OT: Cool technology/gadgets

[Hunter368]

My employer covers a lot of hardware that are absolutely essentials. Brand spanking new Mac Studio when it came out, MacBook Pro for travel. But luxury items I'm still gonna foot the bill myself. Even if I could strong-arm my boss into covering it, like why abuse a good thing? Half of its use is gonna be for video games anyways

Very nice. Employer provides me all my laptop and monitor/supplies. I have my personal PC and use the company monitor with it always (along with my laptop).

 

[Gm0ney]

I mainly use my iphone and a Dell laptop when at work (they won't appreciate an ad blocker either)




what, this forum ? (yes, I know a sponsorship fee)


I would hope that with system upgrades on here, this would be addressed.

anyways ........ end of rant

Your work should appreciate ad blockers. A lot of malware is distributed through deceptive ads. Ublock Origin is highly recommended.

Does the site allow us to say these things now? I recall a time when messages mentioning ad blockers were sensored or removed like saying f***...

 

[AlphaLackey]

Your work should appreciate ad blockers. A lot of malware is distributed through deceptive ads. Ublock Origin is highly recommended.

Does the site allow us to say these things now? I recall a time when messages mentioning ad blockers were sensored or removed like saying f***...

So far, your recommendation remains unbusted -- and highly appreciated.

 

[Eyeseeing]

A forum with less ads on them would be cool ..........

Sponsorship dumbass

 

[SensibleGuy]

I love useful tech gadgets. I also love getting good bang for the buck.

Some of my favorite things:

I have a couple of little rechargeable lights made by Aimtom that I got from Amazon. They are just fantastic. About $30 if you wait for a sale price...they are great for trouble lights at home but I use them for camping. Battery lasts ages - like 120 hours on the dim setting which is enough for night lighting in the tent. Really well made too with a good magnet on the back and a couple hooks for hanging them.

I have a set of 1More Sonoflow ANC headphones that were a good price ($89) and sound fantastic. Again, just great battery life.

I have a cheap rechargeable fan/light - also for camping - that is just perfect hanging over the bed in a tent for air circulation. Even has a little remote control.

But maybe the best gadget I've acquired is an Amazon Fire tablet (HD8 iirc) I got a couple years ago. I just wanted something to watch Netflix and Youtube and do some web-browzing and what not when I was away from home but hell I've loaded the thing up with emulators and Arcade/SNES/NeoGeo/PSX roms and a library of e books. I got it for 4 easy payments of $16.99 at the time lol and I've used it tons. It's a great portable entertainment system - i have an old PS4 controller that connects perfectly to it too and because you can use it horizontal or vertical it's just perfect for arcade shmups. Nothing like playing some DoDonPachi in tate mode at the campsite!

 

[Hunter368]

Does anyone do or tried geocaching? Often using GPS to find objects

 

[John Agar]

Oh sexy monitor, i also was looking at a new monitor (36" for my PC) but I have a hard time justifying it to myself when my employer pays for my monitor at home now (24"). If they ever force me back into the office full time or take away my monitor I might be buying a 36" monitor or bigger.

I have a 32" OLED for my office... BenQ...

With My diabetes induced decaying eye-sight...

I can lean back in my quality office chair... read... type and see things with out squinting, straining... I can relax...

Best money ever spent...

And when I... "ahem" ... Kodi binge...

The visuals for my entertainment are off the charts great...

 

[FFHockey]

I have a set of 1More Sonoflow ANC headphones that were a good price ($89) and sound fantastic. Again, just great battery life.

I bought a set about 7 months ago and easily one of the best audio purchases I have made. Was really struggling to justify spending $300+ on Bose, Sony, etc. Stumbled upon a YouTube review of the Sonoflow and figured what the hell...I got mine for $79 at the time.

My son has some high end Bose ones and there really isn't a hell of a lot to pick and choose between the two audio-wise...other than the 250 or so price difference

 

[SUX2BU]

Sponsorship dumbass

Thank you Mr Chretian

 

[SensibleGuy]

I bought a set about 7 months ago and easily one of the best audio purchases I have made. Was really struggling to justify spending $300+ on Bose, Sony, etc. Stumbled upon a YouTube review of the Sonoflow and figured what the hell...I got mine for $79 at the time.

