Electronics and technology have always been a catch 22 for me. They are so wonderful as they make life simpler and we can learn so much from them, but they also make life so tough as they are distracting, constantly need updating, and often cause us to waste time.
I have 5 main electronic items, just like you, that may need updating.
Number One: A Phone. Luckily for me, my iphone 6s which I got the day before my wedding in 2016 is still going strong. Wow, now that I look at that, this was over 3 years ago. And since I go to so many concerts, I probably should get an update since new phones can film at such a high quality and record such great audio. Anyways, Apple was caught making batteries die quickly and offered a $40 fix before 2019 began which I took advantage of. You can still can get a new battery it just costs a little bit more now. Take a look at this comparison chart. Here are a few tips to make your battery last longer:
1. Put your phone on low power mode… easiest thing you can do, as I do this every damn day.
2. Close unused apps… everyone is guilty of forgetting to close Apps they aren’t using.
3. Turn off bluetooth… most of our external items (speakers, watches, earphones, etc) connect to bluetooth now and use battery.
4. If absolutely necessary, put your phone in airplane mode! This will ensure your phone does absolutely nothing with cellular, which will save you battery.
5. Get a new battery, or maybe just a new phone…. we can all use this, but can we afford it? No.
Number Two: A Computer. I’ve had a computer for as long as I can remember, shoutout floppy disk days, but I built my first computer senior year of high school, and used that for the first two years of college. During the fall of my junior year at Adrian, 2009, I built my second and current computer. I wanna say I spent nearly $1400 on it at the time, and it was a pretty top of the line build. It has lasted almost 10 years so far and still does alright. I can't run high quality games anymore, and I get very nervous with the storage space and potential hard drive crashes, but it does it’s jobs for now. Although I am in search of a new one, so if anyone has any ideas…. let me know! I also currently own a macbook pro and it fulfills it’s purpose, editing and internet browsing for work. I don’t really store anything on this computer as it only has 250 GB of storage. Here are some tips for anyone using a computer or laptop.
1. Back up your data to an external hard drive, I have 2 backups of all my files from my computer that I try to backup once a month, which for some people isn’t enough!
2. This ties into technology to upgrade #1, your phone. Back up your phone! Either use the simple backup feature on the iphone, or simply copy and past the pictures and videos from your phone to your computer. i know too many people that lose all of their photos the minute they break their phone. Can’t have that!
3. If you want to game, go big or go home. It’s hard to play computer games well on a not so good computer… so you’re gonna have to pay for it. The other option is to get a playstation or xbox instead of gaming on PC. Even though I have an XBoxOneX now, nothing beats the keyboard and mouse. WASD for life!
4. If you know how, build a computer for less than buying a prebuild. This will get you more bang for your buck! Although I have been debating lately between building vs just buying a prebuild. Takes a lot of research and stress out of it!
5. Back up your computer to an external hard drive! Did I already say this? Yes I did. No one prints photos or has VHS tapes anymore. Everything of value is on your computer, don’t let it disappear with a broken hard drive.
Number Three: A TV. Now I am not in the need of any new TVs, but I thought this would be most relevant to others reading. In our apartment we have 2 50inch TVs, one of which we won, and one of which Rachel bought when she first moved out. In addition to these two, I have another 2 32inch TVs at my parents place, again both won (my Mom is really into sweep stakes) TVs are constantly getting better. Here is a quick tip for your TV. Get a Roku, Chromecast, or Amazon Fire Stick. You don't need to spend all the $ on a smart TV. Get a “cheaper” normal TV without the “smart” options and just get an inexpensive $30 add on (one of the devices named above) for all the “smart” options. I’m not sold on the 4K TVs or the curved TVs at this point, so I’m going to hold off. Also ditch the cable, get Netflix and Hulu, and probably stock up on your DVDs (like me), as everyone is coming out with their own streaming services these days.
Number Four: So when I started this blog over 18 months ago, number 4 was a Camera. I got my first DSLR late in 2011. A canon 60d and it has been wonderful. What I was looking for in a new camera was more of an auto-focus feature, especially for video. I was debating between the 70d or 80d. Well, back in December of 2018 I bought a Canon 80d. So I am changing this Number 4 to a quality lens. If you thought the "body” of the camera was costly, you are very wrong! Glass is expensive! Here are a few lenses I own, as well as a few I am looking to get into in the next couple of years.
Lenses I Own:
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6
Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6
Lenses I Want:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L
$1900
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L
$1600
Oh and a quick tip for camera users: Find the camera that is right for you. For almost all of you, that is just your cell phone. Phones these days are amazing devices and can do wonderful things. If you want to step it up, get a DSLR, or one of the mirrorless cameras. Whether it is Canon, Nikon, or Sony, you won’t be disappointed.
Number Five: Computer Speakers. This is probably least relevant to most reading, as people either use their crappy laptop speakers, or some small bluetooth speaker. These work for some people, but not audiophiles. While I wouldn’t call myself an audiophile, I do enjoy some bass and surround sound to my music and movies. My computer speakers, which actually broke in the last year, I had since sophomore year of college, fall of 2008. It was a 7.1 speaker system connected to a small receiver that included a cd player, with front center (both left and right inside it), left, right, back left, back right speakers, and subwoofer. They did an awesome job for the last 10 years, but it was time for an upgrade anyway. Another downside to this system was that it was wired, so there were wires all over our apartment.
For my TV I have a sound-bar that has the main center bar, and then a back left, back right, and subwoofer. Not a crazy good sound-bar, but it does the job.
I do listen to my laptop and bedroom TV sometimes without any sort of speaker, which is fine at times.
Recently I have been getting into Vinyl, and really need to get a good sound system to listen to my vinyl. Right now it is just playing off of my sound-bar, which again, isn’t terrible, but it’s not great. I need to look into getting an amplifier (or a receiver with an amplifier in it), a preamp, and a solid set of speakers.
Tip for those who listen to anything: Invest in speakers. The sound quality only gets better with more speakers you have, and generally the more you spend on the setup. Whether it is a simple sound-bar, or a full speaker setup with an an amplifier, the feeling of that subwoofer rumbling or the all around you feel with surround sound, it really is game changing and you won’t regret it.
Those are the five main types of technology that I need to upgrade and it’s about time I do so. Any suggestions for an item in one of the categories above? Or maybe a different electronic item I am missing out on?
Let ya boy know!
Josh