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Flat Screen TV
Televisions have transformed from huge cubes into sleek, flat surfaces. What was once a massive box filled with glass tubes has become an inch-thick panel you can hang on your wall. Now we're getting 6 times the picture in a fraction of the volume. -
DVR
With a few button presses on your remote, you selected the show and told the magic box under your TV to record the new episode, and any other new episode, and any shows or movies it thinks you might also like to watch. -
High Speed Internet
Now, the Internet is an always-on, blazing-fast place for us to upload, download, communicate, and simply function online at speeds several factors faster than our archaic dial-up services. -
WI-FI
lets us quickly and easily connect with devices on the same wireless network, sharing files between family computers and easily piping documents, photos, and music to a wide variety of other electronic devices—printers, speakers, photo frames and more. -
Smart Phones
With the advent of the iPhone, Blackberries, and Android-powered devices, what were once humble handheld telephones are now all-in-one tools for work and play. -
Blue Tooth
We don't have to plug our iPhones into a dock to play music on our home theater systems; instead, we can just connect to it via Bluetooth and fill the room with the music in our hand. -
Online Media Services
You don't even have to walk to your DVD collection. All you have to do is type in a web site, or (if you have the right equipment) press a button on your TV remote -
Social Networking Sites
The advent of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace has completely changed how we communicate with each other online. Instead of directly messaging one another with email and instant messages, we follow, poke, ping, and gather in dozens of different ways and through several different services. -
Flash Storage
Now we all have the wonder of USB flash drives: smaller than a stick of gum, faster than a DVD, and able to hold upwards of 32GB for less than $100. That's over 6 DVDs, or 45 CDs, or 320 Zip Disks, or 22,222 floppy disks, all in a package smaller than any one of them. -
Online Gaming Services
Today, you can get into a 32-player ground war with gamers across the world without lifting a finger. While it wasn't the first, Microsoft's Xbox Live service pioneered simple, easy online console multiplayer. Today, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners can easily connect with other gamers and start playing through the respective consoles' XBL and PSN services.
