November is American Diabetes Month, and we at InventHelp are ready to help spread the word!

Chances are you know someone who has diabetes or is affected by diabetes, a serious disease that leads to potentially life-threatening complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and amputation. More than 24 million children and adults in the United States live with diabetes, and 57 million Americans are at risk for type 2 diabetes. Alarmingly, 1 out of every 3 children born today will face a future with diabetes if current trends continue.

While the numbers seem grim, recent inventions make living with diabetes more manageable. Pen injectors, which deliver vital insulin, look more like ball-point pens than scary medical syringes, taking some of the fear out of managing the disease. The OmniPod® is another favorite invention of diabetes patients, because it allows them to wear the small, discreet pod to deliver insulin without shots or tubing.

Looking ahead, the Medingo Medical Solutions Solo™ Insulin Dispensing Patch would feature a miniature patch and remove control that allows users to personalize insulin doses based on their body’s needs.

InventHelp and Gadget Girl invite you to join the American Diabetes Association in launching a national movement to Stop Diabetes^sm. If you’re living with diabetes, share your story on Facebook and Twitter. Other ways to help include reaching out to the American Diabetes Association, where they can provide medical, lifestyle and motivational information for those living with or at risk for diabetes. Volunteering opportunities are available, too!

How has diabetes affected you? InventHelp’s Gadget Girl invites your comments!

On a recent flight, InventHelp’s Gadget Girl was stuck in everyone’s least favorite spot – the dreaded middle seat. Not only is there nowhere to rest my arms, but I can’t get any work done on my laptop because I’m concerned that one of my seat buddies might be eavesdropping!

As those of you who have worked with us know, protecting the confidentiality of our client’s inventions is one of our top priorities at InventHelp. Unfortunately for me, when I’m in a position where someone could steal a peek at my computer, that means I’m reading Sky Mall or the in-flight magazine instead of working hard on my endeavors.

Picking up the magazine this time turned out to be a great idea! One of the ads was for an invention that could ease my privacy concerns. 3M’s laptop privacy screens feature patented microlouver technology that blocks outside views while allowing you to view your screen clearly straight-on. Would-be peekers will see only a dark, blank screen.

The screen also provides protection against scratches and abrasions as you tote the laptop on and off the plane, or around town. Available in a variety of sizes to accommodate different laptops, the device retails for about $35 (depending on size).

Hopefully on my next airplane adventure, I can spend more time on my InventHelp duties than ordering new gadgets from Sky Mall!

Facebook, the worldwide social networking site invented by enterprising college roommates, boasts more than 300 million active users – and InventHelp is now one of them!

InventHelp and Gadget Girl are already active on Twitter and (of course) our blogs, so it was only natural to join Facebook to network with other invention lovers. Our Facebook page is a great way to keep up on the latest INPEX news (like our October booth special), plus read trade show updates, partnership announcements and new product releases.

Like something on the site? Have a question about an item on our page? We value your feedback and respond to your comments as soon as possible. Since we know your time online is valuable, we want to make our Facebook page a relevant, one-stop-shop for the invention community.

InventHelp’s Gadget Girl is sure that many of you are expert Facebook users, but do you know how Facebook came to be? Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Initially, Facebook was restricted to Harvard students, then college and high school students, and finally to anyone 13 or older.

We’re sure glad that Facebook decided to let the rest of us into the club! If you love inventions and technology news, consider this your official invitation to join our friends list. See you on Facebook!

In the 1970s, a full Rolodex was the business professional’s best friend. A key item on any bigwig’s desk, this rotating file device was used to store business contact information on specially designed cards. In today’s technology-obsessed business world, these once must-have inventions serve as more of a paperweight than anything!

InventHelp’s Gadget Girl is learning that digital business cards are fast growing in popularity. More than 20 services allow people to exchange electronic business cards. Here’s a few of our favorite digital card inventions:

First, there’s SnapDat, a free iPhone application that enables iPhone addicts to send digital images of their business cards. This mobile contact sharing application keeps the familiar look and feel of a traditional business card, if you’re not quite ready to dive right into the digital trend.

