From the steam engine in 1712 to the first ever iPhone in 2007, each year sees the birth of ever more incredible inventions.
And after a year of mind-boggling tech, it’s clear that 2024 has been no exception to the rule.
The last 12 months have seen brilliant minds from around the world creating some mind-blowing and potentially world-changing breakthroughs.
With 2024 almost at its end, MailOnline has taken a look back at some of this year’s coolest gadgets and most exciting innovations.
From an AI for designing proteins to a real-life pair of Wallace and Gromit’s ‘techno trousers’, these inventions are a glimpse of how we all might be living in the future.
And when it comes to big breakthroughs, this year has been a resounding success for billionaire Elon Musk.
This year, Musk has overseen the debut of Telsa’s futuristic Robotaxi and the successful launch and landing of SpaceX’s Superheavy rocket.
So, what do you think has been this year’s best creation?
With 2024 soon coming to a close, MailOnline has taken a look back at some of the year’s coolest gadgets and groundbreaking inventions
Huawei released one of the most impressive phones of the year with its tri-folding smartphone the Mate XT Ultimate Design
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design
While Apple’s iPhone 16 range might have stolen the spotlight, 2024 has really been the year of the folding phone.
Some of the biggest manufacturers have launched their own folding designs – but no company did it better than Huawei with its triple folding Mate XT Ultimate Design.
Unveiled in September, this striking smartphone is the world’s first Z-shaped folding phone.
The device uses two hinges to extend from a 6.4-inch OLED display to a huge 10.2-inch tablet-like screen.
That means it can go from a phone the size of the Google Pixel 9 to a tablet almost as large as the Apple’s 10th generation iPad.
Thanks to the Z-shaped design, the Mate XT can also be used while only partially unfolded with a mid-sized 7.9-inch display – which is just a little smaller than a fully opened Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Speaking at the launch event, Huawei executive director Richard Yu said: ‘We have never stopped innovating, and never given up in the pursuit of making it possible.
‘That’s how we were able to develop the world’s first commercial triple foldable phone.’
The Mate XT Ultimate Design uses two hinges to fold in a Z-shape, allowing it to expand from the size of a smartphone to that of a tablet
The only downside is the absolutely eye-watering price tag of £2,577 ($3,370) for the top-of-the-line model with 1TB of storage.
LG Signature OLED T
If it was based on looks alone, the transparent TV from LG and Samsung would possibly be the year’s most futuristic device.
Designed to look like a blank sheet of glass when not in use, this 77-inch screen could well be the next big jump in TV tech.
Unveiled at CES this year, Samsung bills the device as ‘the world’s first 4k, wireless, transparent OLED TV.’
When it’s turned on, users have the option to either keep the screen see-through, like a window with a movie projected onto it, or turn it opaque so that the room beyond is no longer visible.
That nifty transformation is made possible thanks to a black ‘contrast screen’ which rises up behind the transparent pane.
And, thanks to LG’s wireless transmission box, the TV has no cables to mess around with and can be placed anywhere in the room.
LG’s futuristic transparent TV was unveiled earlier this year. When it’s turned on users have the option to either keep the screen see-through, like a window with a movie projected onto it, or turn it opaque so that the room beyond is no longer visible.
The transmission box remains plugged in at the wall and beams audio and visual data to the screen via a 60GHz wireless antenna.
Speaking at the TV’s launch, LG’s Frank Lee said: ‘The TV no longer has to dominate the room. This heightens the relationship between the TV and the space it inhabits.’
We don’t have an exact release date for the OLED T yet, but LG has said this will be available at some point soon.
LG hasn’t set a price point but if the $87,000 (£69,000) price tag on its 65-inch wireless 8K OLED TV is anything to go by, it could easily be over $100,000 (£79,000).
Apple Vision Pro
While some companies have been trying to revolutionise screens, this year, Apple tried to do away with them altogether.
Launched in the UK in January, the Apple Vision Pro is possibly the most sophisticated mixed-reality headset on the market.
These futuristic goggles allow users to overlay virtual information on the real world or, with a twist of a dial, immerse themselves in an entirely virtual world.
Launched in January, the Apple Vision Pro is currently one of the most advanced virtual reality headsets on the market and boasts extremely impressive body and eye-tracking technology
Billed as the world’s first ‘spatial computing’ device, the Vision Pro was a huge departure from Apple’s usual products and its first venture into virtual reality.
Upon release, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that these were ‘the most advanced consumer electronics device ever created.’
The headset boasts stunning resolution with 3660×3200 pixels per eye – the equivalent of two 4K TVs.