My son has some high end Bose ones and there really isn't a hell of a lot to pick and choose between the two audio-wise...other than the 250 or so price difference

Nothing at all to pick and choose. The Sonoflows are measurably and audibly a better (well, as good as anyway) headphone - assuming you stick to ANC mode and adjust the EQ a titch in the app (which is "sticky" btw. Once you adjust the EQ via the app that profile remains active on any other deivce you connect with). Bose is massively over-priced.

 

[ps241]

My list of most memorable tech or gadgets/technology changes:

Black and white to colour tv

The internet and PC

Dial up to high speed

Regular TV to high def

iPhones (for better and worse)

On demand content (music, tv, movies, search, news, information)

Podcasts

Curios where Ai, LLM’s, the Jarvis effect will take us? Still in the bottom of the first inning but it has my attention.

 

[SensibleGuy]

I'm a total geek for tech stuff. If i think back over the past 45 years or so of my life in terms of the things that really feel like "game-changers" to me it's stuff like the following...

- Pong, Space Invaders, DOOM for games. Many others of course but those three really had an impact on the medium.

- the leap from digipad controllers to analog was pretty huge.

- the introduction of really useable rechargeable battery packs. I well-remember the old days of recharging a pile of AA/AAA/C/D/9volt batteries for 6 hours which would then last about 45 minutes if you were lucky lol. Now, I have Bluetooth speakers and lights and phones/tablets that recharge quick and last for upwards of 8 hours (often 20 or more hours) on a charge. And no batteries to change...just plug the device in.

- the internet. Yeah no doubt.

- The giant leap from CRT to LCD and better flat screen tech. Even a 27" CRT TV was a moose to move around and forget about hanging them on a wall like a picture frame!

- Bluetooth and wireless tech in general is pretty huge. I mean being able to walk around my apartment or outside streaming music from my phone to my wireless ANC headphones is pretty dreamy. Ditto for sitting on the couch playing a game with no tether connecting you to the console.

- Obviously, smart phone technology has been a game-changer. Yeah, they've taken over our lives and it's not all a good thing but there's a reason that's happened...they simply do so many different things. They're just too useful.

- Emulation. I started messing around with MAME back in the 2000s and I just never stop being amazed by the fact that I can carry around and play basically the entire history of gaming on an 8 inch tablet.

- really, the whole modern gaming sphere is something I'm endlessly giddy about. Back in the 80s and 90s you would walk into an arcade and be just blown away by what you saw. Machines like Daytona and Outrun with wheels and amazing visuals. It was out of reach really to the average person. Today? I have a PS5 and a force feedback wheel rig sitting in front of a 46" HD TV playing Gran Turismo 7, a game featuring 500 accurately modelled cars and dozens of richly detailed tracks with online competition. I always think if 15 year old me could time travel to now and see this stuff his/my head would explode.

 

[buggs]

Oddly interesting thread.

Tech is great and wonderful stuff, though I'm finding I'm doing my best to eschew it as much as possible.

I'd dearly love to throw my phone in the river, but they are required (fascinating how something that costs you a grand plus now at the outset, plus $60 a month is "required" - that's nearly two grand just to exist in society) at this point. I disagree with the requirement and could happily live without it but that isn't how it works any longer. They are both a miracle and a curse.

I find myself far more interested in outdoor pursuits and in retirement am looking to be more active than I have been since my 20s. Summer and winter (summer ideally away from the cold, but reality may have something to say about that) both. Activities that do not require tech are of far more interest to me than being glued to a screen, any screen, of any size. Golf, tennis, badminton, skating, skiing, cycling. Don't need a phone for any of those things.

