Cheap RC helicopter, the ultimate office terror device

THE BEAUTY of shows like CES is you run across things you never expected, and a small number of these are really cool. A couple of these come from opposite sides of the world, Interactive Toy from Canada and FIC from Taiwan. Come to think of it, the size difference between the companies is also pretty much as extreme as the locations.

Interactive Toy has two things a small RC helicopter and a really small RC helicopter. The 'big' one is called the Blade Runner II, the smaller one is the Micro Mosquito. The Blade Runner is available now for $69 or so, the Mosquito has yet to launch.

In case you can't tell from the picture, these things are incredibly tiny. The Blade Runner II they had on sometimes non-static display hovered pretty well in a crowded conference hall, and never once stepped out of line. While I wouldn't want to try that in a room full of journalists until I got very good with it, the feat can be done. This would be a cube farm WMD, if you buy one, send me pics of the havoc you cause.

The FIC Eagle 1 was on the other end of the spectrum, a car navigation system. This product won't wow any industry veterans, it doesn't offer any huge new bells and whistles, come in a multitude of colors, or for that matter do your laundry. What it is is a damn good value.

The Eagle starts off at $299, quite low compared to others in it's class. It is far from a skimpy model that sacrifices features for cost, FIC says they are one of the first in the class with a 3.5 inch touch screen. My Garmin GPS cost $799 and it lacks the nav functions.µ