MOST LIKELY TO BE PURCHASED BY MY HOUSEHOLD: The Picowatt

 

A New York based start up has really charmed the pants off of our household with this nifty little wi-fi enabled smart plug. What does it do you say? Oh baby....

 

 

• Real-time read-out of electricity usage and the ability to control appliances from a central point.
• Ability to take advantage of off-peak hours facilitated by the data you get from the device TRANSALATION: Savings on your utility bills and less consumption of energy
• You are in control. You set it up....it’s a plug, it fits over your existing outlets! No waiting for any other 3rd party to help you figure out all the stuff.
• Gathers all data via Wi-Fi into your PC OR...get this, a Facebook application that can be operated from a smartphone!
• Eliminates standby power, so when you’re not using an electronic device, it pulls the power.

 

The company says that this puppy will be available by April 2010, and it will be about the size of an Apple AirPort.

Oh yea, the best part, It’s $79! That’s pretty doable, especially with all the other benefits! Thinking this is a must for most households ☺  Check out more about the Picowatt here

MOST COVETED FOR FAMILY MEDIA CONSUMPTION EXPERIENCE: The Boxee Box

 

Our gigantic family of 3 would get something out of this puppy, including our 15 month old, as she’s already a huge fan of YouTube...well, online video in general. She loves the whole on demand thing. She may just take after her Mama ☺  

What does this little device do?

You attach it to your HDTV. It can play local media files AND online media content: Video: Adobe Flash 10.1, H.264 (MKV, MOV), VC-1, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, AVI, Xvid, Divx, PCM/LPCM, VOB Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, AAC, DTS, Dolby Digital, Ogg Vorbis PHOTO: JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG.

The coolest part of this funky shaped black box is it that it can stream online media content straight to your TV! Plus it has apps (of course...now everything’s gonna have apps). What kind of apps you ask? How about Netflix, Facebook or even Twit.TV. Basically you can stream movies directly from Netflix, and post a review of the movie on FB if you so choose. I would also be able to watch my favorite video podcasts on the television!!!! (on the occasional day that Hunter has decided she’s had enough of Elmo, and who knows when that would be.)

From what I have been reading and listening to Boxee has some pretty awesome software and interface so navigating through all the content is pretty darn seamless....What’s the price you ask? “Around $200.” That’s not too bad, considering the fact that we only have basic basic basic cable, and our bill is $12/month. If we subscribed to a premium cable package that would be 2 months worth of service.

.....Now if we only owned a HDTV.....

More about the Boxee Box

DEVICE MOST LIKELY TO MAKE A YOGEEK MAMI HAPPY (at least before the Apple Event on 1/27): Que ProReader by Plastic Logic

I have not in any way wanted an e-reader. They just didn't call my attention in the least, I mean at ALL...until I saw this lovely thing and all that it can do.

One of the reasons that e-readers weren’t really calling my name was because of the design. They are just not pretty. I think they were way too plain and often times downright ugly, and to spend a couple of hundred bucks on something that didn't aesthetically please me was just not going to happen. There is only one other thing that beats aesthetics for me and that’s comfort, and at least from my looking at the Kindle it just didn't seem like a comfortable device to me.

 

Efficiency is big in my book. It’s started to eek up there with aesthetics and comfort. This is mainly due to my daughter. I’ve been longing for a device that I can have with me while I sit next to her as she eats, or that I can take with me to on my bus rides to teach yoga, or even have in the kitchen with me as I'm cooking. I want this device to help me be more efficient and productive in:

 

 

• Reading online content (especially all the blogs that I’m subscribed to)
• Reading emails, emails, emails
• Reading through the gazillion e-books and software manuals that I NEED to read
• Check out and respond to work power point presentations and PDFs
• Annotate the 4 categories above

 

With the Que I can do all that and more! I finally would LOVE to subscribe to a magazine or newspaper again! I would be supporting publishing companies without having to add more needless waste to the environment and to the clutter of my home (meaning the paper and all that, not the content...although that is debatable ;) )

It saves paper, as I don’t have to print out longer PDFs that I just DON’T want to read on my lap top.

It lowers the carbon footprint simply from having to produce physical material

It gives me the opportunity to read MORE and also make more educated investments into books and magazines that I should have a physical copy of.

It would save my back more needless strain as I often travel with 2 books in my backback just in case I have a moment to read. (Seriously I think that my backpack is at least 30 lbs, loaded up with stuff ‘just in case’ I have time to get to...)

And it’s pretty *sigh*

It’s perfect...except for the price ☹ The 4GB WiFi ‘less expensive’ model runs $649 and the 8GB WiFi and 3G model runs $799! Aghhhhh! That’s a pretty penny.

If I were to fork down that sort of cash (*cough* credit card), it would have to be MORE, perhaps something like what may or may not be announced on January 27? Just sayin’ ;)

So,

for those of you that happened to have tuned in to the goings on at CES 2010, what were your favorites and why? A YoGeek wants to know ;)