The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) may be a rapidly receding memory, but it usually pays to go back and take a second look after all the dust clears. After all, given the sheer enormity of the show, there's no way anyone could see every single supercoolfantastic new thing on display. In between the major breakthroughs and big-splash products are the hidden gems, usually tucked away in the farthest corners of Las Vegas. Whether it's a sleek Asian radio or a high-tech coaster that keeps your beer cold, these unsung heroes of CES are far more likely to be worthy of your greenbacks than any overpriced HDTV.

 

The tiny Chatter Bug connects to your telephone and lets you call anywhere in the U.S. and Canada for $9.95 per month. This $20 gadget uses voice-over-the-Internet (aka VoiP) tech, but for the tech-challenged amongst us, don't worry, you don't need a PC or Internet access to use it. lagunawave.com/chatterbug

 

 

 

 

 

How do you keep your Coke (the soda, smartass) cool while you word process? Plug CoolIt ($40) into a USB jack on your PC. Using the same thermo-electric process the company uses to keep CPUs from overheating keeps your soda from turning tepid. It works better with cans than with bottles, though. coolitsystems.com

 

 

While the portable XM2go gadgets, including the Pioneer Inno and Samsung Helix, were basking in the CES spotlight, you may have missed this little wallflower. The XM Passport ($30) is the tiniest portable tuner that can plug into a variety of devices for the car, home, or on the go, either with an adapter or port built into the device. The Passport lets you move your XM subscription to a growing number of compatible devices. xmradio.com

 

The $700 Takahashi CD/radio is nice on the eyes but this isn't just some pretty Asian boy-toy. The front panel is actually a touch-sensitive control screen and there's a USB input on the back panel for playback of your digital ditties. musichallaudio.com

 

 

 

Battery life on a portable is a pretty important spec — as Apple is finding out in the wake of its power-challenged 30-gig iPod. On the other side of the scale is MobiBlu's DAH-1900 MP3 player, which is rated to play music continuously for 150 hours! Assuming that's true (we'll check one out as soon as we can), it's probably mainly thanks to its OLED screen, as that kind of tech typically has a miniscule power diet. mobibluamerica.com

 

The pearl inside this Oyster is great sound, and Wi-Fi lets you chuck those unsightly speaker wires and stream music directly to these cool towers from your PC. Each speaker has its own amplifiers and Dolby/DTS decoders, so just connect a DVD player for instant surround. Or jack your iPod into one of the speaker's USB inputs for the sweetest-sounding podcast ever. Price: TBD, but between $3,000 and $5,000. oysterspeakers.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mobile-navigation pioneer Alpine reaches new heights with its first portable nav device, which operates on the Windows CE platform and uses NAVTEQ map coverage for the U.S. and Canada. The Blackbird's sharp turn-by-turn voice instructions will pilot you to any address you desire. Price: $750. alpine-usa.com

 

Here's a cable box with a DVR and a DVD recorder. Archiving from the DVR to DVD is simple, or you can record straight to DVD. Wait, there's more! Cable companies can offer downloads of pay-per-view movies that you could watch for 24 hours, or you could buy the DVD outright. With a push of a button, the content of the full commercial DVD would be burned to your blank. The recorder will even print the movie's label image right onto the blank DVD! scientificatlanta.com

 

Lots of digital recordings have super-low bass, but reproducing it is another matter entirely. Even really kick-ass subs don't have much oomph at 25 Hz and can't do anything at the infrasonic (below 20 Hz). But Eminent Technology's rotary subwoofer promises punch in those audio nether regions. It uses a 20-inch-diameter rotating fan instead of a conventional cone, so extremely low-frequency sounds like helicopter rotors sound amazingly authentic. The cost to you: $12,900. Having perfectly accurate sound: priceless. eminent-tech.com

 

Stop groping for your iPod every time you want to raise the volume or skip a track. Just touch one of the buttons on the backpack's control strip sown into the strap, one of a growing number of products incorporating the Eleksen iPod fabric iPod controls. Price: $194. eleksen.com

 

Some Moscow audio engineers took their wild ideas to sunny Italy where they hooked up with Milan's designer crowd. The resulting speakers from Bolzano Villetri are fashionista-stunning and feature a physics-defying configuration of drivers that yields 360° surround sound. The only drawback is they are as expensive as a night out on the town with a runway model. bolzanovilletri.com

 

 

 

 

Have you ever thought of using your handheld PSP to watch your own videos? The $149 Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder 2 is about the size of a deck of cards, connects to any video source, and downloads to a memory card like the one in your PSP. Get the picture? neurosaudio.com

 

This talking stargazing companion costs $399 and uses GPS to figure out what star, constellation or planet you're looking at, then tells you all about it in a friendly female voice or on the display screen. But confusingly, it's not a telescope. celestron.com

 

 

Contributors: Tom Cosbey, Barbara Gonzalez, Tom Nousaine, Peter Pachal, John Sciacca, Leslie Shapiro, Frank Vizard, and Stewart Wolpin