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View Full Version : The handiest tech gadget I think I bough was... what was your?



irv
October 6th, 2014, 06:31 PM
What is the handiest tech gadget you got recently? Mine was a Chromebook for my wife. It's fast, runs trouble free, is well built. It has a nice keyboard, long battery life (8 hours), light weight and has a 13” 1940X1080 screen. I also think that Chrome has the right idea for an OS. Running in the cloud and they keep it up to date.
With that said, if Ubuntu had a server-side OS like this and hardware that would access it, it would really go somewhere.
What's your thought on this?

TheFu
October 7th, 2014, 12:38 AM
The best tech device I got last year was a cheap LED projector. Don't think I'll ever buy a TV again. This thing is tiny and easily throws a 90in screen. The LED means 10+ yrs of use, no bulb to change. Of course at that size, control of the room lighting is mandatory. Perfect for a man-cave, sports, gaming, movies. 65" TVs seem so very small now. ;) BTW - perfect for those Halloween movies in hidef and a little SOCOM action.

...

So - I got a chromebook last Feb and immediately wiped it, put Ubuntu Server and openbox onto it. Don't need for google to know EVEN MORE about my IRL world; not a "cloud" fan here. Like irv, I also love the 8 hr battery, but it isn't perfect in many other ways, sadly. Overall, wish I'd gotten a Dell 11inch with the same CPU instead so a normal keyboard would be available and reasonable laptop RAM/SSD upgrades were possible.

Different factors matter to different people, so these things are great for many people.

buzzingrobot
October 7th, 2014, 01:01 PM
Very low tech: Stainless steel cafetière aka French press coffee maker.

'Cause I kept knocking the more typical glass press off the kitchen counter and the replacement costs about $40.

mastablasta
October 7th, 2014, 01:09 PM
heh never seen one of those before. It seems it's actually Italian :O. just as the one I use for brewing called moka pot (also italian) in English it seems. It doesn't make a proper espresso but quite close to it. We drink very strong coffee but in a very small dose.

irv
October 7th, 2014, 02:21 PM
The best tech device I got last year was a cheap LED projector. Don't think I'll ever buy a TV again. This thing is tiny and easily throws a 90in screen. The LED means 10+ yrs of use, no bulb to change. Of course at that size, control of the room lighting is mandatory. Perfect for a man-cave, sports, gaming, movies. 65" TVs seem so very small now. ;) BTW - perfect for those Halloween movies in hidef and a little SOCOM action.

...

So - I got a chromebook last Feb and immediately wiped it, put Ubuntu Server and openbox onto it. Don't need for google to know EVEN MORE about my IRL world; not a "cloud" fan here. Like irv, I also love the 8 hr battery, but it isn't perfect in many other ways, sadly. Overall, wish I'd gotten a Dell 11inch with the same CPU instead so a normal keyboard would be available and reasonable laptop RAM/SSD upgrades were possible.

Different factors matter to different people, so these things are great for many people.

Any links on that LED projector, I would like to look into one of those myself.

TheFu
October 7th, 2014, 02:50 PM
Any links on that LED projector, I would like to look into one of those myself.

Optoma ML550 - google finds them easily. I've had it over a year now. Focus is off for the first 20 sec as the LEDs warm up. After that - perfect.

tgalati4
October 7th, 2014, 03:18 PM
Saeco superautomatic coffee maker. 20 cents a cup. Tecnically it doesn't make espresso. It's not french press. It's not moka press. The coffee geeks have dubbed it Cafe Crema.

My old one was given to me by a business associate and it had 17,000 cups on it. I gave it away at 22,000 cups. I bought a used one for $250 with only 2,000 cups on it. I put about 1000 cups per year through it, that's about 700 cups of coffee per year (about 1/3 are cleaning cycles, just water through it).

The other 2 tech gadgets that I have gotten a lot of use out of: Nokia n800 and n810 tablets. These things run linux, and I am constantly finding new ways to use them. Although, now I have to find a way to patch the bash vulnerability.

TheFu
October 7th, 2014, 03:38 PM
The other 2 tech gadgets that I have gotten a lot of use out of: Nokia n800 and n810 tablets. These things run linux, and I am constantly finding new ways to use them. Although, now I have to find a way to patch the bash vulnerability.

