Many of you have spouses who love tech just as much as you do.  That’s not always the case, though.  Some of you are in a relationship with a somone who just doesn’t understand your fascination with shiny toys.  It doesn’t have to be that way, as there are some tech items that even non-tech geeks can love.  Read on after the break for five of them.

High definition flat screen television

I’ve discovered that my wife doesn’t care about the difference between a high def television and standard def television.  I frequently walk into a room, notice that she is watching her show in standard definition, and change to the high definition channel for her.  This elicits an unethusiastic "oh."  That doesn’t mean she isn’t a fan of the flatpanel high def television, though.  When she realized how much less space our flatscreen television took, and how much nicer it looked than the old CRT behemoth, she was eager to replace the bedroom set as well.  Since then, we’ve also replaced the office television with a (non high def) television.  So, if the picture quality won’t sell her on the television, appeal to the interior designer in her.  Photo by Jolante.

Evernote, paired with a scanner

Hear me out on this one.  In a future post, I’ll talk more about Evernote.  For now, suffice it to say that I’ve started to put my entire cluttered life into it, including ideas, receipts, lists, and more.  My wife became enamored with my use of Evernote when she realized that it was slowly cutting down on all the receipts, billing statements, and other papers cluttering the home office and filing cabinets.  In fact, she was so enthused about it that, when I mentioned I could get rid of the clutter faster if I had a quicker scanner, she urged me to make the purchase so that we could completely eliminate the filing cabinet.  I haven’t done that yet, but after reading several reviews I have my eye on the Fujitsu Scansnap S300 Color Mobile Scanner.

TiVo HD, paired with Netflix

For a couple of years, I listened to a coworker extol the virtues of his TiVo.  I had a DVR from my cable company, so it couldn’t be that much better, could it?  Well, I’m still not sold on it for the reasons he gave me (the suggested shows feature and the interface), but I love it for other reasons.  One feature I love is the ability to program it over the internet.  Another feature is the streaming of Netflix movies and TV shows.  The streaming ability is why my wife is a heavier TiVo user than I am.  She frequently streams Netflix to the TiVo (although her taste in 80’s televsion shows is somewhat interesting).  Netflix streaming to a TiVo requires an unlimited Netflix account, the cheapest of which is $8.99 a month.

Garmin nüvi GPS navigator

Simply put, my wife gets lost.  Frequently.  Or at least she used to get lost, until I bought her a Garmin nüvi GPS navigator for her birthday.  She is a sales representative, and is on the road all the time, so this gadget is essential for her.  The nüvi is easy to use, and she likes the text to speech feature (caution: not all models have this), as she doesn’t have to take her eyes off of the road to look at the device.  I’ve noticed that I get fewer telephone calls from her during the day now, probably because many of the calls in the past were distress calls from her looking for help in finding her way.

Nintendo Wii

I don’t know if I’ve ever met a family that doesn’t enjoy the Wii. My wife is no different. Perhaps more than any of the above gadgets, she loves our Wii. She loves the sports games, Wii Fit, and Wii Ski, and always turns on the Wii whenever we have friends over. We still get it out on occasion just for the two of us. She still hasn’t beaten me at Wii boxing, though. What other gadgets can a spouse love?