Gadgets I Use (Early 2011)

It's been a while since I have written, and since then I've purchased several gadgets that I'd like to share.

Back in 2008 I bought an Acer Aspire One netbook. My wife and I still use this netbook on a regular basis. I've since replaced Windows XP with Windows 7 Home Premium. Even with Windows 7, it still has a quick startup time and runs as fast as it did with XP.

In November 2010 I purchased two Samsung Focus Windows Phone 7 phones, one for myself and one for my wife. It's a smartphone that gives us access to our online media, Xbox Live games, an

d has a growing number of software titles. It also has pretty accurate speech-recognition built

in, with the ability to make phone calls by saying the person's name and with the maps app, you can find local places by speaking or typing the name of the place (for example, if you say Walgreens, it will show you the nearest Walgreens stores on the map, and when you click on one of them, it provides their phone number and can give you directions).

For Christmas 2010, we got the Xbox Kinect sensor. It's a contoller-free sensor that allows you to control the menus on Xbox and games without using a controller. It has facial recognition built in, so when my kids stand in front of the TV, it recognizes them and logs them in automatically. The Kinect Adventures game was the hit of the party at our house on New Year's Eve. There are a variety of games already available, from fitness to dance to sports. Kinect also does voice commands, so you can control the menus by saying things like 'Xbox Play DVD'.

Several years ago I wrote about how I wasn't ready to purchase a high-definition TV. With the recent purchase of Kinect, I got the itch to buy one. After a small amount of research, I purchased a Samsung 42 inch plasma TV. It's been a great TV for watching over the air high-definition TV, playing games, watching up-scaled DVDs from the Xbox 360, and watching Netflix.

Back in October 2010 we signed up for Netflix. In addition to our home theater PC - Xbox setup where we record HD TV shows for later viewing, we now have a wide variety of movies and TV shows available on demand. We can watch these shows on up to six devices, all with the same account. We watch shows on our new HD TV through the Xbox 360, on our two analog TVs via two Nintendo Wiis, or on our Windows phones. The service remembers the recently watched shows, and resumes the show where you left off if even between devices.

What are you using for entertainment or to keep in touch these days?