She talks about how the hand-held device helps her to be efficient, productive and flexible in her job as president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.

Then she gleefully admits, "It's so much a part of me. I love this little thing; I do."

Cole is among the baby boomers who have embraced today's rapidly evolving techno gadgets for work and play.

Digital still cameras, video cameras and music players, laptop and hand-held computers, wireless stereo systems, Global Positioning Systems, cell phones that take pictures, send e-mails, play videos - - the devices seem endless.

And, surprisingly, some of the newest technology is both accessible and affordable, according to Dan Adams, electronics and computer manager at Baillio's Electronics and Appliance Connection on Menaul NE.

"I could go on for hours," he says, after rattling off about a dozen of the newest electronic gadgets he sells. "Between you and me, I blew off a psych degree to play with these toys."

Expanding system

One of the hottest techno gadgets is the Sonos Digital Music System, which allows you to make your favorite audio devices part of a wireless, multi-room digital music system, Adams says. You can stream music stored on your computer to your home theater receiver, stereo system, speakers and more.

You can play the same song in different rooms or different songs in different rooms. So, while you bop to the Black Eyed Peas in the kitchen, your hubby can jam to AC/DC in the backyard, for instance.

Many local boomers live in Southwestern-style homes with plaster walls, Adams says, so retro-fitting wiring for a traditional whole- house music system is out of the question. And most people don't want to go through the expense and hassle of pulling wires through their home anyway.

The Sonos controller wirelessly controls up to 32 devices from the palm of your hand. You can access music from your iPod, CD player, Internet radio or online subscription audio services like Rhapsody. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection.

"It's a cool little unit," Adams says, and prices range from $600 to $1,100.

Those plaster walls and tile or hardwood floors also might keep some boomers from setting up a surround sound system, and now they don't have to rip up their homes to do it, Adams says. Surround bars by Yamaha or Folk Audio can bring their movies and music to life quickly and easily, he explains.

The Yamaha YSP-1000 digital sound projector, for example, is housed in a single bar-shaped body but is equipped with 42 speaker drivers, each with its own digital amplifier.

"It uses the walls to bounce sound behind you," Adams says. "If it's set up correctly, you'll think there are speakers throughout the room." It starts at $700.

Control4 makes "home automation for the not so rich and famous," Adams says. The company offers a line of affordable wired and wireless home automation products that allow you to control your lighting, audio, video, landscape and climate with one system.

You can log onto your computer at work and tell the system to flip on your outside lights, turn up your thermostat and light up your kitchen, he explains.

Those types of systems used to be exorbitantly priced, he adds, but the Control4 systems start at about $800, and you can add pieces as you're able to afford them.

Price drop

All of Apple's laptop and desktop MacIntosh computers are extremely popular these days as well, Adams says. Prices have dropped and new features make them easier to use and safer from computer viruses than ever.

MP3 players, which store music digitally, also continue to be wildly popular. The newest iPod shuffle can hold 240 songs, weighs about half an ounce and is "ridiculously cheap" at $79, Adams says. It's the easiest way to bring your music with you on walks, to the gym, to work or wherever you go.

When you get home, you can park your iPod in a Bose dock that delivers "phenomenal sound" for $279, he says.

The newest camcorders have eliminated the need for tapes or disks. A "little tiny hard drive" inside the camera can store 20 to 30 hours of video, Adams says, and it's a snap to transfer your home video to your computer and start editing. Prices start at $499, and many computers, such as the Macs, come loaded with movie-editing software built in, he adds.

Digital cameras are constantly improving and boomers are snapping them up.

"Boomers are retiring and wanting nicer pictures," Adams says.

Sony's Alpha single-lensreflex camera is "the new hottie on the market." Its 10 megapixels capture enough detail for photo-quality large prints. It features in-camera image stabilization and antidust vibration systems, and an auto system begins focusing as soon as the camera is brought to your eye.

It runs about $789 with a lens, Adams says.

Boomers who travel frequently for business or pleasure can take not only their music but also their favorite TV shows with them. Sony's LocationFree Base Station offers not only the ability to watch DVDs or video on a laptop or MP3 player, but the power to control your own home video center and watch everything on it from any place you can find a highspeed Internet connection.

It uses your home broadband connection to send the TV programs or movies of your choice over the Internet to your laptop to any location in the world you happen to be. So, if your flight gets delayed, for example, you can sit back, relax and catch up on "Grey's Anatomy."

All in one

Cole's BlackBerry is either in her hand or in her charger at all times, so it's hard to believe it has given her more leisure time, but she insists it has. BlackBerry devices offer an all-in-one mobile phone, email, Web browser and organizer.

"I have the ability to handle issues on my time," she explains.

Cole receives an average of 100 e-mails a day and 50 voice mail messages.

"Pre-BB," as she calls it, "I had to structure my down time to be at the computer. Now, I never come home from a business trip or vacation and spend eight hours answering e-mails like I used to.

"It's easier to do one or two or a few at a time."

The downside, Cole adds, is that "you don't ever totally get away from work."

"It's bit addictive," she says with a smile. And she admits that her husband, Jim, "can be annoyed by it," but adds, "he has come to terms that the BlackBerry is part of me."

Cole says she uses her BlackBerry so much that she has sore thumbs -- a condition akin to carpal tunnel syndrome that she eventually will have to address.

Unlike Cole, Dave Mehlman claims not to be addicted to his technology of choice -- a Global Positioning System -- but admits it provides him with scientific data he couldn't get as quickly or accurately any other way.

Mehlman, 49, of Albuquerque, is director of The Nature Conservancy's Migratory Bird Program. His GPS helps him with the North American Breeding Bird Survey, a nationwide effort that covers more than 3,000 routes, each of which has 50 point locations, he says.

The GPS helps pinpoint the location of each of those 50 stops accurately, Mehlman says, and the information is fed into a master database. "It's allowed us to do a lot of analyses that we could not have done 20 years ago," he says.

For another project, Mehlman has been collaborating on a study of the cerulean warbler, an eastern North American bird with a winter range that stretches from Venezuela to Peru. "It's a big area, very rugged, and parts of it are hard to access," he says. "The GPS has been helpful for us to construct a model of where (the bird) might occur so we can recruit people to go out and look for it, and figure out what kind of habitat needs it has and how to protect it."

On a lighter note, Mehlman took his GPS on a recent group trip to Ecuador and discovered that "El Mitad del Mundo," or the middle of the world, where the equator passes through and you can theoretically stand in both hemispheres at once, was actually about a quarter of a mile south of where its monument was positioned.

The bottom line with these types of technology, he adds, is that they aren't infallible. "Batteries die, and it can tell you where you are and where you might want to go, but not tell you the best way to get there," he says. "So it's not a substitute for common sense or knowing the lay of the land."