4 CES unsung heroes: gadgets you can get now

I have the patience of a four year old. I don’t want to know about things available in six months, I want it now. OK, really I wanted it five minutes ago, but you get my drift. CES is all about the future and that is fine, but what about things you can take away now? Here is my list of cool things I took away:

SimulScribe - I’ve been waffling back and forth on giving this a shot. This service takes over your voicemail from your carrier and then emails/sms you the transcribed version along with a wav file. That sounds scary at first, but it is simple and completely reversible, not unlike a vasectomy. The result is you don’t need to stand there listening to voicemail (which is a complete waste of time). Instead of playing the message and listening to callers stumble over their ideas, you cut right to the chase and speed-read their message. Awesome. Plans start at $9.99, and if you try it, you’ll find you’d offer to pay a lot more for such a game-changing solution. Simply awesome.

Archos TV+ - I got some one-on-one time with the COO of Archos at CES. I’ve got an interview coming up, but will spill some of the beans here. This thing is awesome. Fully WiFi, it taps into your home network and opens up a whole world of possibilities. No longer just some odd French company, Archos is kicking up the competition and will give Apple TV (take 1 or 2 or 3 or whatever) a run for their money. And they’ve got some secrets that will add to make it even more amazing. ($249 80GB/$349 160GB)

MX Revolution Mouse: I’ve been reviewing this gem for a little over a week now and am amazed how much I like this curvy, sexy-looking thing. My impression of Logitech has changed so much in the past 6 months, from a maker of me-too products to one of an organization that is focussed not only making things look good, but also perform flawlessly. Look at this thing: it looks like a sports car to me. Sexy. $99 (though, Amazon has it for $79).

iPod Touch: One of the few products almost everyone displayed except, you know, the maker who didn’t show. It seems everyone had an iPod dock or something made specifically for the iPod touch. It became the ubiquitous device of the show and you really couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a touch display. But that really wasn’t the deciding factor, it was watching my Gadgetell mates move swiftly through their applications on their iPhones that cinched it for me. Too much of my info is on Google, which my Blackjack quasi-smartphone just doesn’t like to get at. The iPhone and therefor touch can access the info easily and in a much more viewable fashion. Calendar/Gmail/RSS is all so easy, within WiFi range of course. The touch has become an indispensable tool for me now.