Preparing for our recent family vacation - a cruise to the Caribbean - I realized I needed something important . . . a watch.

Like many people, I have come to rely on my mobile devices (first Blackberry, now iPhone) to find the time, and haven't regularly used a watch in years. I have a few old watches kicking around – some with cartoon characters, some with cracked crystals, all with dead batteries – but nothing that I could rely on for our upcoming trip. And I needed a watch, because with my plan of placing my iPhone in the stateroom safe and leaving it there for the duration of the trip, I predicted problems coordinating drop off and pick up times for the kids.

So I headed to Target and bought two watches – a pink, water resistant sport watch to wear during the day; and a silver watch I could wear in the evening. Total cost $30-ish.

I know a couple people who regularly wear a watch, including my mom (who just bought her fourth Women's Timex Sport Ironman Watch ) and my 7 year old son (who recently became the very proud owner of his first Armitron) but feel like the number of watch wearers is dwindling.

So the question is . . . Do you wear a watch?

Photo: Me, cruising the Caribbean, wearing my new pink watch.

If you read any daily newspaper or tech blog you can't avoid the rumor and speculation swirling around the highly anticipated so-called Apple Tablet or iSlate. Gizmodo offers the most exhaustive guide to the rumors, with several updates posted in recent days. The big announcement is expected to come on Wednesday.

I'm a Mac user but I was late to adopt the iPhone. The initial price point, exclusive arrangement with AT&T, and touch-screen keyboard scared me away. Eventually, though, I got over it and have been in love ever since. I love having only one device in my purse. I listen to audiobooks on my commute, read e-books and the New York Times while my boys are in karate class, and search for dinner recipes using a variety of food-related apps. With the iPhone I am less inclined to drag around my laptop. Last week I took a day trip for business and—for the first time in a long, long time—left my laptop at home.

And yet we all know the iPhone is not a replacement for a personal computer. It is, after all, a phone. Albeit a smart one. I still loathe typing long e-mail messages on it and I could never imagine doing any type of lenghtly word processing on it. While apps for blog publishing do exist, I prefer to do this kind of work the old fashioned way: with a big screen and multiple windows open on my browser.

Then there are netbooks. As stylish and fashionable and affordable as they are, my affection for netbooks has waned a bit in recent months. They are great for surfing the Internet and sending e-mail and for taking on the road, but the screen size is just too small for me when it comes to more task-oriented computing such as writing, entering data into spreadsheets, or creating presentations. If you've got a primary computer at the office, however, a netbook is a viable option for home or travel use. With the creation of applications designed to run specifically on netbooks, we'll probably see even more activity in this growing market.

So where does that leave the so-called Apple Tablet? How many devices does one person or family actually need? In our house we already have two Mac laptops, one Mac Mini, one iPhone and one BlackBerry for four people. Two of these people don't even know how to type yet!

And yet here I sit, eagerly awaiting what Wednesday will bring.

In my 7 year old son's backpack:

• Nintendo DS lite with charger, bag of games and headset/microphone


• Craig video player loaded with with Cars, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Underdog


• iFrogz Ear Pollution Toxix

• Leapster with games rechargeable batteries, battery charger


• Craig video player loaded with Cinderella, Aladdin & Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (not sure why, but they are both obsessed with this movie, which we received from a publicist)


• iFrogz Ear Pollution Toxix

• Apple iPhone with Season 1 of True Blood loaded on it


• mophie Juice Pack Air - (because I need more juice to watch the first season of True Blood on my iPhone)


• Kindle loaded with a ton of new, mostly free, books from Amazon


• Bose QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones


• Kodak EasyShare Z812 IS my favorite camera, it's a little big which is also why I'll have my...


• Canon SD 1000

• Nothing. What can I say? The man travels light.

• My Nintendo DS – As much as I've enjoyed this piece of technology in the past, I'll be leaving it at home in favor of my Kindle, as well as videos and games on my iPhone.


