The Ghost of Gadgets Past

Now that we’re on to a new year of Christmas gadget giving, I thought it would be a good time to review the gadgets we gave (and received) in 2006. So I went back and looked at last year’s recap. And kinda wish I hadn’t. Of the seven gadget gifts in my household that I reviewed last December, only two can be considered unqualified successes: the Squeezebox and the Wii. Here are the other five that didn’t fare so well.

eStarling Wi-Fi photo frame
Disaster. This was supposed to be the greatest gift ever because I’d be able to email photos right to my parents living room. Unfortunately the device was recalled due to the troubling fact that it didn’t work at all. Then we were shipped a new version in March, but that one didn’t work either. We could have returned it, but we kept thinking we’d try one more thing before shipping it back. It’s still sitting unwrapped in a box in a closet somewhere.

DigiMemo
This gift was for my mom so she could take notes on paper and import them directly to her laptop. Unfortunately, although it appeared the device came with OCR software, it had to be purchased separately. Then the software wasn’t available. Then a year went by. Talk about gluttons for punishment, though, my Dad finally found and purchased the software – it’s wrapped to go under the tree this year. Can the original gift be saved? Hmmm…

The Dash
Despite the fact that T-Mobile ruined the surprise with this one, the gift was very successful early on. And then somehow after a few months my husband decided that – though it was a great for email and travel – it wasn’t that comfortable to use as a phone. He reverted to an old, cheap flip phone for every-day use.

Pinnacle PC HDTV Pro Stick
This is a very good HD tuner for your PC, and I loved it when I tested it out. But then I never used it again. Just never really needed to or had time to play with it. Maybe one of these days.

iRecord
Still in the box.

Overall, I hope we do better this year. But then again, half the fun is just finding, buying, opening and testing the products. If there’s a gadget we still like and use a year later, well that’s just gravy on the Christmas dinner turkey.