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Where Have All the Gadgets Gone?
waderoush writes "How many electronic gadgets did you own in 2005? How many do you own today? The answer is almost certainly a lot fewer. Counter to the dominant trend in consumer technology since the 1920s — and despite predictions of a coming 'Internet of things' — there may actually be *less* electronic stuff in our homes and offices today than ever before. That's thanks largely to the rise of multipurpose wireless devices like smartphones and tablets, which are now powerful enough to replace many older, dedicated devices like point-and-shoot cameras, music players, digital voice recorders — even whole home entertainment systems. To prove the point, here are before-and-after photos from one San Francisco household (mine) where the herd of digital devices has been thinned from about three dozen, eight years ago, to just 15 today."
Where all new gadgets go when they die, the trashcan in the sky
that dog sure gained a lot of hair while you were losing the gadgets
Uh? What's going on here?
Also note the pictures: It seems he changed, not the world in general.
In 2005 we see a microwave and stuff that seems to be a lot of mobile phones and remote controls. What is preventing him from getting lots of unused mobile phones today? The remotes seem to belong to the stuff below the TV, he got rid of his fancy stereo (with CD-player, amp, loudspeakers).
Yes, the world changed. Yes, you need fewer gadgets. No, personal experience is not evidence and I think those pictures show only a change in his personality: From a young "I need to have every crap" he went to understanding he does not need every crap. Apart from that, the reduction we see in the pictures is not impressive at all. And apart from that, "personal experience" is no evidence for global developments.
I don't even have a mobile (cell) phone. I think my collection of gadgets is about the same.
Anyway, the more important question is "what is the sacrifice you are making by embracing multi-purpose devices?" A DSLR will produce better photos than your iPhone (or whatever). A point-n-click camera will also. A dedicated scanner is likely to produce a better scan than a scanner tacked on to a printer. I could find examples relevant to the other examples as well but there is no point because they are easy to find. I, personally, would prefer a dedicated "gadget" that does one thing and does it well over a gadget that does many things but with less quality. YMMV.
Maybe some people are choosing to replace game consoles and such with tablets, but i'm not. I've still got a PS3 and a Wii. I've still got a digital camera that i use to take "important" pictures because it does a much better job than my phone. I admit i haven't used my dedicated mp3 players in awhile, but i think that's the only device that's actually been phased out. Of course that only got phased out because i got a smartphone, so that evens that out i guess. And since then i've also added a Nook, a tablet and a Roku.
Perhaps if you have less electronic devices it's because you decided you wanted less?
Of course going by the sample pictures it looks like you have a lot of redundant pieces of electronics that i never bothered with. I've had one "boombox" type stereo system pretty much my entire life. No need for separate CD players or tuners, and i've certainly never needed a turntable!
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Yeah, my house doesn't look anything like that. I love how the guy just *assumes* that everyone is like him. "How many devices have you dropped?" seems a perfectly reasonable question, when in fact it betrays that he's one of those idiots who just likes buying crap.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
What is equally striking to me from those pictures is just how dominant Apple products have become in the (high-end) consumer market...
So he went from a lot of manufacturers; Sony, Palm, Dell, Microsoft, etc, to one single electronics vendor, Apple. How do you keep so unbiased!
....and now you're just an apple fanboi
One thing I immediately figured out FTFA, don't overlay your photos with stupid transparencies. What, there is not enough space in HTML page? What, we don't have scroll bars?
I couldn't even bother to read anything below the pictures, which I couldn't even look at because of that stupid transparency layer.
You can't handle the truth.
Where have all the gadgets gone?
Long time charging
Where have all the gadgets gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the gadgets gone?
Gone to smartphones, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
and got rid of a bunch of random cell phones.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Your point?
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Lullz, 24 is on TV. How embarrassing.
Take out the specific ones, microwave, breadmaker. He replaced his TV. His video cameras now seem to be one video camera. The computer is different, the CD player and MP3 player, he's dropped the CD player as many of us have. He's ditched the calculator, but I went back to owning one, after a period of using my phone as a calculator.
But in my household there's a wealth of new specific computer devices.
1. The house now has a Network attached RAID/ Media Server +1:
http://www.zyxel.com/us/en/products_services/nsa325.shtml?t=p&tabOrder=3
2. A wifi router +1
3. A media player for the TV + 1 device:
http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/OPlay_Mini_Plus_Netflix/
4. Surround sound speaker system, device, it replaced the DVD player, since it also contains a DVD player. +1 -1
5. We have two Android tablets added, 2+ more devices,
6. And a laptop, which will probably be the next thing to go
7. Cameras? Well I tried and failed to make do with a phone, so I bought a Nikon with a decent lens. Then another waterproof camera for snorkling, I ditched an old digital IXUS so I'm up one camera.
So overall, we have more devices than ever. The smartphones are really no substitute for a good lens camera, and they're no substitute for a decent waterproof rugged camera. I find I like privacy, so I keep separate devices for separate uses. So I don't let the Android devices have photos or phone access, and don't buy camera with Facebook features.
Now that TVs are thinner I think I want one in the bedroom, so that might get a TV and media player too. +2
Tools have become more efficient. News at eleven!
In the TFA, he speculates that these multipurpose devices are now "good enough" to suit most needs, and I think that is true, But it is true that the quality of our audio and video experience seems to have gotten worse of the last couple of years.
When it look at the pictures, or listen to the audio generated by the phones and tablets, or watch the video. It works, but, it just isn't very good.
What's happening is that the middle layer of high-end consumer products are just vanishing: everything is either multipurpose devices or pro devices.
For me, anyway, I still use digital camera and I still use dedicated audio that I used to play CDs and records. I'm a grumpy old man, I guess, but, it sounds better.
Have you similarly gone through a process of folicle consolidation?
I've just purchased two old Casio organizers via E-Bay and a calculator! This proves conclusively that the author is wrong.
It can be old, broken and useless . . . but a geek will still hoard it. Every geek has a drawer, a box, a closet, or a garage stuffed with useless stuff. There just might be some possibility that it will be good for something in the future. Maybe the Zombie Apocalypse will infect Ethernet, so I will need that PCMCIA Token Ring card?
Every time I go digging for something it's like a Computer Archeological Wonderland. Wow! BASIC programs on paper tape! The old HP 41C calculator!
I never own less gadgets . . . just more. Where have all my gadgets gone? Who knows. But they are around here somewhere, and can find them if I look hard enough.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
judging by your current list, if Apple had bought out a robotic vacuum cleaner I'm guessing you'd have 1 more appliance still.
Got rid of your Kindle because your iPad has the Kindle App? Please, you either don't read much or you prefer ruining your eyesight on back-lit displays.
Where has the microwave gone? I'm not aware of any technological developments since 2005 that has "converged" the microwave into any other device. Also, none of the devices he displays in the 2013 seems able to displace a microwave (unless there's some new app I'm not aware of). Hence, we must conclude that this article merely represents the lifestyle choices made by this particular person, with no relevance to the rest of the population.
This man no longer cooks rice or uses a microwave, and his hair has gotten much grayer.
dies?
Your life is completely shut down.
As an experiment, he should lock his single iPad/iPhone in a metal box for one day and see how "productive" he is...
He's not being very "smart" about his entire life being dependent on some (one) company. Maybe this is why so many nerds are democrats - they're already dependent on the government, so they're okay with depending on just one company for their livelihood.
"Two is one and one is none"
"Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it"
As mentioned before... there is no middle, 'Pro-sumer' grade gear now a days. You either spend for the high level equipment (DSLRs, $800 tablets) or you wallow in the consumer grade 18 month turnover garbage (Kindle, smartphone).
As for the authors 'thinning'... no. More like he simply got rid of redundant crap. Does a remote control count as 'tech'? 3 phones?
He still has a t.v. that, while multi purpose (has internet, AV inputs, stereo) he also still has multiple internet access devices (what? the t.v. interface not good enough you still need a table, PC and smartphone? Pick one! Remember gadgets are getting BETTER).
Crap articles like this simply mad the internet a sad place where any semi random though can be considered 'information'.
I clearly have more electronic devices than I did in 2005, all of them are really useful and there is very little redundancy.
"To prove the point, here's an anecdotal based on a sample of one (myself)" I don't think proof means what you think it means
I don't know about you, but I think that between the age of 35 and 47, I shed a lot of gadgets because I was no longer fixated on them and realised I got more pleasure making a decent loaf of bread than having racks of whirring AC-powered gear in my closet, idling.
(Still have a corridor-of-death that has them all stacked in, gathering dust. Just in case the 88GB SyQuest external makes a comeback etc.)
The change from some Bang & Olufsen speakers to the earbuds was a real winner... Most of his choices revolve arround the adoption of Apple products.
Math is beautiful... e^(pi*i)+1=0
That is one awesome robot dog he's got there!
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
~10 years ago I wrote on slashdot that I couldn't wait until my PSP/GPS/Phone/Point & Shoot/MP3/FM radio were a single device... that has now been achieved in spades.
Basically I've culled my setup down to a smart phone, a tablet and a DSLR.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Just because things have become more convenient, it doesn't mean old gadgets should be thrown out. Unless you absolutely need to switch to something multi-purpose like say... if you need mobile internet for work, well -- getting a smartphone is a good choice. So then you can get rid of your alarm clock, your mp3 player, and your palm pilot. But, old electronics need some loving too.
OK, so he doesn't like good sound quality, so he got rid of the decent speakers and replaced it with Apple rubbish (that sound good to bad ears because they've just turned up the loudness and done wacky artificial things to phasing of the stereo signal). And same with cameras (personally, I think people who publish photos taken with an iphone should be shot for polluting the flow of electrons with their crappy photos). Where did his microwave go? Does he entirely eat out now? Concrete floor? Sounds lovely.
Heck, I still go on multiday tours on motorbike (with not much spare room besides my tent and sleeping bag) with SLR and second lense *because it produces better photos*. It's a pity a lot of people don't care about quality anymore, but some of us still do.
The contraction of "you are" is "you're", it's not difficult.
Your dog's gotten a lot bigger, too, and changed his furstyle.
