The electronic gadgets I bought last year.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Mike Langberg

How do you keep spending money on new gadgets when you already own every type of electronic toy?

By replacing what you've got with newer models.

That's how I managed to spend $3,978.73 last year on personal technology _ almost everything I purchased was a replacement for an older gadget that either died or was getting unacceptably behind the times.

Welcome to my fourth annual "what I bought" column, where I pull back the curtain and tell you what I do with my own money.

This was somewhat of comeback year for me; I spent only $3,313.51 in 2001, and more than half of that came from buying a new laptop computer for my wife Debbie. I spent $4,268 in 2000 and a whopping $9,258 from mid-1998 through the end of 1999.

My two big-ticket acquisitions in 2002 were a new desktop computer and a new digital camera.

The computer _ a Sony VAIO PCV-RX650 bought in February for $1,099.99 _ represented a major shift in strategy.

For nearly a decade, I've been buying top-of-the-line PCs on the theory that I'd get the longest possible useful life. That approach now seems obsolete, because PCs change so fast.

So I decided to find a good mid-range system for about $1,000 with the intention of replacing the machine in two years, for an annual cost of $500. This would be cheaper than buying a $2,500 PC that I replaced in four years.

I picked Sony because the VAIO was well-appointed, with a 1.6 gigahertz Pentium 4 processor, 512 megabytes of random-access memory, 80-gigabyte hard drive, DVD-ROM drive and CD-RW drive and because it's whisper-quiet. The advertised price was $999.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, exactly what I wanted to spend.

The only problem is that I never received the rebate, despite sending in all the required paperwork. This could be the topic for another column: Major electronics manufacturers routinely drag their feet in providing rebates, and often fail to send the promised checks at all.

To go along with the PC, which replaced a Dell system purchased in July 1999 for $2,497, I bought a top-of-the-line 19-inch Sony monitor for $419.99. This is one place where I don't want to scrimp; the health of my eyes is too important to buy anything less than the best computer display available.

My other big upgrade was a four-megapixel Canon PowerShot G2, purchased in May for $719.99; Canon has since introduced the slightly improved PowerShot G3. I also bought a 128-megabyte memory card for the camera, enough to hold about 70 shots at the highest resolution setting.

I was happy with my previous camera, a two-megapixel Nikon Coolpix 950 purchased in October 1999 for $849.99, but I also knew that moving up to four megapixels would give me more room to crop my images.

Debbie and I both got new personal digital assistants in 2002 because our Palm IIIe models, purchased in July 1999 for $299 each, died within a few months of each other. I got Debbie a color Palm m130 for $262.99, along with a folding keyboard so she could easily enter notes, and I got myself a color Sony Clie PEG-T615C for $279.99.

I also had to revamp my home network. My 3Com router wasn't compatible with Windows XP, the operating system on my new Sony PC, so I had to replace it with a U.S. Robotics USR8000 Broadband Router at $79.95.

I accidentally fried my D-Link DWL-1000 wireless access point by plugging in the wrong power supply while working on a review, so I got the same model as a replacement for $149.26.

Wireless networking is now essential in our house; Debbie often works on her laptop in the living room and sends print jobs to a printer in my home office, while I listen to Internet radio through my laptop on a kitchen counter.

To improve the Internet radio experience, I bought a wall-mountable Yamaha TSX-10 mini stereo system for $274.99 and put it above a kitchen counter. Connected to my laptop, the TSX-10 delivers a surprisingly big sound from small speakers.

Two purchases were aimed at making my life easier. I got a Belkin keyboard-video-monitor (KVM) switch for $129.65 so that I could run three desktop computers _ my new Sony, my old Dell and a borrowed PC used for testing software _ through one keyboard and monitor. I also bought a 100-megabyte e-mail inbox from Yahoo for $59.99, and forward all my incoming messages there. Now I can go on vacation without worrying that my inbox will overflow.

The one expansion in my electronics menagerie was for my 2-year-old daughter Sara. The family room, where we have our home theater, is off limits to Sara, and I wanted a way for her to watch her favorite DVDs and children's shows.

So I purchased the least expensive color TV and DVD player I could find _ a 13-inch Sharp for $89.99 and a KLH DVD player for $79.99 _ and put them in the living room, figuring that I wouldn't get too upset if she poured apple juice into the back of the TV or stuffed a small plastic animal in the DVD tray.

To move recorded TV shows from my DishPlayer digital video recorder in the family room, I bought a wireless Terk LeapFrog Wavemaster video system for $99.99. The system works well, except I haven't figured out how to stop Sara from asking to see "Dora the Explorer" nine times a day. I did have to shell out another $59.99 earlier this month to replace the Wavemaster receiver, which somehow got smashed.

I also tallied the monthly fees I play for electronic communications and entertainment. Because I didn't make any significant changes this year, the total is holding about steady at $266.72. That might seem like a big number, but many Silicon Valley families spend the same when you add up Internet access, cable or satellite TV subscriptions, phone lines and wireless phones.

I'm not sure what I'll be buying in 2003. My laptop will be three years old in February, but it still meets my needs and so I may wait until 2004 to get a replacement. I'm eager to upgrade my home theater to high-definition television, but I refuse to act until the broadcasters, TV manufacturers and Hollywood studios work out a long list of issues that could make HD equipment purchased today obsolete in just a year or two.

One thing's for sure: There will be lots of new products hitting store shelves next year. I'm looking forward to reviewing as many as I can, so we can learn together how to get the most for our money.

(Contact Mike Langberg at mike@langberg.com or (408) 920-5084. Past columns may be read at www.langberg.com.)

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