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Hell on Wheels
Combine Motocross and skateboarding and you get a new extreme: the StealthMan. It uses a 50-cc engine, like those typically found in brush cutters, to launch riders off ramps at 22 mph. Standing upright with one foot through the center of each 10-inch wheel, you steer with your front leg and squeeze a plastic ball connected to the carburetor to accelerate. Rust-resistant stainless steel parts for beachgoers also available ($174).
StealthMan: $1,685. Wheelman Australia: +61 7 5447 4191, www.wheelman.com.au.
Mobile Big Shot
Samsung crams a 10-inch screen into a portable player that's less than an inch thick. The sleek, lightweight unit reads DVDs and DVD-Rs, and it comes with a Memory Stick slot for uploading photos saved as JPEGs. Despite the large display - the biggest out there in DVDs - it has the same 3-hour battery life as most players.
DVD-L100: $1,299. Samsung: +1 (201) 229 4000, www.samsungusa.com.
Blasting the Past
The granddaddy of MP3 players has joined the ranks of those ditching flash memory for a hard drive. Rio Riot puts its 20 gigs to good use, remembering all those songs you downloaded last year and have long since forgotten. The user-friendly interface helps you dust off up to 5,000 songs, and a Memory Lane feature will select and play random tracks you haven't heard in ages. The 10-ounce device also stores and reads ID tags culled from All Music Guide's database, so you can catalog your songs on the 2.5 x 1.75-inch screen and create mixes based on genre, artist, or era.
Rio Riot: $400. SonicBlue: (800) 468 5846, www.sonicblue.com.
Ticker of Champions
Built to the specs of Tour de France three-peater Lance Armstrong, this Nike watch starts by doing everything other sports watches do. What sets it apart - besides its looks - is a digital compass that calculates how quickly you travel uphill (on foot or wheels) in feet per hour, and a titanium faceplate that offers the durability of metal without added heft. At 3 ounces, it weighs little more than a PowerBar.
Lance 3 Titanium Ascent Compass: $299. Nike: (800) 344 6453, www.niketown.com.
Desk-Free Computing
Finally, a wearable computer that someone might actually want to wear. Xybernaut's 15.5-ounce poma includes a headset, a walkman-sized Windows CE computer, and an optical mouse. For Internet and email access, slip an optional Socket communications card ($189) in the CompactFlash slot and connect to an 802.11b network. The LCD eyepiece displays your desktop as if it were on a full screen - which sure beats squinting at your PDA.
poma: $1,499. Xybernaut: (888) 992 3777, www.xybernaut.com/poma.
Mood Lighting
Candles are so 20th century. Vessel's tabletop lights glow just as softly, eliminate the fire hazard, and can be reused indefinitely. Based on the same technology as an electric toothbrush, these rechargeable sticks light up automatically when lifted from their cradle. Sixteen hours of juice will keep the 1-watt incandescent bulbs glowing for up to five hours.
Candela: $70 for a set of four. Vessel:info@vesselinc.com, www.vesselinc.com.
Incredible Shrinking Cam
Any digital camcorder can snap still photos, but this one can shed more than a pound of gear when you aren't shooting video. Just pop off the lower half, and you're left with a 10.5-ounce, 1-megapixel camera. Another plus:It has an adapter for flash accessories, a rarity among digicams. The optional 64-meg SD memory card ($70) stores 65 minutes of standard video or 280 hi-res stills (or six times that, if you opt for low-res).
PV-VM202: $2,296. Panasonic: (800) 211 7262, www.panasonic.com.
Frontend Solution
The sweetest baby can turn into an enfant terrible when she sees a thermometer coming at her. But Philips' pacifier, with a removable digital thermometer inside, can prevent that ugly scene. A gauge within the teat measures the baby's temp in Fahrenheit, with a variance of a few tenths of a degree. A button-sized screen on the front of the pacifier gives you the results in a few seconds, allowing you to spend more time soothing your precious patient.
Baby Thermometer Kit: $15. Philips: (800) 531 0039, www.philips.com.
Walk the Talk
Most hands-free headsets add wires to your wireless phone. Plantronics' Bluetooth-enabled M1500 Cordless Headset has an adapter that plugs into the hands-free port on your mobile, so you can keep yakking as you wander up to 30 feet from your cell. Wrap the flexible plastic loop around your ear, and the noise-canceling boom mike falls into place to capture your every word. A textured button on the side of the transceiver turns the headset on, as well as answers and ends your calls.
M1500 Cordless Headset: about $200. Plantronics: (800) 544 4660, www.plantronics.com.
