The World is essentially divided into two distinct groups– those who love gadgets and those who don’t. I happen to fall squarely in the former group, if it plugs in or takes batteries, I definitely want one!
It’s circa 1970 and a salesman knocks on our front door. Turns out he’s selling this new gadget which plugs into the TV and allows you to play a game of digital ping pong. It’s one of the first, if not the first, gaming consoles. It’s extremely basic, with a black and white display and only one game to play which is built into the device, it costs a whopping $99.00 (remember this is 1970). Guess who bought one? And so the pattern was set.
Portable Bluetooth Speakers
Much more recently, about 8 months ago, I developed a fetish for portable Bluetooth speakers. Not sure why, but I was fascinated by these little speakers. I wanted to know which sounded best and if the expensive speakers produced a superior sound to the cheaper speakers. As it turns out, there are literally dozens of different speakers to choose from. By the time I’d purchased four of them, all within a relatively short space of time, she who must be obeyed was starting to get a tad antsy… “why do you need another one?“, she demands. She obviously falls into the latter group. She did have a point, however, and I realized I couldn’t possibly try them all… well, not without spending a small fortune… so decided enough was enough. These are the four I bought:
Bluedio CS4: Cost (at the time) $40AU
Range: 30′ – Music Time: 5 Hours
Great little speaker, good value for money
Bluedio TS3: Cost (at the time) $69AU
Range: 30′ – Music Time: 6 Hours
Funky look, too much treble, not recommended
HP Roar: Cost (at the time) $39AU
Range: 30′ – Music Time: 8 Hours
Not good, sound is ordinary
Blaupunkt BP90: Cost $89AU
Range: 30′ – Music Time: Unknown
Big speaker, big sound!
Reading user reviews for portable Bluetooth speakers in general can be very misleading. A common complaint being… not enough bass. Well, no sh*t Sherlock! Anyone who expects a huge amount of bass thump from one of these tiny speakers probably still believes in the tooth fairy. None of these speakers will set a party alight, but for background music, either in your own space, or at a picnic or BBQ, they will do the job very nicely. And yes, the more expensive speakers definitely do, in the main, produce a superior sound. That said, in my experience, the Bluedio range of inexpensive speakers produce a good quality sound and represent excellent value for money.
Gotta Fly That Drone!
Even more recently, I decided I just had to have a go at flying one of them thar drones (or should that be “quadcopters”?). I checked around the family and none of the grand-kids had received a drone from Santa… darn it! So I kept my eye out for an el cheapo. Eventually, about 4 weeks ago, I came across one for just $20.00AU delivered… that’ll do! It’s very small (approx 4″ in diameter) and very basic… no camera or camera mount, charges via USB, flying time around 5 minutes. Five minutes was fine by me, that’s all I really needed to satisfy the craving.
So, the little drone is fully charged and I’m in the middle of our smallish backyard, remote control in hand, amused wife looking on. We have lift-off! Straight over the roof of our house and into the guttering where it got well and truly stuck. It was at this time that I realized my youngest son had purloined my ladder some time back and hadn’t returned it. So, off to the neighbor’s to borrow a ladder.
I duly extract the drone and am back in the middle of the yard for another go. We have lift-off!! Straight over the roof of the house and back stuck in the guttering again. By this time she who must be obeyed is cracking up laughing, I’m making all sorts of weak excuses… this is my first attempt for goodness sakes… I can’t help it if the darn thing won’t go where it’s supposed to… give me a break will ya. Needless to say, that only made her laugh even harder.
By this time, the battery was almost flat and so I decided to retreat gracefully, wife still laughing uncontrollably. I haven’t given up on the idea, we have a large open space just out back from our house and one of these days, when she who must be obeyed is out doing what she does best… shopping… I’ll give it another go.
What about you, which group do you belong to? Seeing how you’re here, visiting Daves Computer Tips, I’m assuming most would be in the gadget freak group. If so, please feel free to share your experiences via the comments.
Cheers now… Jim
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No use buying one if one “checks with the grandkids first”, will have to remember that!!!
Gadgets are hard to turn down at times when we are at our weak moment!!
Jim, I used to be a gadget man, in my youth, buying everything new. The most expensive one, the TRS-80 hand held computer. Large single line display, 1024 bit of memory, required Basic language programming. The unit, interface for printing to 16 character per line printer, and connection to tape recorder was over $500.00 CDN Worked on 4 hearing aid batteries which lasted a long time. Them were the days. Lasted about 10 years before it finally died.
I’m happy you’re still able to scratch that craving, Mindblower!
I think that the “gotta have its'” represent the majority. I fall into that group, but being retired and having to watch our funds’ not to mention obeying she who must be obeyed. I’m able to sneak the odd item home from Amazon delivered to post office. Keep that to yourself.
An example from years ago (70’s I think) I bought an RCA Video cassette player for around $1700.00 Canadian. I think it could record about six hours and it was a tank. Oh yeah also the $1600.00 movie camera; yikes, I can do more with my smart phone now.
LOL.
Ain’t that the truth!.
Thanks for your comment Allan, I enjoyed reading it.