My gadget, myself

The awful truth is that with the purchase of every new gadget there exists the very real specter of an alternative life: one where it sits on a shelf for a few months, then moves to a box, and fi nally winds up on a yard-sale picnic table on a spring Saturday morning, selling at an embarrassing 99 percent discount from its Christmas-season price.

To help you avoid this all-too-common scenario, we’ve asked a number of prominent New Englanders to share with us a single gadget that they actually use and like — a high-tech gizmo that has worked better than expected. perhaps their experience can help all of us make next spring’s yard sale a

little less painful.

Marty Lapointe

Forward, Boston Bruins

For big, athletic men used to whizzing around the ice, those long flights to hockey games in faraway cities can seem interminable. Marty Lapointe, the Boston Bruins forward, fi nds that competitive golf helps him pass the time in the air.

Lapointe, the 210-pound right winger, used to play cards with teammates, until he hooked up with goalie Felix Potvin. Their relationship is symbiotic: Potvin brings the PlayStation 2, normally connected to a living-room or hotel television. Lapointe brings a LCD screen, 5 inches on the diagonal, by Intec Inc. that displays the action in color. Put together, they’ve got a high-powered yet portable game system perfect for round after round of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, the golf game by Electronic Arts Inc.

"We play for a buck a hole – make things interesting," Lapointe said.

At first the goalie dominated the forward. But Lapointe retired from the card game and has improved quickly.

"There’s one rule," he said. "You have to pay up as soon as the wheels touch down."

– CHRIS GAITHER

Kerry Healey

Lieutenant governor of Massachusetts

When she signed on to be Mitt Romney’s running mate in the spring of 2002, now-Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey also signed up for a BlackBerry hand-held device – and quickly became a huge fan, now sending and getting 50 to 100 messages a day.

"It’s the only thing that I really use constantly that’s any kind of gizmo,’’ said Healey, who between the campaign and of ficial appearances may spend six or eight hours a day in a car, including many places in the Bay State hinterlands where cellphones don’t work. "I need a quick way that’s not a cellphone to connect with my husband and my family and to be in constant contact with my chief of staff, and often during the day you need to communicate with someone and perhaps you just need a one or two word answer.’’ One nice bonus: On election night last November, "I got messages of congratulations from my friends in England and other places all over the world, and it was great to get those messages instantaneously’’ on the BlackBerry.

Her dream high-tech Christmas gift? "I’d love to have satellite radio in my car. It’s one of those wonderful innovations that eliminates theads and allows you to listen to precisely the slice of music you love," which in Healey’s case is so-called first wave punk rock from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yes, it’s hard to believe, but the onetime criminology policy wonk turns out to be a major fan of the Psychedelic Furs, the Clash, and the Buzzcocks.

– PETER J. HOWE

Wesley Roberts

Pastor, Peoples Baptist Church of Boston

As the pastor of a church that’s nearly two centuries old, Wesley Roberts lives by tradition and ritual. Here’s one of his favorites: Every year or so, Palm Inc. introduces a new top-of-theline hand-held computer. And Roberts buys it.

"I didn’t need it," said Roberts of his latest purchase, a $400 Palm Tungsten T3 he bought on eBay. "I’m a gadget person."

Roberts, 65, is pastor of Peoples Baptist Church of Boston, the oldest African-

American congregation in New England. He doesn’t exactly fit the stereotype of the affluent "early adopter" who rushes to buy each new digital product, but this pastor is also a geek.

And it turns out there are good religious reasons to carry a Tungsten. "I have seven translations of the Bible, which means I don’t have to take my Bible with me if I’m going to the hospital" to pray with ailing members of the congregation, Roberts said. Speaking of prayer, Roberts also uses PrayerPartner, a program by Laridian Inc. that reminds him who needs to be prayed for, and even lets him record God’s answers to his prayers.

Still, Roberts could have done all this with his T2 or the four other Palm devices he’s bought over the years. But for Roberts, only the newest, coolest Palm device will do. "This is the only thing that I really splurge on," Roberts said. "It gives me pleasure."

– HIAWATHA BRAY

Youngme Moon

Marketing professor, Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School marketing professor Youngme Moon fell in love with the Microsoft-powered Tablet computer because it combined leading-edge technology with a retro application: It allowed her to write in longhand, store the handwriting, and send it to others via e-mail.

Moon got an early glimpse of the slate-style personal computer on a visit to the Redmond, Wash., software maker to research a case study. But it wasn’t until Microsoft offered pen-enabled text editing in its Of. ce 2003 software suite that Moon ran out and purchased a Tablet built by Motion Computing. "The form factor had to be really, really beautiful before I fell in love with it," Moon explained. It has since become her personal computer of choice, at work and at home.

Moon uses her Tablet to scrawl notes at meetings, edit papers, and prepare teaching plans at Harvard Business School. And, at home, her older son sometimes will get on the Tablet and draw pictures, she said.

"There’s something very comforting about the ability to write on the Tablet," Moon said. "I just find it incredibly liberating. When you’re in a meeting, it’s very disruptive to be typing on a keyboard, but this is more like taking notes. And it freaks people out when they see something as oldfashioned as handwriting turn up on an e-mail."

