# What must-have gadgets do you not have/not want?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-must-have-gadgets-do-you-not-have-not-want/449266>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 14, 2008, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-must-have-gadgets-do-you-not-have-not-want/449266 "2008-05-14T11:34:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-must-have-gadgets-do-you-not-have-not-want/449266/61 "2008-05-20T14:41:46Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=ianzin]  
Perhaps I haven’t understood, but wouldn’t a DVD recorder be just what you want? I got one last year and it’s superb. It isn’t connected to the internet. It has an in-built Freeview box (gizmo that decodes several dozen free digital channels here in the UK, no fees or subscription required). It can record from any of the free-to-air terrestrial channels or the digital channels. Programming is the simplest thing in the world - call up the on-screen TV guide, click to the show you want and hit the button… that’s it, it’s done. Records to any blank DVD format you care to use, re-recorddable or not as you wish.

…  
[/QUOTE]

If the device also had a harddrive so I do not have to record to a DVD all the time, then yes, this would be what I want. Unfortunately in this country, TiVo seems to have muscled their way into every major appliance store and magically all the other DVR devices seemed to have vanished.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-must-have-gadgets-do-you-not-have-not-want/449266/62 "2008-05-20T19:40:43Z")

</div>

I have a $20 TracFone cell phone that…well it makes calls and that’s about it. Imagine that! I keep getting advertisements from Sprint and Verizon with all these whizbang phones but I don’t see the point. I’ve never even sent a text message, although I do know how to e-mail cell phones from a computer.

I have a computer but not a printer. I don’t do anything productive at home you see. 😉 Well I really do _have_ a printer, but it was given to me without ink and I’ve never bought any, and don’t want to.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-must-have-gadgets-do-you-not-have-not-want/449266.md?page=3)