What has brought you joy?
Companion to the last question :)
Not a purchase per-se, but Linux - investing time in learning it has paid for itself hundreds of times over. A MacBook Air with apple silicon - it hurts to use anything else. ESP8266s / ESP32s with ESPHome - being able to craft real world solutions with very limited electronics skills is amazing.
For me the best tech purchases aren’t really the ones that bring me joy. They’re the ones that become invisible because they take away points of friction.
So I would say my Brother printer is one. It’s been incredibly reliable for more than a decade now.
Switching over to Ubiquiti Unifi access points for wifi has been worth it too. It’s a pain to run wires for them, but having a solid signal everywhere in the house in all kinds of weather is just amazing. They’ve been running for a decade too, though I did just replace one so I can have a 6GHz connection in one room. Not really sure that particular upgrade was actually worth it, but the system as a whole has been so nice. There’s just never anything to fix about the wifi anymore. (Well, okay, occasionally there’s something to fix with the Internet, but it’s usually just “Comcast is down,” and we have to wait until they fix it, and sometimes also reboot the modem. The wifi itself is pretty bulletproof.)
So yeah. Tech that works reliably and invisibly for years on end is what I find really valuable. Gadgets can certainly be fun, but great tech is just there in the background making things easier.
- Steam Deck (I spend 90% of my time gaming on my couch than at my desk)
- Minidisc Players (There was some MD hate in the other thread but community-made software has come a long way)
- Kobo (Freeing myself from Amazon’s DRM)
- DAS (Creating my own media collection on Jellyfin)
I really like my unihertz Atom phone. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s small and damn near indestructible. Thinking of trying to install linux on it.
Macbook Air probably (Apple silicon)
Apart from the repairability it’s just THE perfect laptop
Two right now. One is a Kobo e-reader. The other is a bone conduction headset. The latter allows me to ride my bike with my tunes but allows me to hear traffic and other environmental hazards. Very comfortable to wear too.
Strix Halo laptop.
After a little over a year with a Framework 16, which I had multiple problems with (garbage build quality and tolerances, multiple USB A and C expansion modules all utterly unreliable in any slot), I sold it and instead got an HP ZBook Ultra G1A. Really feeling vindicated getting a laptop with 64gb of 8000mt/s RAM last year given the RAMpocalypse.
Still wasn’t cheap but the thing is insanely powerful for its size, especially the GPU which is crazy good for “integrated”
I can think of a few that I can’t decide between:
My IBM Model M that came with my childhood PC was my primary keyboard into my 30s until a coworker sabotaged it (it was a bit loud I suppose). Not technically my purchase, but damn was it solid.
I bought a used 21" Sony Trinitron CRT monitor crazy cheap back in the mid 90s when typical monitors were 14". I felt like a king, that thing never stopped working, but I was pressured to part ways with it two decades later by my wife.
Edit: I’ll add on my Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones. My current pair are 20 years old and I have just replaced the pads a few times as well as some cheap support part (was less than $3 from the manufacturer). These things are basically invincible and they are still my travel headphones as they can take a beating on the road.
until a coworker sabotaged it
They would have been buying me a new one. NEW. Not used. Yes, I know that’s next to impossible.
And I would tell everyone in the office about it until it happened.
Number 2 is an electric vehicle.
Number 1 is a non-smart TV
Honorable mention; The Apple Watch SE 2 I bought for my wife so she stops thinking she’s going tachy or having a heart attack 9 times a year. Considering the cost of an average ER trip, and the hit to my sanity when these things only happen at like 3 AM, I’ll gladly upgrade her to the pro version or whatever when the SE kicks the bucket.
I’m in the market for a new TV, what would you recommend for a dumb screen?
I got an Insignia from BestBuy a few years ago. There was a smart version that was 2 inches bigger for 25 dollars less, and I opted out of that. To say the salesman was floored by this decision would be accurate.
Formerly steam deck, now unseated by my AYN Thor. It can play 70-80% of the games the deck can in a package that fits in your pocket.
My breville coffee maker and bratza burr grinder. It makes the best coffee and doesn’t complain.
Also, my dolphin pool cleaning robot. Vacuuming a pool manually is such a hassle. Outsourcing that to a bot is truly amazing.
Anything that buys me back my time.
I recently got an AYN thor. What sort of things have you been playing on it? I’ve not ventured too far into a gaming library yet and was wondering how others are using it.
My first iPhone, the 6s. I’m sure if I still had it, it would still be kicking ass. After that I got the SE 2, the 13 Pro, and now the 16 Pro Max. I do like having USB-C, but the SE 2 and 13 Pro were unnecessary.
So, an iPhone — but you really have to be careful. Some of them are bested by the next one. A few of them are good to run for a decade or so.
Not dumping on Android. I went through a few of them before I switched, and I liked the Galaxy S3. The others were all trash. I have a Galaxy S10 and I love it. I think these days it really doesn’t matter what you have as long as it has USB-C (for universal charging) and it’s decent or recent. The S10 will run for ten years. A lower-end Galaxy from a few years more recent would probably be fine, too. And that’s the thing with iPhone — none of them are bad, per se, they’re all flagship quality, they just have different compromises. Some Android phones are straight up duds. If you’re fairly tech savvy, this isn’t an issue. So, if you don’t like Apple, get a Galaxy S26, it should last you a long time. If you do, the iPhone 17 is the best deal in tech. It should last you at least a decade if you don’t suffer from FOMO.
MacBook Air. I’ve gone through a few Wintel laptops. None of them are good. No laptops are great for gaming, so you might as well get the MacBook. For a desktop, it’s a harder decision because no Macs are reallly good for gaming; even if you spend a few grand on a Studio, it’s only gonna be mediocre for gaming and you have fewer choices. Spend less on a decent gaming PC and have a better time. If you don’t care about gaming, it’s an easier decision.
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Dyson V8 vacuum cleaner
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Garmin Instinct 2X watch
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JBL flip 5 bt speakers These are just all round great products
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Tesla model 3 is the one that has brought me most joy. It has taken me all over the nordics for the last four years without any trouble.
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an ereader (a decent, 3rd party software compatible one, not amazons ewaste)
I recently went on a trip to Italy and my e-reader was the unexpected MVP of that trip. Any downtime at the hotel or on the plane instead of staring at a tiny screen I was reading books and felt refreshed instead of drained afterwards, and it took up less space than if I brought just a single book with me. I also didn’t need to charge it once on the entire 10 day trip because eink is so freaking amazing
My favorite tech buy is a good 3D printer.
The ability to imagine something, model it in 3D, and then send it to a box and have it “magically” become real via 3D printing will never not amaze me or stop being cool.
Plenty of other useful tech toys like a jellyfin PC or a 3D scanner, but the printer is the thing I enjoy the most.
Which printer did you buy?
Kinesis Advantage360 Pro
Why? Because it saves my wrists but the real reason is because it makes me feel smarter. The same way using neovim makes me feel smarter. I use vim btw.
Sorry I know I’m not special for using neovim on a Advatage360, but also you gotta try it. Guaranteed to make you feel smarter
