Your iPad 2 is now a universal video phone thanks to the new iPad Skype app. Unlike the Apple-only FaceTime app, Skype for iPad lets you visually connect to any Skype user on any PC or smart phone.

No other gadget is appreciated more by office-bound/PC-bound/phone-bound toilers – and arguably used more – than a telephone headset. And as I mentioned Tuesday, no one makes better home/office phone headsets than Plantronics.

My mother-in-law wanted to speak to me.

In the cliché sitcom world, this would mean trouble. But my MiL and I get along great – I'm her only son-in-law.

Turns out, she had a tech question. She wanted to know about MagicJack. (Yes, it's actually spelled "magicJack" with a lowercase "m," but that looks weird, so I'm going to spell it with a cap "M.")

You have a DVD player, right? Complicated machine, isn't it (he said sarcastically)? Turn it on, hit open, drop in a disc, hit play.

Have you been shopping for a Blu-ray player lately? Scan the feature list of the latest decks and you'll come away thinking that playing a movie disc may be the least important function it performs.

But this isn't a bad thing. The Blu-ray player has morphed into a device that brings a Blockbuster and a music store to your HDTV, plus can keep you in visual touch with friends and family.