The Best Products of 2000

This year's best products may have computer chips inside, but they often have a nostalgic look. Convergence is under way: We saw small computers that wirelessly Web surf and a touch-screen, information-manager phone. Home entertainment has converged, too. Popular short films are online, and soon we'll upload live home movies. Some products took on Brancusi-like curves with frosted translucent finishes, others harkened back to the '40s. We even found a new and improved pencil.

By ROY FURCHGOTT

Green Machine

At last--an enviro-chic car. Honda's $20,000 two-seat Insight runs on a gasoline engine/electric motor combo and gets up to 70 mpg. Honda (HMC) will build 6,000 cars next year. Rivals have come up with hybrids or plan to do soon. (www.honda2001.com)

No Strings

Metricom's (MCOM) Ricochet modem ($99 to $300, plus $70 to $80 monthly) hooks into your laptop and lets you surf the Web wirelessly at 128 kbps--twice the speed of dial-up modems. The service is in only a dozen or so U.S. cities, but next year it should be in 46 markets. (www.metricom.com)

Meet the Sims

Get a life--or several--from Electronic Arts' (ERTS) The Sims, a $40 game in which players create neighborhoods, right down to the quirky personalities of the inhabitants. Enthusiasts post free homemade enhancements on the Web--download Elvis Presley and introduce him to your 'hood. (www.ea.com)

Fast Lane

The $3,150 Italjet Velocifero is the anti-Harley. The five-horsepower, two-stroke scooter merely sips gas, getting around 50 mpg. The refined, stylish model is also in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. (www.italjet.com)

Buena Vistas

Casual shutterbugs will love the Coolpix 880 digital camera. The 3-megapixel point-and-shoot digicam ($699) automatically sets up tricky shots like sunsets and fireworks. One peeve: It doesn't take standard batteries, so you'll need Nikon's $100 ''optional'' battery and charger (NINOY). (www.nikonusa.com)

Hot Wheels

The hippest way to go this year was the Razor ($99, $129, $149). Nasty spills led the Consumer Products Safety Commission to recommend that users wear helmets and pads, but Razors still race off shelves. (www.razorusa.com)

Pay It Forward

Paytrust goes online bill-paying one better by also receiving bills electronically--all for $8.95 a month. It'll even nag you by e-mail when payments are due. (www.paytrust.com)

Cubicle Cuisine

Scott Adams, the famed Dilbert cartoonist, pined for a convenient vegetarian meal. The result: the Dilberito, a tasty $2.70 meatless burrito fortified with 23 vitamins and minerals. (www.dilberito.com)

Sharp Focus

Who would have guessed this replacement for the banal Ford Escort would hit it big with trend-setting youth? But Ford (F) promoted the $13,000 Focus to aftermarket parts shops that milled cool add-ons. (www.fordvehicles.com/cars/focus/)

I-Candy

Video-compression technology has made a festival of short films available online, free. Ifilm.com offers fare rated G to X. (Check out the action movie 405.) Icebox.com has provocative cartoons, and Heavy.com specializes in parodies.

New Directions

The Alpine Power NAV, coupled with a multimedia station, puts an electronic map on your dashboard. The GPS-guided navigator has voice prompts at turns and exits and can route you around jams. The DVD unit and screen cost about $3,300. (www.alpine1.com)

Burning Up the Autobahn

The BMW Z8 can really haul. The $130,000 roadster's 394-hp, V-8 engine powers a lightweight, all-aluminum body. And it goes from zero to 60 mph in about 4.7 seconds. The only trouble: BMW plans to sell only 400 in the U.S. In fact, dealers have auctioned the car off for as much as $250,000. That lends new meaning to the phrase ''it's going fast.'' (www.bmw.com)

Pretty Baby

3Com's (COMS) snazzy Net appliance, Audrey, simplifies Web access. Plug it into an electrical outlet and a phone jack, tap on the screen, and you can send e-mail, view Web pages, even coordinate with a handheld computer's calendar and address book. It's a pricey $499. (www.3com.com)

Putting Hackers on Ice

Twenty-four-hour Internet connections such as DSL and cable modems give computer hackers constant access to your machine--even when the browser is turned off. A $40 software program, BlackICE Defender, creates a barrier for unwanted visitors. Installation now requires just one set-up screen to put protection in place on most Windows machines. (www.networkice.com)

