Fetish

Fetish

__Bit Player __
Why let vinyl and vacuum-tube snobs seize the acoustic high ground? Sharp's SM-SX100 amplifier samples sound waves at 2,822,400 times per second - 64 times faster than CDs, giving a far broader reproduction range. The 100-watt amp then assigns a single bit to each tiny sonic slice to represent the wave's change in height. This encoding strategy produces a digital stream that fits the source almost perfectly, and eliminates the need for shielding and other analog-amp convolutions. Plus, the SM-SX100 is smaller than its analog competition and uses half the power.

__SM-SX100: $14,999.95. Sharp Electronics: (800) 237 4277, www.sharp-usa.com. __

__Snappy Hooker __
The original twitch-finger handheld game? Fly-fishing, of course. SuperFly Designs' sturdy, lightweight flybox looks sharp, works great, and fits nicely in the palm or the pocket. The translucent acrylic shell lets you survey your flies - super-organized in the rippled polyolefin foam interior - even when the lip's clamped tight to seal out water.

__SuperFly flybox: $24.99. SuperFly Designs: +1 (415) 922 1163, www.superflyfish.com. __

__Leverage __
Designer Richard Sapper set the standard for a posh workspace with his perfectly balanced Tizio desk lamp. Now he's made a desktop computer to match. IBM's NetVista X40i tucks the processor behind the 15-inch flat-panel display, eliminating the tower unit, and puts it all on a cantilevered stand with a modest footprint that measures just 16 by 10 inches. CD and disk drives slide down neatly from beneath the screen; the wireless keyboard can go anywhere you want. The X40i includes built-in speakers, seven USB ports, and two PCI slots.

__NetVista X40i: $1,899. IBM: (888) 746 7426, www.ibm.com. __

__Generation Next __
Northwest Power's proton-exchange-membrane system is a generator killer. In goes conventional fuel like methanol, propane, or natural gas. Out comes water, heat, and electricity. The key to the PEM system is feeding purified hydrogen, filtered through a palladium alloy membrane, into a stack of individual fuel cells - boosting the power rating and producing thermal energy. When used for both power and heat, the system is four times as efficient as a regular generator and virtually pollution-free. Northwest is placing the first units in homes this summer; you'll have to cool your jets a bit longer before you can buy your own.

__PEM system: $5,000. Northwest Power Systems: +1 (541) 383 3390, www.northwestpower.com. __

__Fully Baked __
Ed Freige managed engineering teams at Silicon Graphics, but left last year to pursue his own wide-ranging product ideas as part of Eddie's Great Adventures. First up is Spudster, a slick molded-polycarbonate baked-potato cutter that eliminates the anguish of burned fingers. One swift push on the easy-clean guillotine and your steaming spud - naked or wrapped in foil - is ready for dressing, its thermal energy melting butter, not your skin. Freige's planned product number two: a speedboat that transforms into a luxury cruiser - definitely not small potatoes.

__Spudster: $4.95. Eddie's Great Adventures: +1 (650) 303 4409, www.spudster.com. __

__Out of Sight __
The RDC-7 looks deceptively like an old 110 camera when you fold down its 2-inch color monitor, but this Ricoh's more than meets the eye. As a still camera, the RDC-7 takes shots at 3.34 megapixels, which internal interpolation tricks can boost up to 7 megapixels. Its 3X optical zoom, with 1-cm macro capability, can focus on mountains or grains of sand. As a scanner, the Ricoh captures documents as monochrome TIFF files. As a videocam, it records AVI video and can feed live NTSC/PAL to the Video Out port. Meanwhile, the RDC-7 also works as a pocket voice recorder.

__RDC-7: under $1,000. Ricoh: (800) 225 1899, www.ricoh-usa.com. __

__Altitude Adjustment __
Fear of flying is perfectly rational after you've had a toner cartridge explode during an ear-popping ascent. Hewlett-Packard designed its DeskJet 350CBi with mobilized ink cartridges that can endure the pressures of frequent travel. The 4.3-pound printer spits out five black-and-white pages per minute at 600 x 600 dpi, giving you up to 485 pages to a cartridge. Full-color pages print at two per minute at 600 x 300 dpi, providing up to 155 pages per ink cartridge. An infrared port supports cable-free connecting, and the 30-sheet feeder lets you simply set up and go.

__DeskJet 350CBi: $299. Hewlett-Packard: (800) 552 8500, www.hp.com. __

__Thin Client __
If you're ready for true digital discipline, Vivonic's Fitness Planner tracks every calorie your body consumes and burns. Use the PC software (included) to tailor a fitness regimen to your schedule and goals. Then load it via serial cable into the handheld planner, and begin logging all eating and exercise on the touchscreen. Clip the Planner to your belt, and its internal pedometer will even determine roughly how far you walk. Using a database of calorie values, the device gives you the skinny.

__The Vivonic Fitness Planner: $229. Vivonic: www.vivonic.com. __

__Wunder Bar __
When you're ready to get the night rolling, wandelBar turns any room into a Eurostyle club. The five-piece furniture system revolves around a 20-foot inflatable lounge that seats 20 and glows from within. Twin media carts make room for turntables and video projectors, while the beverage trolleys (below) supply cocktails. Between gigs the portable partytechture collapses, latches together, and transports easily.

__wandelBar: $25,000. activ8 media & design: +49 (89) 3072 7701, www.wandelbar.com. __