By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — It's morning. You roll over in bed, stretch out your arms, and slowly open your eyes.
Next to you, your iPod is recharging on the nightstand and your BlackBerry starts to vibrate. It's work calling.
Time to get up. You make your way to the bathroom to splash some cold water on your face and you grab your electric toothbrush.
Then, you stumble out into the kitchen and boot up your laptop. Over breakfast, you surf the Internet, reading up-to-the-minute news online.
In the first 10 minutes of your day, it's quite possible to have several close encounters with inventions made popular in the last 10 years.
Thanks to dropping prices, these 21st century gadgets have become the norm for many Manhattanites.
DNAinfo takes a look at some of the top gadgets of the 21st century:
1. BlackBerry (2002)
The BlackBerry gave us the ability to send and receive e-mails pretty much anytime, anywhere.
With the BlackBerry in your hands, it's expected that you can answer e-mails in the evenings, on weekends and even during family holidays.
No wonder the Canadian invention quickly earned the nickname "crackberry." Webster's even named crackberry the "New Word of the Year" in 2006.
Mike Liu, a corporate lawyer who lives in Midtown Manhattan, has a strict crackberry regiment.
"Unfortunately, for lawyers, it's pretty important that you check your BlackBerry all the time," Liu told DNAinfo. "So the BlackBerry stays on as soon as you get up and before you go to sleep. That's kind of the drill."
2. Laptop computer
Laptop computers have been around for awhile. But in the last decade, prices have dropped so much that laptops have become commonplace.
Over a bowl of cereal and milk, Liu says he likes to have breakfast while surfing the Internet on his laptop.
He goes online via a Wifi network set up in his midtown Manhattan apartment, and surfs over to News.google.com, where he's customized a page to display both international and local news headlines.
"The other big place that I get local news is Facebook," Liu said. "Whenever something interesting happens, you see your friends sticking it up in their status updates."
The laptop is Liu's command central, where he does most of his e-mailing, Web surfing, music downloading and online shopping.
The laptop is "really the thing that enables everything and ties everything together," said Liu, who doesn't pay for cable. Instead, he streams movies and television shows so he can watch them on his 42-inch LCD screen.
3. Social networking sites
In the last few years, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have proved to be a quick and popular way to get the news out.
In 2009 alone, Facebook saw huge gains in its number of registered users. The site went from 150 million users at the beginning of the year to more than 350 million users at year end.
Twitter gained notoriety when celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher signed up and they continue to tweet regularly. According to eMarketer, there will be about 18 million Twitter users by the end of 2009.
Twitter was one of the first sources to publish photos of the "Miracle on the Hudson" — the emergency landing of a U.S. Airways jetliner on the frigid Hudson River in January 2009.
Trigger-happy ferry riders snapped the photos and uploaded them to photo-sharing host Twitpic, which ended up crashing because of the sudden spike in traffic.
4. iPod (2001)
Apple's iPod music player went on sale in October 2001 and from the start, it revolutionized the way we consume music. The iTunes music store, which allows users to digitally download songs on to their iPod, has forever changed the music industry.
The sleek, colorful device can store thousands of songs on a thin hard drive, allowing users to carry an entire music collection quite literally in the palm of their hand. As of Sept. 9, 2009, more than 220 million iPods have been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling digital audio player in history.
On subways and buses in Manhattan, it's easy to spot the iconic white earphones of the iPod. But Liu prefers to take his Bluetooth earphones on the commute.
"I really hate how the wires on regular ear buds become a total mess," Liu said. "The wireless ones come in one nice, little ear piece. You stick it in your pocket and then take it out and it's good to go."
5. Digital Camera
In the last decade, digital cameras have become super affordable and easy to use. Many New Yorkers have abandoned film and opted for a pocket-sized digital camera.
And while there are countless brands and models to choose from that can take quality photos with a high megapixel count, it was really Canon that started it all with the SD100 model in 2003.
6. iPhone (2007)
Apple's iPhone redefined the mobile phone experience, with an intuitive touch-screen instead of a physical keyboard and tens of thousands of handy applications ready for download.
Since the App Store launched in 2008, the world has downloaded more than a billion "apps" that can find anything from restaurants to broken parking meters.
In December, the city launched the NYC Big Apps contest, which featured a $5,000 grand prize for the city's best iPhone app.
7. Wii (2006)
Video games can no longer be blamed for creating couch potatoes. Nintendo's Wii game console uses an innovative motion-sensing controller system.
Players grab onto the device and mimic movements, such as hitting a ball, swinging a golf club or thrusting a foil.
More than 56 million Wiis have been sold worldwide.
8. Tom Tom/Garmin GPS (2004)
You will never have to ask for directions again — satellite navigation will show you the way.
GPS devices installed in cars and on BlackBerries and iPhones can guide you step-by-step to your destination, while giving you advanced notice of turns, lane changes, traffic congestion, road construction and highway speed cameras.
Liu does not own a car, but he does own a GPS device.
"I rented so many cars that I find it's handy to have one. I got it for $80 over the Internet," said Liu, who said he prefers to do his shopping online.
