For the past seven years, The New York Times Magazine has devoted a special issue recalling the past year's innovations. Read it.

This year's issue highlights 70 such ideas that range from Airborne Wind Turbines to Zygotic Social Networking. The magazine's content is available free on the web, but only during the week that it is published, so visit before Sunday : www.nytimes.com/magazine.
 

If you're not familiar with the work of Psyop, you need to go straight to www.psyop.tv where, after clicking on the NEW link at the top, you will waste hours of company time watching an amazing and diverse array of multimedia commercial video spots.

I hit upon these guys, whose genius (I contend) is in the blending of delicious illustration with video, after coming across the work of designer-illustrator, Mate Steinforth. Check him out too.