The three most useful gadgets
Most gadgetry is not useful. In fact a lot of it looks great when you buy it, usually because of some neat feature, but quickly becomes relegated to the dusty back corners of your electronics shelf. A good litmus test these days for those of us who travel a lot is "is it useful enough to put up with the hassle taking it through airport security?" That quickly winnows the digital chaff.
So, the three most useful electronic gadgets that I've ever owned:
Palm Pilot - It really worked. The two parts that made it worth it were the address book and the calendar. The "to do" list and memo pad were nice, but not worth the hassle of lugging the gizmo around in my pocket. But dates and phone numbers are critical to every ones' business. Not only that, but important account numbers and other things were easy to store in the phone book. Oh and the basic interface was easy. Sure, Graffitti was difficult to learn, but you didn't need to. You could perform all of the basic functions with one-handed button presses. Palm users quickly grew into the habit of not memorizing numeric facts anymore, because it was so easy to look up. In short, the Palm became our long-term digital memory.
Cell phone - I should qualify this because I don't mean the first round of shoebox-sized phones. I mean ones that could fit into the pocket and had a couple of hours of battery life. What an amazing invention. These phones changed how many of us functioned socially. For one thing we could be less precise in our getting-together planning because we could always narrow in using cell phones. "I'll call you when I get to the mall and tell you where I'll be.' We could track our kids and each other. In the business context, we always became reachable, no matter where we were. Cellular phones knocked down the last artificial barrier between home and office. For some people it became a living hell. For others, it was a business opportunity. At this point, cell phones have became our primary method of communication. Many people don't even bother having a landline installed anymore, they just use their cells.
Tivo - This choice is probably less obvious. Tivo completely changes how we view television and I suspect, eventually all broadcast entertainment including movies and streaming live events. As we move into a different consumptive model, that of pay-per-view vs. advertising supported revenue models, the invention of the PVR (Personal Video Recorder) becomes critical, because it's the distribution and collection mechanism. The Tivo is to pay-per-view what Blockbuster is to videos. Oh and by the way, we don't need the cable companies to do anything except be a dumb cable. All of that upsale stuff that they'd like us to buy? We can get it better off of Tivo, either sent over the cable, satellite or Internet. Much is made of Tivo's time-shifting attributes and it's well-deserved. It gives us the ability to consume entertainment when we want, not when they want. And ultimately, it will kill broadcast advertising, hastening the arrival of complete pay-as-you-go television. Tivo becomes our ultimate entertainment device. I expect to see it hop off the television and have mini-tivos appear on cell phones, PCs and every other electronic device capable of streaming video.
Posted on April 18, 2006
