The handiest tech gadget I think I bough was... what was your?

[SeijiSensei]

Nice devices I have bought in the past couple of years:

I've owned a Logitech Harmony universal remote for a few years now since I have a TV, cable, audio system, PS3, and computer all connected together. After the device is programmed, you just press one button to have all the devices start up or shut down and configure themselves appropriately. I've had problems using Logitech's app on Linux with both WINE and in a VirtualBox VM. Last time I ended up borrowing my daughter's Windows machine and using that. Since you only need to re-program it when the configuration of your system changes, its lack of Linux compatibility is not a big deal if you can use someone's Windows laptop.

I also recently replaced my old, reliable Harmon Kardon audio receiver with a new Yamaha RX-373 which was half-off list price at Amazon (and $30 less than today's price). The HK had no HDMI inputs. I managed with its optical and coaxial digital ports for a while, but it's just so much easier to set up the Yamaha with its four HDMI ports. The Yamaha handles all the audio and video switching and integrates well with the Harmony.

Next, I have to give a nod to my Samsung Galaxy S3. It's just a very sleek and very powerful little device. It is the first smartphone I have owned and was certainly worth the investment. I like having access to free apps that work with Linux like clients for SSH, SMB, and rsync. I don't know if apps like these are equally available on the Apple and MS platforms.

Finally there's our new Neato robotic vacuum cleaner. I hate vacuuming, and housework in general, and being single it all falls on me. I've been stunned and disgusted by the amount of crap the Neato has removed from my carpets in just its first few runs. Cleaning its dirt compartment is most definitely a learning experience! I bought the Neato over the iRobot model because it was cheaper and has a special brush for pet-hair removal. The refurb unit I bought was also just $70 more than an upright vacuum with good pet-hair performance. It's also a lot of fun to watch it carry out its task. When it runs low on battery it trundles over to its little power station for recharging, then goes on its way again.

[Roasted]

I have three that come to mind.

1) Chromecast. It enables us to watch Netflix and all of that fun stuff. Given we have no cable TV, having something like Netflix is kind of nice to just put on a TV show and do your thing. My wife and I have been on a borderline unhealthy Criminial Minds binge lately. Netflix may have a somewhat limited library, but last I had cable TV, it too had a limited library, as I'd find myself channel surfing for hours with nothing but trash show after trash show. No complaints.

2) My HTPC. Nothing, and I do mean, nothing replaces the outstanding user interface, speed, and simplicity of XBMC. I have Ubuntu 14.04 running on my HTPC with XBMC auto launching. I love having a full OS underneath XBMC, as it's great to minimize XBMC and have a full browser to link up to Google Maps or whatever it is. It just adds more functionality overall. XBMC has a decent selection of plugins, so I can get my Colbert fix in quite nicely. Likewise, all of the multimedia sources are local, which stream from my server. Music pulls from my music samba share on my server, same with videos, same with pictures. The HTPC itself is simply a laptop with a second gen i5 processor. The LCD screen is shut off and it's set to do nothing on lid close, so the whole laptop is closed all of the time. I set it up with WOL (Wake On LAN). My wife and I have an app on our phones called PC Wake, which wakes the HTPC up (as it suspends after an hour of inactivity). So we flip the switch on our phones, system boots up, hello XBMC. Due to the limitations of the Chromecast with streaming local content, along with the fact the Chromecast is basically a glorified mini device to give you access to Netflix/YouTube/whatever 5 apps they support, I had little choice but to implement a true HTPC. That said, our TV has two HDMI ports, so it's an all around win.

3) Arguably (in my opinion), the most important thing: my server. It's a simple low wattage i3 desktop with 3TB of raid mirrored disk space. It hosts Subsonic for music streaming (and Clementine has a Subsonic plugin = absolute win), ownCloud for personal cloud storage (which our phones upload pictures/videos to when on wifi; byebye DropBox), Apache for random things I may want to share, samba for file sharing, backups for all of the computers in the house, IRC, video surveillance, and the list goes on and on. I love that darn server. It just works so well. I also have a 2nd server that WOL's @ 3 AM for an added backup, then remotely gets shut off once the backup completes. I quite like that simple box too.

Oh, and a 4th. Our TV remote. Laugh all you want, but do you know what it's like to go two years without a TV remote? I have no idea how we managed, but we did. We recently got a universal remote that works with our TV. I'm loving it.

[irv]

If I took my wife's remote away from her she would go nuts and probably shoot me.

[QIII]

Our dogs love to take tv remotes out in the back yard to play tug-o-war and chew on them.

Need a tech gadget that gives a mild shock when it comes in contact with dog saliva.

[ukripper]

LG G2 and yamaha ypt-230 piano/keyboard - currently learning the blue danube on it myself..

[JDorfler]

Kindle Paperwhite. Reading is fundamental.

[irv]

LG G2 and yamaha ypt-230 piano/keyboard - currently learning the blue danube on it myself..

You have to record a song on a sound file and post it here. I just picked up a Casio keyboard for some of the ladies in the church. 72 keys, nice keyboard and they like it. We have an old upright piano also.

[leclerc65]

My new acquisition Moto G Android phone.
Its camera sucks, but I never intended to use that by the way.
Second honour place goes to my Mini iPad Retina.

[irv]

At the beginning of the year I got myself a Flip Pal and scanned all my old photos and Negatives. Now all my kids what to use it to do their photos.
flip-Pal01.jpg Flip-Pal 02.jpg
Here are some photos of my wife's new Chromebook I posted in the first post.
Chromebook13.jpg Chromebook13-2.jpg

[Irihapeti]

Well, I didn't buy the thing, but my son and daughter-in-law left a LG p990 smartphone behind when they went to live overseas. After a few days, I took my courage in both hands and rooted the thing, then installed cyanogenmod. Works fine, and does a whole lot of stuff that I didn't orginally think it would do.