General counsel reveal their favourite work – and play – technologies to Jesse Londin

What treasures do general counsel keep in their technology toy chests? We asked 10 GCs – most in tech-related industries such as robotics, games, biotech, digital media, social networking, consumer electronics and software security – to let us take a peek. "For work and play, what are your favourite technologies that we could not pry out of your fingers?" The general counsel cited everything from a prized jazz app to a beloved e-book reader, cool headphones, handy chargers, GPS devices, an online news aggregator – even a pinball machine.

Topping the list (again, no surprise): Apple's iPad. Kathleen Phillips, GC for property website Zillow, swoons: "It really is mission control for my life." Phillips is also a fan of travel organiser apps TripIt and FlightTrack Pro (which integrates with TripIt) and Shazam – which can recognise a song as it plays, and lets you buy, and share, the ditty.

Michael Fricklas of entertainment company Viacom says the quick access to documents and the internet while typing on the iPad "has even provided me with a competitive edge in negotiations". He is also a fan of Panasonic's DMC-GR2 Micro Four Thirds camera and his Serotta hand-built carbon fibre frame bicycle.

tech-toyboxLooks matter. Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith impressed his daughter (as well as "a couple of US senators") with his "sleek" Samsung Series 9 laptop. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, games console Kinect and messaging system Lync are among his homegrown favourites.

For some lucky counsel, toys are work. Daniel Kaufman of games store GameStop has three teenage sons and admits he is "not as much of a hardcore gamer as they are", but confirms that on a recent conference call, chief executive J Paul Raines confessed: "This is the only company in the world where as part of your work assignment you're going to be told go play a game this afternoon." Kaufman also is a fan of iGo chargers with interchangeable tips, reQall (a voice-enabled memory aid) and his Plantronics 975 Bluetooth earpiece.

A smartphone makes most GCs' lists. Scott Taylor of Symantec has both an iPhone and a BlackBerry. He says he finds his BlackBerry Bold is "a better phone than the iPhone, although the iPhone is better for browsing". Taylor also loves his Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones and Google Maps (on his BlackBerry) and his car navigation system.

John Powell of American Superconductor says his iPhone has "basically become another appendage". Naturally, he says, his "wife is ready to throw it out the window". Reggie Davis of social network games developer Zynga also owns a iPhone and BlackBerry. Without the BlackBerry, "I fear the world would stop and we would all spin off into space". Davis also tunes into WWOZ New Orleans live music online or dives into his OffBeat New Orleans Mobile app.

While Tamara Tompkins of renewable products company Amyris loves her BlackBerry, at her innovative biotech firm she is definitely in the minority. "Our IT guys are trying to convince me to give it up because there's only a handful of us left and they hate to support it."

Mobile apps and gadgets created to ease the hassle of global trekking are hot. Little wireless gadgets get big raves – a mouse, a keyboard, an earpiece. Glen Weinstein of consumer robotics group iRobot programmes his Comcast DVR to skip commercials, shrinking 30-minute TV programmes to 22. "You gain eight minutes of your life back." He also loves his No Good Gofers pinball machine. Weinstein is addicted to Logitech Vid, which he uses to videoconference with outside counsel. "I think it greatly improves communication, and I am encouraging all of our outside counsel to get on the system." Firms take note.

MacBook Air gets a thumbs up. Taylor of Symantec calls it the "best laptop on the market" and finds it "slightly painful" that he must use his Dell Latitude E4300 – "a tank" – to access some company applications. Erika Rottenberg of LinkedIn is a convert to a Macbook Air. "Apple could make it a little bit lighter, but it's super thin and I love it." She recalls that, in the mid-1980s before practising law, she had an Apple IIe and IIc. Until a few months ago she used a Lenovo ThinkPad. With her return to Apple, Rottenberg says: "Now I've come full circle."

A version of this article first appeared in Law Technology News, an affiliate of Legal Week.