To prove the point, here are before-and-after photos from one San Francisco household (mine)
But, but, I have more gadgets than I used to. Since that's all that's required to prove a point around here, apparently, I've simultaneously proven the exact opposite! How can something be both true and not true?!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
a) I still own all electronic devices which i owned in 2005, so the absolute number has increased
b) I did not have three dozens of Gadgets in 2005
c) Not even the number of "active" gadgets has decreased. active back then:
* camera (compact)
* mobile phone (Nokia 6310i)
* palm (z31) (replaced also a stolen mp3 player)
Now:
*camera (compact)
*mobile phone #1 (galaxy note II) - playing/reading documents/consuming media/surfing the web/feeds/google+
*mobile phone #2 (nokia e63) - workhorse for phone calls and emails
*ebook reader (sony) - use it when in eant a quite time in a bright place on a bench to read a good book (leave the other devices at home)
*mp3 player (Used for sports/biking - before owning the galaxy note used also everyday)
*tablet (galazy tab - surfing on th couch)
I like that the gadgets got more diversified. Its just convenient.
Just looking at the pictures shows how his attitude has changed.
In 2005 he thought it was cool to show (and have?) as much as possible, including all phones, his microwave and other assorted things.
In 2013 he does not have a microwave anymore? Seriously?
He only uses two speakers of his 5.1 system?
And no router, hub or any other network connection anywhere? Not in either image?
To me it seems that either his way of living has changed. e.g. eating healthier (Drop the coffee then) or he really wanted to show as little as possible where in the old picture he wanted to show as much as possible.
When I look at myself, I am still at about the same in numbers. If I do not use something for one year, it is out. Some things just have replaced other things. e.g. the NAS has replaced the CD/VHS player.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
that sound good
What more, exactly, do you (by which I mean the generic "you," not you specifically, since we're all different) want from a pair of speakers?
And same with cameras (personally, I think people who publish photos taken with an iphone should be shot for polluting the flow of electrons with their crappy photos).
What about those fucking douchebags in Russia who had the gall to record that once-in-a-lifetime meteor event with a crappy dashboard cam instead of installing a Red One on the offchance?
Heck, I still go on multiday tours on motorbike (with not much spare room besides my tent and sleeping bag) with SLR and second lense *because it produces better photos*.
How nice for you. What is so vomit-inducingly wrong with other people going on holiday in their camper vans with their iPhones because they can't be arsed with an SLR?
It's a pity a lot of people don't care about quality anymore, but some of us still do.
Newsflash: people do care about quality. But they also care about convenience, cost, and even brand identity.
They're also free to assign different weights to those parameters.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
> To prove the point, here are before-and-after photos from one San Francisco household (mine) where the herd of digital devices has been thinned from about three dozen, eight years ago, to just 15 today.
Awesome. Once burglary was a real hit and miss. Now your victims case their places for you. Even lists his dog. Google tells me his dog it is an Australian Sheppard. Sound docile enough. I can always get it drunk lol.
http://www.wikifido.com/page/Rhody
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Shepherd#Temperament
Now when will Wade be out of town?
Xconomy robotics event 4/11 https://twitter.com/wroush
"Far too many people have too much information online as to their schedules and what they will be attending and where." http://protectitnow.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/your-home-security-never-before.html
I'll just have to arrive early to beat the crowd. I have dibs on the Canon Powershot S5 IS and the iPhone5.
The above sounds sooo much different if you hear in Bob Dylan's or Bono or Paula Cole's (Where Have All the Cowboys Gone).
Then, think of a rap with one of the classic guys - like ICE-T - it takes a completely different meaning.
Then there's Weird Al. He's singing about "Where All the Badgers Gone."
"Thanks mainly to the iPhone and the iPad, which take the place of so many other dedicated devices, the herd has been thinned to about 15 objects."
So the iPhone and/or iPad cooks his food, too?
My gadgets are multiplying like rabbits. Hell, I have five game consoles on my *desk*.
A coupla cell phones, tablets, laptops, several computers, printers, a PDA I still use, portable game systems, and a rats-nest of cables and switchboxes tying it all together.
Out under the TV I've got a VCR, HD-DVD, DVR, and a network media player. I have so many gizmos in the kitchen that it takes forever to reset all the clocks for DST. (Whyinhell does a fridge need a clock on it, anyway?)
This isn't even counting all the gadgets I have left over from ages past that are packed away and no longer used.
My cell phone hasn't replaced my 'portable music player'. My car has. (And the PMP was a Walkman.) The only other gizmo my cell phone has really replaced was the -really tiny- laptop I used to carry around for SSH use and light browsing. (A Toshiba Libretto 50CT.)
Sure, there are gizmos that do -more- than they used to, but none of them do -all- of what I need my crapola to do, so I wind up with a bunch of them. I have a really nice tablet. I also have a netbook. Why? Sometimes I just want battery life and timekillers, and other times I need to run full computer software.
(Although I could probably ditch the netbook if someone pointed me at a full Windows XP emulator for Android - all I can find is QEMU, which only works up to 98.)
Don't waste your money on a new set of speakers.
You get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers.
Convergence may have gotten rid of the need for multiple devices, but devices are much more personal these days. Rather than one phone per household, it is one phone per person. Instead of one computer per household, it is one computer or tablet per person.