– ROBERT WEISMAN

Dean LeBaron

Founder, Batterymarch Financial Management

Also an expert on the application of quantum physics to investment strategy, Dean LeBaron is a classic early adopter of high-tech gadgets.

"I buy them before the uses are evident and find they are productive and pleasurable," he said. "If not, throw them away."

LeBaron has webcams at his homes in New Hampshire and Switzerland, a dining table that comes up from the floor with central cooking capability, devices that melt snow and ice in his driveway, and an electric launching ramp for his canoes and kayak. But his latest passion is TiVo, the digital video recorder service that allows him to record television programs without videotape and watch them whenever he chooses, skipping the commercials.

"I have five of them in different places," LeBaron said. "Have not watched TV at the broadcast time in over two years."

While the TiVo service enables the recording of up to 80 hours of programming digitally, LeBaron had his main unit hacked to upgrade its memory to 140 hours. He watches selective niche programs at his leisure, but TiVo allows him to avoid televised breaking news because, he said, "waiting a few hours or a day usually improves the quality of information a lot." He also avoids watching sporting events after the fact: "I understand from sports fans that watching a game when you know the outcome is unappealing."

LeBaron isn't expecting to get any new gadgets over the holidays. "Most people don't buy gadgets for me," he said, "since I would have probably bought them myself if they would be useful."

– ROBERT WEISMAN

Charles Baker Jr.

Chief executive, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc.

Charles Baker isn't drunk, he's messaging.

Forgive the head of Harvard Pilgrim if his Chrysler 300M sedan weaves from time to time. He is so addicted to his BlackBerry e-mail pager that he admits to occasionally tapping out short e-mail messages while simultaneously driving and talking on his cellphone.

"My wife calls it a CrackBerry," Baker said. "I'm one of those types who's always worried about being not connected."

Any reply needed longer than "OK" or "Yup," and he pulls over, he says. But he has become skilled at typing on the device's miniature keyboard with his thumbs. Rather than pull out his laptop on a recent flight home from Washington, he unholstered his BlackBerry and composed more than 100 messages, which were sent once he landed and turned on the wireless antenna.

"As long as you're willing to deal with the baloney of having the small keypad, you're really able to get a lot of messaging done," he said.

Other than his obsession with the BlackBerry, Baker isn't much of a gadget-head. But he does have one gizmo on his holiday wish list: a remote-operated car starter. His 75-year-old father has one and gives his CEO son a hard time for having to start the Chrysler car the old-fashioned way.

– CHRIS GAITHER

Thomas M. Menino

Mayor of Boston

He's a mayor, not an engineer. So don't ask Thomas M. Menino what kind of Palm hand-held organizer he uses, or what model cellphone, either. He neither knows nor cares. He just knows that life would be difficult without them.

The Palm's been around since the second Menino administration.

"I've had it four or five years," he said. "It's an older one, but it serves the purpose I need it for . . . phone numbers, addresses."

The phone? It's nothing fancy either.

"Motorola," said Menino. "Normal, digital phone."

But Boston's mayor won't leave home without both of them.

"It's my lifeline, really," Menino said of the phone. And the Palm ensures that the mayor can reach out to powerful people in business, government, and the neighborhoods.

"If I lost my Palm Pilot," Menino said, "I'd lose my important phone numbers that I have, that most people don't have."

Lately, Menino's been coming down with a mild case of gadget envy.

"I see some of these BlackBerries, I see how they're connected with people's home phones and how they send out e-mail on it.," said Menino. "I'm impressed with that."

Then there are those cool cellphones with digital cameras. Menino said he'd like to get his hands on some of this gear, one of these days. But there's no particular hurry. Menino's current pair of pocket gadgets may be obsolete, but they get the job done.

"Do I have everything I need right now? Yes."

– HIAWATHA BRAY

Ellen Parker

Executive director, Project Bread -- The Walk For Hunger

Ellen Parker is often on the move around Massachusetts, coordinating donations to nearly 400 local food pantries and other organizations in 124 cities and towns that provide emergency food aid to thousands of Bay State residents -- 36 million meals' worth last year.

Two months ago, she got a new Verizon Wireless LG cellphone, and was delighted to discover while leafing through the instruction manual that it can handle setting up three-person phone calls.

"Maybe everybody does this already, but the ability for me to have conference calls when I'm traveling around Massachusetts is such an incredible time-saver," Parker said. "It's able to connect me to groups of people in ways I never could before."

Over the course of a month, Parker estimates she probably talks to hundreds of different people -- her staff and board of directors, food providers, supporters of the annual Walk for Hunger in May, and academics and physicians who are working with Project Bread on a new campaign to identify childhood hunger as a severe public health issue in Massachusetts, particularly among children in single-parent households in about three dozen Bay State communities.

"I use e-mail all the time, but I'm also traveling all over the state," Parker said, adding that one of her New Year's resolutions may be to learn how to finally use her phone for e-mail as well.

– PETER HOWE