Gadgets and Gizmos

The Common Room Members, Inc.
#1

I don’t know whether a thread has been created along these lines, so if there is, please lock or merge this post, mods. :slight_smile: But anyway, since it’s after Christmas and with Chinese New Year around the corner, I think it’s a great time to share our electronic possessions with other forum members. You can use this thread to show off your old antiquities (like that old Walkman you keep from ten years ago), gloat about your latest purchase (brand-spanking new Blu-Ray player for Pixar in HD) or wish for your next tech toy (iSlate, anyone?).

Well, I’ve taken a few photos of some of my worldly possessions:


This was the Dell Studio 15 I got last month as a replacement for my ageing MacBook Pro. 911 FTW! You can’t see the back lid, but it’s lime-green. Why? Cos’ it’s an awesome colour.

Now, I’ll be honest here, Windows 7 still blows compared to Mac OS X Leopard (It’s slow, and I dislike the transparent windows), but the Dell has a much, much, higher resolution than even the latest MacBook Pro (so much so that the VCDs which looked okay on MBP now look like crap), and it has a HDMI cable and Blu-Ray ROM for futureproofing. So it’s a mixed feeling for me with this purchase.


Here’s good ol’ Maccie, with the neat candy-bar remote. Still works, but the battery life is down to 45 minutes to an hour, and it crawls on startup and loading up Photoshop. But otherwise, it’s in working order. I’m still typing on it now, as a matter of fact. The familiar is comfortable. But my gosh, I need to do something about my desktop… :frowning:


And last but not least, is my week-old PSP 3000! Yes, it’s the one with the ‘glare-proof’ screen and 5x the resolution of the 2000 and whatnot, but that’s besides the point. I can finally play my own games on it (and what better way to start than the one on the screen now!). I can’t wait to see Wall-E die a million deaths. Actually, that’s pretty nasty of me. Evil TDIT.

And yes, that’s a Razer Krait in the corner. It’s the cheapest in the Razer gaming mouse lineup, but it’s leagues ahead the competition. So fast and smooth!

Anyway, yeah, that’s all for now. I’ve got a coupla more tech gadgets lying around (Yeah, you probably notice I have a messy table), but I’ll save that for another day and shut up now.

Now’s your turn. :slight_smile:

#2

You’ve got some nice techy stuff there, thedriveintheatre! The PSP 3000 looks awesome, definitely the best version of the handheld console so far. And you chose the best colour for the lid of your laptop by far. :smiley:

My favourite techy possession has to be a Christmas present of mine, a Sony Vaio laptop with Blu-ray drive and a good graphics card and that sort of thing. It’s my baby.

My other baby is my PS3, which I’m definitely bringing to university with me- I don’t think I could live without it. :laughing: I’ve also got a first gen iPod Touch, but next summer I plan on trading it in (along with my current mobile phone) to get the newest iPhone. They’re so shiny and nice.

I think that’s about it…I feel we have something in common, thedriveintheatre- a love of techy stuff!

#3

Clean your desktop, man! It pains me to look at that.

#4

As of now, my favorites techno “gadgets” include my Ipod, my laptop, PS3, TV, and my ipod-stereo Jack that allows me to listen to my ipod in my car.

#5

Ooh, that sounds like something I’d probably pick up for my car once I start driving TSS.

My favorite gadgets at the moment are my Itouch and my Xbox 360. The I-touch allows me to listen to music, play games, look up words on a dictionary app that doesn’t require wi-fi, play chess, and for a dollar, get about 15 classic novles like The Illiad and the Time Machine in a nice, readable book format. And it gets updated continually with new novels. :smiley:

Xbox 360. Has really awsesome games, great online service, and it’s a DVD player. I’ll probably bring it with me to college. I sure hope that the next generation of game consoles doesn’t come out until then though.

#6

These are the tech things I use daily:

My Macbook (hoping to upgrade to a Macbook Pro once I get the money) and my Wacom tablet. Couldn’t live without either of these!

My external hard drives. 500 GB desktop and a 320 GB portable which I decorated :smiley: They hold pretty much my life at a school. I back up my files regularly!

And then my iPod touch and it’s dock

#7

Argh… PS3! I’ve been wanting to get it for some time now, I really want to play the exclusives like Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo Prologue and Uncharted 2. :frowning:

Oh my gosh, is everyone having an iPhone nowadays? :open_mouth: I mean seriously, 3 out of 5 people I see on the street is clutching a black ‘candy bar’ now. Even my mum has one (which I surreptitiously download free game apps on)! I’m a bit of an anti-contrarian, so if something gets too popular, I start to think it’s overrated (the only exception is movies). I’m eyeing the Google Nexus One along with the other Android phones, but since I don’t have a Gmail account, it’s not really that much advantageous. :slight_smile:

Oookay… If you thought that was bad, wait till you see my bathroom. :wink:

Argh… PS3! :stuck_out_tongue:

FounderofAzn: Wow, the iPod touch sounds cool. Mine’s still a ‘Classic’, black 40 GB one. I don’t use it that much to be honest, as I don’t really listen to music on-the-go (it’s a little distracting, and I prefer to listen to ambient noise). So I use it more often at home when it’s quieter and I’m in need of some background ‘soundtrack’.

Hannahmation: Nice wallpaper. TS3 FTW! I also like the Dug sticker on your hard disk. And iPod touch! We have a lot of Mac fans on this board, not surprising…

Speaking of Apple, Mr Jobs launched his much-hyped tablet PC, the iPad yesterday. Personally I preferred the iSlate moniker, as this one sounds too much like a… women’s hygienic product. Sorry, baaad joke.

