Talking Your Tech: Highlights from year one

• Highlights from year one of Talking Your Tech
• Among guests: James Taylor, Judge Judy, Selena Gomez and Arsenio Hall
• Larry King doesn't check his e-mail

We launched Talking Your Tech on October 3rd last year with the idea of talking to newsmakers about the role technology plays in our lives. Instead of just asking what songs were on their iPods, we wanted to learn about their apps, their websites, how they handle social media friend requests, how they keep up with Twitter, and the like.

We've had an amazing run with a list of names that began with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg through jazz guitar hero Pat Metheny this week. Along the way, we've had top names from TV (Drew Carey, Steve Harvey, Judge Judy, Stana Katic, Lawrence O'Donnell, Carson Daly), music (James Taylor, will.i.am, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Selena Gomez), sports (NASCAR's Brad Keselowski and the NFL's George Wilson), comedy (Aisha Tyler, Arsenio Hall), news (MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, Hulu's Larry King), and magic (Penn Jillette.)

Here's some of our favorite highlights.

Keeping up with Friends

Facebook's COO Sandberg has over 3,000 of them. "I don't know all of them, but I have met all of them in one shape or form," she said. Teen sensation Selena Gomez has 12.7 million followers on Twitter. "I don't think about the number when I Twitter," she told us. "I just think about what I'm going to say."

Morning rituals

Musician Kevin Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) checks "e-mail first, then (the photo-sharing app) Instagram, then tweets," when he wakes up every morning. Director Kevin Smith goes straight for the tweets. "I want to see what happened while I was asleep. I'll tweet before I go to bed, go to sleep, and start tweeting again. People say, 'Don't you sleep?' Yeah, man, for a few hours, but then I got to catch up."

Nasty tweets

In composing his 140-character Twitter updates, comedian Ricky Gervais says he likes "to annoy people. I like to agitate. I want to see what the reaction is." On the flip side, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell told us he gets pleasure from reading really mean tweets that are written about him. "I think they're very funny. There are frequently some real displays of humor."

Texting is a sure-fire way to get in touch

"You have to (text) these days," said Mad Men's Christina Hendricks. "I feel like no one answers their phone anymore. I'll call someone and they won't answer, then I'll text them, and they'll get back to me right away. Immediately. It drives me crazy."

Not everyone texts. Kermit the Frog told us it's just too hard for him. "I tend to drop the phone."

Gadget lust

Former boxer Mike Tyson can't live without his iPod Nano, which he prefers to the iPhone. "I work out a lot, and it's not cumbersome when I'm running." Guitarist Pat Metheny brings his Blue Microphones Snowball USB microphone with him on tour to record podcasts. Comedian Aisha Tyler records her Girl on Guy podcast directly into the iPad. Magician Penn Jillette loves his Fanny Wang headphones. "Who cares about the quality? Having something named Fanny Wang hanging off the side of your bag is pretty great."

Using e-mail to compose music

Musician Will.i.am (The Black-Eyed Peas) used e-mail to create the massive hit "I Got a Feeling," with co-writer David Guetta. Guetta sent the beat to what became Feeling via the online cloud service Dropbox. Will.i.am downloaded it, listened, and thought it was "hypnotic." He composed the lyrics, and the song went on to sell 13 million copies -- and the video was viewed on YouTube more than 111 million times.

Using new tech to teach music

Music superstar James Taylor saw so many folks teaching "James Taylor" style guitar playing on YouTube, he decided to jump in and do it himself.

"I thought it would be good to get it from the horse's mouth. It's just a way of passing it on, putting it down and having a record of what my technique is and how I play."

Cameras of choice

Drew Carey (The Price is Right) owns pricey Canon 5D Mark II ($2,000) and 7D ($1,500) SLR s, but most of the time uses the camera in his pocket. "If all you're doing is taking pictures of friends at a party and posting them on Facebook, the iPhone pretty much covers it." Actor Thomas Gibson (Criminal Minds) has a digital Leica and the Olympus Pen E-1, but he shoots his frequent Twitter photo updates on the iPhone as well. "It's the one I carry with me."

Digital cameras have gotten so good, they're being used to produce TV shows

NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly is made on multiple Canon 5D Mark IIs, an SLR that sells for just over $2,000. "For an independent-spirited network show, thank God for the technology," said Daly.

We love to share photos, but when it comes to editing our videos...

Even the pros don't have time for it. "It's one thing to snap some shots and send them out to the world, but I don't really want to take my home movies and make them into movies, that's my day job," said director Ron Howard.

"My theory is if I make them short enough, I don't have to spend time editing them," says Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, who records daily diaries of his kids on his iPhone.

Gadget obsession

"How did we survive without the things we have now?" asked comedian Arsenio Hall. "I remember a time when I wasn't so attached to my phone. I remember when I didn't have a phone. How does it go from that to this? I mean, it's all day long. It's an appendage that never leaves my hand. It's horrible. I feel bad sometimes about technology. But it's the only way to deal."

But some folks just can't get hip to the new tech

Larry King has no use for e-mail. "I don't like to type out messages. I like to talk to people." Director James Cameron (Avatar) refuses to get a cell phone. "I won't even use a BlackBerry. I refuse to stand with my neck bent down all day long waiting to get hit by a bus." Judge Judy thinks Facebook shorthand is inane. "LOL. What does that mean? LOL to me would mean "lots of love." The shorthand has a tendency to separate people, rather than bring people together. I still prefer, if I want to say 'thank you' to somebody, to pick up the phone."