The best products of 2000 I

　　This year's best products may have computer chips i nside, but they often have a nostalgic look. Convergenc e 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 fi lms 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 envirochic car. Honda's $20, 000 two-sea t Insight runs on a gasoline engine/electric motor comb o and gets up to 70 mpg. Honda (HMC) will build 6, 000 cars next year. Rivals have come up with hybrids or pla n to do soon. (

　　No>http://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. (h ttp://www.metricom.com/)

　　Meet the Sims

　　Get a life—or several—from Electronic Arts'(ERTS) T he Sims, a $40 game in which players create neighborhoo ds, right down to the quirky personalities of the inhab itants. Enthusiasts post free homemade enhancements on the Web—download Elvis Presley and introduce him to you r 'hood. (

　　Fast>http://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 Moder n Art. (http://www.italjet.com/)