2018 ends - what did you buy - 2019 - what do you want?

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.

  • Buds - still heavily preferring the Soundbuds Life, the battery life wins over other items, I have these on me almost 24x7.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • “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?

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I didn’t get much in 2018.

  • Phone: upgraded to the iPhone 8 Plus from an SE
  • Bud/Headphones: picked up a pair of the Vortex
  • Chargers: I won a PowerWave 7.5 pad & bought a ROAV F0 for the car
  • Cables: bought a 3 foot PowerLine+ II Lightning and a USB C to USB A adapter
  • Also bought the CD Slot car mount for the truck

For 2019 I’m looking to get a pair of truly wireless buds, most likely the Liberty Lite. We’ll see if they release anything new in the coming months. I’ve had my eyes on a couple of Moment lenses for my phone for a while. Those are definitely on my wish list.

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The only technical stuff we bought was a PC for my wife.
As she refuses to use LINUX, WIN10 and all that other stuff had to be installed.
And who was the one who had to do this?
I of course.

It took me more time to remove all the weird stuff coming with and never would be used than to do setup.

Now I REALLY know why I use LINUX ONLY! :joy:

What about a Samsung gear watch?

Towards the end of 2018 I got a PS4, iPhone XR 128gb, Apple Watch, and Aer Duffel Pack 2. Paid $100 for the PS4 and $285 for the XR out of pocket so while the spending is still pretty bad, it’s decent. Apple watch and duffel pack were mild discounts but the AW was a complicated situation and the duffel pack has been something I’ve been wanting for a while.

For 2019 I don’t want anything materialistic. I just want good health, good grades, spend more time with family, and find better friends.

So much of gadgetry has a “good enough”, like smartphones got good enough about 4 years ago, good enough performance, good enough battery life and since then its been just adding more features or taking them away (removing headphone socket).

Smartwatches are nowhere near good enough. My smartwatch LG Watch Urbane 2, has all the features I need but if I use those features I lose battery life, you’re talking 4 hours in some situations e.g. tracking fitness while online on LTE. There seems an idiot set of designers still in charge, if they took all the latest tech, e.g. SD 3100, WearOS, a big RAM 1.5GB and a big >400mah battery with NFC, LTE, then that would be by choice but the designers keep breaking by using weird OS or weird design. The Galaxy watch for example uses Bixby rather than Google Assistant, and voice recognition is much more critical on a tiny screen not intended to type something.

It takes about $350 to get a not quite decent smartwatch but for that same $ you can get a decent smartphone.

Indeed. I have used Linux almost exclusively for 25 years.

Typed on a Chromebook (Linux, of course).

In 1980/90 we used UNIX-workstations (HP).
If you know how to handle these you MUST use LINUX. :wink:

My first Unix was AIX.

My first Linux was Slackware, 29 1.4MB floppy disks.

Now i can FTP to my Android watch with 4GB of storage and copy MP3 to it to play with my new Soundcore Spirit headphones delivered today.

Bored. Just ordered these

They use bone conduction so you can hear things without something inside your ear, I am hoping they’ll do for bike riding. I currently bike with the Slim+ around my neck and then put right plug in my ear if my smartwatch shows someone ringing worth answering. Possibly these will make me not need the wired buds.

I don’t have these yet but here’s a review:

I also stumbled on Bose making their own but these do not use bone conduction they use very near directed speakers into the ear.

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Please let me know how you like them, my wife wants a pair but doesn’t know anyone who use them so she’s iffy in some of the reviews

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Will do. I don’t intend to use for music, I tend to not listen to music, but for voice when I need my ears clear, of which cycling in my case but I can imagine useful for say driving or in airports to hear announcements.

For voice frequencies the review indicate they’re ok.

The Bose items are free return you can get now but I’m already skeptical of them, they look huge and directed sound … Bose review here:

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Only major purchase I’ve made this year, off the top of my head, is my Lenovo Chromebook. I used it a lot when I got it but not now. I don’t have much use for it at work.

2019: Only looking to get a good smart watch if I need to replace the Fitbit Versa I’m getting soon and possibly new PC parts, specifically RAM, MOBO, and CPU.

