It could be argued we live in privileged times when it comes to technological advancements: 50-inch wall-mounted televisions capable of displaying hundreds of channels; laptops that have more processing power than what Apollo 11 used to get to the moon; and a little ol' thing called the Internet that offers a world of information, entertainment and communication at our fingertips.

But we still have not yet reached true tech nirvana. After all, we're still toiling over complicated computers, having trouble copying music over to portable media players, and, while our phones seem to have everything but the kitchen sink, we still struggle to place a simple call because of teeny buttons.

And so here is a look at a few tech innovations that should hurry up and arrive already.

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Talk to me, baby

Computer keyboards and mice might do an okay job, but nothing is more natural to use than the human voice. And so many are waiting for a voice-activated operating system that lets you talk to your PC in plain English and hear responses in a pleasant (okay, sexy) voice. How cool would it be to walk into a room and ask your computer "What time is it?" while you leaf through a newspaper? Or "Computer, what is the weather like outside?" as you roll out of bed. Or "Tell me the highest-rated Indian restaurant on St. Denis St.?" Imagine being able to play your favourite music, TV show or movie by simply asking for it by name.

Where we're at: Products such as Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 ($129.99; www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/) offer voice-to-text transcription, therefore you can "type" a document or email simply by speaking. They can also let you use your voice to navigate around the web instead of typing and clicking. A similar technology from Nuance for supported cellphones is called Voice Control, available through select carriers such as Rogers Wireless ($6 a month; www.rogers.com/nuance).

Wham spam

Spam is still the bane of our email existence.

This unsolicited, unwanted junk mail continues to pollute inboxes with everything from medical solutions for erectile dysfunction to promises of large sums of cash in an African bank. In fact, IronPort Systems, a division at U.S. telecom outfit Cisco Systems, has just confirmed a whopping 83 per cent of all email is now spam, twice what it was just a year ago. Junk mail now accounts for between 60 billion and 150 billion messages - per day - and contributes to the growing problem of Internet congestion. Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates once predicted spam would be eradicated, but it's getting worse instead of better.

Where we're at: While some companies are getting better at filtering and segregating spam, such as the latest Microsoft Outlook email program, others are designing ways of barring it from your inbox altogether. Software such as DigiPortal Software's ChoiceMail (Free to try, $39.95 U.S. to buy; www.digi portal.com) is one of the growing "challenge-response" solutions that blocks everyone out of your inbox unless: a) they're already in your address book; or b) the sender is willing to take the time to type in some numbers and letters when the email bounces back initially, in order to prove they're a real person and not a spamming program.