Gadgets I Couldn't Live Without
June 25th 2008 09:26
Let me tell you a little about myself. I live in a town of about 800 people with not much to do. The biggest town within 50 miles has 43,000, and while it provides a little more excitement, with todays gas prices it’s not worth it. I work the night shift for the county sheriff’s office, and as you can probably imagine, it isn’t that busy. So I have to have something to keep myself occupied, right? Here’s a little list of mini-reviews (in no particular order) on the gadgets that help a techie like me get by each day.
SONY PLAYSTATION 3
I’ve been a big supporter of Sony products since I was a wee lad, and game consoles have been no exception, I’ve had a PS One, a PS2, a PSP (see below) and now, the best of the series, the PS3. I don’t know how I could get through those long, boring nights off when every other living thing within a 100 mile radius is fast asleep without a rousing round of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Assassin’s Creed or GTA IV online. It doubles as a great movie player for either my extensive DVD collection or my new obsession, Blue-Ray’s. Not to mention the internet browser, the music capability and the full array of downloadable content from PSN.
SONY PLAYSTATION PORTABLE
As I said, Sony has been good to me over the years, and the PSP has really been great for my “anywhere anytime” gaming needs, plus a bundle of extra features. I use the PSP during those long, boring hours at work when I need a quick gaming fix. It’s got everything I need in a portable device, and now with the newest firmware, it even has Skype. Not to mention this lingering rumor of future GPS capability in the US. Also great for movies (UMD or H.264 files on my memory stick) and music (MP3 and AAC files). It also has RemotePlay, allowing me to access my PS3 from anywhere with WiFi and watch movies and listen to music I have stored on there. There’s even talk of possibly being able to play PS3 games on PSP via the app sometime in the future.
APPLE 13 INCH MACBOOK
Computers have become a nearly essential part of every day life, even in Podunk. To me, nothing makes more practical sense than having one that you can take anywhere. And even more sensible is having one that will be reliable and useful for the maximum amount of time. After my HP laptop that I owned for just over a year and a half shot craps back in January, I needed something that I knew could stand the digital age test of time, (which, isn’t that long really, but you get my meaning) and would be sleek, ultra-portable and ultra-useful to boot. I found my Holy Grail with this little baby. OS X is a dream compared to Windows (in my opinion) and the size and weight are ideal. I was going to go for the MacBook Air, but I needed a CD/DVD drive in the machine and a little more than 80 GB in the hard drive. I couldn’t be happier with this machine and it’s functionality goes far beyond what I could have imagined. I use it as a media server for my PS3 via Nullrivers great MediaLink software, ($15, Nullriver.com) as an alarm clock with a neat little AppleScript I cooked up, as a virtual inventory device for all my gadgets and media with Delicious Library 2 ($40, delicious-monster.com) as my own personal new release cinema with watch-movies.net and of course I wouldn’t be writing this without it.
APPLE iPOD
Everyone knows what an iPod can do. I’m not even going to bother to write much about it. I need to upgrade from the 30 GB ancient that I own to an 80 or 160 GB, but it still has a lot of use as far as music, movie and podcast enjoyment in my daily life. I keep notes on it, use it as an alarm, and can even upload all the content of my Delicious Library to it in case I forget what I own or my house burns down while I’m gone and I need a list for the insurance company (god forbid).
There are a lot of other gadgets essential to my day to day that I don’t really care for, like my Motorola KRZR (I’d rather have an iPhone, but contrary to their advertising AT&T doesn’t get service everywhere, and Alltel won’t even support one if it’s unlocked) but this sums up my favorites. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more possibilities as time goes on, and may even have enough to justify a future list.
SONY PLAYSTATION 3
SONY PLAYSTATION PORTABLE
As I said, Sony has been good to me over the years, and the PSP has really been great for my “anywhere anytime” gaming needs, plus a bundle of extra features. I use the PSP during those long, boring hours at work when I need a quick gaming fix. It’s got everything I need in a portable device, and now with the newest firmware, it even has Skype. Not to mention this lingering rumor of future GPS capability in the US. Also great for movies (UMD or H.264 files on my memory stick) and music (MP3 and AAC files). It also has RemotePlay, allowing me to access my PS3 from anywhere with WiFi and watch movies and listen to music I have stored on there. There’s even talk of possibly being able to play PS3 games on PSP via the app sometime in the future.
APPLE 13 INCH MACBOOK
Computers have become a nearly essential part of every day life, even in Podunk. To me, nothing makes more practical sense than having one that you can take anywhere. And even more sensible is having one that will be reliable and useful for the maximum amount of time. After my HP laptop that I owned for just over a year and a half shot craps back in January, I needed something that I knew could stand the digital age test of time, (which, isn’t that long really, but you get my meaning) and would be sleek, ultra-portable and ultra-useful to boot. I found my Holy Grail with this little baby. OS X is a dream compared to Windows (in my opinion) and the size and weight are ideal. I was going to go for the MacBook Air, but I needed a CD/DVD drive in the machine and a little more than 80 GB in the hard drive. I couldn’t be happier with this machine and it’s functionality goes far beyond what I could have imagined. I use it as a media server for my PS3 via Nullrivers great MediaLink software, ($15, Nullriver.com) as an alarm clock with a neat little AppleScript I cooked up, as a virtual inventory device for all my gadgets and media with Delicious Library 2 ($40, delicious-monster.com) as my own personal new release cinema with watch-movies.net and of course I wouldn’t be writing this without it.
APPLE iPOD
Everyone knows what an iPod can do. I’m not even going to bother to write much about it. I need to upgrade from the 30 GB ancient that I own to an 80 or 160 GB, but it still has a lot of use as far as music, movie and podcast enjoyment in my daily life. I keep notes on it, use it as an alarm, and can even upload all the content of my Delicious Library to it in case I forget what I own or my house burns down while I’m gone and I need a list for the insurance company (god forbid).
There are a lot of other gadgets essential to my day to day that I don’t really care for, like my Motorola KRZR (I’d rather have an iPhone, but contrary to their advertising AT&T doesn’t get service everywhere, and Alltel won’t even support one if it’s unlocked) but this sums up my favorites. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more possibilities as time goes on, and may even have enough to justify a future list.
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