If you’re a fan of Twitter, like many of us at InventHelp are, then TwtBizCard helps you to personalize and share your business card. Twitter fans can instantly start tweeting with the hash tag, #twtbizcard, or add #twtbizcard to an @reply.

If you’re drowning in a sea of business cards that you never use, CloudContacts is for you. Simply send them your paper business cards, and CloudContacts will scan, transcribe and connect your business cards on social networks, email services and CRM systems. Your contacts can be exported and viewed online in a variety of convenient formats.

InventHelp’s Gadget Girl doesn’t expect paper business cards to disappear anytime soon (I’ve got about a thousand in my desk!), but these web-based services make it easier than ever to keep your important contacts current and always accessible.

Welcome to the new age of professional networking!

Here at InventHelp, we try to keep the environment in mind when we print out emails, presentations and office documents. For those times when hitting the print button is a necessity, InventHelp’s Gadget Girl has found a new type of font that uses less ink!

This new font invention is called Ecofont™. To reduce ink usage, the inventors experimented with ways remove as much of a letter as possible while keeping the font readable. They realized that adding holes into the center of the letter uses up to 20% less ink than conventional fonts. As the folks behind Ecofont say, “After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well.”

The Ecofont works best in OpenOffice, AppleWorks and MS Office 2007, and the inventors recommend using a laser printer for best results. The Ecofont is based on the Vera Sans, an Open Source letter, and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.

Have a look for yourself at the Ecofont website – you can even download the font for free! To further offset any environment effects, Ecofont encourages users to invest in recycled paper or unbleached paper and consider plant-based ink options.

Sure, the Ecofont may not make meeting presentations any more exciting, but it can surely make them more “green” – and that’s something everyone here at InventHelp can appreciate!

“Don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house…”

Metaphorical quotes like this use glass as a symbol for fragility. Just think about delicate little Cinderella and her glass slipper if you need any more convincing!

InventHelp’s Gadget Girl has learned that the fragile reputation of glass may get a little beefier with the invention of a new type of blast-resistant glass. This blast-resistant glass could prove to be an effective and inexpensive way to better protect Federal buildings and other vulnerable structures.

In testing, the glass resisted a hand grenade-strength bomb explosion that originates close to the window panel. Although the glass cracked due to the impact of the explosion, it didn’t puncture the composite layer. This means that injuries caused by broken glass could be reduced or eliminated in the event of an explosion or attack. More tests are planned for larger-scale explosions and researchers are optimistic about the results.

What makes this glass particularly useful from a building standpoint is that it’s lighter and thinner (it measures only one-half inch thick), making it less expensive to manufacture. The inventors of this new glass replaced a layer of plastic found in conventional blast-resistant glass with a transparent composite material made of glass fibers embedded in plastic. These microthin fibers leave less room for defects in the glass that can lead to breakage.

Thanks for stopping by the blog at InventHelp, where our glass is always half-full!

As regular InventHelp blog readers know, Gadget Girl loves commercials. Last year’s Super Bowl game featuring my hometown Pittsburgh Steelers and top-crop commercials was like hog heaven!

Naturally, some of my favorite commercials are from the clever marketing team here at InventHelp! Over the years, millions of viewers have watched InventHelp’s Caveman, our resident innovative mascot, make his way through life trials and tribulations – like discovering fire and inventing the wheel. All right, so Cavey’s life may not be too much like your average American, but he’s a hoot to watch!

Our newest InventHelp commercial features one of our favorite invention stories. Inventor client Bill Schafer stars along with his Splash Wash product, which was licensed to Wham-O Inc. Like many inventors out there, Bill drew from his everyday experiences to develop his idea. One hot summer afternoon, Bill was watching his children play when his idea struck. I’m sure there are plenty of you out there who can relate!

InventHelp is proud to say that Bill made a financial gain from his invention. While this experience is not typical of what most inventors should expect (very few inventions actually make money), it’s a great story worthy of your 60 seconds of attention if you happened to catch it the next time you’re flipping through the channels!

As many of you know, in addition to bringing you the latest gadget news, InventHelp’s Gadget Girl is also the Director of INPEX, America’s Largest Invention Trade Show. INPEX, the Invention & New Product Exposition, will be back in 2010 to celebrate 25 years of bringing inventors and industry together under one roof.

