TOP INNOVATIONS OF THE YEAR

2008 is a tough year. We have to endure the pain from the backlash of the economical recession and instability of the world order. Jobs been cut in the United States, oil price and shares were tumbling down with more and more companies were flagging a white banner calling for help. The human continued to fight against each other; notably the Iraq War is going no where, while the city of Mumbai has recently been terrorize.

Nevertheless, apart of these humanity issues, 2008 is still an excellent year with many innovations and technologies were been brought forward into our life. Here, as listed on MSNBC website, is what we probably believe are the top innovations of the year 2008 the mankind ever see.

TONIUM PACEMAKER

If you dream of owning a turntable, but in a smaller size that can fit into your palm, here it is. It is the first portable digital music player that allows you mix songs together, equipped with 120GB hard drive and browsing via circular touchpad ala iPods. The best is, you also can increase the speed, add some BPMs and adjust the pitchings. The price tag of US$ 875 makes it almost cheaper than Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

KIZUNA SATELLITE INTERNET

We complaint that Streamyx is no good. Yet, the Japanese space agency (JAXA) in February had launched Kizuna, will streaming the fastest satellite Internet connections ever - a staggering 1.2gigabits per second all over the remotes land of Japan and some part of the South East Asia. Amazingly, it is capabla of adjusting its signal in changing weather and specific regions.

HITACHI ULTRATHIN TV

We knew its coming and it did. As compared to the standard 4" LCD flat screen TV, this one is now slimmed to only 1.5", even shorter than your thumb!! New diffusers allowed evenly spread of light to create a sharper image. It is also use up less electricity power supply to operate.

BAHRAIN WORLD TRADE CENTER

This 787-foot office tower is the first skyscrapper to intergrate the large scale wind turbines of three 1200-megawatt. Therefore it is the first wind-powered towers in the world. To maximize the energy output, the towers wind funnels are created in taper-shape to supply 15% of the electricity usage of the twin towers.

BOEING ADVANCED TACTICAL LASER

Remember those actions flick from Star Wars with laser beaming as the weapon. Yes, this lasers-emitting airplane was introduced on Boeing's 18-ton chemical laser fired a beam from a c-130H aircraft and destroying the target successfully. The advantage of beam over a bomb is that it is more precise and no collateral damage, that is what they claimed.

INTEL CORE 2 DUO MINI CHIP

The Intel's idea for creating a smaller mini chip processors have helped to edge the creation of world's thinnest laptop in the light sof Apple MacBook Air, Lenoco X300 and others. Compared to normal Intel Core 2 Duo chip, this one is 60% smaller. It sized at only 0.76 square inch - that is very small if you can't imagine how small it is.

MICROSOFT PHOTOSYNTH

Pictures are always in 2D. How about turning it into a visionary 3D presentation. This websites uses ordinary pictures, coupled with analyzer that enable to recoprd shots of overlapping areas and piece them together in a high resolution and sharper art define picture. It uses the art of algorithm to squeeze these pictures into well-fitting size.

CASIO EXILIM EX-F1

How to make the world stand still. Imagine this little camera essentially snap-up pictures before you even push the shutter button. Auto-filled with memory of 60 six-megapixel photos every second andit is able to capture slow motion video at up to 1200 frames per second. So talking about capturing anything that is faster than the human speed itself. I reckon picturing a lightning event first. The price tag is around US$ 1,000.

EYE-Fi WIRELESS SD CARD

Now your Wi-fi transmitter is as small as a chip of 2-GB memory card. Serious!! This products allow a camera to automatically beam photos to a computer and instantly uploaded into the web as well. It also can use the Wi-fi to find the location and to geo-tag the photos for display on map. Sounds complicated, I know.

LIVESCRIBE PULSE PEN

Imagine a pen that can listens. Pulse uses the same technology to track its location on specially printed paper, but it pairs the text with an audio recording. Lets say you are in hurry, jot only cursory notes while the pen records every sound except the paper scratching. Later tap the pan to the pad or click with the mouse on a screen to select the notes and to hear what people had just said. Cool for lectures but it costs US$ 150.

ZINK IMAGING

Years ago, Polaroid camera was ceased in production. Thanks to this new technology, Zink Polaroid is out. Its like a camera with a built-in printer that instantly print out the picture, ala the polaroid camera. It started in 2005 when a group of former Polaroid employees formed Zink (short for “zero ink”) Imaging, with Herchen as chief technology officer. They converted a Konica Minolta paper factory to make paper embedded with the heat-activated dyes and recruited Alps Electric to build the printer. Zink is licensing the technology so companies can build printers directly into devices such as digital cameras

ROCKET RACING LEAGUE X RACER

NASCAR is sometimes interesting despite those racers are driving around the oval circuit for like 200 laps. Last August, the first rocket race league flew for a live audience. Using a piston pump to pressurize fuel instead of a conventional (and much more expensive) turbopump, it is a big step toward more-affordable rocket-powered flight.

SCHOELLER COLDBLACK

Most black colour clothing absobrs heat from the Sun about 90% rate. But somehow, theseblack clothing made by the Schoeller are actually reflecting the heat like the white one. How? We do not know sionce the company keep it as a secret. Independent test shows that the clothing are somehow cooler than normal while held under infrared lamps. Another best thing is that these clothes are protective against harmful UV rays with ncorporating UPF 30+.

For the long list of Top 100 innovations, go to MSNBC science and technology section or directly to PopSci web site.