A lot of the old gadgets will still exist anyway. An individual may have a tablet to watch TV alone, but they will also have a TV to watch as a family. An individual may have a tablet for web browsing, but there will still be a computer for the kids to type up their school papers. While most families will be perfectly happy with their camera phone, any family with a photo nut will also have a digital camera. (The prior statement applies for most hobbies.)
As for that disappearing microwave, I don't see how he managed that. It was a lot easier to cook eggs with your CPU in 2005 after all.
How does such an incredibly obvious thing, become such an article, that it then gets linked to on slashdot?
What exactly has replaced the Microwave Oven and Breadmaker? Has he stopped eating human food & now just eats dogfood?
And, for some unexplained reason, stopped eating rice.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
and I'm drunk, so I don't really care much. Please, continue to have fun scouring the Internet for easily parsed grammatical mistakes while I do something slightly more enjoyable like open a door and pass into the next room.
I think I have more than ever. But my gagdets now morph into each other as necessary so I don't have to carry as much. They're called 'apps'
All of the gadgets that existed twenty years ago are still here, but with only a fraction of the redundancy. I think about what my home looked like twenty years ago, and compare it to what it looks like now, and the difference is stark and revealing. Cable closets and their attendant tentacles of cat 5 abandoned for a single wireless router, telephones in the kitchen, bedroom, and den abandoned for one that I carry in my pocket, the bulky one-way media devices that tended to dominate a room abandoned for slim, elegant two-way devices that hang on my walls. This is not a loss at all -- what I am seeing is a consolidation of redundant hardware, not a loss of gadgets. Gadgets exist for their functionality, and I have all the functionality I've ever had, plus new capabilities I only dreamed about twenty years ago. The big win is not having to replicate all the gadget's hardware in every place that I want to use the functionality of the gadget.
He fails to correct for the fact that he may have changed in 8 years. If he was 8 years older in 2005 he may have wanted fewer gadgets then. He admits it himself with the consoles. I don't usually like to argue based on age, but it seems like a glaring omission in the analysis. To his credit, he hasn't changed that much physically.
Yeah, my phone has replaced my camera and tape recorder, but right now in my living room are two computers, a laptop (sometimes all three being used at once), VCR, DVD player, cassette player, turntable (I have lots of analog media I have yet to digitize), receiver, TV tuner (my TV is ten years old), LED flashlight, four remotes... in 2005 there was one TV, one computer, a VCR, and DVD player.
I'm not normal. But then, what nerd is?
Free Martian Whores!
"How many electronic gadgets did you own in 2005? How many do you own today? The answer is almost certainly a lot fewer. "
Nope, I am sure it would be more today than in 2005. I don't throw away stuff if it still works, and it doesnt take up mich space.
In 2005 I had a laptop, an external monitor and an external keyboar and external hard drive. and an MP3 player
I now have a desktop (bought in 2008) Two android tablets, 3 or 4 MP3 players, a much larger external HD, but I still have the 80 meg one I used with the lap[top, I just don't use it anymore and of course lots of SD cards and jumpdrives.3 UPS'd (one for the computer, one for the cable box in my office, and one for the router
I think the only thing we have less of is printers. In those days every computer had its own inkjet, and we had a separate photocopier, now there is one multifunction laser which has WiFi
And a roomba
Well multipurpose devices have certainly been on the rise it doesn't mean that single use devices still don't provide a better experience in that task they're mean't to complete. For instance my smart phone can also be a music player, camera, network share, wallet and a number of other things. Just because my smart phone can take pictures doesn't mean it's camera and therefore I still want a great camera for taking pictures. Just because my smart phone can be my music player doesn't mean it is, I can buy much better stand alone portable systems and so my smart phone doesn't need to fill that area.
My point is that just because everyone is obsessed with compression 10 devices into 1 doesn't mean we get 1 devices which can do 10 tasks. Really all you get in that case is 1 device which can 1 do one thing really well and 9 things rather poorly. In the way a smart phone isn't a good DLSR camera, that same camera could never be a great smart phone. So my tech heap has grown as instead of relying on a few devices to do everything rather poorly, I rely on 20 devices to do 20 things exceptionally well.
That isn't to say for the most people a smart phone can't be a camera, music play, easy bake oven and more but for me it can't be those things.
I have more gadgets now then I have ever owned before.
Around that time, I got into geocaching. I'd walk into the woods with a GPS the size of a paperback book, a digital camera, my flip phone, and a Palm Pilot. Maybe an MP3 player.
Now that's all one device, but...
Now everything on my house is on the net: printer, home media server, satellite TV, Blu-Ray, home theater receiver, tablet, media streamer, Twine sensor box
Interesting trade.
Design for Use, not Construction!
He didn't own a coffee maker in 2005, apparently.
In the 80s and 90s, a computer from a few years ago wouldn't just be slow, it would be absolutely obsolete. It wouldn't even run new software.
That's still true on consoles. Xbox and GameCube were abandoned fairly quickly in favor of Xbox 360 and Wii. It's also true on mobile, where phones still being sold today can't run some of the apps on Google Play Store because the apps require Android 4.x and the devices are stuck on 2.x.
