I didn’t buy anything of significance other than new smartphone for traveling. I had hoped USB-C and PD would move quickly but the technology in 2018 did not move far enough for me to justify the cost. I am still significantly using 6 - 3 year old technology.
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Buds - still heavily preferring the Soundbuds Life, the battery life wins over other items, I have these on me almost 24x7.
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Phone - moved from OnePlus3T to OnePlus6. Primary reason was more radio frequencies, I spent about 2 months internationally traveling. However, the general trend of phones getting huge did alter my smartwatch approach.
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Tablet - in 2017 I upgraded to a Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus but I found I still actually preferred the 2013 Google LG Nexus 7 because it fits in hand and pocket a little better. I even still use the Google Samsung Nexus 10 for just watching videos at home. I pried open and replaced the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 batteries, the Nexus 7 is actually running Android Oreo 8, it was such a popular device 5 years ago it still gets open community support, so it is actually more modern OS than the Lenovo stuck on Android 7.1.1. Yes I am saying 5 year tablets are still winning over current tech. Sad.
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Smartwatch - LG Watch Urbane 2. What I did in 2018 was move one of two cellphone SIMs in a OnePlus phone to one of the SIMs in the smartwatch and a conditional forwarding from the SIM in the phone, so my watch in essence became my backup phone. Reason was just to walk out the house “nothing in my pockets” and if anyone phones me I answer off the buds BT paired to my watch.
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Laptop - Toshiba Chromebook 2. This has been on its 3rd self repair, screen and battery. A good-enough replacement in 2018 never dropped below $500. Sad too.
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Anker chargers. Actually Anker eventually followed one of my fave chargers of the Aukey 12W. I still carry the Aukey 12W charger, they were $5 once and so I own many of them. These work well in confined spaces where any charger wider than the wall socket would not fit.
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Powerbank. I still seem to come back to the Powercore 10000. Enough stored energy and small. I own a lot of Powercores but this one still seems to win its argument in the “what do I carry?” decision.
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cables. Apart from buying new Lightning cables as the family tends to be heading to be pro-iphone, the “problem” of Anker cables being soooooo good and reliable meant I didn’t buy cables.
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“smart home”. I moved up to a couple Anker smart plugs, another is on its way, and a smart bulb, these just relieved me of a small hassle of turning things on/off, e.g. the smartbulb comes on now time based rather than me realising its dark and turn it on manually.
So significantly for me 2018 was a year of using a screwdriver on old tech and few tech new purchases.
2019:
- waiting for a good enough Chromebook.
- waiting for a good enough Smartwatch, an Android equivalent of the Apple Watch 4. I quite like the idea and the experience of “just walk” of a smartwatch which can do the common tasks of reading emails and answering calls.
- waiting for a sufficiently good Powercore upgrade to make the now ancient Powercore 10000 a has-been. Say a 15000 Redux.
- waiting on a good enough Powerport to be a converged single solution for portable gadgets. My envisioned future state would be a USB-C Powercore with USB-C phone, tablet, Chromebook, buds. So a couple of cables and I can travel for a couple of days without needing an electrical socket.
What are you waiting for in 2019?