Want to know what the next big thing in tech will be? Forget Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg – ask your 2 year old instead. At least that’s what a new study conducted by international research consultancy firm Latitude is suggesting. The company found that children are becoming human weathervanes pointing to the direction that computers and digital experiences are headed in. And according to the report, kids around the globe are indicating that more interactive, even human-like back and forth may be what’s in store for us in years to come.

+ Kiri Martin

DESIGN THE NEXT PEOPLETOWEL TO SAVE ENOUGH TREES TO COVER ALASKA & WIN $500!

Every day, the U.S. alone generates over 3,000 tons of paper towel waste – and to produce every one of those tons, 17 trees are cut down and 20,000 gallons of water are consumed, contributing to deforestation, water pollution and global warming. As parents, it’s sad to think that the lazy actions we’re taking now could rob our kids of forests and clean air when they grow up – but it’s not too late to change. If you want to do something about the situation, now is your chance.

We’re teaming up with PeopleTowels to launch a design competition challenging YOU to design a new Inhabitat + PeopleTowels reusable cloth hand towel to help cut paper towel waste! The grand prize winner will receive $500, a chance to see their design being produced for sale to the public and 10% royalty on those sales. The winning design will also be published on Inhabitat.com for the world to see, as well as our t-shirts. So get your design in to win today!

Submissions deadline is March 7th

ENTER THE COMPETITION HERE >

Babies come in all shapes and sizes, and for some, that means chubby legs and a big of healthy baby fat. But more and more parents are going to extremes and doing the unthinkable — putting their babies on diets. Several news outlets have recently reported that some parents are restricting their babies’ caloric intake and in one especially disturbing case, starving and feeding laxatives to their baby girl to keep her thin. Of course your baby’s health is of utmost importance, and with childhood obesity doubling in the past 20 years, it’s certainly not a path you want your kid to go down, but this approach is downright disturbing.

WIN YOUR VERY OWN WINDOWS 7 PHONE WORTH $500 – CONTEST CLOSES IN 1 HOUR!

You might have heard all the buzz surrounding the new Windows 7 smart phones equipped with a sleek, super fast mobile operating system that just came out this week. If you’re dying to get your hands on one, today is your lucky day because we’re giving away a brand spanking new HTC HD7 Windows 7 smart phone (worth $500) to one very lucky Inhabitots reader – and it could be you! This innovative new gadget was designed with a super crisp large display and allows you to access all of the best entertainment programs like Netflix, T-Mobile TV and Slacker Radio right at the tip of your fingers – great for entertaining little ones. On top of this amazing new phone, the winner will receive a one year XBOX Live Gold membership, a three month unlimited Zune Pass which will allow them to download and stream unlimited music and keep 30 songs of their choice forever and
a T-Mobile SIM that will be active until Nov 30th.

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY

1. SIGN UP FOR THE INHABITOTS NEWSLETTER (This is important because we’ll be announcing our winner there.)

2. LEAVE A COMMENT below by 12pm EST on November 29, 2010. We will select a winner at random.

+ Learn more about the Windows 7 Phone

If you’ve been meaning to get a new phone, why pay hundreds of dollars for one when you could get a beautiful and streamlined Windows 7 smartphone for free right here? That’s right, we’re giving away a brand-spanking-new HTC HD7 Windows 7 smartphone (worth $500) to one super lucky reader. This innovative new gadget was designed with a super-crisp large display and allows you to access all of the best entertainment programs like Netflix, T-Mobile TV, and Slacker Radio – all very useful when trying to calm down a gaggle of little ones) – right at the tip of your fingers. The winner will also receive a one year Xbox Live Gold membership, a three-month, unlimited Zune Pass that will allow them to download and stream unlimited music and keep 30 songs of their choice forever, as well as a T-Mobile SIM that will be active until Nov. 30, 2010 – so enter to win today!!!

ENTER TO WIN HERE >

Sad that Halloween has come and gone? Relive the excitement and pageantry by checking out the excruciatingly cute finalists of our Green Halloween Costume Contest! You, our readers, sent in some of the most detailed and adorable costumes we’ve ever seen – and they’re all made by hand out of ordinary every day objects. We were able to narrow our favorites down but now we need your help selecting the winners. Whomever you choose will take home some great loot including an Oeuf Mask & Tail set, Yummy Earth lollipops, FEED Trick-or-Treat Bags to Benefit UNICEF, eco-friendly Halloween bags from ChicoBag, and Inhabischwag. (Please note that you can only vote once for each entry.)

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE HERE >

Adding to their menacing menagerie of cute animals carved from sustainable wood like Ursa the Bear and Hanno the Gorilla, David Weeks and Areaware have teamed up once again to bring us a new lovable little guy – Hugo the Wild Boar! The cantankerous character was designed for Monocle, one of our favorite magazines here at Inhabitots, making him even more special.

+ Hugo the Wild Boar

We are big fans of Reggie the Eco Rocker, spotted at Tent London during this year’s London Design Festival. Designed by Shell Thomas and made from an inner core of 100% recycled paper product, this modern-day hobby horse is a great example of sustainable toy design. The classic rocker shape is flat-pack shipped in 100% recycled packaging (reducing it’s carbon foot-print on two fronts), then constructed at home from a series of slotting components. The handsome finished product is durable, environmentally conscious, and in the words of the designer, “ready to rock.”