Surprise hits

You take the internet and notebook computers, put them together, and you have what has become known as a netbook. Netbooks have become popular in recent years as users get less attached to computer-based software and more amenable to using Web-based applications instead. Having a mini-computer in...

For two decades, Dippin' Dots has been the "ice cream of the future." Like jetpacks and flying cars, it seemed like the future would never quite arrive for the little ice-cream balls that microbiologist Curt Jones invented in 1988. For years, they were an exotic, hard-to-find treat. But recently...

Of all the people who have been surprised by the success of the Twilight series of books, about a romance between a young heroine named Isabella "Bella" Swan, and a young vampire named Edward Cullen, no one is more surprised than the author. In a statement on her website, Twilight creator Stephanie...

For some, Twitter represents the end of the world -- or at least the death of human communication. In an increasingly "less is more" internet-writing trend, the incredible brevity of Twitter messages, or "tweets," leaves no room for deeper thought or connection. And the medium's ease of use...

Many years ago, a friend afflicted with blepharspasm (uncontrolled blinking) told me she was about to undergo a new treatment in which the toxin that caused botulism would be injected into the muscle of her eye. I was aghast but said nothing -- until a week later, when I met her again, and her...

Who would have thought that young men would finally buy into the idea that smelling good and engaging in proper grooming could attract the opposite sex? The Axe brand of grooming products -- body spray, deodorant sticks, roll-ons, antiperspirants, aftershaves, shower gels, shampoo -- has...

One of the greatest smash hits of the decade has been one of the most mundane products of the decade. Webkinz are simply stuffed animals. What's so great about a stuffed animal? Well, there's more to these animals than meets the eye -- and it's not because they're transforming robots from another...

The success of American Idol didn't exactly come out of nowhere; after all, Pop Idol, on which the vocal talent-search series was modeled, was already a hit in the U.K. before its creator, Simon Fuller, transported it across the Atlantic. But hardly anything in the history of U.S. reality TV prior...

For the better part of two decades, Microsoft (MSFT), Sony (SNE), and Nintendo have been in a relentless battle to develop video games with more realistic graphics, more sophisticated game play, and increased processing power. But in 2006, Kyoto-based Nintendo (NTDOY), which had fallen to third...

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then the executives of Waterloo, Ontario–based Research In Motion (RIMM) have been blushing for a decade. Since the company first released its BlackBerry handheld device in 1999, it has competed against a growing army of handset developers,...