There are a number of gadgets and systems I want to get in the next few months, most of which I consider must-haves. And quite frankly I can’t afford them all. Not if I want to be a responsible adult and stay on top of my mortgage repayments, keep a savings buffer and you know, eat food.

source: smashbros.com

Oh and there’s the wedding to pay for. Ok so I had to choose the pretty dress. And the diamond ring. Curse my materialism.

source: intel.com

My PC is SLOW. The Pentium 4 running 2Gb still does the job. And the old GeForce 7800GS graphics card runs my favourite games; BF2 and CounterStrike. She was a good machine in her day. But trying to play new games? Forget it. I have to borrow the fiance’s computer to play any new releases and trying to get near that thing is like trying to take a cat away from its food – you have to have a damn good distraction (more food is a good option).

So that’s first on the list. We’re looking at getting a Core i5 CPU, maybe the ATI5670 plus 1TB of memory. The original plan was to strip out my existing case which is relatively new (and has a good fan) but now we are considering the pre-assembled units by people such as Scorpion Tech or the like. If the PC fairy is reading, I’d love a new “budget” Alienware Aurora.

Number two on the list is something for the both of us. And it’s more of a package than an item.

We have held off on getting an LCD TV in waiting for the technology to catch up and the prices to drop. However our TV has been making some strange noises for a while now and the picture is starting to fail. Luckily we’re just in time for the entrance of the LED TV – the perfect addition to our tech-loving family. It’s been a long wait.

Oh how I wanted an Xbox 360. And a PS3. But without a HD TV there wasn’t really a lot of point in playing high res graphics on a sad old TV. We made do with the PS2 and the Wii for a few years. But then Sony announced the new add-on for the PS3: Play TV. A digital tuner and recorder, the Play TV device also allows you to remotely access content stored on your PS3 (ie. photos, recorded shows, downloaded movies and music) and play games through the PlayStation Network or browse the internet via your PSP through a wifi connection. Play TV is free with the 250GB console until April, or sold separately for AU$170 – that’s a pretty good deal considering what it does.

source: cnet.com

LED TV – tick. PS3 – tick. Play TV – tick. Better make that a 250GB console so we can get the Play TV bundle.

Hmm, I’m starting to feel guilty about my purchases already. What’s that called? Buyer’s remorse – except I haven’t bought anything yet. Onward!

My phone is showing all the symptoms of dying. Turning off in the middle of calls, buttons not working (and then working again), profile switching back and forth as it likes, the thing is frustrating me to no end. And well, it doesn’t even connect to the internet. Oh the shame of it all. But instead of the iPhone I actually want the HTC Hero which operates on Google’s Android system thus integrating smoothly with all of Google’s services (maps and gmail among others). The integration between the phonebook and Facebook, Twitter and webmail is handy for keeping track of your conversations. It also has external memory storage capabilities and recharges with a micro USB cable (soon to be the standard throughout Europe and hopefully the world), but other than that stacks up to all the fantastic features of the iPhone. It’s not quite as pretty as the iPhone but it’s not that bad – and we know it’s what’s on the inside that counts right?

source: HTC Australia website

None of the Australian carriers are selling the HTC Hero at the moment, with no plans announced to do so as yet. Retailer Harvey Norman is currently the only place to buy the phone at AU$799. Personally I believe if you can’t afford the cost of the phone upfront, then you can’t afford the phone (as you’ll end up paying more for the phone in instalments anyway), but to each his (or her) own.

source: sony.com

And finally, I’ve been swept up in the e-book hype and now believe that my life won’t be complete without instant access to every book ever written (umm..and subsequently the publication rights transferred and the text converted to digital format) if I don’t get one this year! It started with the Kindle. Then the Nook looked better. Now I’m onto the Sony PRS-600 (or ‘Touch’) with its support of Word documents, Adobe ePub files, PDFs, image and music files and external memory capabilities (Memory Card DUO or SD card). It doesn’t have wifi or 3G so file transfer is done via USB from your PC or using the memory cards but it’s not such a hassle for a PC oriented user. Did I mention it comes in red, silver and black?

As for the iPad? All jokes aside, it doesn’t quite fit my needs. It looks good and is based on a format that we’re comfortable with. I think it is definitely a step in the direction we are headed. But I think what does it for me is the size of it. If I want to read something like a book, I want it to be the size of a book.

I wouldn’t mind a new laptop too, but I’m hoping that between my new smartphone and computer of awesomeness I’ll be happy enough. I’m kind of attached to my little red moleskine anyway.

Hmm, that’s about $3000 worth of hardware right there. And it’s still January. I still have to budget for all the games I want to play this year as well. Being a geek is EXPENSIVE!
I suppose I could keep reading books the old-fashioned way for a little bit longer. Sigh.