The Beat Goes On

Polar Electro's newest heart-rate monitor, the S210, records performance based on heartbeats, not on time spent exercising. It estimates oxygen uptake--crucial to jocks--but even a flabby novice can use the $180 device. Sit for five minutes; it calibrates your training range. (www.polarusa.com)

Funny Noises

The $50 Intel Sound Morpher can help your kids make fun of you. The device records sounds that can be altered by, say, adding an echo or changing pitch. Your darling children can load your nagging voice onto their computer and then edit the words, so that ''Didn't I tell you to clean your room,'' comes out ''I didn't tell you to clean your room.'' (www.intelplay.com)

Hiker Chic

ZoZa.com offers a unique line of high-fashion apparel made exclusively of fabrics found in outdoor wear. They're comfortable, wrinkle-free, machine-washable, and, yes, even attractive. Among the offerings are a $250 evening dress that rolls up into a bag and a $245 fleece blazer suitable for office wear or hiking. For the gadgeteers, there are even shirts and jackets with hidden pockets for cell phones.

This Pencil Is Mightier Than...The Pencil

Germany's Faber-Castell has succeeded in improving the lowly pencil. The $1 Grip 2001, in cool silver and black instead of mustard yellow, sports an ergonomically designed triangular cross-section. Raised dots give the pencil a nonslip surface that's easy on the fingers. (www.faber-castell.com)

Little Blue

The T21 is IBM's (IBM) thinnest, lightest laptop yet. At 5 pounds, the $2,649 ThinkPad offers up to a 14-inch display, a Pentium processor up to 850 MHz, and a running time of about three hours on a charge. Cool feature: a little light that illuminates the keyboard. (www.ibm.com)

Cultmobile

Before most consumers saw the retro-styled PT Cruiser in person, the waiting list was 300,000 long. The car has achieved cult status, with owners who prize its raffish looks. Chrysler (DCX) put off thousands of orders until 2001 because it can't keep up with demand. (www.chrysler.com)

Open Wide

Stents, those small coils that prop open arteries after angioplasty, are lifesavers. But for one out of every six U.S. patients--100,000 yearly--the stents become clogged with scar tissue. Both Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Novoste (NOVT) have a solution: a process to apply radiation around the stent to impair tissue growth and prevent those clogs.

Game On

The Sony PlayStation 2 not only plays rip-roaring games, but the $299 console includes an expansion bay for a hard drive, will eventually link online with other gamers, and will have a browser for limited Web surfing. (www.playstation2.com)

Snap-on Internet

How to out-Palm VII the Palm VII? OmniSky (OMNY) provides loads of wireless functions for the Palm V and the Handspring Visor, including all the special wireless applications developed for the Palm VII. Plus, it lets you fetch mail from any standard Internet service and browse the Web. The wireless modem costs $99 with a $200 rebate (through Jan. 31). Unlimited service is $39.99 a month. (omnisky.com)

Hottest Thing on Two Wheels

Honda set hearts racing when it priced its RC51, the street-legal version of its champion Superbike-class racer, at $9,999. It practically sold out before hitting showrooms in early 2000. The 126-hp V-twin-powered bike will reappear in 2001 for $10,999. (www.hondamotorcycle.com)

Screen Gem

The LG Electronics LGI-3000W phone looks ordinary until you flip the cover and see that it's also a pocket organizer. With a screen three times that of most phones with displays, the $400 LG is great for reading e-mail. With a stylus, you tap into its organizer features. (www.lginfocomm.com)

What's Up, Doc

Health Buddy, from IDEO Labs and Health Hero Network, can help medicos monitor patients. The device, which plugs into a phone jack, might ask a question of a patient, who in turn responds by clicking the buttons, sending the doc an instant update. (www.hhn.com)

Apple Cubed

The Apple Computer G4 Cube (AAPL) (base price, $1,799) is remarkable for its size--9.8-by-7.7-by-7.7 inches. Drawbacks: It doesn't allow for internal peripherals, and the reset button is on the bottom. (www.apple.com)

Seeing Is Believing

A simple drug and laser therapy, Visudyne, offers the first treatment to slow down age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. (www.visudyne.com)