For glimpses and reviews of the latest gadgets, check out some of these websites. Whether your flavor is practical, cutting-edge tech or weird but wonderful tools, you'll find stimulating reading:
 Whether you sample the email newsletter, browse the website (www.discover.com), or subscribe to the print version, Discover provides an endlessly fascinating review of scientific developments. Absorbing subject matter, superior writing, and illuminating photos are standard. Topics range from archeology to biology, astronomy, anthropology, and more. Even if your inventing interests lie outside the sciences, Discover's provocative questions and answers are guaranteed to fascinate any creative mind.
 Inventors who want to plug into trends via nine million Internet blogs should check out BlogPulse (www.blogpulse.com). The site makes sense of the chatter via these features:
- Search Engine: finds and compares bloggers' opinions on various topics.
- Analysis: delivers data organized in three ways: most popular links cited in blogs, most prominently featured people, and commonly mentioned key phrases.
- Trends: BlogPulse identifies frequently discussed subjects in nine different areas--from News to Personal to Science & Technology--and uses a simple graph to display the generated buzz.
- Other cool features: the chance to suggest trends for tracking and the ability to create your own trend graphs.
For snapshots of intriguing new business concepts and products, browse the coolbusinessideas.com newsletter. The publication covers developments in entertainment, design, technology, fashion, health & beauty, food, sports, services, and more. Sign up for a free subscription, with monthly mailings, or opt to visit the site for daily postings.
For those who like their trends fed to them, Reveries delivers. Subscribe to Cool News (www.reveries.com/coolnews) for daily snapshots of new ideas in marketing, media and products. Beyond Cool News, Reveries provides in-depth articles and links to interesting features. With its brief, literate articles and a mission that flatters--"Reveries aspires to be as intelligent, inquisitive and innovative as you are"--Cool News leaves you virtuously, effortlessly well informed.
Want an intelligent, concise glimpse into the future? Visit Now and Next, www.nowandnext.com, for snapshots on 12 major sectors, including household goods, healthcare, retail, and more. With capsule summaries of 10 or more "coming things" in the sector, plus nice graphics (no postage stamps here), the site is a pleasure to read and view. The web report is updated bi-monthly.
 For insights into short- and long-term trends on the global scale, check out The World Future Society (WFS). The WFS is a nonprofit group dedicated to studying and discussing how social and technological developments are shaping the future. The group's website features a number of free features, including forecasts, book reviews, interviews, and web forums. Visit www.wfs.org for more information.
 "Part suggestions box, part ideas network and part democratic think tank" is Global Ideas Bank's own summary of their website (www.globalideasbank.org). GIB, a project of the Nicholas Albery Foundation charity, invites suggestions for social innovations; gadgets and products are not welcome. Ideas are vetted by the GIB staff, posted, and then rated by readers. |
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