By Rebecca Day

We all feel techno-phobic in one way or another. It might be the blinking 12:00s that mock us from the VCR or the fear that we'll buy the beta machine when it's VHS that will win out. After all, we've learned the hard way. Some of our favorite music is in the basement under a layer of dust on LPs or 8-track tapes. Who wouldn't be reluctant to invest in a new format that might be here today, gone tomorrow?

Fact is, though, we'll never be able to keep ahead of technology. Advances occur so fast in consumer electronics that every six months to a year there's something smaller, faster and more efficient on the market. That doesn't mean you should wait on the sidelines. If you wait for a be-all, end-all product, you'll miss out on cool stuff that can make your life more productive and enjoyable today. The good news is new technology doesn't always translate to obsolescence. In fact, by anticipating your needs for now and later on, you can choose products that wear well into the future. Living in harmony with electronics is about making them meet your lifestyle, décor and entertainment needs. Here are some of the ways you can make electronics work for you:

In-wall speakers take the speakers off the floor and put them in the walls or ceiling where they can be painted to blend with the décor. By freeing up space in the family room, you can enjoy the full benefits of surround sound without having to look at a room full of speakers. Or, running an extra pair of speakers to the walls in the dining room can provide background music almost invisibly. If you're remodeling or building a new room, consider wiring for in-wall sound before the walls go up. Even if you don't put in speakers now, the wires will be ready when you are.

Move into home theater gradually if budget is a concern, but if the term home theater conjures up multi-thousand-dollar price tags think again. You'd be surprised at the theater you can assemble for under $2,000, and you don't have to do it all at once. Build a system around an audio/video receiver ($199 and up), stereo VCR ($139 and up) and a pair of stereo speakers ($99 a pair and up), and you've got a great start on home theater. You may have to jump into DVD right away because the digital sound and images are exponential improvements over movies on tape. More than 5,000 movie titles are available on DVD and there are more and more options for renting, too. Buying a DVD player is like getting a free CD player, too, because a DVD player spins both movies and music discs, saving you both money and space. When the budget allows, you can add a video game player, center- and rear-channel speakers, a subwoofer, a satellite receiver, or other digital audio and video recorders. Be sure the A/V receiver has enough inputs to handle all the components you will want to use in the future.

Make the most out of your purchases. New portable music players not only allow you to download MP3 files from the Internet, they also let you make your own mixes from CDs and take them on the road. It's all about having music your way. Pick just the songs you want to hear. You can record a lot of music at low resolution or fewer tracks with CD-quality sound depending on which is more important to you. Portable music players also can serve as voice recorders for memos, and some sport FM tuners. You can plug it into the car stereo with an optional upgrade kit. For even more flexibility, a removable memory card can take your music to other devices including personal organizers and cell phones.

Think of camcorders as more than just part of your vacation gear or a tool for the holidays. You can put them to work in everyday life, too, as a security camera inside the house or as a baby monitor that hooks into a video distribution system. Grab one to document your household inventory for insurance records. Take one along on house-hunting trips. New digital camcorders can even double as cameras by recording still digital images to a memory card that you can plug into a PC.

When it comes to consumer electronics, the only thing to fear is missing out on features that can improve your day-to-day life. Forget about the techno-babble and ignore the bells and whistles you don't need. Think instead about what electronics can do for you, and you'll see the world of technology in a whole new light.

Rebecca Day is a nationally recognized freelance electronics writer, and regular contributor to cambridgesoundworks.com