OTHER TECH

All Together Now

The kitchen now features a Toshiba Satellite P25 notebook PC.

Every room in the house has become its own command center, a multimedia access node that can retrieve, display, and send video, music, pictures, and more. If the connected home catches on, being sent to your room for misbehaving might not be much of a punishment.

It might sound like the connected home is actually creating the disconnected family, but both Drew and Chris say that's not the case. "My biggest concern was that all this technology would isolate us," Chris said. "Before, everyone was in my office using the Internet. But it wasn't a good thing. I was worried that with their own PCs, the boys would be online and playing games all the time. That hasn't happened. They get bored doing it."

Since the family has been using their new technology for only six months, many features remain undiscovered. For example, Chris often forgets that the wireless network allows her to work on her laptop wherever she wants. And she rarely sends files, such as photos, from one room's display to another's. "Max does those things," she said.

While Drew likes having all his new toys connected, he's most taken by the "unconnected" part of the technology. He enjoys using the Web cam to see Jonathan, his 21-year-old son by a previous marriage, while talking to him in college. And when he needs a change of pace, he takes his notebook PC to other rooms to work, creating a virtual office throughout the house. Drew gets what it means to be untethered. He's even put a printer in his car so he can create proposals for clients on the spot.

Drew wirelessly transfers the photos to a printer/fax machine to make color prints.