You have a laptop that can run everything handily
Except companies stopped making 10" laptops at the end of 2012 because they want customers to start buying a separate, higher-margin laptop and tablet instead.
and a phone that includes the PDA.
Except it can be far more expensive to consolidate. A PDA such as the Galaxy Player or iPod touch costs $0 per month more than what one's already paying for Internet. Replacing your dumbphone with a smartphone, on the other hand, means replacing a $7/mo bill with a $35/mo bill (source: virginmobileusa.com) because a lot of carriers refuse to activate voice-only service on a smartphone.
but you can use your phone as an AP if required.
Provided that everywhere you travel is within the coverage area of an affordable carrier that doesn't charge extortionate rates for tethering.
Purse? In my country, which is the same as Slashdot's home country, there are cultural expectations against 50% of the population carrying anything that could be called a "purse". Some members of the vocal minority made news for criticizing the company that made the TV series Teletubbies for promoting "gay pride" in part by giving Tinky-Winky a "purse".
Furthermore, the iPhone has a key feature that most camera makers have willfully ignored: network connectivity.
But how much does the iPhone's network connectivity cost the user per year compared to having a simple phone that just makes the occasional call?
What, is the scanner/printer also a combination hotplate-toaster oven?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
On the contrary, everything that can be transferred onto newer media and emulated, should be
Unfortunately, such preservation is contingent on the continued periodic renewal of an exception in copyright law for circumventing copy protection on media for obsolete devices.
Turing is god.
Can god die? Turing did.
Hoarding old hardware does not make any sense. I hate old hardware. I lived in that era, and I always hated the limitations and crankiness of the hardware of that age.
I'm inclined to agree with you, with one exception: my classic game consoles. How much do you think it'd cost to buy a cartridge reader for each of a half dozen game consoles?
In addition, there's still a vibrant hobbyist game development scene on the NES, and I keep my NES around specifically for that. I guess part of that is because the NES is close to the limit of graphical complexity that one amateur can feasibly create without having to pull together a team in one's home town. Emulation is still imperfect because more things are still being discovered about the NES's inner workings even in 2013, nearly thirty years after the Famicom first came out in Japan, and it's very possible to write a program that behaves differently on an NES than in an emulator.
anecdote ['eanik,dout] n, pl. data ['deita] A short and interesting story about an incident or person.
Sure, as you point out, one anecdote isn't enough to prove anything unless it's a disproof of a claim that absolutely nobody does something. But Slashdot discussion of this anecdote has brought out numerous other anecdotes, which are enough data to draw hypotheses about the causes behind these anecdotes.
A number of the changes in gadgets are do to changes in his requirements. Here are the devices he got rid of;
ESA Portable DVD Player Panasonic Portable DVD Player; Why two? For most people they only get one.
Kenmore Elite Sensor QuickTouch Microwave Oven; not replaced. Doesn't he microwave things any more? Or is it built in now so he does not count it?
Panasonic KX-TS108W Desk Telephone; he had 2 smartphone why did he need a land line even then?
Dell Dimension 2400 PC; Sorry by a laptop will not do what a desktop can do. For example I have 8 cores, 3TB of HD and a 240GB SSD in my desktop. It could be argued that he replaced the desktop with the Airbook and the laptop with the tablet so no real change.
Dell E152FP 15-inch LCD Monitor; I would consider that part of the desktop.
Playstation 2, XBox 360 "lost interest in console games:
Sanyo ECJ-D55S Rice Cooker "don’t eat rice much anymore"
Sony ICF-C793 Radio Alarm Clock; I still use my alarm clock as my phone is not loud enough when it is plugged into my computer in the other room
iRobot Roomba Red Robot Vacuum Cleaner "it died. Now I have concrete floors, so I sweep by hand." Translation; early adopter that discoverd that it was not such a good idea and went back to the old way.
2Wire DSL Modem; Webpass is basically using a building's router so not really less equipment. Had he not moved in to one of the 250 buildings in CA he would still have a modem.
Technis Quartz SL1301 Turntable, Kenwood KXW8060 Double Cassette Player, Yamaha HTR-5550 Tuner, Sony CPD-C315 5-CD Compact Disc Player, Boston HD7 Loudspeakers; this counts as one device as it works together as a sterio system. If the Jambox can put out the same sound as a my surround sound system the one might be comparing apples to apples. Otherwise the audio requirements have decreased.
Brother label maker; Not replaced. I guess he does not make labels any more. Was rthis due to a fad?
Handspring Treo 300 smartphone, Handspring Treo 650 smarthpone; Why two? So basically no change here.
All other devices were replaced or still exist.
What he really consolidated were his portable devices;
Handspring Treo 650 smarthpone
Rio Diamond MP3 Player
Sony ICD-S10 Digital Voice Recorder
Sony Clie PEG-T415 Personal Organizer
Swatch Beat 0033 Internet Wristwatch
ESA Portable DVD Player
All this is portable and replaced by the smartphone.
It looks to me that there are four reasons for fewer devices today;
Better mobile technology;
Fewer redundant items;
Changes in requirements;
and fewer early adopter items.
Had he restricted his article to devices he carries I would have fewer issues with it.
I also have a netbook.
