10 Emerging Technologies 2007

This year, as every year, there are 10 technologies that most likely will alter industries, fields of research, and even the way we live.

Wheelman 2005 BushPig

The Bushpig cruises at up to 20 miles per hour. Measuring 3 ft. 6 in. x 1 ft. 2 in., it has a low center of gravity, high strength construction, and a 30-mile range. Weighing 45 lbs., it is powered by a high performance 43cc 2 cycle engine. Seven colors are available.

Steve Jobs on Nightline [1/10/07]

UMPC Future

Mobile devices of the future look pretty cool. Run time: 5:59 min.

Climate Change

Iceland's President Olafur Grimsson at the site of the Carbon Rock project at Hengill, Iceland, on March 19, 2007.

eBay Acquiring StumbleUpon

High-flying startup StumbleUpon has been rumored to be in acquisition discussions since at least last November. Recently we’ve heard that talks have heated up again, with Google, AOL and eBay as potential suitors. A source with knowledge of the deal now says the company has signed a term sheet with eBay to be acquired. The price is somewhere between $40 - $75 million. (update: GigaOm is now reporting the price at a $40 - $45 million).

Announcing The Webware 100 Awards

Which Web 2.0 sites and service set the bar this year? Vote for your favorite here.

The Scoop on the Coop

An early prototype of The Coop, Mozilla's new social networking component for Firefox, is now available for user testing. Announced earlier this week, The Coop is designed to integrate support for social networking features directly into the Firefox browser interface.

How To Create Icons Without Text

Have you seen the textless icons on the Dock in Apple’s Mac OSX? For many programs, the text was unnecessary and it really made the icons stand out. Now you can have the same effect in Windows XP and Vista.

Google Earth Maps Out Darfur Atrocities

As of today, when the 200 million users of Google Earth log onto the site, they will be able to view the horrific details of what's happening in Darfur for themselves. More…

Google Fails Integration 101

This just in from Royal Pingdom (via TechCrunch): Of the top 20 most trafficked web sites, Blogger and YouTube have far and away the worst downtime track record in 2007. So much for Google’s (GOOG) vast server farms and vaunted geek cred.

But who can blame the chaos-embracing engineers at the Googleplex? Why take on the thankless job of integrating someone else’s messy code when you can spend your time working up brilliant April Fools jokes?

Use Your Mug as a Password

Bioscrypt's new 3D cam sounds like something from the future. Capable of detecting and reading your face, it's the first 3D face recognition camera, relying on 40,000 different ID points (like your forehead, eye sockets and nose) to ID you and log you onto your computer.

EMI, Apple partner on DRM-free music

The music label makes its entire catalog available through iTunes sans copy protection--but those downloads will cost you more.