LiveScience Store: SmartShopper Digital Grocery List Organizer

I'm amused every time I see something like the Digital Grocery List Organizer. Here's a device which retails for $150 that is pretty much a toy. What it does, apparently, is it has a voice recognition capability to allow you to speak a list of groceries, print out a receipt (your list) and...

Wait... that's it.

Oh, it'll also allow you to say things like "Bank" and "Mail" to remind you to go to the bank to withdraw all of your money and mail it to me.

I'll never understand the fascination some companies have with creating expensive technology devices that replace making a list the old fashioned way. This is the equivalent of a $150 whiteboard for your fridge, but at least your whiteboard can also double as a blank canvas for other ideas. This thing is a solution hoping you're sucker enough to think it'll solve your problem. I can only imagine the fire-sale the company will have when all of their inventory comes back to them unsold.

And before anyone decides to bag on "Mr. Electronic Palm Device", keep in mind that a Palm is programmable. I can not only write "Bread" into it, but I can also keep The Bible (KJV and RSV), addresses, next-action lists, calendars, books like The Illiad and The Odyssey, and a Japanese dictionary on there and still have room for a RPN calculator. So there.

Also, JoDee pointed out that if you use a lot of foreign items, they'll probably serve this thing a curveball. Things like "couscous", "allouette spread", and "nori rolls" are quite common on our lists.