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Friday, April 10, 2015

Here are the New Must Have Gadgets, Smartphones are Last Year


Are you still euphoric about your new smartphone or tablet in 2015? Then there is a huge chance that you missed the train. A couple of months ago, I wrote about how smartphones had gotten boring, and while the newest set of flagship devices (to be specific, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge) tickle my fancy a bit, we aren’t back to the times when we were up all night literally waiting for one leak or the other about a new device or a new feature. We are also seeing less and less differentiators across OEMs and platforms as the days pass.

If you are one of those “showy” people that like to make statements with the kind of tech you’re carrying, smartphones and tablets might be out the door for you. However, if you are looking for something else to make statements with, these are the new must haves that are guaranteed to earn you some stripes in that department and more importantly, they are actually useful:

Smartwatch

Whether you like to admit it or not, smartwatches are definitely not going anywhere soon. I have always been excited at the prospects of smartwatches, maybe not for the same reasons as everyone else, but from the get go, they tickled my fancy.

I wouldn’t say the current range of smartwatches available tick all the boxes, still, having had one strapped to my wrist for a few months, I can say without a doubt that they are more useful than gimmick. On the few occasions when I take a break from wearing one, I keep expecting my regular watch to buzz with one notification or the other, or tell me how much of my fitness goals I’ve achieved or maybe even show me directions while driving, without necessarily having to take my eyes of the road.

I still have some misgivings about smartwatches as they are today, (I should write a review soon), but I’ll be the first to admit that they are a lot better than I expected…a lot cooler too!

Wireless audio dock

This one had been right under my nose for a while, I have been rocking a Bose Soundlink Bluetooth Speaker III, but it wasn’t till I was trying out Ad’s JB soundbar speaker that it occurred to me how mainstream they had become. Let’s face it; while devices like the BlackBerry Passport and the HTC One have decent sound outputs, they are still a far cry from the kind of quality, that’s good enough to “turn up” to. Then consider also that laptops and tablets which have somehow become the de facto means of consuming videos also aren’t packing so much in the type of “oomph” in the volume department to take your entertainment to the next level. Wireless speakers are in, because they are portable, mostly offer great quality sound and solve the problem of continuing the playlist that’s playing in the car, inside your house…saving you all that time you spend sitting in the parked car waiting for a not-so-cool song to play before getting out.

Did I mention that most of them are rechargeable? Take that NEPA/PHCN/DISCO.

Health/fitness tracker

On your daily commute to work, I am pretty sure you have noticed the number of people taking walks or running, with no one hot on their heels. Fitness is now such a huge deal in these parts that there is a startup built around fitness now. If smartwatches aren’t your thing (and even if they are), a fitness tracker might be something that tickles your fancy. After all, what’s the point of all the “fitfaming” if you don’t have your stats and data to make noise about track your progress? Fitness trackers may not look as cool or offer the functionality of smartwatches, but they are more accurate at what they do. Plus having to explain the concept of a running band, for example makes for a great conversation starter.

Drones

Growing up, some of us got to play with remote control planes/choppers which were loads of fun, even though in retrospect, most of them had really wonky controls and weren’t intuitive. For the rest of us who weren’t ajebutter, at the very least, we got to play with paper planes and kites. The need to control something in flight has always been a strong desire for most.

With drones now commercially available and cheap ones in particular being churned out of China on the daily, that desire is one that can finally be fed. What’s cooler, they aren’t just toys any more. With cameras, smooth controls and the ability to hover in the same spot, their use now extends way beyond their value as toys.

Kindle

Not a lot of people like reading, but everyone likes someone who is well read (asides the I-Too-Knows), so reading is definitely a “new” cool. In many regards, these days, meeting someone who reads extensively is almost like meeting a real-life ninja – we know they exist, and they’ll have cool tricks to show us, but don’t come across them very often.

You know what’s not so cool though? A stack of paperbacks (well, except they are in a shelve as part of the decor). E-Ink readers and Kindles in particular are functional and really cool to look at. They serve that cool, serious, studious look without looking like you’re from a ’80s TV show.


Asides smartphones and tablets, these are other things you should be checking out. We will have a bunch of reviews in some of those categories up shortly, before then though, did we miss any? Let us know!

Source: TechSuplex

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