Dehumidifier - 5 years and counting drying laundry indoors overnight with no risk of rain or wind!
Back in the day, a smartphone was a major upgrade. They continue to improve which is just amazing. I came from an age of wall phones and dial-up internet.
A kitchen sink. Did an impromptu kitchen reno due to a gas leak and being without one is such a huge downgrade in quality of life. I was washing dishes in the bathtub nightly and it was absolutely miserable. I don’t think I’ve ever been more appreciative of the technology of modern plumbing than the day I was able to rerun lines to the sink area and get it all going.
Not sure that’s the kind of technology purchase to which the OP was referring. I thought you were going to say you purchased some kind of high tech sink and was excited to hear what it did to improve your life. I mean, I can see the point but…
Does corrective eye surgery count? Because it fundamentally changed my daily quality of life
I got PRK several years past and for a while I felt the same way. When I saw my eye doctor recently and had to get glasses again, this time in another country, he said that was stupid. Eyes degrade always so you’re really just making it worse in the long term (me not you). I’m still considering doing it again. Expensive and slightly risky, but gods walking in the rain without glasses was magical.
My Ampler E-Bike I bought 2 years ago. More than 5000 km later I still love it to bits.
The original GameBoy in like 1992, I was 6 and it was everything. Then Pokemon came out and hell yeah
My NAS, having access to all my files anywhere at any time is great
A 1000€ ebike. Best choice ever. Always on time, unaffected by traffic and never get tickets since I don’t have a registration table :)
I absolutely LOVE my ebike. We live on a hill that would be impossible for me to ride up (without breaks), having the pedal assist means I don’t dread it anymore. It’s quite fun! I will often do 20-30 mile rides just because it’s so easy. And it replaced my need to drive my car most places.
Not sure if that counts as technology, but simple LED lights over my kitchen counter (mounted under the upper cabinets) were a pretty inexpensive purchase that made my life significantly better. I don’t understand now how I was ever able to cook with just the ceiling lights on, it’s absolutely terrible.
My e-book reader (Tolino).
As I got older and had problems with my eyes, this was a game changer. I had basically stopped reading books and now I do it daily. I can choose the font and letter size, background color, and backlighting based on what works best for my eyes that day and the light where I am.
Being able to hold a very light device with a big screen when I would have to balance a heavy weight as a paper book is also great, and I take the reader with me everywhere, whereas a big book would stay at home most of the time.
The reader has a bigger screen than my phone and the battery lasts longer.
The reader works flawlessly with my library, so I don’t have to buy books, which keeps costs down, and I don’t have to leave the house to get a new book.
Calibre helps us share books in our family, which is one reason we’ve stayed away from Amazon’s Kindle, so we’ve all gone to “.epub”.
I bought a 2080ti for $1200 right before covid and everyone gave me shit about how I was wasting my money because the 3000 series had a lower MSRP which then ballooned to $2000+.
So while everyone else was struggling to get a graphics card due to supply chain issues and prohibitive costs, I was gaming in 4k resolution throughout the pandemic. To say that this was clutch during a time I couldn’t really do much outside of the house with other people would be a massive understatement.
I usually would not have spent that much on a card, but I won a hackathon cash prize right before so had some money burning a hole in my pocket. The card is still going strong and is still my daily driver, so I can’t say it’s been a bad purchase at all.
A robot vacuum with a mop and self emptying/mop washing base (I live with two dogs in the PNW where mud is constant for 6 months of the year).
I don’t think I could ever go back to a single monitor setup. Screen real estate is ALWAYS at a premium. I feel so constrained when forced to use just one.
An iPad. I felt like a total idiot buying one but it changed my life. I’ve done hundreds of drawings, hundreds of music sketches, read hundreds of books on it, I surf the web on it, and my computer is relegated to professional and specialized tasks.
Yup same. I’m usually anti apple and someone basically gave me their iPad and told me to just try drawing on it,
It fucking owns drawing.
Later when I had to replace it I tried the other brands (my usual is to try asus first) but none could touch the responsiveness of an iPad screen for drawing.
Electric whisks. I’m never stirring a drink with a spoon in my life.
