Many of these types of articles have been written on the Internet, but I don’t think I ever did one. These are the five pieces of technology that I consider essential to my digital life.
- Smart phone (currently the iPhone 3G). Since I started using cell phones, I saw the need and utility to marry the phone with a portable organizer. I even carried around the clunky (but useful) Handspring Visor with the Sprint phone plug-in. Smart phones offer the best in communication via voice, Internet, chat, instant messaging, and now social networking as well as maps, password management, Internet access, GPS, games, and so much more.
- Flash drives. USB flash drives truly make my day-to-day life tons easier because I can carry so many tools with me to fix and augement computers in my pocket. And I can change up, add to and update those tools quickly and easily.
- Netbook. Netbooks are the small little laptops that weigh less than 3 pounds and have become an essential tool in my technology tool belt. I travel with it, use it to troubleshoot client computers, and of course pull it out at a coffee shop to blog, email and browse the Internet between clients.
- Gmail. Almost three years ago, I used Gmail for two weeks as an experiment to see if I could give up my almost 10 year relationship with Microsoft Outlook. Not only did I never open Outlook again, Gmail seems to get better every day. Gmail, the free email service from Google, is fast, smart, and ubiquitous. I can access my mail, calendar, contacts, and more from any computer in the world and increasingly, any phone.
- Your turn. Fill in #5 for me by leaving a comment as to what your favorite or indispensable technologies are!
GPS.
1. We cannot live without our computer/Internet, beit the laptop or the desk version.
2. We also must have our digital camera.
3. Don’t have a cell phones, organizers, IPods, etc. Guess we are too old…Sue
Ahh, the Internet…truly has become another utility like water and electricity.
My Kindle 2 e-book reader! Now I am never without a book.
Just from your two lines, you sound excited about the Kindle. Can you tell us how long you have had it? How is the reading experience? Battery life, etc? Thanks!
I have had my kindle 2 for 2 weeks. I did have to return my first one due to the text fading in direct sun. With the wireless turned off battery lasted almost 2 weeks before needing charged. This is with reading 2 hrs. per day. I only turn on the wireless to download books. Supposedly 4 days per charge with wireless turned on.
The e-ink screen is very easy on the eyes. Like reading a book…no eye strain. Very slim…can read and turn pages with one hand.
Thanks for the follow up…sounds great. Lots of hype surrounding it and very positive reviews about it. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
My wife and I are addicted to XM Radio offering a huge variety of programming from which to choose-sports, news, talk, music, etc. We’re set up for listening both at home and in the car during our many trips. Our subscription includes computer access so its makes for great “background.” With today’s commercial radio limited to talk shows and music that’s either “country” or “noise,” we get better choices and aren’t bothered with stations “fading out” when traveling.
That’s a good one…many people love their satellite radio including my Dad and brother.
I’d say for me 1-Desktop pc,2-the internet,3-USB flash drives and 4- Netbook. I commented about netbooks to you back in November. My Acer Aspire has been great for my work trips for weather and road info.5-I’m still using an old style cell phone.
Good to see another netbook fan! Thanks for the comments.
I have heard enough about gmail that I will be checking it out, I love the portability of the netbook, and will be adding that to my arsenal soon. The e-book reader is also high on my wish list. We can’t live without our digital camera!
Gmail has truly changed my email life for the better. As far as netbooks go, there are rumors that there might be a Mac netbook…hmmm. I love my EeePC 901 with CrunchBang Linux on it.
#1 for me is iPhone and MobileMe, it’s really handy to have all my business contacts instantly synced to my home machine, portable machine, iPhone, and even quickbooks.
Also need to pickup a netbook, just waiting a couple of months for the next gens to come out, but does anyone know of a decent portable printer to do onsite invoices with a netbook?
The iPhone truly is hard to beat. For invoice printing, you might want to consider what I do is create the invoice online at Google Docs or billingmanager.intuit.com, or Zoho Docs and then email your invoice or print it from the client’s computer. You don’t really want to haul around a printer do you?
lol to all i prople
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