<p>I am not a gadget or toy person, but after having hit on a few that I now cant live with out (GPS, blackberry, and DVR rewinding TV in progress since Im deaf and dont get jokes anymore WOW! And I can watch SNL on Sunday morning)</p>
<p>Please share with me your favorite gadget I dont care if its a kitchen gadget it doesnt have to be electronic CC parents are so clever I will learn something new, undoubtedly.</p>
<p>Here is my latest my D is the last child on earth who wanted a desktop PC in her dorm room. It had more horsepower, disk space, etc., and was very inexpensive relative to laptop (Dell <$775 with 19 inch flat screen monitor ) and she got a netbook to take to class ( <$375)</p>
<p>I am sorry if I have been living under a rock if these have been around forever…</p>
<p>So, I read you could hook a TV tuner card to the PC and watch TV on it. So, I bought a Hauppage TV Tuner card (probably $80). I was a bit incredulous, so looked up reviews first. </p>
<p>D and I tested this out at home we were pressed for time because we were leaving in less than 12 hours for school. We installed the software, hooked up the USB device, attached this funny looking plastic antenna thing to it and hit SCAN. Mind you, we did not hook the device to CABLE which you can do also. It found all of our local channels in far better definition than I ever saw them before cable came to the neighborhood in 1983. No fuzzies, good sound no running around with rabbit ears and tin foil. I was amazed. It found more channels than we could ever get back in the day.</p>
<p>Oh, and the netbook she got that is really great also. For light computing (email, internet, word processing, skype) it is fantastic.</p>
<p>For me, well I am not into gadgets, but I have made 2 meals in my new slow cooker. I tried a slow cooker years ago and it was really hot and literally jumped around on my counter. I never used it a second time. The new one was a wonderful experience. I can see myself using this in the future.</p>
<p>I am really enjoying my new LG phone that has such a convenient keyboard for easy texting. I cannot ever go back to hitting keys 3 times to find a letter.</p>
<p>My H might say his IPhone. I have not made the switch yet but might. Like northeastmom I am tired of hitting the keys 3 times to find a letter. Northeastmom- what LG did you get?</p>
<p>For the kitchen- My Magic Bullet. It makes making smoothies a cleaner and faster job. It is also great for making salad dressings.</p>
<p>My KitchenAid mixer, altho the beater has lost some of the plastic. I would probably be out of business if I didn’t have fresh cookies/cakes to serve.</p>
<p>Pumpkin, I will need to learn to use the web camera and skype in near future. When living in strange city, GPS was my hero. I am impressed that u and dtr managed the tuner; much better to have a desktop that functions as a TV than another appliance in a small dorm room</p>
<p>My favorite gadget is a combination–downloading books for free from our local library and putting them on my mp3 player that allows me to bookmark pages. I don’t really use my mp3 players for music.</p>
<p>For me recently it’s the iPhone. It’s pretty amazing what’s packed into that device and all the things I can do with it (GPS Nav, finding things on maps, finding nearby hotels, restaurants, etc., web browsing, music player, watching movies on it while flying, VPN tunneling into servers at work and controlling them remotely, detecting motion, playing games, etc.) - even including using it sometimes as a phone.</p>
<p>My Garmin running watch. I break into a cold sweat at the very thought of running without it and not knowing my exact distance, pace, heartrate and mile splits. I plug it into my computer after the run and it puts all this essential data into my running log, along with a map of where I ran.
Very close second- my iphone. I also have a work Blackberry, but it comes in third.</p>
<p>I’ve already declared my love for the iPhone in a number of posts on CC Parents Cafe - so I’ll mention my Logitech Harmony TV remote control. Say goodbye to 4 remotes, say hello to one that makes sense…</p>
<p>My immersion blender with chopper attachment. It creams soups without transferring hot liquid to a food processor and cleans up in the dishwasher where it takes up little space. The chopper’s great for chutneys and dressings that I make in small quantities–again, clean up is a snap.</p>
<p>My trash compactor. It’s hands-free–stomp to open, hip check to close and holds a week’s worth of trash.</p>
<p>my new mr coffee cocomotion hot chocolate maker!!! yum</p>
<p>and my new netbook. I am an apple person, but this little thing is great for writing pretty much anywhere and no one knows you have a computer in your bag</p>
<p>my new scale that helps you weigh luggage- wrap around handle, lift and voila weight in kg or lbs- well worth the money</p>
<p>and my new kitchen scissors, I cut everything with them</p>
<p>I bought a Blendtec blender. The one with the “will it blend?” you-tube video, including one where they blend an iPhone (also a favorite gadget). I have made a smoothie every morning for nine years with a well-loved Waring blendor. Guess what? I have a new love, and I wish I’d left the Waring blendor at the dump nine years ago. The Blendtec is actually as good as their ads.</p>
<p>No question - my new filtered instant hot/cold water faucet. Love it for making tea and no longer have to worry about water bottles or bulky filters taking up space in the fridge…</p>
- otherwise would have to be my ipod which is barely ahead of my [diggit</a> duck]( <a href=“