The Best Inventions Of The Year

From the phone that has changed phones forever, to futuristic cars, to a building made of water, to a remote-controlled dragonfly—a dazzling display of ingenuity

By Maryanne Murray Buechner, Kristina Dell, Andrea Dorfman, Lev Grossman, Anita Hamilton, Rebecca Winters Keegan, Jeffrey Kluger, Michael D. Lemonick, Coco Masters, Lisa McLaughlin, Alice Park, Julie Rawe and Deirdre van Dyk

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The Panasonic DMR-EZ47V ($330) plays and records to both DVD and VHS. It also copies footage from one format to the other, so you can finally digitize your old tapes. The unit converts video for an HDTV display over its HDMI connection, but for true high def, you'll need a Blu-Ray or an HD-DVD player. Which one? Depends on the movies you want to watch—the movie studios are split. Sigh.
panasonic.com

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