The Best Inventions Of The Year

From the phone that has changed phones forever, to futuristic cars, to a building made of water, to a remote-controlled dragonfly—a dazzling display of ingenuity

—By Maryanne Murray Buechner, Kristina Dell, Andrea Dorfman, Lev Grossman, Anita Hamilton, Rebecca Winters Keegan, Jeffrey Kluger, Michael D. Lemonick, Coco Masters, Lisa McLaughlin, Alice Park, Julie Rawe and Deirdre van Dyk

Three of a Kind: MP3 players

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Fancy
iPod Touch
The new star of Apple's iPod lineup steals more than looks from the iPhone. It sports the same brilliant 3.5-in. (9 cm) wide-screen video display with touch controls, and built-in wi-fi lets you surf the Web, check e-mail and even buy and immediately download iTunes tracks on the fly.
8 GB, $299; 16 GB, $399; apple.com

Cheap
Creative Zen Stone Plus
It's $10 cheaper than the (screenless) iPod shuffle, with double the capacity—2 GB, enough room for about 500 songs. The matchbox-size device also functions as a clock, stopwatch, FM tuner and voice recorder. It's so tiny you might want to invest in the $50 key-chain case.
$70; us.creative.com

Something Different
Samsung P2
The slim and sleek P2 plays MP3 and wma files, as well as songs from Rhapsody and other services, and video looks good on the 3-in. (7.6 cm) screen. The P2 can beam music to your Bluetooth speakers or headset and soon it will also be able to take calls from a Bluetooth cell phone.
4 GB, $200; 8 GB, $250; mpfreedom.com