What's your gadget addiction?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › What's your gadget addiction?

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#3042605 27-Feb-2023 11:02

59... what a goat! I am proud of 49 according to the AW.

I began running from a couch potato 18 months ago at the age of 40, now might push for the Auckland Marathon.

Am tempted to switch to a running focused watch like a Garmin or Coros but I'm just so heavily invested into the Apple eco-system that I'm reluctant to change.

One thing that would be super helpful would be some sort of a race finish time estimator. When I was doing my half marathon - it would be ideal to get that estimate during the race based on my pace.

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alasta

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#3042614 27-Feb-2023 11:16

turtleattacks:

59... what a goat! I am proud of 49 according to the AW.

I began running from a couch potato 18 months ago at the age of 40, now might push for the Auckland Marathon.

Am tempted to switch to a running focused watch like a Garmin or Coros but I'm just so heavily invested into the Apple eco-system that I'm reluctant to change.

Having used both I honestly don't think you'd gain much. Really serious athletes doing an ultra marathon or ironman might need the additional battery life from a Garmin but for casual use an Apple Watch is fine. You might want to consider getting an iPhone app like Tempo as Apple's own Fitness app isn't that great for analytics.

My only complaint with the Apple Watch is that it's fiddly to precisely start timing when you cross the start line at a race, particularly if you want to engage the water lock mode at the same time. The Apple Watch Ultra solves this problem with its action button, but it would be good to see that extended to the regular models.

One thing that would be super helpful would be some sort of a race finish time estimator. When I was doing my half marathon - it would be ideal to get that estimate during the race based on my pace.

Once you've got a bit of experience with competitive events you'll find that you'll naturally translate between pace and finishing times. I'd suggest doing some basic maths before the race based on your target time - e.g. a pace of 4:58 will give you a 1:45 finish time.

Keep in mind that, whilst a half marathon is defined as 21.1km, you could end up doing up to 21.3km when you factor in the turn radius variations. On the other hand I have had events on hilly terrain where my watch has read a bit less than 21.1km due to the two dimensional nature of GPS. So, don't treat your pace figure as gospel.

Mehrts

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#3042617 27-Feb-2023 11:27

After renting a Tesla Model Y from Avis last week and clocking up around 700Km over a few days, I'd love to be able to afford to actually own a new EV. It's tech that I've been interested in for a little while but have never looked into at any great depth as it's slightly out of my price bracket currently.

It was my first time ever driving an EV, and while there was a learning curve, it was pretty easy to figure out.

turtleattacks

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#3042622 27-Feb-2023 11:32

I think that a lot of new gadget nowadays simply isn't groundbreaking or different from what we currently use from 3-5 years ago.

Apart from electric cars, such as the Kia and Tesla - iPhone 14 nowadays simply isn't too different from iPhone 11.

Same goes to Samsung S23 vs S20 or whatever - the incremental improvements are so different because the tech has progressed so much that we simply don't need all the processing power, and we simply don't notice better colour on the screen or extra pixels in the camera.

This also applies to most 4K TVs nowadays, the difference year-on-year is simply just minimal.

I love my gadgets but I simply don't feel the urge to buy new TVs, new iPhones or new M2 MBPs.

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Senecio

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#3042636 27-Feb-2023 11:48

turtleattacks:
Senecio: Like @alasta my addiction is sports technology. I’m a data geek so love seeing all my training stats and history. I’m a middle aged , middle of the pack long distance runner so a long way from the pointy end of the field but I do love to geek out on the numbers.

Do you geek out on Strava? Or something else?

There's an iOS app called HealthFit which is also great to geek out at the numbers.

I really only use Strava as a social platform for active people. Staying in touch with friends and seeing their epic adventures while passing on encouragement. For the data I just stay within the Garmin ecosystem. Fenix 7 SS paired with an HRM Pro gives me more than enough to keep me satisfied.

driller2000

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#3042699 27-Feb-2023 12:04

I have a few...

Oldish audio gear - Mid level / bang for nuck gear eg. Rotel / Yamaha amps; Image speakers etc.

Quadcopters - From toy grade, to aerial video and FPV racing drones.

RC Generally - Quadcopters, Cars, Truggies, Boats, Planes.

Torches - Lol.

Headphones - Mid level stuff as opposed to the truly spendy brands.

Streaming Devices - Many trialled over the years, several in use - Nvidia Shield is my fave.

unRAID sever - 11 years old and still running same base hardware - steadily added HDD's - currrently 11 HDD's; 88TB total - and a new 18TB HDD waiting to be installed.

jonathan18

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#3042702 27-Feb-2023 12:14

When it’s a tech device like a phone, the incremental changes of each gen means I have little interest in annual upgrades; I’ve also realised it’s much more cost effective and environmentally sound to buy the previous gen model s/h - 90% of the performance for less than half the cost.

