I love technology but most gadgets are cool but fairly useless - as in the kinds of things you only pull out when a friend comes over to show off your new gadget ... I know many people love their IPads for example but ours only gets used when going on a long road trip, plane flight, or the other three computers in the house are being used and our fourth family memeber wants to surf the web...
The smartphone has been one of my favorite gadgets since I got my first Palm Treo but at the same time since about 1998 my cell phone has also been my work phone and the feeling of always needing to be connected really wears on me. I want to just turn it off sometimes but then I feel like I might be missing something important so I love my cell phone but I hate it too.
Which brings me to my FAVORITE gadget, the Squeezebox. It's not new but it was cutting edge technology six years ago when I bought it. Basically it is a wireless reciever that hooks into your network and streams music files from your PC which acts as a server to your receiver. Everyone in our house loves music so the ability to tap into your entire music collection at the touch of a button has really spoiled us. We have three of them throughout the house. Since this is a device that only brings us pleasure we love them. There are many such devices available on the market but nothing has really improved on the functionality of the squeezebox. Added bonus - you can control it from your smartphone.
