I found information about other new inventions.
1. Gadget
Goodbye, paper
Maybe that’s overstating it, but Sony’s long-awaited Reader—the first E-ink-equipped e-book reader in the U.S.—can hold hundreds of books, has a nearly inexhaustible battery, and inflicts no more eyestrain than your typical paperback. That’s because MIT-developed E-ink doesn’t glow like the backlit LCD screen on your computer monitor. Instead it uses microcapsules filled with oppositely charged black and white nanoparticles floating in liquid. Hit the page-turn button, and in each capsule, a positive jolt brings black particles to the surface, while a negative charge moves up the white ones, and together they form words. The bits stay put until the next jolt, so a full battery will last you 7,500 page turns, or about 25 books. Fill the slim Reader from Sony’s online store—each of the 10,000 available titles costs about 25 percent less than the hardcover—or load any other PDF or text file. What will you do with all those empty bookshelves? $350
2. Home Tech
The Alpha Nail that makes your home twice as tough
Hurricane winds rip apart nailed-together walls, and earthquakes shake houses so violently that a nailhead can pull straight through a piece of plywood. Since we can’t stop natural disasters, Bostitch engineer Ed Sutt has dedicated his career to designing a better nail. The result is the HurriQuake, and it has the perfect combination of features to withstand nature’s darker moods. The bottom section is circled with angled barbs that resist pulling out in wind gusts up to 170 mph. This “ring shank” stops halfway up to leave the middle of the nail, which endures the most punishment during an earthquake, at its maximum thickness and strength. The blade-like facets of the nail’s twisted top—the spiral shank—keep planks from wobbling, which weakens a joint. And the HurriQuake’s head is 25 percent larger than average to better resist counter-sinking and pulling through. The best part: It costs only about $15 more to build a house using HurriQuakes. $45 per 4,000;