InventorSpot

This 'Digital Hedgehog' camera may look like a classic 110 film dinosaur but its performance is anything but ancient.

Iconclast and award-interrupter Kanye West tested the Twitterstream this week to see if the timing of his tweets could lend weight to what he had to say. Just one week prior to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, West unleashed a series of mea culpas to Taylor Swift, the top-40 pop singer he dissed at last year's award ceremony.

On the heels of PayNearMe giving out bonus "Facebook Credits" at 7-11 convenience stores last month, starting September 5, the social networking giant is going retail again by selling Facebook Gift cards at Target stores nationwide.  In denominations of $15, $25 and $50, Target's 1750 outlets will be the first to sell the cards via retail channels.

These cute elephant tape dispenser designs from Japan are too good-looking to leave in your trunk, and their compact size is anything but jumbo.

From designer Yan Lu comes the “Poor Little Fish Basin” – a concept sink to help convince consumers to control their water use.

Flip.to, the social media service that turns hotel guests into brand advocates is announcing significant preliminary results for two beta clients. The service, based on 'magnetic marketing' versus traditional push or pull advertising, engages customers at the time of booking.

At Iowa State University, chemistry professor Walter Trahanovsky has found an unexpected way to make biomass big business.

Automotive airbags protect drivers and passengers inside vehicles from injury; now a Japanese research project seeks to do the same for pedestrians by mounting airbags on vehicles' exterior body panels.

While privacy issues have been a major concern for many of Facebook's 500+ million users, you might think their new "Subscribe To" feature would put them over the top. Actually in this instance, I think the new service -even though some are euphemistically calling it the "I Spy" button - just might give 'stalking' a good name.

I love to bake and can create some pretty amazing tasting confections, but unfortunately when it comes to decorating these pieces of pastry perfection, I often fall short.  The Frosting Deco Pen by Kuhn Rikon may be just the tool to take my decorating from frustrating to fabulous.  

From designer Mads Hindhede - he's Mads, Mads we tell you - comes the BabelFisk speech to text translator. Cool, huh? Oh - it's a pair of glasses. Say whaaaat?

MySpace, as one of the major social networks five years ago - not only built a critical mass - it attracted tens of thousands of users who were interested in music, whether they were promoting a garage band or selling online albums. When their popularity waned under the shadow of Facebook, several niche music-related social networks seized the opportunity to fill the void.

With Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Dropbox and other online social networking sites and services now part of our daily routine, we have all become social media publishers to some degree. Our bon mots have been tweeted, emailed and updated with photos on profiles across a wide spectrum of "cloud" lock-boxes. However, the difficulty in accessing those entries after the fact is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Bandaids have always been a favorite fashion accessory of those in the under 6 age group, but now they're being made more fashionable for adults and the proceeds go to a good cause!

The term 'thong' refers to more than one fashion item; the kind that can be worn on your bum or the kind that can be worn on your feet. More often than not it's thought of as lingerie, though, so one footwear company has taken that idea and gone with the logical next step.

The right businesses know that parents appreciate convenience when it comes to services for their children, which is why mobile businesses are becoming more popular in the market specifically. There's a new one that hits the pavement to help little ones do the same!

Vail Resorts, the same company pompous enough to use the Web domain Snow.com,  is about to up the geek ante. If you're an actual skier with plans for a Vail vacation, you might want to go ahead and upgrade to Jackson Hole or Big Sky right...about...now.

If you are an avid shark enthusiast, watching Jaws every movie night and never missing a shark special on TV, yet you also enjoy the refined tradition of a hot cup of steeped tea then the Sharky Tea Infuser is made for you.  This tea accessory, by Argentinean designer Pablo Matteoda, is an unexpected combination of elegance and gory fun.

Black Diamond recently introduced an ultralight, ultra-stowable line of hiking poles it calls Z-poles.

According to scientists at the University of Minnesota, gamblers may actually be as rational as the rest of us - and just as wrong.