Best

__ Best __ - Great stuff - tested and approved in our top-secret labs.

SNOWMOBILES

__ First Class: __
__ Bombardier Ski-Doo Grand Touring SE __
More opulent by far than the rest of the snowgoing pack, the wickedly fast, trail-hopping Ski-Doo sports heated handgrips, an adjustable windshield, carlike instrumentation, and a quiet yet powerful three-cylinder, 796-cc engine. The exclusive load-compensating rear suspension adjusts on the fly with the push of a button. A digital theft-prevention system and an electronic reverse drive help define the Grand Touring SE as a wintry, off-road counterpart to posh, high tech speedsters like the BMW M5 sports sedan.

__ Ski-Doo Grand Touring SE: $9,699. Bombardier: (800) 375 4366, www.ski-doo.com. __

__ Business Class: __
__ Yamaha SRX 700 __
In the bipolar snowmobile universe, muscle sleds shoot adrenaline junkies across frozen lakes at triple-digit speeds, while the lighter, sharper-handling trail machines live for serpentine tracks and full-boogie mogul-mashing. Yamaha's SRX 700 - a 140-horsepower, 696-cc, three-cylinder sled - offers the best of both worlds: a powerful punch housed in a svelte frame, for quick handling and a smooth ride.

__ SRX 700: $7,799. Yamaha: (800) 214 2014, www.yamahausa.com. __

__ Coach: __
__ Arctic Cat ZR 500 EFI __
The ZR 500 EFI is a lighter and tamer - but no less serious - trail-performance sled suitable for newbies. Under the hood is a 96-horsepower, 497-cc engine fed by an electronic fuel-injection system that actively compensates for altitude and temperature. This member of the Cat family may be lean on displacement, but it stalks snowy paths with the same chassis and running gear as its bigger, badder cousins.

__ ZR 500 EFI: $6,399. Arctic Cat: (800) 327 2842, www.arctic-cat.com. __

PERSONAL PAPER SHREDDERS

__ First Class: __
__ Schleicher &Co. Intimus Personal Cross-Cut Shredder 250cc __
Memo to stealth-mode startup: Your dumpster is easier to break into than your server. A cross-cut shredder, however, reduces sensitive documents to harmless confetti. The merciless Intimus, with its 9½-inch throat (that's the preferred term in shredderese), accepts 80-column computer paper as well as letter and legal sizes, seven sheets thick, with staples and paper clips left on. It fits under your desk and destroys tree flesh at 27½ feet per minute. If frenzied sheet-feeding causes a jam, overload protection - a sort of gag reflex - stops the device immediately.

__ Intimus Personal Cross-Cut Shredder 250cc: $449. Schleicher & Co. of America: (800) 775 2122, www.intimus.com. __

__ Business Class: __
__ Fellowes PS 60CC Deluxe Automatic Cross-Cut Shredder __
The Fellowes' 9-inch throat gulps seven sheets at a time at 20 feet per minute, making short work of documents, staples, and small paper clips. Its confetti comes out slightly larger than the Intimus', but it's still good for throwing when you celebrate your next round of funding. The compact, under-the-desk design includes an integrated waste container that won't spill, even if you kick it over.

__ PS 60CC Deluxe Automatic Cross-Cut Shredder: $287. Fellowes: (800) 945 4545, www.fellowes.com. __

__ Coach: __
__ GBC Shredmaster Guardian Desktop Cross-Cut Shredder __
This lightweight shredder sits on a desktop or mounts on the wall. With its 8¾-inch throat, it digests three or four sheets at once at 8 feet per minute, handling staples but not clips. The slide-out drawer allows for easy disposal - your confetti won't quite be the fine powder the Pentagon's shredders produce, but it's good enough for nongovernment work.

__ Shredmaster Guardian Desktop Cross-Cut Shredder: $99. GBC: (877) 422 7473, www.gbc.com. __

PORTABLE MP3 PLAYERS

__ First Class: __
__ Remote Solution Personal Jukebox PJB-100 __
While the sound of cash registers has most MP3 players rushing toward the mass market, the Personal Jukebox provides serious mass storage, to the tune of 4.86 Gbytes - that's 80-plus hours of audio, or roughly 1,200 songs. With a USB port and simple software, you can rip a CD in 20 minutes, song titles and all. Cooked up by Compaq corporate research, the PJB's secret is a hard disk, rather than memory chips. Yes, the 10.5-ounce player is bigger and more power-hungry than the solid-state competition, but the rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasts a solid 10 hours.

__ Personal Jukebox PJB-100: $799. Remote Solution: www.pjbox.com. __

__ Business Class: __
__ Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP500 __
Diamond's portables have earned their Mac-like following: Everything about them promotes easy, go-everywhere music. The Rio PMP500 speaks bothMac OS and Windows 98, sets up easily, and has 64 Mbytes of storage, expandable to 96. Its USB port transfers files faster than the parallel-port-based competition, and one AA alkaline powers the PMP500 for 13 hours. True to Diamond's vision of pure MP3, the 2.75-ounce Rio is free of distractions like FM radio, voice recorder, or milky magnesium shell.

__ Rio PMP500: $269. Diamond Multimedia: (800) 468 5846, www.diamondmm.com. __

__ Coach: __
__ MediaForte jazPiper MV32P __
While the 2.6-ounce jazPiper stores a slim 32 Mbytes, which you can double with a SmartMedia card, the cool all-around package is smaller than a cassette tape (remember those?) and includes both voice recorder and phone book. It downloads via your PC's parallel port, and two AAA batteries keep it going for up to 12 hours. Equipped with a belt clip, the shiny little 'Piper is the perfect accessory for hipsters watching their waistlines.

__ jazPiper MV32P: $169. MediaForte: +31 (20) 6373905, www.jazpiper.nl. __