• My laptop – With a goal of disconnecting from the internet, I'll be keeping the wifi on my iPhone and Kindle turned off. And I'll be leaving my laptop at home. (I may need some medication to help me with this separation).

Portability - As I stated in my original post, the best reason to buy the Kindle (for me) is to avoid carting around a suitcase full of books. (At the end of the month, my family and I are taking a week-long cruise to the Caribbean, where I plan on reading A LOT).

Later I swung by the Cocoon Innovations booth where I instantly fell in love with their Grid-It ™ Organizer. How many times have you reached into your purse, laptop bag or tote looking for your mints, ear buds, or lip balm only to go digging around in dark corners for minutes on end. If you do have a pocket in your laptop case, it’s probably small and not iPhone or BlackBerry friendly. The Grid-It Organizer uses a patent-pending rubberized banding technology to hold all of your items snugly in place.

And then there were the cases. CES featured cases for iphones and laptops, netbooks and e-readers, personal gaming systems and more. At the Case Mate booth I found some of my favorites including a iPhone/Credit Card case that holds your phone and your plastic. It’s the perfect solution for those quick errands when you don’t need to carry cash. They also have an online service that allows you to create your own case using the designs of partner artists.

It's clear that as technology continues to integrate into every aspect of our lives, we can expect to see more and more accessories allowing us to personalize what we carry and what we plug in. Yes, tech is indeed becoming more fashionable.

Yesterday I learned a lot about the screen viewing habits of Americans. While most of us watch a few hours of video on our mobile devices each month, we're watching an average of 140 hours of TV at home. According to Nielsen, in the third quarter of 2009 the average American watched 31 hours of TV per week, with 32 minutes spent in playback on DVR. In case you're wondering, that far eclipses time spent on the Internet which clocked in at an average 4 hours per week. I don't know about you, but there's no possible way I spend 31 hours in front of the television every week.

Clearly Americans love their TVs. They are making big news here at the show. The TVs of the future are bigger, brighter and slimmer than you can imagine and some are even equipped with motion sensors and facial recognition. The big buzz here is 3D. You've probably heard it on the news. At last night's keynote address by Intel CEO Paul Otellini, the audience was invited to slip on some plastic 3D glasses and experience TV of the future. While Bono looked as if he was reaching out to touch me, the idea of watching TV in my home this way has no appeal. How am I to fold laundry with plastic glasses on my face? Besides, we just got our flat screen HDTV last spring. Now I've got to worry about my husband wanting to rush out and spend many thousands of dollars on a new set that will enable him to watch life-like sporting events? Lord help me.

But this is what CES is all about: sampling the future. If you are a gamer, home theater aficionado, TV junkie, computer geek, or gadget fanatic, this place is totally for you. I tend to be a bit more practical in evaluating the technology I need for my personal, home, or small business use. My mission here was to find the gadgets and technology that will save busy women precious time or money and I did find a few of those along the way. I'll write about them—and the pretty tech accessories I discovered—next week.

Have a great weekend and be sure to clock some quality time in front of the TV.

It seems so, anyway. When I upgraded from my not-always-charging, somewhat-falling-apart very basic personal phone, I happily chose a texting phone that's as popular with the tween set as it is with adults these days. And I think that's because those of us who rarely texted a few years ago are texting quite a bit, often with kids who'd rather text than talk.

I am a fast typer on a computer keyboard, but I never got fast texting on a numeric keypad, even when using the predictive text (or word) feature that guesses what you're typing. Even when I was sure I edited my messages -- because that's what I do even though it doubles my text-writing time -- I didn't always text like a pro. Take this gem I sent to my husband awhile back: "Hi inn can you call me when wovet a minute?" That was supposed to be: "Hi hon, can you call me when you have a minute?"

Eager to not cause any more guffaws among my texting family members, I happily procured the LG EnV3 because it has a full QWERTY keyboard for the kind of texting my work-BlackBerrry-adept fingers are accustomed to.