They stopped making netbooks in 2012. What do you plan to replace it with once your netbook finally bites the dust? I considered an Ultrabook laptop, but those are far more expensive than a netbook was and don't fit in my bag.
And no router, hub or any other network connection anywhere? Not in either image?
A lot of home and small business ISPs are providing modems with integrated routers. No visible network hardware could just mean everything is using the Wi-Fi signal from the ISP's modem.
Rather than one phone per household, it is one phone per person.
And rather than one phone bill per household, it is one per person.
Instead of one computer per household, it is one computer or tablet per person.
On the other hand, instead of one paid copy of each program per household, it's one per person due to lack of spawn installation within a household.
An individual may have a tablet for web browsing, but there will still be a computer for the kids to type up their school papers.
Not necessarily. If one owns a tablet, a Bluetooth keyboard like the ZAGGkeys Flex that I'm typing this comment on is cheaper than a whole new computer and monitor. Some households could end up with no computers at all and no way for a child who wants to learn to program to have access to hardware on which to learn to program.
So for which "real handheld gaming device" should an amateur or a startup company develop a video game? I agree with the control disadvantage of a smartphone or tablet compared to a PlayStation or DS family product, but they have one big advantage: a selection you can't get on Sony or Nintendo.
What caused Apple's policy to change from this C64 game,, which Apple pulled from the App Store when it was discovered that the user could reboot the emulated C64 into the BASIC prompt and key in an unapproved program that way, to Codea? I've gathered from a discussion with BasilBrush that Apple doesn't want me to know because Apple wants prospective iOS application developers to instead spend four figures on hardware and the first year of a developer license to read the App Store Review Guidelines and find out that Apple would reject the developer's application concepts, at which point Apple already has the prospective developer's $1,147.
I generally buy good quality stuff that is physically useful for a long time. Plus I work at home now. So as a result I rarely get rid of anything less than 10 years old. Plus I have 3 major hobbies. So my electronics inventory is monotonically increasing and has been since I got out of school in 1978. Right now in my house I have the following electronic devices (off the top of my head I am sure this is not complete)
5 USB flash drives
2 solar powered digital watches
1 Kuerig coffee maker
1 microwave oven
1 toaster oven
2 pairs of powered speakers - not counting passive speakers as they are not electronic
4 networked digital media players
2 powered subwoofers
1 subwoofer equalizer
5 gigabit switches
3 wireless access points
4 desktop computers
5 LCD monitors
3 laptop computers
1 flatbed scanner
2 laser printers
2 DSLRs
14 lenses for the DSLRs (yes these are electronic)
2 electronic flashes
1 digital point and shoot
1 Android phone
1 feature phone
2 D/A converters
6 headphones
1 headphone amp
2 monoblock amps
1 Sherwood 5 channel amp
2 integrated amps
2 Blu-Ray players
1 DVD player
11 assorted external drives, both optical and magnetic
2 LCD TVs
1 AV Preprocessor
4 programmable remote controls
2 RF-IR remote repeaters
2 plunge routers
1 tracksaw
1 circular saw
3 rechargable drills
2 tenon cutters
4 sanders
1 gas powered generator
1 air compressor
1 sawzall
1 drill press
1 table saw
2 jigsaws
17 vintage HP calculators
1 oscilloscope
1 bench DVM
2 hand DVMs
1 electronic caliper
1 frequency counter
1 function generator
1 bench power supply
1 logic analyzer
1 engine code reader
4 USB microphones
1 web cam
2 cable boxes
1 cable modem
1 router
1 programmable thermostat
1 electronically controlled gas furnace
about a dozen compact flourescent bulbs
hundreds of LED Christmas lights
2 garage door opener
about a dozen non-programmable remote controls
None of this is likely to be discarded in the next year. There is an additional unused desktop in the garage that may be used as a starting point for a new desktop for use by my son.
And there is a new watch, and a new LCD monitor likely to be added soon. Some of the lenses may be sold to raise funds to purchase a new lens.
I'm sure he kept his dildo.
His 2005 photo shows what looks like a microwave oven on the far left. I don't see it in the 2013 picture. And if I understand his point correctly, it's that convergence has reduced his number of devices, so the implication is that something in the 2013 picture replaces the microwave oven.
The problem with that is that 2001 was the time for "cook with your Pentium 4" jokes and today's personal computers are too cool (figuratively and literally) for that, so I don't think he's joking. If he's not joking, he's serious. And if he's serious, he's full of shit.
The 2005 photo also seems exaggerated in some ways. Why, even in 2005, would someone use so many portable CD players and mobile phones? It's not like he had 6 arms and 3 sets of ears back then.
So this guy has done away with his microwave? Seriously?
In the 2005 picture there's a watch. He doesn't have one now. Yes, you can check your phone, but a wristwatch is so much easier for just a quick check of the time.
And he doesn't have a games console anymore? Playing The Pinball Arcade on his pad is no match to playing it on the PS3 or a 360. I still have a bunch of stuff at my parents' place, excluding that I am still owner of a PS2, Wii, and a couple PSPs and not about to get rid of any of those due to exclusive content that I have for those platforms only and I am not prepared to shell out cash for again for another platform
Speaking just for me, I own *more* gadgets now than I did in 2005 (and yes, I still own/use my microwave).
