Inventions of the Year

Of course, iphone has got the Best Invention of the Year award
from the Time magazine as expected.
A trend setter next generation phone with impressive graphics
and touch interface, ah I am still waiting for it to arrive in India
to replace my POMS (plain old mobile system).

Though many of the inventions from the list are innovative and interesting,
CAT (compressed air technology) cars are impressive.

These eco (environmental and economical) friendly air cars created by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Negre claims that the vehicle's the top-speed at 68 mph, and a range of 200-300 kilometers, twice that of the most advanced electric cars. The tanks containing the compressed air can be refilled at special stations, or using the on-board electric compressor in 3-4 hours.

There is no combustion, there is no pollution. The temperature of the clean air expulsed form the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero and can be subsequently used for air conditioning inside.

Interestingly, indian Tata Motors has licensed this technology and is also said to be working on developing a hybrid version that would use an on-board, gasoline-powered compressor to refill the air tanks when they run low.

Wow, this car adds up to my wish-list and wait-list along with iphone !

Open Social

It is interesting to see evolutionary growth in social networking space.

First, facebook introduced a platform which enables to build custom applications
over profile, friends and activity information.
This triggered new wave of applications and companies which gets access
to millions of facebook users instantly without needing to create a new social network of their own.

Now, google is taking the next step with its Open Social initiative.
Basically, this enables any network to open their platform through the simple standard framework.
Also, it enables application developers to create apps easily to work on different networks
just by learning one simplified standardized framework.

Now, the next step would be to integrate and inter operate between different networks,
which would really benefit end users.
It needs more efforts and standardization starting from authentication mechanism.

Lets wait and see who would take that giant leap forward !