Stopped drinking coffee 7 yrs ago. Tea now. Haven't moved to a personal tea infuser, but I have been eying some. ;) Seeing such bad burnt coffee take over the world (Starbucks) is appalling. Suggestions for an infuser?

But - I loved my N800!!! The bad thing was the power port broke and needed to be "held" to charge. Plus all the batteries were so very expensive and only the real Nokia battery ($90) provided barely enough charge. All the other batteries bought from amazon, radio shack, and other B-n-M stores held 60% of the Nokia charge and became next to useless within a year. Used an external charger. Bringing 3 extra batteries and swapping them was handy. Having to transcode TV/movies before a trip to 240p sucked. Still, it was a great little device for the time with easy swap batteries and SDHC storage. I still remember using Skype in Buenos Aires over wifi to reserve a hotel room in Brazil the day before a trip to Iquazu Falls. Also remeber using the email client, rsync+ssh and a BT keyboard to keep in contact with friends and family as I traveled the world with just the N800 pushing photos to my server back home. Xenmap on the N800 rocked. Great little computer - APT packages.

Then MS bought it and I dumped that ASAP.

After getting an Android tablet, tried to do the same thing with it and got burned in Europe because some hotels only allowed extremely common outbound ports, no ssh and not ssh on high ports. At the time, Android wasn't enough OS to find the issue and work around it. Switched to traveling with a netbook (Asus Eee w/ Ubuntu-Server+LXDE) for a few years - now I use a Chromebook (above) and have an ssh server on port 443 for 1 of my public IPs. Nobody blocks 443 ... though Thailand (all ISPs in-country) does seem to block my website (not the port, just the DNS resolution for some unknown reason?). There's 1 ISP in India that blocks it too. Nowhere else have I seen that - but there are 150 more countries to see for me!

Dragonbite
October 7th, 2014, 04:14 PM
What is the handiest tech gadget you got recently? Mine was a Chromebook for my wife. It's fast, runs trouble free, is well built. It has a nice keyboard, long battery life (8 hours), light weight and has a 13” 1940X1080 screen. I also think that Chrome has the right idea for an OS. Running in the cloud and they keep it up to date.
With that said, if Ubuntu had a server-side OS like this and hardware that would access it, it would really go somewhere.
What's your thought on this?

My daughter saved up to buy one herself, so we helped by covering 1/2 the cost. Was still a substantial amount of money for her (she's not even old enough to drive) but she earned it. She loves it and uses it exclusively expect to print homework (she won't let me use it long enough to attach the printer for her to use...)

"Gadget I bought" ... I don't buy most gadgets.

Maybe it would be the ink cartridges for the printer my wife picked up for free. I have practically gone through all of the ink just getting the printer heads cleaned but so far it is working nicely (and isi the one I want to connect the Chromebook to).

Or the SSD for my laptop?.. No, that's not it


I got it!

A couple of years ago I ran across an article on using LED light bulbs and a Lithium coin battery to run a flexible light anywhere, that will last! I"m not sure if this is the site, but it looks similar and gives you the information on what I am talking about although I use closeline clips or duck tape ( http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/ )

257012

So I have used it while camping (stick a few on the latrine and no need to use a flashlight to find it in the middle of the night), or for gently lighting the campsite without blinding lights and the battery will last days of constant use.

It casts about as much light as a full moon so it doesn't destroy your night vision, while it definitely helps your aim! ;)

Since it is cool (LED bulb), I am planning on putting it into a ziplock bag with some rocks and toss it into our fountain so it lights up from under the water. :)

Oh, and my daughter (same one) plays frisbee with her friends after their Girl Scouts meeting so she took a few of them and taped them to the underside of a frisbee so they could see it while playing with it at night.

If nothing else, they are very handy, cast pretty visible light, last long and perfect for camping, hiking or to toss a couple in the car to put together in emergencies.

Yeah, I guess that is the best gadget I've bought lately.