Definitely though as someone old enough to have hooked up a pong console to a black and white tv and nearly electrocuting myself at the time (unplug the tv stupid), gaming has come so far. I expect I'll get more into it in winters and will appreciate the vast improvements (my latest console is an XBOX 360 )

Entertainment being so readily available and changing to large screens at home, with quality sound systems is an amazing thing and has it's place. Definitely an improvement over the 32" Panasonic TV I bought in 2000 that weighed close to as much as me.

I do love my Bowers & Wilkins headphones though. The sound is incredible and they are quite comfortable with very long battery life. I might try and shake down a pair that others have mentioned here for much cheaper pricing. I do love me a bargain.

Flashlights are fascinating too. I still have an old 3-D cell Maglite that was the cat's meow back in the day. Definitely a tool and other uses than casting light but it must way four pounds. I have a newer LED Olight that fits in a pocket and is unbelievably brighter.

 

[ps241]

For some reason I totally missed the video games that you play at home. I use to play in the bars which might be another problem all to itself . Started with Pong in about 1975 and morphed into Miss Packman in the 80’s…..peaked at Mappy in 1985 and then retired after that.

Seems like video games are really popular with dudes though.

 

[Hunter368]

I’ll say Ive always liked technology professionally and privately. As I get older, more and more disposable income I get and my interest in technology has increased even more. Looking at trying out geocaching as an another hobby.

 

[10Ducky10]

I can't say enough about GPS. Whether it's driving back in my boat after dark from hunting or trying to find an address in whatever city, it is irreplaceable.
We were getting a ride to Puerto Vallarta from San Blas, Nayarit and the guy driving wasn't exactly sure where our hotel was. I had been walking around the neighborhood on the computer quite a bit before I left Canada that I recognized the neighborhood and told him exactly where to go. He was amazed.

 

[ps241]

I can't say enough about GPS. Whether it's driving back in my boat after dark from hunting or trying to find an address in whatever city, it is irreplaceable.
We were getting a ride to Puerto Vallarta from San Blas, Nayarit and the guy driving wasn't exactly sure where our hotel was. I had been walking around the neighborhood on the computer quite a bit before I left Canada that I recognized the neighborhood and told him exactly where to go. He was amazed.

How the hell did I forget GPS. As the former old school maps navigator for every boys road trip in my youth, It must have been PTSD that stopped me from remembering for my list . I have probably mentioned how GPS is the either wonder of the world a thousand times.

Still don’t trust it to not hit reefs on Lake of the Woods but that is a different challenge.

 

[Eyeseeing]

Thank you Mr Chretian

Da proof is da proof is da proof

 

[10Ducky10]

How the hell did I forget GPS. As the former old school maps navigator for every boys road trip in my youth, It must have been PTSD that stopped me from remembering for my list . I have probably mentioned how GPS is the either wonder of the world a thousand times.

Still don’t trust it to not hit reefs on Lake of the Woods but that is a different challenge.

Especially since some years have high water and some years have low water.

 

[Royale With Cheese]

Not sure where else to ask this. I think I have before but a search turned up nothing.

Wondering how I can ditch my cable package and legally watch Jets games on my TV / iPad? I have a smart TV if that helps at all.

What do you folks use, if you don't use cable?

 

[10Ducky10]

onhockey.tv

 

[AlphaLackey]

Sponsorship dumbass

Positive marketing is fine -- support the site, get these extra features.

Extortion marketing -- "pay up or we will continually make this site completely unusable on mobile" -- is a little bit different.

 

[ps241]

Positive marketing is fine -- support the site, get these extra features.

Extortion marketing -- "pay up or we will continually make this site completely unusable on mobile" -- is a little bit different.

$1 a month seems reasonable for this platform to me. When I pay that I don’t see adds but maybe other users do still see adds?

 

[macmaroon]

Okay, I finally joined the 21st Century and got a Google Pixel 7a phone. As you would expect, I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure it out, but as Chevy would say, "It's a process..."

 

[mondo3]

Electronic vehicles, specifically the lane keeping, variable cruise control (maintaining speed relative to car in front of you), and heads up display (showing speed limit and navigation indicators to turn).