My Favourite Gadgets

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an old gadget I’m not really much of a gadget person – I used to work with someone that seemed to have a new gadget every week. I think a lot of people get fooled into thinking that a gadget might help them with productivity – but in the end, productivity is really dependent on your work ethic and how badly you want to get something done.

There are all sorts of things sold today that promise to enrich our lives, increase productivity, and give us more fun – but I’ve found that most gadgets really don’t do much of anything except offer a bit of fun or interest for a few hours or a few days, and then get relegated to some drawer. So I don’t own too many of them.

I recall when Palm Pilots became all the rage. Up to that point, I had been using a Franklin Day Planner for planning my days, weeks, months and year… and thought that maybe a Palm Pilot would make things more efficient. I could write out a to-do list, and only write it once! With a Franklin Day Planner, I was writing out my to-do list on a daily basis – often many to-do items aren’t completed but are still priorities and would become an item the next day.

So it seemed that not having to write out a “Daily Task List,” as Franklin terms it, every single day, might be much more efficient. But in the end, I did not find that. There is something about actually physically writing things out that seems to have an impression on the brain that is more effective than glancing at or reading over a To-Do list that might have been created days previously.

I ended up going back to my paper based Franklin Day planner – and still use it to this day, in 2016. But there are some gadgets I love:

My Mobile Phone

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5. And it’s loaded with apps. Apps like:

  • Snapchat
  • FB Messenger
  • Personal Banking Apps
  • Yahoo Messenger
  • Skype
  • A multitude of web browsers
  • Map My Ride cycling app
  • Flipboard
  • Evernote
  • SHealth

And so many more!

But you know what? I hardly ever use any of them. When I’m away from my office, I will use a browser from time to time to find some vital information I might need. Sometimes, I’ll use FB Messenger but it’s rare; when I am away from the office I don’t really want to be on Facebook or responding to FB messages. I’m usually busy with other things. SHealth looks interesting, but I don’t need an app to tell me I need to walk more.

Basically, I use my phone to make calls and send and receive the odd text message. I don’t even text that much. I really find texting annoying for the most part, and good communications cannot be carried out via texts. I also don’t like the keyboard emulation of any small device.

But I’m never without my cell phone; being able to be in touch with my kids or clients while away from my office land line is very important to me – but I still prefer to talk on a “real phone” though.

But it is a gadget that is important to me.

Lightning Detector

“A lightning detector??” you ask. I know, eh? Who would think about a lightning detector as a favourite gadget? Well, I love to do a lot of fly fishing and spend a great deal of time outdoors, and often this time is spent during hot and humid weather here in my part of the world, when thunderstorms can sometimes blow in pretty quickly. And believe me – waving a graphite fishing rod around during times of electrical atmospheric activity is probably not the safest thing to do.

But not even fly fishing, but even out hiking on nearby trails, it’s good to know when thunderstorms might be close by. Obviously, the weather reports will often provide a forecast that includes “risk of a thunderstorm,” but that may or may not occur. A simple risk of one is not always good enough to keep me from going outdoors – but if that risk becomes high when I’m out there, I want to know. So… a personal lightning detector is something that gives me some comfort. I love to watch lightning, but I don’t want to be watching it from the bank of the lake or the river! I’d prefer to watch it from a place that is safe and that I can take cover in.

My Canon Camera

I’ve always had a fascination with photography ever since I was a kid. Do you remember the old Pentax Spotmatics? I had one! I loved it! I used it.. a LOT. When I started high school, I was so happy there was a “camera club” and the school had a dark room, where I learned to develop 35 mm film and then print to photo paper. Eventually, I sold the Pentax and moved on to a Yashica, which I also liked – and still have rolls of undeveloped 35 mm film around that I wonder what is on them. I’m not even sure it would be worthwhile these days to try to find a developer of the old films I have.

In about 1999, my business had need for a digital camera and I picked up a Nikon Cool Pix – one of the best available at the time. Indeed, I still think of how awesome that camera was and the fact that it had a tilt mechanism built into it. That was actually a pretty cool feature, and my business partner and I at the time, used that camera for some product photography and put together a large print brochure for a client. And since about 1999, I’ve not ever used my Yashica, although I still have it along with a bag of lenses, filters, and other things I used to use.

Today, I have a Canon that is not the best in the world, but it’s better than the the camera in my Galaxy phone. At least I think so.. the Galaxy thinks my eyes are brown, whereas the Canon knows they are blue.

It’s not the best camera in the world, and maybe one of these days I’ll upgrade, but for my purposes, it does just fine.

And you know what? That is about all the gadgets I own. I do have a remote for my TV, and my Android box.. but I hardly ever use them. So they’re not really worth much of a mention.

What about you? What are your must have gadgets and what gadgets could you do without?

1 thought on “My Favourite Gadgets”

  1. I can’t live without my Withings Pulse gadget. It’s pretty cool! Keeps track of things I need to keep track of for health purposes.

    The lightning detector is a pretty cool idea! I’m going to look into that and consider getting one myself. I love gadgets!

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