But what makes the Vision Pro truly special is its unique control system.
While other headsets like the Meta Quest 3 require users to hold onto cumbersome controllers, Apple’s offering is controlled through body and eye tracking.
Simply by looking around and reaching out with their hands, users are able to interact seamlessly with a virtual world.
Unfortunately for Apple, the Vision Pro didn’t get quite the reception it had hoped for as sales remained relatively low.
However, this might have less to do with the product’s design and more to do with its shocking $3,500 price (£3,499).
While the Vision Pro’s sales might have ultimately been disappointing, it was still a very innovative and unusual step forward for Apple
BeamO
This handheld device is no larger than a television remote but has the potential to change the way we look after our health.
BeamO, which was also unveiled at CES this year, gives families the ability to carry out a full doctor’s check-up from the comfort of home.
Created by the French health giant Withings, this ‘multiscope’ can gather data normally only collected in a GP checkup.
The portable device is stacked with censors to check everything from temperature and blood flow to heart and lung health.
By lightly gripping the device, for example, it can measure users’ blood oxygen, and heart rate, and carry out an ECG simultaneously.
The smartphone-sized device can also use light waves to interpret blood flow patterns and gather acoustic information from the chest and back.
Withings says that it will alert users of any possible fevers or infections and give them an early warning of any cardiovascular issues like arterial fibrillation.
Founder Eric Carreel said: ‘BeamO is a transformative multiscope device. Once, body temperature was the only health scan routinely taken at home.
BeamO is a handheld ‘multiscope’ which can carry out a full doctor’s check-up from home. In under a minute, the handheld device uses a range of sensors to check for everything from temperature and blood flow to lung and heart health
‘BeamO will revolutionize the measurement of the core vitals carried out during medical visits from the comfort of one’s own home.’
Currently pending regulatory approval, BeamO will launch first in the US for $249.95 (£195) from 2025.
AirXeed
Not every invention needs to come from a massive corporation with millions of pounds of investment.
In fact, one of 2024’s most exciting inventions comes from two young students.
All around the world, scientists launch weather balloons containing small devices called radiosondes to measure air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction.
These measurements are vital to helping scientists predict weather patterns, but these single-use devices create tonnes of harmful plastic waste.
The AirXeed, this year’s winner of the James Dyson Award for sustainability, solves this issue by making radiosondes reusable.
AirXeed was this year’s winner of the James Dyson Award for sustainability. These maple leaf-inspired gadgets are reusable instrument arrays for weather balloons which can safely steer themselves to the ground to help scientists reduce their plastic waste
Taking inspiration from maple seeds, inventors Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaifu from Singapore created a device that can control its drift back to Earth.
By adjusting its stability, AirXeed can steer itself on the wind back towards a collection zone where scientists can collect it and use it again.
This lets researchers make potentially lifesaving predictions about upcoming weather events, without harming the planet.
Alphafold 3
In 2022, Google Deep Mind unveiled AlphaFold 2, an AI capable of predicting the structure of nearly every known protein.
This incredible breakthrough was impressive enough to earn DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on account of his ‘revolutionary’ discovery.
But if that wasn’t impressive enough, this year the company has released the sequel: AlphaFold 3.
While AlphaFold 2 predicted the structure of proteins, AlphaFold 3 is able to predict how they interact.
AlphaFold 3 is a hugely significant invention which can predict the interactions between proteins with ‘unprecedented accuracy’. In this image, you can see a comparison between AlphaFold’s simulation of an interaction with DNA (colour) and the real scenario (grey)
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his role in the creation of AlphaFold
In a paper published by Nature in May, DeepMind showed how the algorithm could predict the interaction of all of life’s molecules with ‘unprecedented’ accuracy.
That breakthrough could allow scientists to predict how drugs will interact with the body before they are created, potentially accelerating the discovery of new medicines.
Writing in a blog post, DeepMind said: ‘This leap could unlock more transformative science, from developing biorenewable materials and more resilient crops, to accelerating drug design and genomics research.’
Yet what truly sets this apart as one of the year’s best inventions is the decision by Google DeepMind to make the software open-source.
This means that researchers all around the world will be able to use a version AlphaFold 3 at no cost; in a move which could lead to an explosion of new discoveries.
MO/GO robotic trousers
All the way back in 1993 Ardman Studios released the Oscar-winning animation Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.
In this classic animation, Wallace creates a pair of robotic ‘techno-trousers’ which can walk for their wearer.
The MO/GO robotic trousers were invented by outdoor clothing company Arc’teryx and Google spinout Skip. They give hikers a mechanical boost while coming uphill and reduce the impact of walking back down
Now, outdoor clothing company Arc’teryx and Google spinout Skip have made the first pair of techno trousers a reality.
