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Chronological Listing of Updates

Innovations to Watch 2004

 1 March 2004

Each year since 2001, I’ve highlighted a few innovations that may be on the point of making the leap from small appeal to large appeal.  These are products and services that I find particularly interesting – some are obscure, others well-known.

     To make my list, the innovations must be available for purchase or use – nifty technologies alone are insufficient.  So I won’t list a technology like radio frequency identification (RFID) as an innovation to watch.  But I will consider products or services that use RFID technology, such as EZ Pass, an RFID tag that attaches to your car windshield and automates the paying of tolls.

     I’ll review this list late in the year, to see what became of the products and services that seemed so interesting in the first months of 2004. 

 Here are my five innovations to watch in 2004, three products and two services.

 Products to Watch 2004

1. Toyota’s Scion Xa
2. Ambient Orb
3. Roku Digital Media Player

Services to Watch 2004

4. Vonage internet calling
5. UPromise credit cards

Click here for a piece on the products.

Click here for a piece on the services.

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