OTHER TECH

I usually get the gadget I review for this column about 3 to 4 weeks before I have to write it up. That's a relatively short time to really get to know a product, so I like to live with some of them beyond the deadline. Here are a few things that have truly stood the test of time.

EYE-FI (May 2008; $100; eye.fi) is a wireless memory card that transfers pictures from your digital camera to your computer via a Wi-Fi connection. This is, hands down, the most useful gadget I have reviewed to date. I can't tell you the sheer joy of taking a hundred or more pictures at my son's football game, coming home, setting the camera on my desk, grabbing a snack, and then coming back to find that all of those photos now live on my computer. It's easy to use and saves me a ton of time. Almost a year after I first got it in hand, I still use Eye-Fi regularly.

The ACOUSTIC RESEARCH AWS510 wireless 5.1-channel headphones (Jan-uary 2008; $350; audiovox.com) have amazing sound and are great for when my wife is sleeping or when I don't want my kids to hear what I'm watching. I've since found that they have another awesome use. The TV in our bedroom is about 15 feet away from our bed, and I find dialogue from many movies to be low and difficult to hear. I can't count how many times I've put on these headphones to help me hear a key piece of dialogue. For example, with Atonement, between the English accents and the low speaking volume, I could barely figure out what was going on. So I put the ARs on, and it was like sitting in a high-end movie theater. I liked them so much, I bought my wife a pair!

VUDU (April 2008; $295; vudu.com) is a hard drive that hooks up to your TV and delivers movies immediately via a broadband connection. Our family uses this product again and again. When my wife and I go out on a Saturday night, my kids will pick a movie from the Vudu library to keep them company. When a new movie becomes available - and more HD titles are offered every day - we just search for it and watch it. Cool!

Gary Dell'Abate is the executive producer of The Howard Stern Show. He too has stood the test of time - and so has his nickname, Baba Booey.