Disappointed to find out that your brand new iPhone 4 won't work with the TomTom Car Kit for iPhone you paid $100 for? Well, it looks like there's a surprisingly simple fix: velcro. As tipster Ben Peacock has informed us, all you have to do is cut a small strip of velcro (the soft side) and apply it to the bottom part of the kit behind the dock (it's not necessary to apply it to the phone itself). Once that's done, the iPhone 4 will dock properly, and function just as before complete with charging and Bluetooth support. Head on past the break to check out the fix on video.

[Thanks, Ben]

While it may not be as quick to roll off your tongue, 66-year old inventor Leonard Duffy thinks that his "Slidingly Engaging Fastener" has what it takes to replace the tried and true velcro for most binding needs, and he's now taken home a Popular Science invention award for it. According to PopSci, the mouthful of an invention uses a series of interlocking grids consisting of tiny hexagonal or triangular "islands," which apparently form an uncommonly strong bond when they're joined together (able to support eight times the weight of velcro). The invention also bests velcro in one other key area: it's completely silent. While it doesn't look like it'll be commercially available anytime soon, the invention has apparently drawn the interest of some 150 product designers, as well as a company interested in using it to attach artificial limbs. And while others would likely suggest otherwise, Duffy doesn't seem willing to budge on the name, insisting that "it's slidingly engaging... it's the slidingly engaging fastener."

[Via Gadget Lab]