With no microwave, and no Pentium IV, how does he cook his food now?
By ditching the good sound equipment AND the microwave, he was able to downgrade to MP3s without noticing the difference---because he's not munching on microwave popcorn while he's listening.
this guy had like 7 cell phones back in 2005.
I personally have about the same number of devices as I did through the decades but I have a lot more gadgets. I used to have a cell phone for phone calls and texting, a camera for taking pictures, and a portable audio player (Walkman then Discman then MP3 player) for listening to music. I now own a phone that does all of that, but I also have an 8mp digital camera that takes better pictures and an MP3 player that is more compact and comfortable when I go to the gym. I've never owned a stand-alone GPS but I now have one in my phone. If I had a day-to-day need for a GPS or needed better accuracy for hiking or geocaching I would get one for that purpose. I have never owned a stand-alone handheld gaming system but my phone can do that too. Of course, if I was serious about handheld gaming I'd get something like a PS Vita. When I looked into getting an eReader I ended up with an Android tablet. It works as an eReader plus everything my phone does plus plays HD videos and even hooks up to my TV via HDMI. I bought a Bluetooth dongle for my car and can read engine codes with it. But now I wish I had got a one-trick-pony eReader for the better display and longer battery life.
There are 802 PSP games (source) and 1297 DS games (source). As of October of last year, there were 700,000 apps on Google Play and 700,000 on Apple's App Store (source). Are you trying to imply that far fewer than 1 percent of these are games?
Man in a kilt detected on security camera.
My iPad replaced my microwave too. Seriously?
...but until I see some hard evidence I'll treat your annacdote with a pinch of skepticism.
Author of TFA here. So many people have mentioned the microwave that I had to respond. Yes, I still have a microwave! It's built into the kitchen and it belongs to my landlord, so I wasn't about to rip it out for the "after" photo. I should have made that clear in the original text, which has now been updated.
Thanks, (almost) everyone, for engaging seriously with the premise of the article. Of course it's anecdotal, of course I was writing about my own experiences. This is a given when you're writing a personal essay. But my guess -- and it seems to be correct, from a lot of the comments -- was that a lot of other people have also noticed that they're able to get along with fewer gadgets, especially since the new wave of touchscreen mobile gadgets are basically the Swiss army knives of electronics. Others haven't had this experience, and that's fine. My real point was that it's possible to get the same stuff done today with fewer tools.
Sorry if my preference for Apple products put off a bunch of readers, but the theme would hold up even if I were an Android or Windows customer.
Maybe this is only because we've been in a recession for 5 years, and we can only afford multi-purpose devices?
And no router, hub or any other network connection anywhere? Not in either image?
A lot of home and small business ISPs are providing modems with integrated routers. No visible network hardware could just mean everything is using the Wi-Fi signal from the ISP's modem.
Hah, the AT&T-supplied modem that he used to have is horrible. I hate it. In the article, he says that he had both the AT&T combination modem-router-WiFi device and a crappy Netgear router, but he replaced the Netgear with an Apple router and he replaced the modem with a subscription to Webpass. Note that he needed his apartment's owner to subscribe to Webpass before he could get Internet from it.
To be fair, I guess I should say that the Motorola modem-router-WiFi things that AT&T is buying now are better than what they used to send. It's still a somewhat annoying device. And plenty of 2Wire modems are still out there, because AT&T is definitely not going to spend money to replace them if they can get away with it.
Have a nice time.
I just buy stuff that I do need.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
They are hiding up Larry Elision's ass hole.
Its dark, lonely, cavernous and impervious to TSA scanners and condom gloved fingers.
XD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines ... Right?
I tried consolidating everything into my phone -- gaming, music, light computing, etc. But, the battery life is shit [and I'd be up a creek if I couldn't actually use it for its primary function of calling people if the battery was dead], so I now carry around 4-5 devices: phone, PSP, 3DS, MP3 player, and if I'm going to class that day my netbook. Each gets its use, even the standalone MP3 player thanks to it's 24hr or so battery life, which none of my other devices can compete with, and yes I'm often away from a power source long enough that I'd need that.
Compare 5 years ago [this list is valid for back in 2005 as well, only difference is that I had a different iPod model then] when I had a non-smartphone, an iPod [which I don't have simply because the HDD died and I never bothered trying to replace it], a DS [which got replaced by my 3DS, and the DS's screen got cracked], and that was it. 3 devices. And going back a little further, I had only a Palm m100 and a Game Boy Advance.
I'm likely to get more devices rather than fewer, even as their feature-sets converge -- all of my 5 current portable devices play MP3s, 4 of them can play games [all but the standalone MP3 player], 3 can do computing tasks [homebrew enabled PSP, phone, netbook], etc.
Hell, I'm probably going to get an e-ink based reader soon [much nicer to read on than a bright screen], I might get a tablet for things that my phone is too small for and my netbook is too clunky to just pull out for, etc. And the game consoles in my list will likely stay there or increase [for games/systems that can't be emulated, games that are exclusive to a system, etc]. If something neat comes out for it and I have the coin to spend [probably not, haha], I'd probably get a Vita too.
