15 Surprises Ahead in 2007

Business 2.0 highlights the most significant innovations planned for 2007.

Big Surprise Innovations

With new years come new innovations, and 2007 has got some big surprises coming down the pipe. Some of these innovations even have the potential to change peoples' lives around the world.

India and China Race to the Moon

The moon is full of minerals and helium-3, a possible future energy source. That's why India's Chandrayaan-1, a robotic spaceship, is scheduled to pay it a flying visit in September. Not to be outdone, China's $2.6 billion space agency will launch the Chang'E-1 lunar orbiter next year too, part of its plan to put a taikonaut on the moon by 2017 -- a year ahead of NASA.

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A $100 PC Hits the Third World

This $100 laptop boasts the most sophisticated low-energy computer tech ever seen -- like a hand-crank power source and a chipset that consumes 13 percent of the normal wattage -- and mesh networking so kids can share files without a server. Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria, and Thailand are lining up to buy them.


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USB Cuts the Cable

What if your USB peripherals didn't have to be attached? That's the promise of Wireless USB, or WUSB, a new global standard that PC manufacturers will begin incorporating into their machines next year. Faster, easier to connect, and less power-consuming than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, WUSB's ultra-wideband radio technology can deliver data at a hyperfast 480 megabits per second.
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Ad-Free News Covers the Globe

What if there were a cable channel that married the best of PBS and CNN
-- that is, 24-hour world news with a global network of correspondents, but paid for by viewers rather than advertisers? If all goes well, IWT expects to be the TV version of "citizen journalism," with contributions from the best of the blogosphere. The service will launch in November in 58 million households worldwide.
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Solar Panels Slim Down

As the solar power industry scales up, it is running into a problem: a shortage of silicon, also used for that other California commodity, computer chips. Enter thin-film solar panels, a technology that uses 1 percent of the silicon of regular panels - and is flexible enough to be printed on sheets that can be layered on top of, or sandwiched between, glass without being visible.
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Alarm Clock Goes Open-Source

When the $150 coconut-size Chumby launches in the spring, with free service, it'll have an array of downloadable, hacker-created widgets. You can wake up with Google News and the latest photos from your friends' Flickr accounts or use Chumby as a remote control for your TV and MP3s.


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TV Gets a Better Choice

For an activity that Americans spent $30 billion on this year, buying a new television offers lousy choices. That's why the market is wide-open for the arrival of SED TV in July. SED, or surface-conduction electron-emitter display combines the sharpness of a CRT (by firing electrons at a screen) with the slim form of an LCD or plasma. Early SEDs are expected to cost $10,000.
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Condoms Invade Viagra's Turf

Viagra is the butt of a thousand talk-show jokes, but it meets a need, and that same need is moving Durex to launch a revolutionary condom, the CSD500, in late 2007. Its secret sauce: an "erectogenic compound" called Zanifil, patented by tiny U.K. company Futura Medical. Pending FDA approval, Zanifil will be the first Viagra-like chemical to be sold over the counter.

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The DARPA Grand Challenge

After its teams successfully completed a robotic car race through the desert last year, the agency that gave us the Internet is moving the contest to a yet-to-be-announced urban environment.






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Windows Vista

The next generation of the computer world's still-dominant operating system launched in early 2007, garnering both oohs and boos from reviewers.







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Enviga

A drink that burns more calories than it contains? Sounds like the holy grail of America's diet-conscious culture -- and that's exactly what Coca-Cola and Nestlé are hoping their caffeinated green tea beverage will be when it hits store shelves.




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Mobile Gambling

Need more ways to lose money in Vegas? Is that slot machine too far? The Venetian will be the first casino to provide cell phones that guests can gamble on, thanks to new Nevada regulations.





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Apple TV

Steve Jobs rarely announces products ahead of time, but with Apple TV (formerly iTV) -- a $299 box that will stream video from your Mac, PC, or iPod to your TV -- he couldn't contain himself. Analysts can't wait to see if this will be as revolutionary as the iPod.



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Big-City Wi-Fi

If all goes well, EarthLink will have blanketed two major U.S. cities with wireless Internet by the end of 2007: San Francisco (with Google's help) and Philadelphia.






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Pleo

Yes, it's a toy. But this $250 hyper-realistic dinosaur, from the creator of Furby, is stuffed with 38 sensors that pick up motion, light, touch, and sound. If it catches on, Pleo could transform the toy industry.





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