I am developing a severe case of phone envy as I watch friends caress and tickle their iphone screens. Most recently at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, I watched Active Rain's own Tool Boy, Jeff Turner, do magic with his iPhone.

I watched in awe. 

The iPhone's voicemail is visual and at a glance, one can see who has left messages and can prioritize the return of those calls. The web surfing is real, and reading glasses aren’t required because text and pictures can be enlarged with the slide of a finger. The iPhone takes decent photos, stores music (of course) and has a large screen that seems to resist scratching. Apple's latest magic comes closest to being that ultimate personal computer and personal electronic assistant.

The downside? Service for the iPhone is not available outside of the AT&T/Cingular network. (Was Verizon alseep at the wheel???)

Other top luxury gadgets might include:

1. Portable Video with the Archos 7704 WiFi. For those who just can’t handle watching everything on an iPhone screen, there is Archos 7-inch touch screen that has a massive 80-gigabyte hard drive that will allow for 100 hours of video storage. This amazing gadget also has a Web Browser that connects wirelessly to allow for surfing the net. The cost for this device is around $550 and for only $100 more, it can be turned into a portable TiVo type of gadget.

2. Slingbox Pro: Talk about new flexibility for television viewing!

Hook this gadget up to your home entertainment center, and you will be able to watch your favorite TV show from any broadband-enabled device. Add the SlingPlayer Mobile, and you can watch your favorite shows via the Palm Treo or Windows Mobile-Based Smartphones. The cost? Around $250 for the Slingbox Pro and about $280 for the Slingplayer Mobile.

3. The Garmen Nuvi 670 gps device will truly prevent this direction-disabled writer from being lost again. The maps for both North America and Europe are up to date (yippee!). The 4.5-inch screen offers very sharp resolution with clear graphics. The Nuvi 670 also doubles as an MP3 player and a speakerphone for your bluetooth enabled cell phone. The price? Around $1100.

4. The camcorder champ would have to be the Sony HDR_SRI AVC HD with a massive 30-gigabyte hard drive that allows for about 4 hours of video–with no tapes or CD’s to bother with. Just download the video and continue shooting. It also helps that this Sony camcorder has an amazing resolution of 1080i, which matches high-definition television. Bid farewell to those grainy family and vacation videos. The price? Around $1500.

5. Digital cameras? I love my slim new Kodak v705 (thanks again, Jeff) with its amazing wide angle capabilities, but for those who demand photographic perfection and don’t mind a little/lot more bulk, the Leica-V-Lux-1 might be worth consideration. It’s 12x optical zoom works well, especially with this camera’s image stabilization feature that allows for amazingly crisp shots. And with 10 megapixels, this camera works well for portrait and professional photography. The price? A relative bargain, I guess, at around $850.

6. Sound systems? Several months ago I wrote an article about the amazing Sonos Sound System that still tops my list of favorite gadgets. This expandable system allows you to wirelessly play your MP3 Music, your Rhapsody or Pandora subscriptions–along with those of i-Tune and Napster. That means you can wirelessly control music from any room in your home with your Sonos color screen remote– and no PC is required.  You can now tap into thousands and thousands of songs the moment you turn on your Sonos—whether from your own music files or that of the Rhapsody service. The basic Sonos bundle starts at around $1000 and can be ordered online.

Any other suggestions or contenders for Cool Technologies???

For other gadgets and luxurious technologies, read:

Wireless Home of the Future 

Luxurious Intuitive Homes 

Gotta-Haves for Luxury Homes

The Cooktop That Cannot be Ignored

Totally Hide the Bedroom TV

Switchable Mirror Glass Windows

Haute Refrigerators for Cool Kitchens

Ultimate Phone for the Luxury Bath