Let’s avoid kvetching in this thread. What’s a new piece of tech in your life that sparks joy?
Recently I bought a green FairPhone 6. I’ve found /e/OS to actually be extremely easy to get around. I don’t put lots of commercial games or social networking on my phone anyway, so it has been a surprisingly smooth migration from an iPhone. I really appreciate knowing I could replace the battery or screen at some point on this phone. The un-intrusive, simple, quiet OS makes it feel like a premium experience.
FairPhones are pretty awesome. Their whole model of being able to replace everything yourself makes the phone feel like it’s REALLY yours.
As for me, I think the “tech“ that has brought the most joy in my life the last couple of months has to be my new guitar (and some pedals I also bought with it, but mainly the guitar). I’ve been playing for almost 6 years now and haven’t had a new one since my starter back in 2020. With me earning some money now that I work, I decided to treat myself to a new one. Mainly because my starter had his best life, but also because I wanted a different sound for once. It’s made me enjoy the hobby a lot more and made it feel real fresh and exciting again. For anyone interested, It’s a Gretsch Jet Streamliner and it’s a real beauty imo.
My other, actually tech, purchase that has brought me lots of joy has to be my 3DS. I bought it in March and it has been a great experience. It’s the first console I’ve bought since (not counting the PC I’ve bought in 2024) literally our family Wii, which we’ve bought in 2007. The overall feel and aesthetic of the console has been really nice and I’ve enjoyed playing on it for a quick session a lot. I’ve always been a sucker for Nintendo stuff so after thinking long and hard about it I decided to just buy it and I haven’t had any regrets whatsoever.
I recently picked up a little, refurbished point and shoot camera. It’s nice to have something I can carry around to do some spur of the moment photos on that isn’t my phone.
Sounds like you did a pretty solid job fending off that pesky Gear Acquisition Syndrome if you stuck by your starter for 6 years! Based off your desire for a different tone, I’m guessing this is probably your first set of humbuckers? Hope you enjoy the crap out of that thing, the world of tone it opens up just swapping from single coils to humbuckers is immense, and there are a lot of great tracks to noodle around with on that thing. I’ve been eyeballing a few things lately myself, but really have no need for something new anytime soon.
My new-ish piece of tech that I picked up was a used Apple Magic Trackpad. Always really liked Apple’s trackpad controls compared to Windows, and it slotted super well into my multi-system setup. When my desktop is off, it pairs easily via Bluetooth with my Macbook for work, but I also have it wired up to my Linux Desktop for when I’m browsing the web on that machine. Linux Mint has all of the gesture controls present right out of the box, so using it feels incredibly one-to-one across Mac & Linux with zero finking— something that held me back from picking one up while I was still running Windows. It’s small, but it’s something that feels really nice to use seamlessly across the two systems.
Oh yeah did it open indeed, the humbucker sound is SO good compared to the cheap single coils in my starter guitar. I’ really happy with the difference. It’s good you’re resisting as well, like realizing you don’t actually need something is a big step.
The fact I played 6 years with my cheap starter was mainly because, while playing a lot in general, I didn’t really follow the latest news on guitars, amps, pedals etc. I just played my guitar, learned some new songs and that’s it. The only time I learned something new about sound and stuff was when visiting the local music store. So this leans towards unintentional JOMO: not knowing what I’m missing, so being content with what I have.
That being said, it’s nice to know that there are fellow guitarists on here as well! I hope you’ve been enjoying it as much as I am :)!
I just got the steam controller in and I gotta say its pretty fun. I used an xbox controller beforehand and still game on windows. So when I pressed the xbox logo and I wanted the windows gaming overlay up and instead steam would load up instead and then press it again and it go into big picture mode it didn’t feel right. But now idk it just feels good when I double tap the steam controller and I hop into a game, it just feels natural.
Echoing this the new Steam Controller is really fantastic and might be my new favorite/go to controller.
I also haven’t felt the magic of a new gadget or game console probably since the xbox 360 was new. But opening and using the Steam Machine for the last few days has really just filled me with excitement to get downstairs after work and enjoy gaming again.
