YNOT – After several years during which adult entertainment technology seemed stuck in a rut, it’s good to see the industry in the mainstream news again for its prowess at prodding developers to new heights of creativity. Case in point: Rachel Kramer Bussel’s recent listing of eight hot internet sex fads at the Daily Beast.According to Bussel — trend-watcher extraordinaire and editor of about 30 books on the topics of sex, sexuality and erotica — the adult industry finally can crow again about pushing the tech envelope, if only in amusing ways that are more appropriative than revolutionary.

“…[I]nternet sexcessories are getting stranger by the day,” Bussel wrote in her article. “Squeaky-clean companies like Apple have watched their most sophisticated technologies become appropriated as sex toys. Dating sites offer services that would make a porn star blush. And porn stars themselves are now not only available to look at, but to ‘touch’ — all you need is a broadband connection and an easy-to-order device that arrives in an inconspicuous cardboard box.”

Among her picks for the best of the best in new adult diversions is an iPhone app called Passion, which functions as a sort of pedometer for sex. Strap your iPhone or iPod to your arm during the act, and the application will measure and rate your activity level, endurance and the intensity of any resulting orgasms (based on decibel level). Then it will upload the results to a group database so everyone else can see how you did.

Combine Passion with another app called Grindr, and you’re set to make sexual history. Grindr tracks users’ movements via GPS and allows them to hook up anonymously with others nearby for…testing their Passion apps. Combine both with AEBN’s new Real Touch long-distance sex toy, and who knows what might develop.

The other top trends are represented by websites, at least one of which gets a tepid review for its arrogance. Dating site BeautifulPeople.com “[dips] its toes into the shallow end of human sexuality” by “[weeding] out the hideous, the weird-looking and the jarringly asymmetrical,” according to Bussel. Ugly folks are allowed to browse, but not to join. How cruel is that?

IJustMadeLove.com is valuable for the curiosity factor if nothing else, Bussell wrote. The site allows users worldwide to “notch their virtual bedposts” by recording on a world map where, when and how they had sex. For the less exhibitionistic, nOOkist.com provides the same sort of service—plus details about partners, their performance and their health status—in a confidential Web-based journal.

For those confused by the broad array of sex toys available these days, Pleasurists.com fills a void. Bloggers for the site review every kind of device they can get their — ahem — hands on, and according to Bussel “many of the reviews are CNET-grade in their earnestness and technicality.”

Finally, RedLightCenter.com makes Bussel’s list for being bold enough to create a Second Life-type virtual world devoted exclusively to sex. “One real-life couple met online here and moved in together after attending a virtual wedding on the site,” Bussell noted.