Since the Spirit Research Team can't invent gadgets fast enough to make your life a joy, it found them instead. Meet the wave of the present.

BY The Editors PHOTOGRAPHY BY Adam Voorhes

News Flasher

Chumby, $180, chumby.com

Get your personal news ticker with the Chumby, an electronic device released in February that uses wireless Internet to display a different widget as often as you desire. About the size of a coffee cup, this gizmo eliminates the need to flip through Web browsers or bookmarks to find your favorite blogs, rock out to Internet radio stations, or check today’s weather report or your friends’ Facebook status. The Chumby even does double-duty as an alarm clock.

Hot (and Not) Pot

Kuhn Rikon HotPan Thermal Cookware, $150, chefsresource.com

Think cooking convenience. The Kuhn Rikon HotPan is the first cooking dish that can keep your food hot for up to two hours after it’s off the stove. Cook your food on the stove in the cook pan; when done, carry the pan to the table and set it inside its melamine holder. The holder looks nice and keeps this 3-quart stainless steel pan from scorching your tablecloth. And the heat-resistant phenolic handles stay cool so you won’t burn your hands in the transfer.

Weight Watcher

BodyMedia SenseWear WMS, $299, plus $19 a month for website access, sensewear.com

Stick to your weight loss plan with a onetwo punch of armband and software pulled straight from your local doctor’s office. BodyMedia’s SenseWear WMS, used by physicians to monitor patients’ activities at home, records physical data like your sleep schedule and the calories you burn. Information from your armband flows to graphs and charts indicating your physical activity and dietary habits on a website. Wear the wireless display on your belt or your watchband, and you can see exactly how long you’ve been exercising, how many steps you’ve taken, or calories you’ve consumed.

Solar Head Phone

Iqua BHS-603 Sun, $100, iqua.com

Though this device looks average, it’s one of a kind: the world’s first solar-powered Bluetooth headset. Weighing just 14 grams, the Iqua Sun works with any brand of Bluetooth cell phones that support a headset. Its photovoltaic cell can charge up wherever it catches direct sunlight, indoors or out. Just place the headset on your car’s dashboard or on a tabletop near a sunny window, and enjoy unlimited talk time. You can also answer or end a call, redial, use voice dialing, or switch a call between your cell phone and the headset with the push of a button. Batteries not included,
or necessary.

Armchair Hero

ESPN The Ultimate Remote, $312, amazon.com

Clear coffee table clutter with ESPN The Ultimate Remote, one of the latest among the dozens of universal remotes out there. The half-pound gadget came out at the end of May and is one of the first of its kind to use Wi-Fi. That means you can wirelessly surf the Web, send text messages, check TV listings and sports scores, and even access Web-based e-mail from your La-Z-Boy. Not just for sports fans, ESPN’s Ultimate Remote controls everything from your DVD player, to your TV, and your stereo.

Personal Chef

Pandigital Kitchen Technology Center, $400, pandigital.net

No more lugging your portable TV into the kitchen—or worse, risk getting tomato sauce on your mother’s heirloom cookbook. The Pandigital kitchen four-in-one gadget, which debuted last month, displays on-screen recipes, RSS feeds, TV shows, or photos while sitting on your countertop, hanging beneath a cabinet, or mounted on your wall. Its 15-inch screen can show your favorite cooking show in hi-def, display that stir fry recipe as you cook, or shuffle through about 3,000 digital family photos, all while sealed to protect it from splatters and spills.

Home Shopper

Ikan Grocery Bot, $400, ikan.net

This countertop digital device provides a one-stop shopping tracker. When you get home with your groceries, scan the UPC barcode on products like milk and ketchup with the Ikan Grocery Bot. The gadget adds “milk” and “ketchup” to your online “pantry” and sends you e-mails reminding you when it’s time to buy more. No barcode? Use the voice recorder to tell the machine what items you need. Then you can print out your custom-made, categorized shopping list from your online Ikan account and speed through the nearest Kroger’s.

Juice Meter

Iogear JuiceMeter Portable Battery Tester, $7, iogear.com

Stop before you toss those AAs: There may be some power left in your batteries. Find out how much juice remains by popping any AA, AAA, C, D, N, 9-volt, or even 1.5-volt battery into the Iogear Battery Tester. The gadget’s negative and positive poles attach to the battery, and a color-coded gauge gives you the rundown. Store this 1.9-inch-by-3.2-inch gizmo anywhere, or just hook it to your keychain.

Motor Mouth

Oral-B Triumph With SmartGuide, $150, walgreens.com

Only 28 percent of Americans brush as long as their dentist recommends, according to the American Academy of Periodontology. But Oral-B aimed to change our unsanitary habits when it released the Triumph electronic toothbrush last year. The rechargeable brush links up wirelessly with the portable SmartGuide monitor, which acts as an on-screen guide and timer showing you where you should scrub and ticking away every second of the dentist-recommended two minutes brushing time.