Stuff I Choose Not To Live Without

Zach @ The Outsidr posted his list of products that he simply can’t live without earlier, and as any blogger with nothing to talk about is prone to do, I’m going to carry on his ‘meme’ with my own list. Yes, of course we *could* live without these things, if absolutely necessary, so I’ve renamed my list, ‘Stuff I Choose Not To Live Without.’

First up, frankly, is my phone. Specifically, the Nokia N95-3. Sure, I’ve also got the E71-2, N79 NAM, 5800 XpressMusic, N82, and LG KT610 on my desk right now, but none can really truly replace my tried-and-true pocket companion. The Nokia N95-3 gives me a great camera (both photos and videos), full email access, internet, Jaiku, and of course, phone calls/SMS. It’s like having my laptop in my pocket, and I *could* post to my various blogs from it. I refuse to go anywhere without it.

Next up, obviously, is my Dell XPS M1330. I’m an online journalist/blogger, so obviously my laptop is vital to my livlihood. The XPS M1330 is by no means a top-of-the-line machine, but it’s small(ish), light, and packs plenty of kick to write posts, edit photos and videos, and anything else I need to do.

Last.FM is the first service on this list. While I maintain a rather large collection of MP3s, Last.FM gives me a fresh set of tunes, instantly tailored specifically to ME. I can type in ‘Productivity’ and get great working music, or ‘Relaxing’ and get music to calm me down. I use Mobbler on my N95-3, too, so I can enjoy Last.FM on the go.

Partially to appease James Whatley, I have to add Spinvox to this list. Spinvox takes the voicemails that my family and others leave me, converts them to text, and delivers it as an SMS. I’m bad about screening phone calls, so this lets me instantly and visually determine if I need to call you back today or next week. It’s completely brilliant, and something that gets used nearly every day.

Firefox is another non-hardware item that I simply could not live without. 95% of my workload is done in Firefox, and the other 5% could be, probably, if I wanted. It’s my window to the world, and like my Dell XPS M1330, it’s crucial to my livlihood.

I’ve talked about them before, but my Bose earphones are another thing that I would go nuts without. Oftentimes, I have trouble concentrating on the task at hand, but if I toss these in with Last.FM set to ‘techno’, I can push the rest of the world out of my view and simply focus on writing. They’re wonderful.

That’s it. 6 things that I absolutely choose not to live without. Of course, I have a ton of other fun toys that I would *prefer* not to live without, such as my external monitor, Fujitsu P1610, Nokia N800, and others, but the fact is that they are not absolutely vital in my day-to-date live. What about you?