An ingenious wheel that could turn any bike into an electric hybrid has won the U.S. round of the James Dyson Award, an event that’s become the world’s premier student-design competition. Tonight, the winner will be formally announced, at a Designer Pages event discussing the bright, bold future of design.

What they came up with is a hybrid wheel, which generates electricity during braking (similar to the regenerative braking you find in many car hybrids). It then offers that electricity as a power boost up hills or over long distances. That power is controlled by an iPhone interface. (Shades of Apple’s Smart Bike!) Why’s all this groundbreaking? The hope is that hybrid power, by making previously difficult bike commutes easy, could make bikes a viable option for countless more commuters. Read more at www.fastcodesign.com

If we saw a patent for an iPod Touch with a camcorder, we wouldn’t bat an eyelash. A Mac with a touchscreen? Unremarkable. But we did a double take when we read that Apple filed a patent for a smart bike.

The company, known more for its must-have consumer gadgets than any niche products, has imagined a smart bicycle system that would let users communicate electronically with other cyclists, sharing such data as speed, distance, time, altitude, elevation, incline, decline, heart rate, power, derailleur setting, cadence, wind speed, path completed, expected future path, heart rate, power, and pace.

To bicyclists, this idea might not seem novel; they can buy attachable computers now. But they also have to pretty serious about the sport: high-end models can cost upwards of $200. Even the LiveRider iPhone bike computer kit costs $100. Read more at www.wired.com