In July Toyota unveiled a concept bicycle, the PXP, with a thought-controlled gear-shift mechanism.

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There is a battery life indicator on the left handlebar, and the Shimano Revo-shift lever -- which controls what gear you're in -- on the right.

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She said that driving a qualifying lap at Daytona -- where drivers shift gears three times then run the engine in its highest gear -- was 90% crew preparation and 10% driver.

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Lucent botched a shift in demand to cutting-edge gear for fiber optics, failing to recognize telecom companies' hunger for bandwidth and then reacting too slowly to stop them from defecting to archrival Nortel Networks.

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The transmission was excellent in automatic mode, and manual shift is still accessible by pulling the center console-mounted gear selector to the left.

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And then there's the coffee-table-filling controller for Capcom's Steel Batallion, complete with a gear shift and an eject button.

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Formerly known as a purveyor of pricey, preppy gear, Abercrombie and Fitch - along with fellow US import American Apparel - is not shy of deploying sex to help shift its clothes.

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This gearbox includes a sport mode for slightly more aggressive shift points, along with a manual shift mode, which in the Supercharged version can be engaged via either the gear selector or steering wheel-mounted paddles.

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