CTIA Wireless: Race Cars, Loud GuitarsPhones From Mars

A racing version of the Chevrolet Corvette had some conference attendees dreaming wistfully of their youthful days, when having such a car would have changed the way their entire teenage years played out.

A representative from ESRI, maker of geographic modeling and mapping software, hovers virtually over the Big Island of Hawaii in a demonstration of his firm's software.

A conference attendee plays Guitar Hero as part of a contest run by Motorola and Hands On Mobile. After flawlessly mimicking the screaming guitar solo at the end of Freebird, his attempts to walk away were hampered by throngs of adoring wireless groupies.

Handmark showed off its Pocket Express wireless news service with a unique tubular object that appeared to be either an airplane fuselage or a futuristic train car. Attendees kept peering inside the windows, much to the annoyance of the meeting goers.

A larger-than-life Blackberry smart phone mugs for the camera. There were unconfirmed reports that the Blackberry was later chased down and attacked at the show by a hulking iPhone.

Prior to the opening of CTIA Fall 2007, groundskeepers at San Francisco's Moscone Center did their best to rid the show floor of weeds and other undesirable foliage. However, wireless chipmaker Telit's booth was nonetheless overrun by several persistent sunflowers, which the vendor cleverly incorporated into its display.

Anyone looking for proof of the growing popularity of Qualcomm's BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) wouldn't have needed to look any further than the BREW pavilion at CTIA, which was packed to the gills with attendees.

Word has it that Becker, a Germany-based manufacturer and OEM supplier of car audio, was offering this Lamborghini free of charge with the purchase of 23,000 car audio systems.

An untitled sculpture of painted aluminum dancing figures by Keith Haring stands outside Moscone Center South, site of CTIA Wireless Fall 2007.