Got any new gimmicks/inventions you've heard of or used that deserve commentary?
Yeah...I've always wanted a portable PDF reader that I can take with me like a book; I have thousands of journal articles that I would love to read away from the computer and it is a waste to have to print them out (and I don't want to carry a laptop to bed and most PDAs don't work). Now Sony and its competitors have developed something exactly along the lines of what I want (using e-ink technology):
http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/
I'I may hold off purchasing it until the next generation however because its memory capabilities can be improved (and many of my PDFs are quite large since they are image-based).