Ryan Robbins

The Trend
Companies are rolling out lithium- ion cells-old hat in mobile phones-with enough juice to feed amp-hungry power tools.

Why Now
Engineers have tweaked the
li-ion recipe and added circuit boards that monitor cells to prevent batteries from exploding.

How You'll Benefit
Li-ion tools offer 40 percent more power per pound than those using nickel-based batteries.

If you need to temporarily blind someone, consider the DEF3. It's the latest flashlight dreamed up by the U.S. government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-and designed by optics experts Science Applications International Corporation with flashlight maker SureFire-for use as an Army-issue non-lethal weapon.