If the phone had 20 hours of active battery life though, I'd be a lot more tempted to drop some of the other devices. But with enough pockets, it's not terribly inconvenient to have all these things on your person, larger stuff would get stuffed in the backpack.
And last but not least, even these generalized devices still fill a niche for me. In my case, the netbook is for running normal PC programs on, the phone makes calls and has 3G internet, the PSP plays Wipeout and whatnot, the 3DS plays Pokemon and whatnot, the MP3 player plays music and lasts all day doing so, etc.
If I took more pictures ever, I'd definitely carry a standalone camera since the phone camera sucks and the 3DS camera is the worst possible thing that still captures an image.
Reading Slashdot for the vulnerability announcements is like buying Playboy for the articles --A.C.
Except it can be far more expensive to consolidate. A PDA such as the Galaxy Player or iPod touch costs $0 per month more than what one's already paying for Internet. Replacing your dumbphone with a smartphone, on the other hand, means replacing a $7/mo bill with a $35/mo bill (source: virginmobileusa.com) because a lot of carriers refuse to activate voice-only service on a smartphone.
This isn't actually anything to do with the devices in question, this is shitty US mobile networks squeezing you for money because they can. Can't you keep paying for a voice-only plan, turn off data on the smartphone and swap the SIM card over? Or are you talking about signing up for a 24 month plan and getting a 'free' smartphone?
Can't you keep paying for a voice-only plan, turn off data on the smartphone and swap the SIM card over?
Not especially. A lot of popular prepaid carriers in the United States are MVNOs on Sprint's CDMA2000 network, and CDMA2000 handsets in the United States typically do not use a removable CSIM. Even on GSM, AT&T has been known to add a data plan to any SIM used in a device whose IMEI is detected as that of a "smartphone" even if data is turned off.
I own more electronic gadgets than I did in 2005, because I have an extra printer, and a smart phone. What's the point of the article? Besides, why does anybody give a flying rat's ass how many electronic gadgets you own? ZOMFG people have fewer gadgets teh wr0ld is ENDING!!!!!
It's also true on mobile, where phones still being sold today can't run some of the apps on Google Play Store because the apps require Android 4.x and the devices are stuck on 2.x.
That's an issue particular to many Android phone manufacturers, who are trying to create enforced obsolescence. That is, they're trying to keep the old business models that I was referring to.
Except companies stopped making 10" laptops at the end of 2012 because they want customers to start buying a separate, higher-margin laptop and tablet instead.
This is completely irrelevant to my point.
A PDA such as the Galaxy Player or iPod touch costs $0 per month more than what one's already paying for Internet. Replacing your dumbphone with a smartphone, on the other hand, means replacing a $7/mo bill with a $35/mo bill (source: virginmobileusa.com) because a lot of carriers refuse to activate voice-only service on a smartphone.
So assuming you want to buy a smartphone *and* not have a cellular data plan *and* choose to use a carrier that doesn't offer voice-only service *and* you buy a subsidized phone rather than buying an unlocked one, then you will pay extra each month, which will be somewhat offset by the subsidy you got for your phone.
You can still use your iPhone 3GS and your Core2Duo laptop.
companies stopped making 10" laptops
This is completely irrelevant to my point.
Then let me rephrase: I'm happy with my older laptop; it does what I need. But older hardware will eventually break. What should I use once it breaks?
*and* choose to use a carrier that doesn't offer voice-only service
Which U.S. carrier is otherwise?
*and* you buy a subsidized phone rather than buying an unlocked one
Unlocked phones work only with GSM carriers, not CDMA2000 carriers. Most of the U.S. MVNOs I've looked at seem to be on Sprint's network, which is CDMA2000.
Then let me rephrase: I'm happy with my older laptop; it does what I need. But older hardware will eventually break. What should I use once it breaks?
This is an entirely different problem than what we're talking about. I could just as easily say that I like my current pair of jeans, but the GAP doesn't offer that cut anymore, so what should I do when they rip?
It's not a technological issue. Just because you like a product does not mean that someone will continue to produce it.
Which U.S. carrier is otherwise?
I don't know. I'm not going around researching every carrier around the US to see what all their plans are right now. I know there are some cheap plans out there. Not necessarily good service, but cheap.
Unlocked phones work only with GSM carriers, not CDMA2000 carriers.
So then don't go with a CDMA carrier. Look, you can't necessarily have everything you want. Really, you're conflating a bunch of different-- though related-- issues. You seem to be saying, "It's bad to integrate cell phones with PDAs because I can't get the plan that I want on the carrier that I want." And you know, maybe you should be able to get the plan you want on the carrier you want. Maybe cell phone carriers are horrible and corrupt companies, and we should do something about them. But even if I grant all that, it doesn't mean that smartphones are inherently a bad idea.
This is an entirely different problem than what we're talking about.
Where, which is not here, should i ask how to solve this "entirely different problem"?
You seem to be saying, "It's bad to integrate cell phones with PDAs because I can't get the plan that I want on the carrier that I want."
Allow me to amend that: not "bad" but "cost-inefficient", and not "the carrier that I want" but "any carrier that has bothered to promote its plan to me".