The two ‘gadget’ purchases I need to make in 2011

So the Consumer Electronics Show has taken place for another year, with masses of coverage on all the new products and trends which manufacturers believe will shape out gadget buying for the next couple of years. And it’s been fairly familiar for the tech crowd, with 3D TVs and Camcorders, the continued rise of smartphones and ‘super’ phones, the growing plethora of tablet computing, and possibly the most suprising news being either that Ford launched an electric vehicle at CES rather than a motor show, or that Acer is phasing out of the netbook market in favour of tablets. And in the midst of all that, I went out and made my major gadget purchase of the year, in the shape of a new Samsung laptop (Which I am still absolutely loving, by the way).

But after looking at all of the new products being released, along with the rumours and leaked photos of new tablets and phones from the usual big name manufacturers, there are really only two things I can justify as essential for me this year, and neither of them is particularly new and shiny. But they’re probably as important, if not, more important, than ever…

An Arduino Kit: As they describe it, ‘Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software’. As I see it, it’s a great way for someone who isn’t particularly practical to finally play around with how things work in an relatively cheap way, without risking laptop or Xbox 360 destruction. And it’s also a chance to hopefully involve my electrician father in some geeky projects, along with hopefully inspiring my son as he gets older (He’s not yet three, so I’ve got a little bit of time before he starts playing with soldering irons). The ability to look at, think about, and get some rudimentary knowledge of electronics is only going to get more important for him as he gets older, even if his career never involves actually handling circuit boards. And there are countless great projects and potential applications for Arduino hardware, so it’s something I’m keen to explore…

A Makerbot: OK, so this one is a bit pricier, but I firmly believe that 3D printing is the third part of the most disruptive phase of digital technology we’ve seen (the others being the internet itself, and the open sourcing of ideas). And it’s also something which brings the potential of the net/open source into the physical world in a tangible way – one which seems utterly like magic to a number of non-digital, non-techy people that I’ve chatted with. The idea that someone can access a design, and produce it automatically in their own home to end up with a physical object, using a device which costs less than $1500? I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how disruptive this should be for a hell of a lot of industries. And again, I don’t think it’s something that individuals and businesses should be waiting to look at experimenting with, and working how how it can work for them in the future…

There’s a pretty obvious theme here. It’s one of playing with ways to construct new things, based on hacking about with existing stuff, and disrupting the traditional ways that things have been done, to hopefully bring more benefits to people as a whole. Which is a pretty lofty theme to justify buying some cool geeky stuff to play with.

But I think these are important enough to invest in, despite the fact I’m running a small but fast-growing business. And in a purely practical way, these really are longterm business investments, as it’s far more fun to be disruptive than trying to slow progress.

If you’ve been playing with this stuff, please let me know about it – my electrical and electronic skills are best summed up by the time I soldered myself to a Scalextrix car as a teenager! So I’ll need all the support and encouragement I can get!

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