Speaking of which.. I need a few more!

irv
October 7th, 2014, 04:48 PM
I got to give my 2 cents on this coffee thing. (Just took a break and made a nice fresh pot). It's got to be over 12 years ago I got a commercial made Bun coffee maker like you see in some coffee shops and quick stop gas stations. I am so spoiled it is hard for me to drink coffee from others because this machine just makes some great coffee. (I know we use good beans). As I remember I think I paid $250 for it, but it was the best $250 I ever spent. (Just took another drink of this wonderful coffee)Yum. If you do the math it cost me under $21 a year to own this wonderful machine. I make on an average 3 pots a day so that means I have over 13,000 pots of coffee and it still going strong. My wife just informed me that it might be closer to 20 years that we bought it. To be honest with you, I can't even remember when we got it.

SeijiSensei
October 7th, 2014, 07:09 PM
Nice devices I have bought in the past couple of years:

I've owned a Logitech Harmony (http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Harmony-650-Remote-Control/dp/B004OVECU0/) 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 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JF8FD8/) 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 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GOH64IA/) 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
October 7th, 2014, 08:39 PM
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
October 7th, 2014, 11:06 PM
If I took my wife's remote away from her she would go nuts and probably shoot me.

QIII
October 7th, 2014, 11:21 PM
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
October 8th, 2014, 09:20 AM
LG G2 and yamaha ypt-230 piano/keyboard - currently learning the blue danube on it myself..

JDorfler
October 8th, 2014, 11:18 AM
Kindle Paperwhite. Reading is fundamental.

irv
October 9th, 2014, 12:08 AM
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
October 9th, 2014, 02:15 AM
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
October 10th, 2014, 10:46 PM
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.
257116 257117
Here are some photos of my wife's new Chromebook I posted in the first post.
257118 257119

Irihapeti
October 11th, 2014, 06:53 AM
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.

irv
October 11th, 2014, 02:05 PM
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.

What is it about us techies, we just can't leave our hands off things and use them as is. I did the same thing about a month ago. Back in 2011 or 2012 I got my wife and myself a Nook Tablet. My wife still uses hers but I stopped using mine about a year ago. so I went on cyanogenimod and downloaded KitKat 4.4 Android and installed it on it. After Rooting of course. I got it to where I can run two desktops at the same time. But I find I still don't use it that much. I also have a older Asus Transformer, 10" with a keyboard that I use more. With that said, I still like my laptop the best.

Vladlenin5000
October 11th, 2014, 04:41 PM
I'm having an hard time deciding and that's why I didn't post earlier...

All things considered my vote goes to the fabulous Meizu MX3, the best gadget for an audiophile. The Wolfson chip plus the HD Dirac codecs with optimizations for several headphones/earphones (Meizu, Senheiser and others) resulted in hours after hours of musical pleasure ranging from mellow blues to the hardest heavy metal you can think of.
The FlymeOS (Android 4.4 based) gives you all the Android goodies in an UI even easier than iOS.

3rdalbum
October 15th, 2014, 12:46 PM
A few come to mind:

1. My X-Series Walkman. Awesome sound, a nice OLED screen and user interface for the time, high-quality noise cancelling headphones and solid build quality. I bought it in 2007 and it's still going strong. It was pretty freaking expensive but well worth it. A super-premium MP3 player and it works with Ubuntu.

2. My netbook, which has been a lifesaver several times.

3. My 9-cell battery for the netbook. I bought it from Hong Kong for my first netbook and it outlasted the official batteries by a matter of years. Still going strong.

4. Either of my Android phones. They've extended my capabilities so much. I would be literally lost without Google Maps!

5. My jigsaw. I bought it to build a Bitcoin ATM but ended off using it in the construction of a wine rack. I'm very proud of that wine rack.

Dragonbite
October 15th, 2014, 02:40 PM
5. My jigsaw. I bought it to build a Bitcoin ATM but ended off using it in the construction of a wine rack. I'm very proud of that wine rack.

A wine rack sounds more useful ;)

mastablasta
October 15th, 2014, 03:26 PM
4. Either of my Android phones. They've extended my capabilities so much. I would be literally lost without Google Maps!


visited Berlin not long ago on a short business trip I wanted to use Google maps and literally got lost as I found out they didn't work unless you have an internet connection. I only had a Wi-Fi tablet that had a GPS with me, so that was it. They were useless to me. luckily I found a descent paper map of the city and taxi drivers took care of the rest :P, company picked up the bill.
found they have another open maps that actually work with no internet connection. will try to use those next time when traveling.

