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olivernz

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#306587 5-Aug-2023 18:42
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Hi all

 

Having a good giggle at

 

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=48&topicid=306575

 

Where people share their worst purchases and I thought we do need the good sides too. So your best AliExpress purchase or the surprising EBay purchase. And keep the mood light please! This is all just opinion and tastes differ.

 

Go!

 

;-) Oliver


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SaltyNZ
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  #3112129 5-Aug-2023 19:03
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No contest: the Nokia 9210. I took that brick literally around the world three or four times. I could do email in the back of the taxi on the way to the airport! Over breakfast in the hotel in the morning! Superb quality speakerphone. Hammer nails, defend yourself from muggers. Nothing since comes close to the awesomeness: all that stuff is just routine now. Well, not the hammering or mugger defence: these woke 'smartphones' all just wanna be what the 9210 already was.





iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

 

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.




olivernz

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  #3112132 5-Aug-2023 19:06
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SaltyNZ:

 

No contest: the Nokia 9210. I took that brick literally around the world three or four times. I could do email in the back of the taxi on the way to the airport! Over breakfast in the hotel in the morning! Superb quality speakerphone. Hammer nails, defend yourself from muggers. Nothing since comes close to the awesomeness: all that stuff is just routine now. Well, not the hammering or mugger defence: these woke 'smartphones' all just wanna be what the 9210 already was.

 

 

 

 

Lol that brings back memories of my 5110 and a Motorolla I had. Also A Apple Newton and Psion 5mx. The Newton was cool but probably belongs in the "worst ever" thread. The Psion was great! Wish I still had it.


nzkc
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  #3112135 5-Aug-2023 19:32
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My Pebble Time Smartwatch. I backed it on Kickstarter and thats printed on the back. Loved it. RIP Pebble.

 

I really should give it a go with Rebble again.




Behodar
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  #3112139 5-Aug-2023 19:54
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A World of Warcraft account. I've met so many people and made so many friends. In fact, just today we had five of us sitting around at a guildmate's place and playing board games. Great fun.


michaelmurfy
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  #3112141 5-Aug-2023 19:57
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I absolutely loved my Pebble Time.

I’d say the best purchase in the last 3 years would be my M1 Macbook Pro. Great keyboard, battery, performance etc.

Other than that, the Pinecil soldering iron is a great purchase especially for the price and something I’ve got a whole lot of use out of: https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-soldering-iron/

And lastly, a lifetime Plex Pass subscription I bought years ago during a Black Friday sale. Have got some great use out of that.




Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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SirHumphreyAppleby
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  #3112142 5-Aug-2023 19:58
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Flowbee! https://flowbee.com/

 

Sure, it sucks, but it works. 

 


Rikkitic
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  #3112146 5-Aug-2023 20:24
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Back in the MS DOS word processor dark ages when people were fumbling with the awful Wordperfect interface, I discovered the wonderfully elegant Quickedit. For a professional writer, it was a thing of beauty and wonder. 

 

Edit: Actually it was Qedit. Time plays tricks on memory.

 

 





Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

 


 


 
 
 

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).
olivernz

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  #3112164 5-Aug-2023 22:38
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Gotta love the flowbee! 

 

Also second the Plex Pass (got mine too for cheap)

 

Was too late for the Pebble. By the time I got round to wanting one it was already on the way out....like my Newton and my Psion 5mx and my.... (but loved them all)

 

I think the things that changed my life the most (and talking tech here! Just in case my wife reads this ;-) ) are my Dyson V11, Keychron Q2, Tesla M3 and full Unify 10GBit gear in the house. 


michaelmurfy
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  #3112166 5-Aug-2023 22:50
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@olivernz Actually how could I ever forget my Tesla Model 3?! Geez... That is my top purchase. I suppose I was thinking small!

 

Dyson V11 then the Dyson V15 some years later was an awesome purchase. With the V11 I had Dyson send me a free replacement battery as they'd rather me keep using it than it end up in landfill and also had them send me another part when it broke again - by this stage it was out of warranty and was surprised they still supported it no questions asked. My sister is now using the V11 and it is still going strong.





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Mehrts
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  #3112169 5-Aug-2023 23:14
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The Lego Technic and Mindstorms robotics kits from a few years back, man you could make some awesome projects with that stuff! I'd never sell my old Lego, just waiting to pass it onto the next generation.

The old Nokia N85. That was a sweet phone back in the day with OLED display and dual slide function. Nice camera too.

My late 2013 15" MacBook Pro. Spent a questionable amount on it at the time ($4k), but holy hecker I've had my money's worth out of this thing!

It's still my daily driver, and believe it or not, I still get a solid three hours of useable life out of the original battery. This thing just keeps on going! The Core i7, 16GB RAM, and dedicated graphics still easily keep up with the workloads of today.

Also the Model 3. Good car, but great tech and vision (literal).


  #3112175 5-Aug-2023 23:51
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Roborock S6 (+ Echo Dot 3rd gen for being able to tell it where to vacuum + AmbiClimate 2 for being able to control the air con with Alexa and through the Ambi app).

Minix Neo U9-H still going strong six or so years later.

Not much else to speak of in the house.

SaltyNZ
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  #3112194 6-Aug-2023 08:33
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olivernz:

 

Lol that brings back memories of my 5110 and a Motorolla I had. Also A Apple Newton and Psion 5mx. The Newton was cool but probably belongs in the "worst ever" thread. The Psion was great! Wish I still had it.

 

 

 

 

I had the Psion as well - a few years back some of the original Psion guys Kickstarted a spiritual successor, shall we say. The eventual hardware was pretty good: it had the slide-out keyboard with the right feel and everything. Unfortunately it was running stock Android which expects a tall, narrow display rather than a short, wide one. Thick bands of colour across the top of the screen work well on a normal phone screen, but they take up half the space for nothing on the new one. Ultimately disappointed.





iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

 

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.


SaltyNZ
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  #3112196 6-Aug-2023 08:35
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SirHumphreyAppleby:

 

Flowbee! https://flowbee.com/

 

Sure, it sucks, but it works. 

 

 

 

 

OMG the Suck Kut is REAL!?

 

 

 





iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

 

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.


tripp
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  #3112197 6-Aug-2023 08:39
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SaltyNZ:

 

No contest: the Nokia 9210. I took that brick literally around the world three or four times. I could do email in the back of the taxi on the way to the airport! Over breakfast in the hotel in the morning! Superb quality speakerphone. Hammer nails, defend yourself from muggers. Nothing since comes close to the awesomeness: all that stuff is just routine now. Well, not the hammering or mugger defence: these woke 'smartphones' all just wanna be what the 9210 already was.

 

 

lol, when i worked for nokia many years ago we use to have these as staff phones, we joked about them being a self defence device that you could smack people with as they were so big and heavy.

 

 

 

 


shk292
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  #3112229 6-Aug-2023 10:13
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Psion 5, really versatile gadget. I was serving at sea when I bought it, and worked out how to use IR interface to my phone (Ericsson SH888) to send and receive emails over GPRS when close enough to the coast. I think I was the only person on my ship who could get emails at sea, although back then not everyone even had email.
Pebble Time Steel, bought in 2017 after I read an article about pebble's imminent demise, still wear it every day.

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