deaf people: Audio to text. People around you are talking, it transcribes that and post it onto the h.u.d. in your glasses. Thinking to much gibberish of the random people talking around you? Specifically target those you want to hear with a look and a wink.

    Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:29pm

      So… it cannot directly interface with the Surface Buffers of Brain… used by the original, failed, sensory organ… using Unified Field Theory! Damn! Oh, well, they are probably too busy with the Killer Kane Helmet, to turn us into Robots!

      Report Post » lukerw  
    • SgtB
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:16am

      So what is the real market for this then? I don’t know a single blind person who does not know where they keep their cereal or milk. Do you? Furthermore, I am recalling an episode of Futurama in which Lela tells Fry to activate the app that tells you what restaurants are nearby to which he replies… “You mean the window?” I think that this VR junk is not marketable to the mainstream and it will fail. But hey, I never thought people would start walking around full time ruining their hearing and perception of reality by never taking their headphones off.

      Report Post » SgtB  
    • brickmoon
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 2:00am

      Hey, my sight’s okay, and I can‘t find stuff that’s right in front of me half the time.

      “Now, where did I put my Google goggles…doh!”

      We’re almost getting into Geordi La Forge territory.

      Report Post » brickmoon  
    • lukerw
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 3:48am

      Maybe… they planning upon making a profit on… the people who misplace them, and buy more :)

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • RJJinGadsden
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:07pm

    I’m with you. They’re trying to bring those goggles back again?

    Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
    • oldguy49
      Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:41pm

      we already have people texing driving walking into fountains and of piers………..what will happen when all this idiots are visually impaired with these things

      Report Post »  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 11:05pm

    I enjoy seeing what is new… in many fields

    Report Post » Stoic one  
  • macpappy
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 10:55pm

    OK I’ll take one of each.

    Report Post » macpappy  
  • InfiniteSolutions
    Posted on March 27, 2012 at 10:48pm

    Got to love technology but don’t let it get to your head. I’ve been supporting tech products for many, many years and after awhile it’s all the same. The danger in new technology is how it can be used against you. I wish I didn‘t have to say that because there’s so much good that can be done with it too. Reach back and find your spirtual self and identify with nature, then use the new technology to do great things. Advice from a guy when computers had to be bootstrapped with piano type keys just to get a program to first get read by a paper tape reader.

    Report Post »  
    • Rightallalong
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:15am

      I believe in new technology such as the relatively new 300AAC Blackout rifle caliber. You can load supersonic and subsonic/suppress.

      I love all the neo-geeks in the city that are so cluelessly bonded to their technology that they are helpless without it. I feel sorry for all the trendies that when faced with a massive power outage will be stuck staring at their GPS wondering how to cross the street or unable to tweet the world about the wonderful lunch they just had (as if we freaking care). These techno-trendies will make for a target rich environment for the thugs of the city giving the rest of us a bit of extra time to pack up, load up and get out of dodge.

      Dont’t get me wrong, I love my computers … but can live without them. I will spend my money on better weapons technology. Stock up now, if OBAMMIE get elected ammo proces will – necessarily skyrocket.

      Report Post » Rightallalong  
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