I can't find a good android phone at a normal price (150 EUR or less). Moto G came close until I found out you can't replace the battery. and that the older model doesn't have an microSD slot. WTF?!

frank75
October 15th, 2014, 04:07 PM
I don't know if you'd call it a "Tech Gadget" or not but adding SSD's to my laptops really helped to speed up boot times.

David_Wright
October 15th, 2014, 04:12 PM
... I wanted to use Google maps and literally got lost as I found out they didn't work unless you have an internet connection.
Google Maps will work, but first you have to cache the maps for the area that you want. Obviously the larger the area, the larger cache is required and it will not be as detailed as if you are online, but it will be fine for basic navigation.

irv
October 15th, 2014, 05:36 PM
I don't know if you'd call it a "Tech Gadget" or not but adding SSD's to my laptops really helped to speed up boot times.

SSD's are techie, Every old computer that passes through my hands get Max Memory upgrades and a SSD. I have old computers that run like new ones. SSD's are the way to go.

frank75
October 15th, 2014, 05:42 PM
Yep, I couldn't believe how much faster by boot times were with a simple SSD upgrade.

tgalati4
October 15th, 2014, 10:03 PM
Real men don't boot. They don't hibernate either.

shantiq
January 25th, 2015, 12:30 PM
hardware only and your reasons:

for me this keyboard which allows me to surf in very dim light; i have very poor eyesight and came dusk i could not see earlier keyboard keys I used... now i can see and very nice too with this beauty

http://s20.postimg.org/axerfvfrt/accuratus_monster_2_usb_hi_vis_keyboard_uppercas.j pg (http://postimg.org/image/axerfvfrt/)

d-cosner
January 25th, 2015, 04:20 PM
Interesting. I too have eyesight problems. I use an SIIG Mini Keyboard that has tall characters on the keys. The keyboard is just black with white characters on it.

Linuxratty
January 28th, 2015, 12:48 AM
I like my Wacom art tablet. It's so much easier drawing with it than using a mouse.
BTW,if you both need larger mouse pointers,we have them. See my sig.

Frogs Hair
January 28th, 2015, 02:28 AM
Threads Merged

mamamia88
January 29th, 2015, 05:57 AM
My sony bluetooth headphones with nfc that I got on black friday for half off that i use every day

Matthew_Harrop
January 29th, 2015, 10:27 PM
Can books count? I got myself some ancient copies of Modern Operating system and Operating system: Design and Implementation by Andrew S. Tanenbaum. Excellent books and a great insight into Operating systems.
I didn't really get any tech gadgets this year. A very quiet tech front for us this year

Mike_Walsh
January 30th, 2015, 10:58 PM
Probably doesn't really count, but I DID rescue an ancient Dell lappie from oblivion in a bottom drawer in the spare bedroom. It had XP on it, and used to run like a slug. I installed Puppy Linux 'Tahrpup' on it, and it's running like a champ now. I use it as a file server, and it connects to all the other 'puters in the house via Puppy's built-in SAMBA client/server.

I tell a lie..! I DID buy one useful piece of tech last year. A PCMCIA cardbus slot converter that added a further 4 USB ports to the old Dell, giving a total of 6. The files on the Dell are all stored on 4 128 GB flash drives (the HDD's only 40 GB); and Puppy's Samba-TNG server auto-mounts them at bootup; saves me having to remember to manually mount them.


Regards,

Mike.

Edit:_ Oh, yes; and a PCIe USB 3.0 card for my big ol' Compaq desktop.....so I can use the USB 3.0 external Seagate at its intended transfer rate...

michael-piziak
January 31st, 2015, 03:59 AM
I received a PNY 128 Gig flash drive (thumb drive) for Christmas.

I use it to back up all my folders (documents, pictures, music, video) etc....

I've already used it when I did a rein-stall. It's too kewl !

