I've gotta go with the rice cooker for making rice; since I eat as much rice as most asians (probably half my caloric intake every day), it's definitely nice to be able to just throw the rice and the water in the rice cooker and let it cook while i'm preparing the food to put on it. Personally I'm a fan of sticky rice so I use the japanese nishiki, but that really only applies for chinese and japanese food. For Indian or thai food get a good bismati or jasmine rice. The great thing about rice is that even the good rice is less than a dollar a pound
As far as rice cooker brands, I've had a zojirushi for years, and it's always made perfect rice.