General Discussion

I'm just curious. Is it a phone? A TV or VCR? A computer? That Simon electronic game from the 70s? Discuss.

My original Gameboy (also my first major foray into gaming) was the one piece of tech that brought me the most joy. I have fond memories of hours of lost time playing Link's Awakening.

My PSP, seriously, I use the hell out of that thing daily.

I would say I'm a bit torn between my PS3 and my laptop. I feel those are corn ball answers but I've used both consistently enough to have impacted my way in some form or another. My Ps3 I've met some dear friends, bonded with girlfriends, watch loads of films on, and listen to music. My laptop, while it's on it's way out, carried me through college, introduced me to the weird world of wifi. I keep near me at all times for a variety of reason. I feel a bit odd being on a tech site and my best piece of technology is a gaming machine and a computer and not something like a G1 or possibly even a Harmony touch based remote. Go figure.

That's a really tough one.  I may have to go with my 360 on this one.  Between the disc games, XBLA games, XBL itself, the video rentals, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of it.

 
Probably my current MacBook. It's not glamourous or particularly awesome, but it's been my lifeblood for the first two years of my degree. Don't know where I'd be without it.

Oooh, that's a good question. One of my favorites would be my SNES. I was pretty young when the NES was around, so I wasn't into  it that much, though my friends and I played things like Blades Of Steel (best sports game ever BTW), Punch-Out, and that kind fo thing. But the SNES is where my love of gaming took off. NHL '94, Street Fighter II, LoZ: Link To The Past, and probably my favorite game ever; Super Mario World.  
 
Through my teenage years I pretty much abandoned gaming. We still played Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye and all that noise, but I was more interested in having a social life. As I've gotten older and life has slowed down a bit I've fallen back in love with gaming and my PS2 was a huge part of that. The list of amazing titles that kept me up way too late some nights is simply too long to list. 
 
Outside of gaming, my first PC is probably my favorite piece of technology. We always had the family computer, but I wasn't really allowed to screw around on it. When I got my own PC I spent hours and hours exploring everything I could and finding out as much information as possible. I've been using PC's so long now that magic has kind of disappeared, though I must admit I had a very similar feeling when I bought my first Mac a couple months back. 

Nintendo 64, first console I ever owned and it had some awesome games!

I don't know if it was "the best", but it was certainly the most "before its time" piece of technology I've ever owned. 
 
The Cross CrossPad.  Came out in 1997.  To put that into perspective, it connected to the PC with a 9-pin serial port. 
 
It was a small pad, less than an inch thick, and you slipped in a standard legal-sized pad of paper into it. 
 
The pen wrote on the pad with real ink, and contained a radio transmitter which began transmitting when pressure was applied to the tip of the pen. 
 
The radio transmitter would track the pen's movements, and would stop recording when you lifted it to start a new word. 
 
You could then take it back to your PC and transfer the data.
 
It stored about 80 pages in memory, and also had transcription software to transcribe your notes to text. 
 
It was something that should have been in the hands of every student, doctor, or lawyer. 
 
Here's a link with a picture on Amazon: 
http://www.amazon.com/Cross-CrossPad-CP41001-01-Portable-Digital/dp/B00000K1R3  
 
-Helmet 

In all seriousness, I would say my Kindle.  I love the thing.  I realize that it's not a perfect device, but it's damn near perfect for my specific needs.  I dropped it at the airport a few months ago and cracked the screen.  I don't think I made it even a week before I caved in and ordered a replacement for it.

Yeah, it's my PC. I know, pretty lame for discussion, but goddamn. I guess I also like my... Laptop. Aw. 

I'd probably say my Nintendo DS, which is probably my favorite single dedicated gaming platform EVER, or my current PC, because it was my first build and I've got this stupid puppy love thing for it.  
 
Honorable mentions include my nook and my original iPod 5th gen 80 GB, which kept me sane through the long years of a shitty job.

My first high end PC. Opened up a new world to me.

My old CRT television, i swear its constantly showing a HD image regardless of the source :)

@will: I've owned a lot of tech (and I'm always adding to my collection) - but at the moment, I still think I like my 24" dell IPS panel the best, out of everything that I've purchased... which surprises me.

Currently? My 32 GB Pod touch. For $300 I've gotten quite a bit of use out of it. 
 
But going through the years, one piece of tech has stood the test of time and use, and never once has it failed at it's all important task: 
My $20 Sony Clock radio.
That's right. The best piece of circuitry and semiconductors I've ever owned is probably the most replaceable and least sexy device I could've named. But it keeps perfect time, and the radio sounds pretty good, so it gets my vote. Recently I've replaced it with an iPod dock clock radio, but I still keep the Sony one plugged in. Just in case.

Smartphone, first one was original iphone, current is blackberry bold 9700. Love being able to do everything from anywhere, and unlike iphone, the bold is capable of downloading files to the phone wireless-ly so i can get all my podcasts without having to connect and sync to my computer daily.

Best in terms of versatility and frequency of use would have to be the humble PC.
 
If you consider it in terms of revolutionising the way I do things though it would probably be my first DVD hard drive recorder. That thing was a quantum leap from VHS and totally rocked my world.

either my xbox 360 or one of my iPods. use the 360 more or less every day for both games and watching movies, ipod gets used for study music etc. 

The 28.8k Data Robotics modem my dad brought home one night when I was in middle school. We were late adopters of computer technology in general - we'd just recently upgraded to a Pentium Pro machine from a 286 running DOS and Norton Commander on a 10" orange and black monochrome CRT, and my dad wanted the ability to connect to the VPN at work. We installed the modem together (my first experience working on the guts of a PC, incidentally) and dialed up to the ISP he'd signed us up for. I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to do with the Internet, but I'd heard of Yahoo from friends at school so I put "yahoo.com" in the bar at the top of Netscape Navigator and hit enter. I spent the next hour clicking on everything I could find, absolutely enthralled. Before that day, any time I wanted to look up information about a given topic I'd turn to Encarta. Now, I had something infinitely more powerful at my disposal. That point in time literally changed my life, spurring my interest in computers and technology and helping make me who I am today.