From the front lines, I can tell you that our 2010 show is on track to be the biggest show to date! Our 25th Anniversary Show will be held June 16-18, 2010 in our brand new facility. I’m so proud to be a part of a show that, for a quarter of a century, has served as a bridge between the invention community and companies interested in discovering new products.

If you’re addicted to Tweeting like me, you can follow all the latest INPEX updates on Twitter, the wildly popular social networking site. As plans get underway for INPEX 2010, you can follow our progress on Twitter and keep up-to-date on booth specials, discounts and speaking schedules for the 25th anniversary show.

And don’t forget about our Invention Show blog, where you can find articles of interest for inventor and entrepreneurs as well as the latest show updates, including our popular INPEX Inventors University™ Seminar Schedule.

Whether you’re a new exhibitor at INPEX or an old friend, you won’t want to miss our Silver Celebration! If you’d like additional details about exhibiting your invention at INPEX, please call 1-888-54-INPEX or complete our short exhibitor information request form.

From all of us at InventHelp and INPEX, we can’t wait to see you at the show!

If there’s one thing InventHelp’s Gadget Girl loves, it’s cheap airline tickets. For the past few weeks, I’ve been shopping for airfare for an old friend’s wedding. And every time I shop, I go through the same predicament. Do I buy now or wait to see if fares drop?

Due to this internal strife, a commercial for Bing.com, Microsoft’s recently-launched search engine, piqued my interest last week. The commercial featured Bing Travel’s 7-day Price Predictor, an invention that helps frugal travelers figure out if it’s best to buy or wait.

The site combines elements from the Microsoft-owned travel site, Farecast – which now redirects to Bing Travel – and sprinkles in some editorial news from MSN Travel (MSN Travel now also redirects to Bing Travel). Using Farecast technology, the site analyzes more than 175 billion airfare observations and predicts whether the price of a flight is going up or down. It includes a confidence percentage regarding a cost increase or decrease over the next seven days.

For extra funs and giggles, Bing allows travelers to search multiple travel sites like Hotwire and Expedia simultaneously, a feature I enjoy with search engine Kayak.com. And since prices tend to fall quickly and not for long, you can sign up for Fare Alerts so that you can jump on the price when it plummets. Globetrotters who need hotel accommodations can take advantage of the Hotel Rate Indicator, which uses science rather than marketing to help travelers determine if a flight/hotel combo is really a good deal.

Today, Bing tells me to wait – they’re 80% confident that prices will remain steady or drop. I’ll check back to see if their crystal ball speaks the truth, but so far I’m loving this price indicator. If they’re right and it saves me a few bucks, InventHelp’s Gadget Girl will be “Bada Bing” all the way!

Sunday’s a great day for television in Gadget Girl’s household. After all the chores are done (gadgets cleaned, batteries charged, and all that boring “housework” stuff), what better way to prepare for the hard week of work ahead than to zone out in front of the tube?

This week though, there was no zoning because InventHelp’s Gadget Girl was captivated by ABC’s new show Shark Tank. Imported and adapted from the British series Dragon’s Den, the show focuses on inventors and entrepreneurs who must convince five wealthy investors to cough up some cash to support their blossoming product ideas.

Mark Burnett (producer of Survivor and The Apprentice) is behind the local version. Today’s tumultuous economic times bring the show added relevancy. Given slashed salaries, job losses and credit crunches, many of the inventors featured on Shark Tank aren’t looking to live in a golden palace; they’re just looking for basic security.

Like previous incarnations of this show’s formula (think back to one of our favorites, American Inventor), some folks who dream big are unfortunately sent packing. For InventHelp’s Gadget Girl, it can be heartbreaking to watch. But, let’s face it, not everyone can be a winner on the show.

In an interesting twist, the judges themselves are contestants – they’re forced to compete against each other for the right to invest in the idea. Watching these sharks haggle and negotiate with their potential partners is great entertainment, not to mention educational fodder for any inventor with big dreams and not-so-extensive means.

Missed the premiere? Check out clips online at ABC.com. Be sure to tune in this Sunday at 9 PM to watch all the drama unfold. I know I’ll be in the “tank”!