When I first saw this I was a bit skeptical on how it would work but after watching the videos I’m sold. This has to be and early winner as it promises to take augmented reality games to a new level. Can you imagine flying in a race against your kids one day in you backyard that feels like you are in a Star wars movie. Well it’s not that far away.

Parrot, a company that is usually involved in bluetooth devices, is responsible for this great innovation. Here is how it works. The heart of the AR.Drone contains all electrical components and two cameras. The first camera, which is under the structure, is connected to an inertial measurement unit. This unit allows the AR.Drone to measure speed and allows it to perform stationary flight. It also compensates for wind turbulence in outside flight. This technique is usually only used in military applications but has been adapted for this helicopter.

The second camera broadcasts a video stream to your iPhone or iPod touch which makes you feel like you are in the pilot seat. This will allow game developers to build augmented reality games, which manipulates this feed.

2010 has only started but this has taken my pole position for gaming innovation for the year to date.

Time Magazine has published it’s list of the top 10 Gadgets for the year. I have to say it’s quite surprising you feel like their are quite a few missing that have been stealing the headlines in recent months. Have a look at the video and let me know your thoughts.

I have to say it’s a novel idea and could either work or completely fail. The Gboard is a shortcut keyboard to help soften the learning curve associated with the 69 shortcuts for Gmail.

This said it’s the product was not created or dreamed up in a Google labs but rather was the brain child of Charlie Mason a film producer from Venice. The only stats I could find on the amount of Gmail users turn at around 50 million but this is for February 2007. I’m sure this has increased drastically which offers Charlie Mason quite a big target market.

This only has one problem a lot of the Gmail users have already gone through the process of learning all the shortcuts.

I have to say I’m a laptop guys and I don’t even like carrying a mouse with me so this will definitely not be the product for me but maybe it’s for you.

Pros:

• It’s cheap
• Needs no extra software
• Colour coded

Cons:

• Not extendable (New Gmail shortcuts won’t be supported)
• Only use is Gmail

Check it out and make your own decision – GBoard