Bucky Ball
January 31st, 2015, 06:18 AM
The Odroid U3 (http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G138745696275). Upgraded from a Raspberry Pi. Media serves wonderfully and runs Lubuntu (and other flavours, but that's what's installed now). Not a glitch. ;)

Bucky Ball
January 31st, 2015, 06:19 AM
The Odroid U3 (http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G138745696275). Upgraded from a Raspberry Pi. Media serves wonderfully and runs Lubuntu (and other flavours, but that's what's installed now). Not a glitch. ;)


hardware only and your reasons:

for me this keyboard which allows me to surf in very dim light; i have very poor eyesight and came dusk i could not see earlier keyboard keys I used... now i can see and very nice too with this beauty

http://s20.postimg.org/axerfvfrt/accuratus_monster_2_usb_hi_vis_keyboard_uppercas.j pg (http://postimg.org/image/axerfvfrt/)

I touch type so rarely look at the keyboard, but I love that keyboard, simply because it's colourful and different! Where did you get it? ;)

michael256
February 3rd, 2015, 10:06 AM
Got a free blackberry tablet from a buddy at work...

it has QNX and a locked bootloader...nice paperweight though. All joking aside it plays my music in the morning so i'm happy

Linuxratty
February 3rd, 2015, 04:13 PM
Well the one I've enjoyed the most has been my Bamboo art tablet.

michael256
February 6th, 2015, 12:58 AM
I've always liked tablets, but i always end up going to my laptop eventually

Matthew_Harrop
February 6th, 2015, 11:23 AM
@Michael256, I'm always the same. They never seem to have enough grunt somehow, even when I am just reading the news

cassialeilani
February 9th, 2015, 05:24 PM
My new laptop, it is a replacement for my ten year old laptop. As a techie with a very limited pocketbook (but unlimited imagination and ingenuity), I am excited to actually be able to be able to run more than one or two programs at the same time.

Dragonbite
February 9th, 2015, 05:50 PM
My new laptop, it is a replacement for my ten year old laptop. As a techie with a very limited pocketbook (but unlimited imagination and ingenuity), I am excited to actually be able to be able to run more than one or two programs at the same time.

That's the curse of being able to make things other people wouldn't bother with, work! :) Congratulations you got something newer!

Bucky Ball
February 10th, 2015, 03:58 PM
My new laptop, it is a replacement for my ten year old laptop. As a techie with a very limited pocketbook (but unlimited imagination and ingenuity), I am excited to actually be able to be able to run more than one or two programs at the same time.

I know what you're saying. Got my Toshiba Sat Pro about three years ago and it was/is a whole new world. Have fun. ;)

TheFu
February 12th, 2015, 01:46 PM
I touch type so rarely look at the keyboard

I touch type too ...
Picked up (3) IBM 101M keyboards for $1.50 total about a decade ago - perhaps longer - at a computer show here. Those are the mechanical keyboards that have the "feel" we all like and the clicking we all hate. I don't hear the clicking anymore, but have learned to use the mute button when on conference calls. After a tea/coffee/soda spill, just swap in one of the spares while the dirty one gets washed and air dries. These will still work perfectly when I'm dead, positive. Best of all - no "Windows key"!!!!

I would get a Das Keyboard, (http://shop.daskeyboard.com/) but just can't see how swapping a $0.50 item for an identical $140+ item makes any sense. Had a Norton keyboard in the early 1990s that was good - no loud clicks, but excellent "feel" - haven't found any other keyboard like it since.

I'm a tablet user too.
Have an old Acer 10 inch tablet running Android 4.xx that will never get updated to a new release. It connects to the Calibre network server here and makes reading books anytime and longer Ars T articles (or other daily news) a joy over b'fast. I must admit, didn't expect to like it so much and for other uses it is only adequate, definitely not good. The only other app used on it is SeriesGuide. When this 4 yr old device dies, I'll probably look for a cheap 8 inch tablet; 7 inches is just a little too small for my eyesight and 10 inches is too large for travel, when I have to take a netbook anyway. Much thanks to the EU for forcing USB charging for these things.

Tea Infuser
Ah - and a travel tea infuser (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/314dc73hV%2BL.jpg). Got mine from Amazon for Xmas, but if I were looking again today, Williams-Sonoma has a loose leaf infuser with a press built-in. Can't find it now.