But other than the fact that it’s more of a multimedia device than a full-fledged tablet Macbook, it looks pretty darn gorgeous. The folks at Apple are the masters of minimalist design.

And kudos to the product video for featuring video demos from two of 2009’s best movies! :wink:

#8

thedriveintheatre- I know exactly what you mean, which is why I didn’t get an iPhone right away, but as an organisational freak it’s just so perfect to have everything in the same device. Plus a calendar. :laughing:

The iPad is probably one of the silliest things I’ve ever seen or heard of in the technology world. Most of the time, when a product is developed the first question that is asked is ‘what do people need that they haven’t yet got?’ It seems like this time, Apple asked the rather more uncommon question, ‘what product can we make that can do quite a few things (nowhere near everything, but just quite a few things) not very well?’ They’ve put design before function, and it’s very irritating. I’m not an Apple hater or lover, I just judge per product, and in this case Apple have made a wrong turn, in my opinion. I feel no need to buy an iPad (especially considering the rather interesting name, as you pointed out thedriveintheatre. :laughing:)

#9

I think the iPad is probably the only Apple product in recent years that has received a considerable amount of negative press.
The price tag of the low-end model may have caught the competition by surprise, but overall this device certainly does not look like something as compelling as PCs or mobile phones. This is not another mainstream “must have” gadget category.

If Apple thinks this will be as popular as the iPod/iPhone, they are dead wrong, in my opinion.
In terms of success it will probably be more akin to the AppleTV.

#10

I see, lizardgirl. Well, I like the fact that you can access Youtube straightaway, and the neat apps that take advantage of the accelerometer on the iPhone! In fact, my folks suggested getting my siblings and I new smartphones each (our phones are 3-4 years old), but after the new laptop and PSP, I felt bad and politely declined mine. Hopefully a more kick-butt model comes down the line, knowing how Apple likes to do these ‘planned obsolesence’ schemes.

And although the iPad is an absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful piece of art, I too, am unimpressed with the specs. I mean, seriously, 64GB as your largest capacity? That’s unimpressive compared to the size of most hard disks and high-end multimedia players nowadays. This ain’t in the same market as Walkmans or Zunes, so I was expecting at least 80-100 GB minimum. Maybe that’s a little demanding, but then you have to look at the price-tag (the advertised US$499 is for the barebones 16GB, non-3G version) and realise you’re paying a premium (the ‘best’ version with 64GB and 3G costs almost double- US$829). I was also disappointed that they don’t have a VGA or HDMI output, so no dice on playing those gorgeous videos/pictures on an external monitor. Other features absent: webcam, SD card slot, and get this, not a single USB port (so now we have to buy everything from the Apple store, or presumably get another USB dongle to be compatible). And pay attention at 4:30 of the Keynote address- no Adobe Flash support. :frowning:

To be fair, there were some nice features. I liked the bit where you can flip the iPad over to show someone a photo and it automatically rotates the right way round (again, an Apple trademark of good design sense). The virtual keyboard is neat, and the iBook store will probably revolutionise the distribution of eBooks much like what iTunes did. But these nifty features (besides iBook) don’t really distinguish it from the plethora of touchscreen/tablet PCs on the market, or even its predecessor the Iphone. Plus, the fact the Wi-Fi version will be released two months from now, and the 3G a month later will probably make it outdated with the rapid pace of technology nowadays. It’s a very good-looking Apple product, but I’m afraid there’s not much brains behind the beauty.

#11

I have quite a bit of music equipment. :smiley: Though most of it is software, I DO happen to have a Korg hardware synthesizer as well, which, in the end, I sampled my favorite sounds from to my computer.

#12

I made a post a LONG time ago detailing the stuff I had ('twas in a collections thread, I’ll see if It’s in the archives), that list has grown. Here’s a pic of my deskso you can get a feel. (I got the xbox for free from my cousin after it red ringed of death) :smiley:

My Trusty windows-powered TyTN II is there :smiley:
there’s also a Zune there (which isn’t available in the UK yet, but ebay has some) :stuck_out_tongue:

Also

Windows > Mac OS. I hate to say it, but it’s the truth. With windows basically all my major electrical devices are working in harmony and networked.

and anyone who buys the iPad has too much money, they’re useless.

EDIT: I have a two-and-a-half decade old walkman lol

and here is my old collection of stuff - it has grown a lot

viewtopic.php?t=3253&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45

#13

Thought I’d resurrect this old thread to share with you guys my favourite gaming device (before I got my iPhone 4S and iPad 2). :slight_smile:

From Tumblr:

I’ve done a makeover for my two-year-old PSP 3000 - check it out!

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The Rio sticker was from Wendys (a hot-dog and ice-cream chain in Australia) when they were doing a movie tie-in last year. I asked the store manager if I could have a few and he just gave me a whole bunch, since hardly anyone requests them! They even had a special Rio flavour (it tasted like tutti-frutti).

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And as most of you would know, I’m a huge fan of Friendship is Magic. You can get this adorable wallpaper here. I was surprised to see it fit my PSP screen dimension perfectly!

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Have you ‘pimped’ any of your electronic gadgets? Send me a reply or write a post and share you awesome tech makeovers… and I’ll be making over my laptop next, so look out for it! :wink: