Can't live with 'em, can't throw 'em out a window: America's love-hate relationship with mobile phones.

30 percent of adults say the mobile phone is the invention they most hate but can't live without, according to the Lemelson-MIT invention Index study. The mobile phone narrowly beat the alarm clock (25 percent) and television (23 percent) in the annual survey, which gauges Americans' attitudes toward invention. Shaving razors, microwaves, coffee pots, computers, and vacuum cleaners were also cited as essential, yet despised, inventions.