To say that CES is a crazy scene is more than an understatement. Every January in Las Vegas, corporate executives, retail buyers, tech press, plain-old hardcore gear heads and, ahem, Vegas professionals can be found by the tens of thousands scouring four massive convention halls for the greatest new toys, dodging booth babes and insane infomercial-style hawkers (who may or may not be on unicycles) at every turn.

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Unlike its predecessors, the new Z06-the factory-tuned Corvette-isn't just an upgrade of the base model. It's a completely new car. Nearly everything steel on the conventional 'Vette becomes aluminum or magnesium on the Z06, including the frame, cab structure and suspension. Superlight carbon fiber replaces fiberglass front fenders. The monstrous 7.0-liter smallblock pulls all the way to 7,000 rpm, the highest redline ever in a Chevy V8. Lightweight parts (like titanium connecting rods) and precision manufacturing allow the engine to spin faster.

In the evolution of ride-over-anything mountain bikes, the ever-vulnerable rear derailleur—that gangly parallelogram that shifts the chain up and down the rear cogs when it´s not clogged with mud or bent by rocks—has been a glaring technical handicap. So GT (gtbicycles.com) got rid of it. With its $5,000 IT-1, GT moves gear-changing duties to an unsullied haven inside the bike frame, by way of an eight-speed internal transmission.

Since the dawn of wireless, the roving Google junkie has faced two options: a bulky wireless laptop or a Web-page-cropping PDA. This fall, however, Nokia (nokia.com) will introduce a palm-size Internet gadget that surfs Web pages in full, albeit scaled-down, glory, anywhere. Measuring three by six inches, the 770 connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth cellphone. Think of it as a $350 replacement for that second PC.

Pint-size cars are the practical option in European cities, whose streets seem to be designed for wheelbarrows, but they come up short on safety. Keenly aware of this dilemma, Milan-based automotive designer Pininfarina has reconsidered subcompact safety from the inside out with its Nido concept car. Named after the Italian word for â€nest,†Nido refers to the unique design for protecting passengers of this diminutive two-seater (it´s 2.5 feet shorter than a Mini Cooper).