Have you (and your family) made the switch to texting phones? What do you look for when choosing a cell phone, and how has that changed from when you picked out your first cell phone and service plan?

In response our readers suggested a few sites designed to help parents not only check out the plot of a movie, but also whether that PG-rated film you are considering watching is appropriate for your 7 year old (since, as we know, all PG's are not created equal). Among the sites recommended:

• Commonsensemedia.org
  They have specific parenting issues for each movie, and they also have a weekly email newsletter that addresses the new releases. I highly recommend it! (Erica)


• Kids-in-mind.com
  I always check there first. It gives ratings based on violence, sex, and profanity. It also gives specific examples, so you can see why each one was rated how it was. (Carissa)


• Pluggedinonline.com
  We check before we watch any movie as a family. It really talks about all sorts of things and if movies are family friendly or not. (Beth)

I really wish I had looked at one of these sites before watched Bridge to Terabithia - then I would have known it was not appropriate for my kids.

Do you check out films before you watch with your kids? If so, what sites do you use?

While I don't want to MAKE him believe in Santa (when he asks, I will tell him the truth), unlike other kids, I have found that he WANTS to believe. He's not questioning me about whether Santa is real, instead he is regularly looking for proof that Santa is a real person, sitting at the North Pole, considering what he will bring my son for Christmas.

So you can imagine how excited he was when Santa sent him, and his sister, personal messages through the PNP (Portable North Pole). They both sat, transfixed, as I played videos where Santa praised them for the things they were doing right (trying his best and eating her vegetables). They both yelled when their photos appeared in the "naughty/nice" book. And they continued to discuss for hours why the videos proved Santa was real (Anders "he knew about Brownie." Sophie "he knew I was 4 years old! and had blue eyes!").

To request these personalized videos, I went to the Portable North Pole (PNP) web site, and completed a short questionnaire about each child. For those concerned about privacy, they didn't ask for any information I was uncomfortable providing (eg my last name, phone number, birthday, etc).

The service was free, and I haven't noticed an uptick on the amount of junk mail I receive (another concern whenever I use a system like this). I did notice that I got stuck a couple of times when creating the videos. I assume this is because the system is getting overwhelmed as Christmas approaches.

At a time of year when we are "crazy busy" trying to get everything done (cards, presents, meals, vacations, etc), this site gave us an opportunity recapture the simpler pleasures of the season.

And made me want to believe in Santa Claus.

Have you visited the Portable North Pole? What did your kids think?

So I was happy to learn about Creative Spark Media, a company that makes low-cost printable party games appropriate for families. If you have access to the Internet and a color printer you can start printing their games in a matter of seconds. No need to bundle up and head outside to the store! For around $7 a game, you can print as many copies as you need for 60-90 days. A party for 200? Not a problem.

The game ideas are endless: they've got It's a Wonderful Life Trivia, Christmas Bingo, Word Scrambles and Word Finds that should appeal to both kids and adults. Each game is a single PDF file that you download to your hard drive. There's no special software beyond what you normally use to view and print PDF files. The word finds and scrambles would also make great activities for classrooms, church groups, or scouts meetings.

Last week I was sent a copy of their Christmas Bingo game to review. The game contains six full-size bingo cards, call cards and bingo chips/markers. The markers are tedious to cut out and frankly, you could use anything you have lying around the house like Fruit Loops cereal, Goldfish crackers or Legos. The Call Card has nice-sized pictures so even the youngest children in the family can play without adult supervision (a clear bonus for those of us busy cooking or cleaning in the kitchen). I can't think of a better way to keep the kids' table occupied before or after dinner.

These game makers are not just into Christmas and New Years'. They've got games for Valentine's Day parties, bridal showers, baby showers, office parties, and more. The price point makes it a good value for large groups. I'm considering personalizing one of the games for a big conference next year.

So will you play a favorite game with family or friends over the holiday? If so, which one(s)?