Top 10 Gadgets of 2006

One thing about gadgets in 2006: They made living on the go a lot easier. It seems like all the best new products were designed to keep you connected with your home base wherever you went. Here’s a quick look at 8 products that will keep you online and productive anywhere you travel — and 2 products that make the time spent at home a little more fun.

• The Slingbox. It records your TV shows and lets you stream them from anywhere. Picture watching new episodes of 24 in any hotel room with an Internet connection, or your favorite team’s next game in another country, in real-time.

• A T-Mobile Dash keeps you connected to your IM while managing your contacts, making calls and sending texts. It’s a phone with most of a PDA’s functionality. The big, bright screen lets you see everything and the slim design makes it easy to carry.

• A Magellan handheld GPS makes you the king of road trips. Carry it in your pocket or mount it on your dashboard - then just follow its maps to anyplace you need to visit. You’ll never get lost again.

• Get the iPod Nano and you’ll have anywhere from 500 to 1,000 songs with you as you travel - it’s a portable jukebox that’s smaller than a bookmark.

• A wireless router and wireless network cards let you stay connected without being stuck at a computer desk. Hook one up & you can work online while you’re in bed, eating at the table or watching TV.

• You’ll need a laptop to enjoy the virtues of wireless from anywhere. We recommend a MacBook, but the Toshiba Satellite is nice, too.

• With digital cameras dropping in price, and mobile online connections making it easy to share your photos as soon as you’ve taken them, you can share your life a lot more easily. A good choice for that is the Canon Powershot A710 - it’s good, it’s affordable and it ensures that the next crazy thing you see in New York will be captured for posterity.

• Portable DVD players turn your road trips or long waits at the airport into a chance to catch up on The Sopranos. We recommend the Sony DVP-FX810 Portable DVD Player.

• A Nintendo Wii. When you’re home and need to unwind a little, or just have a laugh, you can load up Zelda: Twilight Princess or Rayman: Raving Rabbids and have a good time.

• The easiest way to enjoy your Wii (or what’s recorded on your Slingbox) with an LCD TV. Their screens are brighter and they take up less space in your home. Our choice is the Samsung LN-S3241D.

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