Chad Miller, one of my favorite bloggers on SQL Server and PowerShell, has just announced the release of version 1.5 of SQLPSX. SQLPSX is a collection of functions, cmdlets, and scripts that make accessing SQL Server via PowerShell extremely easy.
For example, normally, without even considering error handling, you'd have to write the following PowerShell code to get a SQL Server server object:
$srv = new-object ("Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server") "YourServer"
But with SQLPSX, you get that functionality, plus error handling, in the easy-to-use, easy-to-remember function, Get-SQLServer:
$srv = Get-SQLServer "YourServer"
I use only a fraction of what SQLPSX has to offer, but functions like Get-SQLServer save me so much typing and time I've modified my PowerShell profile to load the LibrarySMO.ps1 script whenever I startup PowerShell.
I also recommend checking out Chad's great articles on PowerShell and SQL Server on SQLServerCentral.com, such as getting data out of SQL Server using PowerShell and loading data into SQL Server using PowerShell.