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I didn’t make any major purchases this year aside from car parts that were needed. Of course I did all the work so I saved a bit. I do need new parts for my desktop computer, maybe in 2019 I will buy them

2018
I didn’t make many purchases at all this year.
I had a couple nice wins on here tho, for stuff I couldn’t afford or justify, if I were to try to buy (still sad some thief stole my 20100 powerbank).

2019
Hopefully a better year financially. Might finally get the mobility component to PIP (it’s the UK’s disability benefit paid to anyone regardless of income, who needs extra money due.to disabilities). PIP is a very hard benefit to get, yet it seems those who take the piss and blatantly lie, get away with it and get full payments! GGGRRR

Despite both of us having conditions that get worse with time, I’m hoping next is not so full of bad days/weeks (we both have normal days… Wake up in pain and stiffness, but able to do most things between us, slowly. Then there’s days either of us crawl out.of bed riddled with pain and can barely walk to the toilet, without huffing n puffing, and cursing every step).

I hope you all have a great next year, and things that didn’t happen this year, will next year.

Maybe I’ll be more lucky in entering comps (especially for a TV, cos ours is on its last legs. Being as we do spend days housebound, we’d be lost without our TV).

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Got them today. Rubbish. Don’t bother. Everyone else can hear it and its either not loud or distorted, I had to press them right up against my cheek bones and they were wrong length and shape to held up off my bones by the rest of skull. They may suit someone else with different shape skull, less deep with wider cheekbones. Another gift to someone else, my daughter’s skull is shorter and liked them more than me.

Hmm, thanks I guess the question for decent bone conductor Headphones continue… I’m almost at the point where Ill get the military ones for covert operations and use that

I went a little wild in 2018. Due to some changes in the American tax code and some additional restrictions on independent contractor income, I was compelled to get some money out the door before the end of the year on business-related expenses, so I remade my home office:

I got a new 21.5" imac, Yeti mic, autonomous sit-stand desk, and exerpeudic stationary bike. I also got Camtasia studio and a few other little softwares.

As far a mobile stuff, I got:

Galaxy s9+
Samsung Gear Sport Watch
Anker Cube
some peripherals, like cases etc.

As far as your chromebook goes, @nigelhealy , I bought a Asus Flip C302 last year and I LOVE it.

I was able to find the one with the M5 for under $500 last black Friday (2017 - I think I paid $425 or so). I love the USB C charging, the touch, the flippiness, the SD card reader, and the speed. It’s not overly resourced (4GB ram) but that’s more than enough for a chromebook. Any heavier lifting and I wait until I’m in the office. Some products I bought / won this year that I can’t live without with this chromebook:

Anker Powercore Speed PD. This battery can seriously charge my chromebook while I use it. It’s changed my life. I don’t even worry about sitting near an outlet anymore at all-day work meetings or design sprints. That battery has more than enough to keep me going until I sleep. Even when we pull 14 hour days. It also comes with a PD wall plug and a USB-C to USB-C cord. Amazing deal.

Anker usb-c to hdmi adapter - there are several versions of this but the simpler the better in my opinion. I’m sure all of the little bells and whistles (ethernet ports, usb ports, etc) are cool but I like this one ALOT. https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Aluminum-Portable-Supports-Chromebook/dp/B01MYUCWOK/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1546922424&sr=1-4&keywords=anker+usb+c+hdmi

Anker usb c to usb a adapter - for when you need to plug into the past. solid, ,small, lightweight, stylish: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Adapter-Transfer-Compatible-MacBook/dp/B078NKPGW9/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1546922454&sr=1-9&keywords=anker+usb+c+usb+adapter

As far as 2019, I’m not that excited about anything in particular. I need a better camera for the office for videoconferences, so I’ll probably grab one of those. 1080P USB job, probably the monoprice standby: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=35520

As far as my go-to products I’ve had for a long time,

Soundbuds curve
Anker powercore fusion
Anker 6ft powerline +
Anker usb micro to C adapters
Anker Bolder LC40
Anker Soundcore boost
Anker soundcore nano

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Like the ones that make your jawbones vibrate so you can hear through your skull? I didn’t know they even made those available to consumers. I want those too! Let me know if you find them

That’s disappointing! :frowning: