dbark

Bob, I love that you mention boots along with all the gadgets!

I love it when I find the perfect clothing item that is reliable for years. Eddie Bauer I find pretty good for outdoor clothing, but I'm an outdoor clothing fanatic. Love my Merrell mocs, people say they're ugly but my feet love them

Wish I had a Dyson, having said that, when we moved into this house last year which has central vacuum - I now love that! We have two cats and the CV is amazing!

Have been looking for a good, powerful kettle. Mine (GE) takes forever to boil!

Speaking of cats, the SuperScratcher (scratching box) is fantastic. My cats love it .. especially when I refresh it with cat nip, which is like cat drugs, they go into ecstasies and refuse to get off the box!

Technology wise - love the smaller external hard drives - I keep photos, video, music on there as back up and to free up the PC hard drive.

For kindle/nook users - is either one better than the other? It's something I'm looking to get soon.

dunroving

Vasque Sundowner hiking boots - now 12 years old and cracked, but I still put them on in preference for my new Meindl Borneo boots, unless I'm doing some serious hiking.

Montrail Gore-Tex lo-cut shoes (can't remember the model - they don't make them any more). After 9 years of slipping them on every morning and afternoon to walk Suzy, I recently had to bin them because they literally fell apart on my feet.

Wind-up kitchen timer - no more burnt pizza!

Thor-Lo Light Hiker socks - they no longer sell them in UK outdoor shops because they simply never wear out (so no re-sales)

When I eventually get one, I'm sure an iPod will get me back into listening to music - I haven't taken my 300+ CD's out of the packing boxes since 2006.

Cyber-Home 300 DVD player (hackable for multi-region). It died recently, but $30 for 10 years of multi-region DVD viewing isn't bad.

I'm also not really a tech geek (I have a $10 mobile with no camera, and don't give out the number), but I recently caved and bought a 42" LCD TV, Blu-Ray player, and Humax Freesat HD receiver/recorder and am already impressed with the difference in viewing quality (and look forward to recording all those programs that air after 10 p.m., so I can watch them before my bedtime!)

Hiro11

Stuff I really like:

Sprint/HTC Evo 4G: Great hardware, constantly updated and improved Android build (it's already been updated 4 times and is now extremely fast) and I live and work in areas with great 4G coverage. It's a great phone.

Zune HD + ZunePass: yes, I'm one of the six people that bought a Zune HD. If you listen to a lot of different music, constantly want new music and don't want to pay a lot of money, this combination absolutely destroys anything Apple offers. Having basically every album ever made instantly available (with perfect tags etc) at any time (even over wifi) for $15/month is very, very convenient. Want to try it? Get it in a few minutes. Don't like it? Delete it, it will be there if you want to listen to it again. Add the autoplaylisting options, an HD dock and wifi syncing and you've got a great way to discover new music streamed directly to your stereo. And it's legal, which matters to me. Subscription-based music services are the way to go and ZunePass is the best one out there.

LL Bean All Weather molded boots: Not exactly cheap, but you get what you pay for. If you're through effing around with waterproof winter boots, these are the way to go. Perfect for snowy/slushy/icy dog walks in sub-zero temperatures. They are also basically indestructible.

Marmot PreCip rain jacket: Cheap, completely waterproof, very well designed and extremely durable. The perfect rain coat.

Asics Gel-Cumulus running shoes: the best, most comfortable and most durable running shoes made. Cheap and easy to find too. Of course running shoes are highly personal, but these are my favorite.

Bikesdirect bicycles and Neuvation cycling wheels: If you need a good quality road, commuter, mountain or track bike, BikesDirect makes and sells great stuff for roughly half what you'd pay at a bike store. You have to know what you want, but if you know a bit about bikes, Bikesdirect is the place to go. Also, Neuvation wheels are better than other wheels costing 5 times as much.

nettlebed

We have this kettle since we like different types of tea. Very fast!

Yes. Kindle is better. AND Amazon.com is more stable as a company than B&N.

Rete

The absolute one thing I DO NOT WANT is a kindle or any other type of "reader". I prefer to own a book and take my time and pleasure in reading it and then passing it on to others and then others and then others and then donate to the Vets Hospital or VFW. Cannot do that with a kindle. They are expensive, the "novels" are outrageously expensive, and then they are gone.

nettlebed

Just as well nobody is forcing you to buy one, eh?

hobbes79

Ditto on that. Great piece of kit.

I'd add Tom Tom and a droid mobile.

Jaxbar

My Garmin Forerunner has been great for getting me in training for races this year just dusted it off today as I have signed up for 15k in feb. I love my little Netbook that fits in my bag. My newest toy - yet to be tested is a Smartpen hope it will be useful. And of course hairdryer and straighteners

MrEmjoy

I totally trashed our rabbit so I got the wife an Electric Bottle Opener. It's been charged once since the Xmas before last and it's still going strong.

Also got her a wine aerator as well, which does work.

Bob

Aye, I'm surprised how much use that gets considering most friends just have it gathering dust. Our little one loves prancing around to Just Dance and we've been getting into Epic Mickey and I've been loving Golden Eye.

Bob

I just read that about Kindle, but it's a one time lend of 14 days which is a bit meh, but least it allows the book to be read on other devices which is nice.

Wondering how well this reads in low light conditions, the Nook can be back lit right? But the kindle isn't? So if you had a book torch and reading under the sheets kind of thing in bed, how easy is it to read?

nettlebed

How about one of these:

Bob

Good boots, especially in cold areas are a must, and Beans do have some nice ones, mine are still in great shape, except the grip thingy to help yank them on is a little ratty on the left boot now. Merrells are just awesome though.

And the CV, the missus, her grand mother has one, the original from the show home back in the 60's or 70's...still works but it sounds like a jet plane and the whole house shakes when it is on

Bob

As you're in the UK, you should check out Spotify, probably the best music site around, free service works a treat and if that doesn't have your catalogue of tunes, deezer.com is pretty awesome, it's French but the equivalent but they don't have country restrictions and have a nice alternate set of tunes that you wouldn't look for ordinarily.

http://listen.grooveshark.com is probably one of the best online music sites too, much better than last.fm and better than the free pandora as well....and if you've got a iphone/android, these sites are even better.

MrEmjoy

To the Man Cave Mobile!