Defining ‘tech’ loosely, my current obsession is coffee paraphernalia - there always seems to be another piece of kit that I’d like to upgrade or try out. Unlike say a phone which is just something one interacts with as it is, making a good coffee has so many variables to play with it plays nicely into my liking of trying to improve my skillset.

That said, I am really trying to stop buying coffee-related stuff; I’m sure something will come along to replace it, just like kiting came before coffee…

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neb

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#3042775 27-Feb-2023 13:30

Handsomedan:
Mine is weird...it's not so much that I have to have the latest and greatest gadgets, but more that I am obsessed with constant tinkering - especially so with my Mountain Bike.

That's not weird, that's normal. Weird is people who buy something and just leave it alone because it's probably good enough as it is.

maoriboy

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#3042777 27-Feb-2023 13:32

turtleattacks:

59... what a goat! I am proud of 49 according to the AW.

I began running from a couch potato 18 months ago at the age of 40, now might push for the Auckland Marathon.

Am tempted to switch to a running focused watch like a Garmin or Coros but I'm just so heavily invested into the Apple eco-system that I'm reluctant to change.

One thing that would be super helpful would be some sort of a race finish time estimator. When I was doing my half marathon - it would be ideal to get that estimate during the race based on my pace.

59 is bloody great. 49 is also good! My highest has been 57 but currently sitting at 48 after achilles tendonitis and covid issues restricted my run in to the Tarawera 50km.

The Apple watch should be sufficient for your needs. You might need to switch off a few things to extend the battery life, but it should be good for a marathon. Personally, I'm thankful I got in and purchased the Epix 2 before the New Year price rise in January (some models went up by up to $500) as it's a brilliant piece of kit. Still yet to get my head around a lot of the features but that'll come as I play with it more.

Rikkitic

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#3042780 27-Feb-2023 13:40

My favourite gadget is my coffee grinder. I really love that coffee grinder. I have no desire whatsoever to upgrade or improve it in any way. I don't understand why people upgrade anything. If it works and it does what you want, why change it? I resisted upgrading XP until everything else made it non-functional. I really like Windows 7 and I still use it with some things. Windows 10 hasn't been too bad but it has all kinds of bells and whistles I never use and don't know what they do. I will probably never have Windows 11.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

MarkM536

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#3042785 27-Feb-2023 13:50

Addiction to Christmas lights. Yes, you read that right.

Not the Bunnings kind, I mean the lights which require expensive controllers to drive a many thousands of addressable 'pixels'.

With more lights, comes more security cameras to protect it all. I think I've hit peak if I have had an IPVM account.

jonathan18

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#3042788 27-Feb-2023 13:56

Rikkitic:
My favourite gadget is my coffee grinder. I really love that coffee grinder. I have no desire whatsoever to upgrade or improve it in any way. I don't understand why people upgrade anything. If it works and it does what you want, why change it?

Sometimes one doesn’t realise what a (different version of a) product is capable of until exposed to it. Sticking with one of your examples: I was like that with my previous coffee grinder, questioning why people would spend so much money on something that, ostensibly, did exactly the same thing as my grinder did - grind beans.

If you’re happy with the end result of what your ‘gadget’ produces then that’s absolutely fine, but I enjoy the improvement process, whether that be through higher-quality ‘gadgets’ or improving my own skills using them.

neb

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#3042789 27-Feb-2023 13:56

MarkM536:
Addiction to Christmas lights. Yes, you read that right.

OK, you win. And bonus points for using Trans-siberian Orchestra instead of the usual insipid Christmas music.

@freitasm, possible bug here, trying to quote the YT video in the above post just produces an empty quote box.

Eva888

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#3042850 27-Feb-2023 16:21

@MarkM536 Definitely a winner because it makes so many people happy. Look at those dancing in the foreground. Well done.

My gadget is a brass hand coffee grinder bought in Thessaloniki Airport. I don’t grind coffee in it, I grind pepper and it never fails or wears out, the grind can be finer or coarser with a turn of a screw. My guests love it, it has a satisfying graunchy sound and a couple of handle twists is enough.

Here is a similar one except mine is a little taller and not as shiny any more

https://www.loewen-meta.com/products/zassenhaus-mocha-grinder-mill-havanna

Edited to fix url

Handle9

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#3042855 27-Feb-2023 16:42

jonathan18: Defining ‘tech’ loosely, my current obsession is coffee paraphernalia - there always seems to be another piece of kit that I’d like to upgrade or try out. Unlike say a phone which is just something one interacts with as it is, making a good coffee has so many variables to play with it plays nicely into my liking of trying to improve my skillset.

That said, I am really trying to stop buying coffee-related stuff; I’m sure something will come along to replace it, just like kiting came before coffee…

The struggle is real, but oh so tasty...

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