We've hit a bit of a plateau when it comes to gadgets. We have laptops, which fit in a backpack and are more than fast enough for most purposes. We have smartph

We've hit a bit of a plateau when it comes to gadgets. We have laptops, which fit in a backpack and are more than fast enough for most purposes. We have smartphones, which fit in a pocket and are a decent tradeoff of portability vs speed/features. And we have desktops, which can have more storage than laptops, but for most stuff they're not much faster. Now which one of those three things can you build yourself? That's why nerds/hackers are using the same things as everyone else. They simply don't have the resources to build or customize tightly-integrated devices like laptops and phones. So they buy what works best for them. Lately, a lot of the time macs work best for them. I'm probably being overconfident, but I think there's a new frontier for nerds and hackers. Advances in microdisplays and embedded computing have made wearable computers a somewhat practical idea. And individuals can build them. And the costs are decreasing. A few people have already hacked their own together from video goggles (like the Myvu Crystal) and single-board computers like the BeagleBoard. The biggest problems with wearables are fashion and software. The fashion issues will probably be resolved as technology gets better and people become more used to them. Software for wearables has to be really really responsive, since the idea is to completely integrate the computer with your life. Smartphone software has a similar constraint, but not to the same degree. I think as wearable UIs and software improve, people will see the advantages of them. It would be incredibly useful to have a local cache of Wikipedia, e-mail, personal notes, and other data sources and software. You could become the smartest person in the room, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Lifelogging (don't you wish you had video of the first time you met your significant other or best friend?), augmented reality, etcetera etcetera.