The MO/GO robotic trousers are a strength-boosting exoskeleton built into a pair of hiking trousers which can boost a walker’s power uphill and take away the impact while coming down.
The trousers feature a lightweight electric motor at the knee, powering a set of carbon struts which clip into braces hidden in each leg.
Skip claims that the trousers can make the wearer feel up to 13 kg (30lbs) lighter and provide a 40 per cent boost to leg muscles in ascents.
In addition to being extremely cool, these modern-day techno trousers could be a game-changer for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to enjoy hiking.
Skip says that the goal is to help people with injuries or disabilities access parts of the outdoors that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible.
The trousers even feature an adjustable assistance level so people who need less help can still enjoy the challenge of a good hike.
However, before you get too excited it’s worth knowing that the MO/GO ‘starter pack’ will set you back $5,000 (£3,940) and won’t arrive until at least 2026 if you order today.
Fans of Wallace and Gromit might notice a striking similarity to the ‘techno trousers’ from the 1993 animation, The Wrong Trousers
Arc’teryx says these mechanised trousers could help people with injuries or disabilities stay active and access the outdoors when they might otherwise not be able to
Tesla Robotaxi
Of course, it would be impossible to make a list of the year’s best inventions without mentioning something created by Elon Musk.
This year, Musk revealed one of his most ambitious creations to date as the Tesla CEO showcased a new range of self-driving vehicles.
Launched at the ‘We, Robot’ event in October, the futuristic vehicle features no steering, wheel, pedals, or rear window and only has enough room inside for two passengers.
While you might mistake it for a prop from the science-fiction blockbuster I, Robot, Musk says that these autonomous cars will soon be a reality.
According to Musk, the all-electric vehicle should cost less than $30,000 (£23,000) to buy and only 20 cents (15p) per mile to drive.
In another sci-fi touch, the Robotaxi won’t even feature a charging port for its batteries.
Instead, the car will drive itself over an inductive charging station built into the ground, allowing it to receive power wirelessly without human assistance.
This year Elon Musk unveiled the long-awaited self-driving Robotaxi, which should hit the road sometime in 2027
Tesla’s futuristic Robotaxi will have no steering wheel, pedals, or rear window. The two passengers will simply sit back and allow the car to drive itself
According to Musk, these vehicles could fundamentally change the way we think about car ownership.
Instead of simply parking your car when you’re not using it, owners would be able to turn the Robotaxi loose to earn money picking up strangers.
In the future, Musk claims that individuals might own entire fleets of Robotaxis and ‘take care of them like a shepherd tends to their flock.’
Speaking at the event, Musk said: ‘The vast majority of the time, cars are just doing nothing. But if they’re autonomous, they could be used five times more, maybe 10 times more.’
SpaceX Super Heavy
Self-driving cars aren’t the only thing that one of Musk’s companies has created this year.
Most impressively of all, SpaceX successfully launched and landed its 71-metre-tall (242 ft) Super Heavy booster.
In October, SpaceX used this 3,000-tonne rocket to blast a 400-foot-tall Starship spacecraft into orbit.
In one of the most exciting spaceflight breakthroughs of the year, SpaceX successfully launched and landed the 71-metre-tall (242 ft) Super Heavy booster (pictured), potentially opening the way to future Mars missions
The Super Heavy booster is used to carry the SpaceX Starship spacecraft into orbit. After five minutes the booster detaches and flies back down to Earth where it is caught by the ‘Mechazilla’ arms of the landing platform
However, in possibly one of the biggest spaceflight breakthroughs this year, the Super Heavy booster then managed to land safely back on the very same launch pad.
After five minutes of burn the booster detached from Starship, righted itself and gently hovered back into the waiting ‘Mechazilla’ arms of the landing platform.
This was the fifth test of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and the first time that a launch of this powerful new rocket has been a complete success.
What makes this so exciting is that the Super Heavy booster is both reusable and powerful enough to potentially carry humans to Mars.
By landing back in the arms of the landing platform the booster removes the need for landing gear, saving weight for even more fuel.
Super Heavy’s 33 ‘Raptor’ engines produce a staggering 16.6 million lbs (74.3 meganewtons) of force.
That is 700 times the kick of the most common commercial passenger planes and twice as much power as the Saturn V rocket which first took humans to the surface of the Moon.
Likewise, by landing on the platform the time between launches is significantly reduced which could pave the way for the near-continuous launches needed to establish a viable human settlement on a distant planet such as Mars.
