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Gadgets, widgets, watchamacallits – we love them all, or so the advertising would have you believe! The world appears to have gone gadget mad - unless you can produce at least two electronic items from your purse or pocket at any time, you’re considered old-fashioned by some. My advice – don’t believe the hype! Although you may find it difficult in some lines of business without a mobile phone, the basics of life haven’t changed that much. Leave the phone at home and go for a walk. Set aside an hour and pick up a book. Write a letter to an old friend (no not an email, that’s cheating). Walk to a friends house. You really don’t need a GPS, smartphone, PDA, iPod, memory stick, notebook, digital camera, bluetooth headset and PlayStation Portable (PSP). Or so I’m told – I wouldn’t leave home without the lot. Yes, like many of my generation I’m a gadget tragic (the tragedy is I don’t have the money to buy even more). Shiny lights? Fantastic. Lots of buttons? I’m sold. Completely and utterly useless? Sign me up. So here are my top useful and useless gadgets, in no particular order. Useful:
Mobile phone. Easily understood. But it’s not useful to me unless it also has a camera, GPS, voice recorder, wireless, word processor & spreadsheet, plus calendar, tasks, email and notes that synchronises with my computer even when I’m on the road, like the HTC Kaiser Windows Mobile 6 smartphone or an iPhone.
Digital Music Player. Yes ok, an iPod. But did you know that an iPod is just one of a huge variety of music players on the market? Probably not, considering Apple’s advertising budget! But it’s true – there are a wealth of options beyond the iPod. But that’s a topic for another time.
USB Memory stick. You can get them in huge sizes now. I take mine everywhere and it has just about all the troubleshooting utilities you could imagine on it, plus it even boots a version of Linux. If you’re over 50 and think you understood the last part of that sentence, no I wasn’t talking about Charlie Brown’s friend. Useless
USB powered mug warmer. A small hotplate that plugs into a free USB port on your computer, then you sit your coffee on it and it keeps it warm. Then you spill the coffee in your computer, then try not to electrocute yourself.
USB powered mini-cooling fan. I have one of these and it looks very cute. However it generates about as much cooling breeze as blinking rapidly. Less tiring though. It also has a mini-torch attachment so if I’m ever caught out in the dark with a computer still running I’ll be able to see everything in a 15cm radius.
MP3 sunglasses – for the person who only likes listening to music when it’s bright. I’ll let you in on a little secret - truth be told I love dumping all these trappings and spending a day by the water, or walking in some of the nearby National Parks. But don’t tell anyone I’m a pseudo-geek. It would be like Grant Hackett admitting he’s not that fond of the water, really.
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