What is your favourite piece of technology that you bought in the last 5 years?

Oranage2

I live in an apartment and got a robot vacuum that mops too, life changing

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

My smartphone because with a few long hospital stays and with no longer being able to work, it’s truly been a lifeline for me, keeping me connected to the world. I can read books on it too so it’s immensely useful for that too. I could use a laptop but when in hospital, a smartphone is handier.

My external disk drive for our laptop too because it gave us more choice of laptops when we were buying a new one. We didn’t have to find one with an incorporated disk drive.

arybvtcw0eolkf

My Kindle, I love it and can't imagine going anywhere without it. A close second would be my Garmin 735XT triathlon watch, if I go for a run, cycle or a swim and leave it at home I go nuts and I'm not recording my data.

I love my Canon G7X camera too, its a high end compact and is in my backpack always.

Rufeo

An alien ship.

Ubbquittious

Evoluent vertical mouse

Cath54

BurnUp78 wrote: »

Absolutely love my Huawei p30 Pro. Amazing battery life, really good screen and camera and solid all round build quality. I also like their skin over android never understood the hate it gets.

Nintendo switch because the abiltity to play top quality games on the go while also functioning as a fully fledged home console.

Dell XPS 13. Super fast and fluid laptop that's small and light and kind of makes my high end desktop PC a deadweight.

+1 vote for the Huawei p30 pro.

JupiterKid

My iPad Air, which I got as a present for my 40th Birthday by my late father nearly 5 years ago.

A brilliant device and it stores so much data.

Potential-Monke

I've a few, because tech can be so vastly different but all the same amazing.

Galaxy S10: Only got it late last year, and to replace my S7 which was the best phone I've ever had. Until the S10. Super fast, sleek, lightweight, amazing battery for my usage. I went flagship years ago with the HTC One M8 and can't go back now. But good to know that flagship can last years if looked after. Like my S7, the S10 has taken so many falls so far and not even a scratch. It took over 2 years for the S7 to get a small edge crack after nearly nightly falling off the side locker onto the wood floor, among other larger drops.

PSVR: While not at the high end of VR experiences, it's simple and hassle free set up compared to the PC versions makes it worth it. Unlike 3D, VR is vastly more immersive, even in these still early days. The experience is mostly inexplicable, and has to be experienced. If you ever get a chance to try it, do. It's not for everyone, and it can take a while to get your VR legs, but it's worth it. The likes of Beat Saber shows the future of gaming, where you're in the world, just in the future there'll be no headsets. And keeps you fit! Games like AstroBot and Moss showing how to really utilise VR, and while it probably won't be on PSVR, the upcoming Half Life: Alyx looks like it will take VR to the next level.

Wireless Car Charger: The cheapest one yet, for about €30 delivered I got a wireless car charger for the phone. It detects when you're near and opens up, you place the phone in and it grabs it and starts charging. Stupid handy and can't see myself ever going without one again. Extra awesome that wireless charging on the S10 doesn't require NFC to be enabled. I got the R1 Smart Automatic Clamping charger if anyone else is interested. Cheap, but does the job. I'm sure there are vastly more expensive and sturdier ones if you wanted.

UI_Paddy

My region free Blu-Ray player.

maninasia

My digital weighing machine because its accurate enough to track day to day weight difference .
Cryptocurrencies.

KWAG2019

I’m going to say my Apple Watch. The fitness tracker, the calendar, the ecg, the alerts to family if I fall and don’t move, news alerts, screened phone calls and text messages, my meds tracker, and in this era of coronavirus the contactless payment is brilliant. Now if only they made a new design AND a bigger screen.

Aceandstuff

I was late to the game in buying it at the beginning of 2017, but my favourite is the Yotaphone 2. It was great to see people stare at the back of it, then change the back wallpaper to something rude in front of their eyes.

vektarman

I bought this fax watch recently, wonderful technology for keeping in touch.

ohnonotgmail

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I've a few, because tech can be so vastly different but all the same amazing.

Galaxy S10: Only got it late last year, and to replace my S7 which was the best phone I've ever had. Until the S10. Super fast, sleek, lightweight, amazing battery for my usage. I went flagship years ago with the HTC One M8 and can't go back now. But good to know that flagship can last years if looked after. Like my S7, the S10 has taken so many falls so far and not even a scratch. It took over 2 years for the S7 to get a small edge crack after nearly nightly falling off the side locker onto the wood floor, among other larger drops.

PSVR: While not at the high end of VR experiences, it's simple and hassle free set up compared to the PC versions makes it worth it. Unlike 3D, VR is vastly more immersive, even in these still early days. The experience is mostly inexplicable, and has to be experienced. If you ever get a chance to try it, do. It's not for everyone, and it can take a while to get your VR legs, but it's worth it. The likes of Beat Saber shows the future of gaming, where you're in the world, just in the future there'll be no headsets. And keeps you fit! Games like AstroBot and Moss showing how to really utilise VR, and while it probably won't be on PSVR, the upcoming Half Life: Alyx looks like it will take VR to the next level.

