Think you're obsessed with technology? Try living in Britain and having a look around. A new study of 3,000 men and women reveals that our British brethren spend a whopping nine hours playing with gadgets.

"We all know that modern technology plays an important part in everyday life, but it is incredible to think that so many hours are spent using gadgets," said Stephen Ebbet from www.protectyourbubble.com, which commissioned the research.

"The average person probably isn't even awake for much longer than 16 hours a day, and more than half of that time is completely dominated by gizmos.

"The fact is that many of the electrical appliances used regularly - such as the computer, washing machine and microwave - are both necessary and time saving. So we might spend a few minutes fiddling with them, but they continue to work and carry out tasks for us even when we're busy doing something else."

Nevertheless, only a fourth of respondents said they are totally obsessed with gadgets, while 61 percent admitted to being surprised at how much time they spend with with technology.

More here.

Pay no attention to Intel dragging its feet in adopting USB 3.0, companies are jumping on the SuperSpeed bandwagon nonetheless. The latest is StarTech, which just announced the availability of its SATDOCKU3S USB 3.0 docking stations.

There are two docks in all, the 2-port PCI Express USB adapter (SATDOCKU3SP) and 2-port ExpressCard USB 3.0 host adapter (SATDOCKU3SE).

"The SATDOCKU3SP and SATDOCKU3SE hard drive docking stations offer users major value by providing the necessary USB 3.0 host adapters," said Carey Cline, Senior Product Manager for StarTech.com. "By bundling the docking station and the adapters, users get everything they need to take advantage of USB 3.0 speeds and reliability all in one package, and won’t have to rely on backward compatibility with previous USB standards to access external data."

Key features include support for both SATA 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives, an easy-to-use design with a hard drive release button, and hot-swappable, plug-and-play operation.

The SATDOCKU3SE ($119) and SATDOCKU3SP ($115) are available now.

Forget about Windows 7 and webOS for a moment -- Hewlett Packard is tapping into Google's Android platform for its first tablet, the Zeen.

HP's Zeen isn't meant to take on the iPad, as it's a more specialized device. It will be sold bundled with the company's printers and include HP's TouchSmart interface for operating said printers. It's also smaller than the iPad with a 7-inch display.

As mentioned, Android sits at the heart of the Zeen, but it's a customized version with a few niggling restrictions. Gmail, for example, has been stripped out, and so too has the Android Market and multimedia playback apps.

No definitive word on pricing, though earlier rumors had the Zeen/printer bundle going for $400.