The Viewers' Verdict is an interesting addition to this summer’s official app from Cricket Australia.

With the First Test against New Zealand underway at the Gabba, I set about my annual ritual of looking for a decent iPhone app to keep track of live scores and other stats. There’s no shortage of apps to choose from, but the Cricket Live Australia app caught my eye due to the new Viewers’ Verdict feature which lets you have your say regarding controversial decisions. While the umpires confer, just hit the big red or green button on your phone to declare whether or not you think it’s a wicket.

Cricket Live Australia is available for both iOS and Android devices, which is great to see and a sign of the times. A partnership between Vodafone and Channel Nine means we’ll also see the results of each Viewers’ Verdict on the television as we wait for the umpire’s decision. It’s even tied into Twitter and Facebook, so you can broadcast your decision to the world. Yes, I also winced at the thought of adding even more noise to the social media din, but sharing opinions is clearly one of the main drawcards of social media.

In this age of multi-tasking, many people tend to watch television with at least one gadget by their side. Sure, pushing a big button is one of those silly novelties, but I expect the Viewers’ Verdict will be popular with passionate cricket fans. It’ll also be popular with networks such as Nine which are looking for new interactivity options to keep viewers engaged. Live sport is one of the few remaining programs that people are actually prepared to watch live and suffer through the advertisements. It makes sense for Nine to go out of its way to keep armchair sports fans happy, lest they get their sporting hit elsewhere.

Which gadgets deserve a place in your travel bag?

These days I’d say people are spending more time than ever working away from their desks - whether it be at a client’s premises, at a conference, on a plane or in a cafe. If you tend to travel you’re probably interested in gadgets that can also slip into something more comfortable after hours.

The rise of the mobile workforce has sparked a quest to find the perfect gadget for work and play. There’s no shortage of options, each trying to strike a balance between portability and usability. The choices can actually be a little overwhelming and this year I’ve looked at notebooks, netbooks, ultrabooks, smartphones, e-book readers and tablets. Along with these I've tested standalone QWERTY keyboards and even hybrid devices with detachable or slide-out keyboards (like the Asus Eee Pad Slider picture above). Each gadget has its strengths and weaknesses, so choosing the right one for you can be tricky.

As someone who writes for a living I place a strong emphasis on a good keyboard, which is probably why I’m still lugging around my 13-inch MacBook even though I’ve got Apple and Android tablets and smartphones at my disposal. I need a more shoulder-friendly mobile office than the MacBook but, despite all the options, I suspect my next portable computing device will be a MacBook Air. People who care less about the keyboard are probably more open to touchscreen alternatives.

Which gadgets are your essential travel companions for work and play?

What's the best way to separate your personal and professional life on Facebook?

I think we all have to draw up our own personal Acceptable Usage Policy when it comes to using social media for work and play. As a general rule I favour Twitter for work and Facebook for personal stuff, but the two inevitably mix. The fact that most people tend to use their Twitter accounts for both personal and professional interactions makes it quite hard to take a business-only approach to Twitter. Meanwhile over at Facebook, Zuckerberg’s habit of occasionally rejigging the privacy settings and exposing new content to all your “friends” by default doesn’t help when you’re trying to draw a privacy line in the sand.

Creating separate Facebook accounts for work and play would seem the obvious answer, but it’s something that Facebook frowns upon and if you get caught you could lose both accounts. Monitoring two Facebook accounts also sounds like it’s more trouble than it’s worth, especially as there’d sometimes be crossover content between the two. The same goes for two Twitter accounts.

I guess the sensible thing to do would be to only add personal friends as Facebook friends and ignore people I know through work, but that’s not as easy as it sounds when your job involves understanding social media and interacting with the wider public. I’ve even picked up a spot of paid work via Facebook so, as a freelancer, ignoring Facebook in my professional life could be a missed opportunity.

I’m wondering if the solution is to use my Facebook account to create a Facebook page for work, allowing friends to interact with my Facebook account and the wider public to interact with my Facebook page. Another option could be to investigate Facebook’s new subscribe feature, giving me greater control over what non-friends can see.

