My favorite tech gadgets I purchased in 2011

My favorite new¹ tech items & gadgets of 2011 contain some expected items and a few surprises.

iPad

Hands down my most-used gadget of the year (I’m not counting my laptop, as that’s not a gadget), my iPad pretty much replaced my laptop in the evenings at home, & I took it everywhere with me. What did I do with it?

• Email
• Twitter (via Echofon Pro)
• RSS Reading (via Mr. Reader)
• Facebook (thank you Facebook, for finally releasing an official app!)
• Music streaming from my Mac mini server at home (via Audiotap)
• Wikipedia (via Articles)
• Browsing (iCabMobile lead for most of the year, & then I switched to Grazing)
• Reading (via iBooks, although the Kindle app got a little use)
• Remote control of my Mac mini server at home (via Screens)
• Journaling (via Day One; Chronories, you could have had my money, but you don’t have an iPad app)
• Videos while I’m walking on the treadmill
• Skype so my brother can videochat with my son (& his nephew) Finny
• iMessage
• Reminders (although it was mostly to add using the iPad; for following through, I rely on my iPhone)
• Spreadsheet tracking (I used Numbers, which is nice, but it’s also very crashy, which is a bummer)
• Weather (mostly via WunderMap, which gets the job done; I’m still looking for an awesome iPad weather app)
• Various games, mostly for Finny (I’ll do a post soon about his favorite apps)

I love my iPad. It’s the 32 GB Wi-Fi only model, & that’s perfect for me. It’s one of those gadgets that, if I dropped & broke it, I would scrape together whatever money I needed to immediately replace it.

KitchenAid blender

My wife broke our blender (the one her mom had given her 25 years ago or so!) & Oster didn’t make parts for it any longer. It wasn’t that awesome of a blender, with one caveat: since it was a couple of decades old, it was built of really solid materials. But overall, it was just OK. Seeing as how I like to make smoothies, it was imperative that we get a new blender.

The problem? Blenders tend to be binary products: cheap & crappy or fantastic but super-expensive. After much research, I finally settled on not-super-expensive & darn-good-but-not-Vitamix-quality: the KitchenAid KSB465ER 4-Speed Countertop Blender, in gorgeous Empire Red (which matches our new kitchen quite nicely). Around $90 at Amazon.

This thing rips through whatever I’ve thrown at it, including ice & frozen fruit. It is loud, but that’s not a huge deal to me, and its motor is strong, so I have to hold it while it’s ripping through stuff, but again, that’s not a biggie. It does seem tough, like it will hold up for a long time, which is exactly what I want. All in all, my KitchenAid blender gets a lot of use, & I’m glad I bought it.

Soyapower Plus Soy Milk Maker

Yep, this year I purchased a lot of kitchen gadgets, because I finally had a kitchen of my own. I’ve been drinking soy milk on and off for years, & recently I started adding almond milk to the mix, but the real reason I got this was to save money. My wife & I go through cow’s milk like crazy—about a gallon every 4 days! She’s not a huge fan of alternative milks, but I am, & I thought it would be fun & help reduce our purchases of cow milk if I switched over to soy.

After reading a bit, I decided to go with the Soyapower Plus Soy Milk Maker ($120 from Amazon). It comes with some organic soybeans, enough for two batches, & after trying just one I knew I was going to go all in. As a result I bought 25 pounds of organic soybeans from Laura Soybeans for $40 (that also included a nice, solid storage container as well). Oh, and a pound of blanched almonds from Nuts Online for $7.

Making soy milk is easy:

1. Scoop up about 100 grams of soybeans & put ’em in a bowl of water. Soak the soybeans for at least 8 hours. I’ve sometimes put the bowl in a fridge for up to 24 hours. The point is, get the beans good & soaked.
2. Fill the main container up to the fill lines with water. Toss the soaked soybeans in.
3. I put the following in for taste:
   • 1.5 tsp Splenda
   • .25 tsp salt
   • 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. Put the lid on, close the latches, & press the Soy button.
5. Wait 20 minutes.
6. When the machine starts beeping, turn it off, remove the top, & pour the milk through the filter. I actually filter it twice.

That’s it! It really couldn’t be simpler. The milk tastes great, and we’re buying a lot less cow’s milk than we did before I got the Soyapower. I’m very pleased with my purchase, & I anticipate using it for years & years to come.

There are other things I bought in 2011 that are cool, fun, useful, & worthy of note, but those are my three faves for the year. They’re all solidly built, designed well, & supremely useful. What more could you ask?