Wireless Car Charger: The cheapest one yet, for about €30 delivered I got a wireless car charger for the phone. It detects when you're near and opens up, you place the phone in and it grabs it and starts charging. Stupid handy and can't see myself ever going without one again. Extra awesome that wireless charging on the S10 doesn't require NFC to be enabled. I got the R1 Smart Automatic Clamping charger if anyone else is interested. Cheap, but does the job. I'm sure there are vastly more expensive and sturdier ones if you wanted.

I have a wireless car charger that is very similar to yours and i dont know how i lived without it. Also my Samsung Note10+ which is the dogs danglies and has been dropped multiple times with no issues.

sbsquarepants

Google Home. Being a cheap skate i swore i'd never pay for content again, but having recently connected the home to spotify i am literally as happy as a pig in shít with the ability to say "OK Google, play......" and have it magically come on.

I feel like Jean Luc Picard - i need to find a home enabled tea maker. I like a nice cup of Earl Grey so i do!

Wibbs

Actually can't think of any. About the only "gadget" I got last year is a bluetooth doohickey that connects my 20 year old car's ancient ECU to any android device with the app and gives all the relevant read outs on the engine and other parameters. Developed by a bloke in his garage kinda thing. Which I think is cool. It's also the only 3D printed object I own so far.

everlast75

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

I bought a stairlift on one of those dodgy Chinese websites but it only let me down

I got one from China too.

Mine drove me up the f**king wall!

Muahahaha

Did a kitchen renovation a few months back and when the new extractor fan arrived it came with a remote control. I kind of laughed and thought who would ever need a remote control for an extractor but now find it dead handy in a lazy way that you let it clear the kitchen of smoke for a few minutes after cooking and then turn it off remotely without having to get back up to do it.

The other bit of new tech in the kitchen that impressed me a lot was the new oven has a temperature probe which communicates with the oven. So it completely takes any guess work out of calculating the cooking time of joints by weight. It cooks joints perfectly every time, you just shove the probe into the meat and then set it on the digital screen for rare, medium rare, etc When it reaches the correct internal temperature the oven bleeps and knocks itself off. Its great for cooking chickens too, it hits the perfect sweet spot of 70 degrees internally so the chicken comes out not too dry and not too moist.

Snails pace

A good bluetooth ear piece. I would be lost without it.

iamstop

Nikon D7500

Wibbs

Wibbs wrote: »

Actually can't think of any. About the only "gadget" I got last year is a bluetooth doohickey that connects my 20 year old car's ancient ECU to any android device with the app and gives all the relevant read outs on the engine and other parameters. Developed by a bloke in his garage kinda thing. Which I think is cool. It's also the only 3D printed object I own so far.

Torque?

Capt'n Midnight

UI_Paddy wrote: »

My region free Blu-Ray player.

Get an ordinary one and get the unlock code

On the theme of HD if it were more than 5 years and it would be the Foxsat HDR FreeSat recorder.
Slow but stupidly flexible. With firmware add ons it's web manageable, you can even setup recordings remotely, and is as idiot proof as it gets.

Fiery mutant

I bought a Dremel 3000 recently, and honestly don’t know how I survived without it before.

ednwireland

standing desk my back is in so much better shape

Pinch Flat

Just thought a new car (171). The amount of tech in it is mind blowing. Still figuring it out. Loving so far the built in GPS and lane departure gizmo.

dohouch

Xiaomi Mi Band 4. Much brighter than previous Mi Band. Looking forward to Mi Band 5 which is roumered to come with Google Pay.

sbsquarepants

Muahahaha wrote: »

The other bit of new tech in the kitchen that impressed me a lot was the new oven has a temperature probe which communicates with the oven. So it completely takes any guess work out of calculating the cooking time of joints by weight. It cooks joints perfectly every time, you just shove the probe into the meat and then set it on the digital screen for rare, medium rare, etc When it reaches the correct internal temperature the oven bleeps and knocks itself off. Its great for cooking chickens too, it hits the perfect sweet spot of 70 degrees internally so the chicken comes out not too dry and not too moist.

Not quite as impressive as that, but about 2 years ago i replaced our normal ceramic hob with an induction hob. I half expected them to be a bit of a gimmick but i'm very impressed. It's so much faster and much easier to clean, pot boils over you just wipe it off with dish cloth, nothing burns on to it, and having put my hand on a red hot cooker ring as a 5 or 6 year old i was quite paranoid of my own kids doing the same.

Potential-Monke

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I feel like Jean Luc Picard - i need to find a home enabled tea maker. I like a nice cup of Earl Grey so i do!

Let me introduce you to the Qi Aerista, the self coined IoTEA Brewer!

storker

My desktop PC and my Android phone would be contenders, but if we're talking about technology that I didn't have before, then it's got to be my newly-acquired (used) Nikon D7000 DSLR, my previous cameras being a Fuji bridge camera and before that a Praktica 35mm SLR.

NewbridgeIR

UI_Paddy wrote: »

My region free Blu-Ray player.

Same here. Worth paying the extra to have it modified.