The big question here is who people will want to interact with me on Facebook and whether such changes comes across as arrogant. I’m guessing people see me as a person, not a brand, yet as a freelancer in the public eye I'm actually both. To be honest the same applies to just about everybody, but most people don't see it that way. I think I’ll experiment with both a Facebook page and a the new subscribe features to see what works best and what people consider acceptable.

How do you draw a virtual line in the sand when using social media for both work and play?

If the new TiVo XL is as good as it gets, it might be time to find a new love.

When the TiVo first came to Australia, I was one of the few tech journos who defended it when others criticised its small hard drive, high price tag, lack of ad-skipping and disturbingly close relationship with one of the local broadcasters. My argument was that the TiVo is one of those rare gadgets which “just works” and, while it lacks bells and whistles, its core PVR features were some of the best on the market. When it comes to a PVR torture test such as keeping up with the gruelling Tour de France, the TiVo’s strengths shine.

The TiVo might be a rock solid PVR, but I also want a device that’s going to keep up with the times rather than hold me back. After a slow start we’ve seen an explosion in online entertainment options this year and there’s more content on offer than ever. I reckon Fetch TV is the one to keep an eye on and chief executive Scott Lorson has exciting plans for the next 12 months, some of which you’ll hear on Tech Talk Radio on Monday night.

With so much happening in the Australian market, it’s heartbreaking to learn that the new TiVo XL is merely the same Series 3 TiVo with a storage boost, $699 price tag and the same wimpy CASPA video service. Worse yet, I’m told we’ll never see Series 4 TiVos in Australia because our small population means there’s no “return on investment”. Such an approach might see my love affair with TiVo come to an end, especially considering local players such as Fetch TV and Bigpond are investing plenty of time and effort into adding new services and features designed specifically for the Australian market. While TiVo's CASPA has the potential to keep pace, the deafening silence from Hybrid TV this year doesn't fill me with confidence.

TiVo has always targeted the “Mums n’ Dads” market, but even they are going to baulk at a PVR that costs significantly more and does significantly less than what they can get from their ISP for a few dollars a month. Sadly I suspect my TiVo has seen its last Tour de France. I’ll be sorry to say goodbye, but we'll always have Paris.

Why would I want Apple and Siri to control my television?

When it comes to buying televisions, I’ve always felt the right approach is to find the best picture quality you can afford, with plenty of HDMI inputs, and then let your set-top boxes do the heavy lifting. It’s the closest you can come to future-proofing such an expensive and significant purchase.

Most of us can’t afford to chuck away our television every few years as we do our other gadgets, especially if that old television is still going strong. It’s much cheaper and easier to upgrade your Blu-ray player or media player every few years to gain access to new internet-enabled features.

Now there’s renewed talk of an Apple Television. Not the little Apple TV streaming media player, but an actual Apple-branded television. The big selling point seems to be integration with the Siri interactive voice system already available on the iPhone 4S. Apparently we’re ready to yell at our televisions when we want to change the channel, although Siri would blush if it heard some of the things I shout at my television.

I’m not convinced that an Apple-branded television is such as great idea. Apple’s unofficial motto for its just works products is “Trading liberty for convenience”. That’s obviously a sacrifice that many people are prepared to make considering the success of iGadgets. But what sacrifices will we be expected to make for the convenience of a television with built-in access to Siri and the iTunes ecosystem? I wouldn’t be surprised it only featured HDMI inputs. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t even include digital TV tuners and found some way to stop you hooking up a Blu-ray player. Apple has no interest in letting you access content that doesn’t put money in the Cupertino coffers.

Of course there are plenty of ways for Apple to squeeze money out of other content. Think about possibilities such disabling ad-skipping, personalised targeted ads and even retrospective digital product placement into your favourite shows. It sounds a little paranoid, but all this stuff is technically possible and just waiting for a company like Apple to win it mainstream acceptance. In two or three years time, Apple will start withholding new features from old models and you’ll be expected to buy a new Apple television just like you keep buying new phones. Apple might even aim for some ind of subscription model, similar to a smartphone plan. I think can’t of anything Apple could offer that would entice me to make such a Faustian deal.

If you hand Siri control of your internet-enabled television, you may as well throw away the remote and chain yourself to the couch. Tune in, sit down and shut up, Apple knows best.