Comming not so soon to a shop near you.

This may start off sounding like I'm blowing my own trumpet, but years ago I predicted the many bladed razor. They'd just released the dual blade Mach 2 and I joked that it was only a matter of time before they did a 3 bladed one (if you're in the game of one upmanship). Then years later when they did this I joked that the only thing left was the electrification of them. An electric disposable razor would be the thing. I thought they'd have it oscillating, but I believed it would be quite a significant stroke action to do much of the work of shaving for you, as it turned out it was a pezzy vibrate, but the idea was there.
Whether you believe any of this or not is immaterial I just mention it in passing...

So I was doing my ironing this morning and I had another idea. For decades if not the greater part of a century we've had a better solution that the thermostat clicking on and off. Well if by better you mean more precise/expensive.
Now I don't claim this idea makes good sense in the real practical world, but I do believe that if a 4 bladed razor can be marketed and dominate the market, then so can this.

What you do is simple, take some sort of thermocouple or similar temperature sensing device, infra red sensor would do, as would termistor or anything really that will sense temperature electronically. Then you hook that up to a standard dimmer unit, thyristor or triac based. If you're feeling fancy stick in a PID.
The result? You have an iron that much more exactly follows the correct temperature and can react as you change the thermal load on it.
Will that iron clothes better? Probably not, but I'm not really convinced the none stick base in my iron does much either; that doesn't matter it could be a new gimmick.

So in 2/10 years time when this comes out I'll be looking all smug again.