I have a problem.
Okay, fine, I have many problems.
But today I'm talking about a specific problem; I buy too many electronics.
One need only walk into my basement to immediately have a sense for that. There's a room down there that is literally filled with electronics (and board games! We have a lot of fun board games too), to the extent that I feel like your average person would take one look at it and think "yeah, this guy's got a problem." I tell you this so that you understand my qualifications to make the following list. These are the electronics I've bought that have measurably improved my life, sometimes in surprising ways.
A Reasonable 3D Printer
There's a perception out there among the masses that think something like a 3D printer is a toy. Anyone who works in manufacturing and design of course knows that's a flawed premise, given how useful they are for rapid prototyping and the fact that FDM printing started in the manufacturing industry. With that understanding and a willingness to learn new skills, that's what a 3D printer can be; a tiny manufacturing plant in your house.
Can it also be a toy? Absolutely. If you ever come by my house ask to see the adorable cat I printed for my wife, or the sweet dice tower I printed to use with tabletop games! But also be sure not to miss the headphone holder I made for my mic boom arm, or the tiny clasps I designed to keep our actual cat from knocking the lids off the bathroom trash cans. Using free design software (FreeCAD for anyone interested) and this lovely little Creality Ender 3 I have been able to solve a few small problems of that nature.
Some people will question whether I could have solved those problems by simply buying a solution. Obviously yes. This cost less, of course, mere pennies as opposed to several dollars. At that rate justifying the cost of the printer would take years, but that sets aside the personal satisfaction that comes from creating something novel to solve your own unique problems. Other people might wonder whether I couldn't have just solved this issue using, say, carpentry skills. And the answer to that is also probably yes.
But I'm much better with electronics than I am with carpentry, and I'd wager the printer takes less of my time and effort. It's a delicate balance between finding the solution that saves me money and gives me personal satisfaction without going past that into boredom, at which point the project will sit unfinished for a year. This 3D printer strikes that balance nicely.
Some High Quality Speakers
I've always liked audio gear, and I've always appreciated good audio gear, but I've never really bought any because holy crap, is that ever expensive. But go back a couple of years, around the time my wife and I were deciding that of all the things we could collect, records would be a good fit for us. To be absolutely clear, we're not audiophiles; we love good music, but the patina to the sound of a classic record is almost more important to us than audio quality. The vinyl is a fun collection, not a serious flex.
That said, we also wanted to buy a reasonably good record player, with a lid that fully enclosed the record while playing in anticipation of future cats and children. In today's turntable market, that also meant we'd need to buy a stereo system to play the music through, because good record players don't come with built-in speakers, and the only discrete audio system we already had was hooked up to the TV. So I went thrift store shopping for basically any old speakers and amp, and wound up coming home with these Boston Acoustics CR6 bookshelf speakers.
I bought them because they felt heavy for their size. That's really my only tip for buying used speakers; they're powered by magnets, and bigger magnets tend to mean higher-quality sound. So you want to buy something heavy. One of them had a broken tweeter in it, which I presume was why they only cost three bucks, but it turns out that Boston Acoustics made some pretty high quality bookshelf speakers, and even broken these probably should have been around 9 times that price. With a donor tweeter from another thrift store speaker these things lay out a very wide and detailed soundstage unmatched by any other piece of audio gear I own.
This has elevated my listening experience in ways that are difficult to articulate. Sitting back and just listening to music isn't something I had regularly done since probably high school until we bought these things, and now I start to get a little restless if I don't do it at least once a week. We've even gone so far as to essentially dedicate a room to just listening. Ostensibly that room is designed around all forms of musical expression, but make no mistake, the idea started with making sure we had somewhere we could enjoy these things.
A Cheap Linux Laptop
For the most part I subscribe to the idea that a digital computing device should be as multi-functional as possible. This is just the sustainable way to think; people, by and large, need computers and don't have a ton of disposable income. Having a single device that will meet all of someone's digital needs will save them money, will reduce the energy demands by society at large, and will result in less e-waste headed to landfills. All good things. That said, I haven't regretted buying a PineBook Pro for even an instant.
Look, this is not the multi-function digital device I mentioned just now. Most smartphones are more faceted than this thing. In large part that's down to the combination of a low-powered embedded SOC driving the thing and an OS/software ecosystem that is woefully under-developed for the lay-person. The hardware was designed to be small while cutting costs, resulting in a webcam that is trash, a microphone that barely works, and speakers that are absolute dog-****. In terms of content consumption this thing is frankly F tier, and in terms of gaming or content creation, it's under-powered and, again, running Linux.
But it has made my life better. I was on the hunt for something I could primarily use for writing and basic web-based research, both of which are use cases that essentially just require a browser and don't use much in the way of horsepower. I also wanted something cheap, and something thin, light, but still premium feeling. I couldn't just install Linux on a cheap old laptop, because old laptops are bulky, noisy, and have lousy battery life. And I couldn't just buy a new MacBook Air or something like that; too expensive.
My options were between the PineBook Pro and a good keyboard case for my iPad, and I've got to say, I'm really glad I went with the laptop. Because it can't game or content create, and because the SOC can't decode YouTube very well and the speakers are garbage, when I'm using it the PineBook forces me to focus on my writing, which is the very thing I bought it to do. It's thin, light, feels great in the hand and isn't bothered by being shoved in a backpack, and the battery lasts for up to 15 hours sometimes. This thing is the perfect writing laptop for me.
The Smallest Phone That Works
Look, my favorite phone I've ever had was my iPhone 5S. I loved the feel of the thing, I loved how powerful it was, I loved the new biometrics and improved cameras, and I even got along pretty well with the software. My 4S was a very, very close second, right up until I finally got my hands on a 12 Mini. It's got the same hand-feel as that 5S, at about the same size, but in every other way it feels exactly like a flagship phone from 2020/2021 should.
Look, I like big screens as much as the next guy. You really ought to see my drawer full of 17 inch laptops. But ever since I bought an iPhone 7 Plus in order to get the dual cameras, I've been chasing the feeling of that 5S in my hand. I missed being able to reach from one corner of the thing to the other with the same thumb. I missed being able to hold it sideways with one hand and not feel like I was going to drop it if I looked at it wrong. I missed being able to slide it easily into my pants pocket, shirt pocket, coat pocket, or any pocket in my backpack because it just fit everywhere.
The big screens were nice, but the entire time I had a big-screened phone I just wished I could get the same features in a smaller phone. The 12 Mini (and 13 Mini now) is the smallest flagship phone out there. It packs all the same features as the big boys, aside from battery life, into a form factor that I can easily hold and use fully with one hand. I always knew I wanted this, but until I had the phone in-hand, I didn't realize just exactly how much I had missed the pre-iPhone 6 days.
Based on sales numbers it's looking more and more convincing that Apple is not gonna make a mini-sized 14. Given that zero Android handset manufacturers are making flagship-spec phones at this size, it's looking an awful lot like I won't be using another small phone for quite some time once I give this thing up. And that's a genuine shame, because this little guy has actually made my life a little better just by being small.
A Frankly Absurd Mouse
Okay, if you want to talk about esoteric device purchases I've made that really might make absolutely no sense for most people, you need look no further than the Logitech MX Master 3. I bought it on a steep discount, but even still it was over $70, and I love it dearly. See, I'm an Apple customer, for better and worse. Among the "worse" category there you'll find a long and frankly embarrassing history of computer interface devices. Using modern versions of macOS on Apple's laptops is a joy, and I still insist that anyone who says touchscreens are the superior interface for a computer simply hasn't used Apple's laptop trackpads.
Those trackpads enable smooth app switching, natural multiple desktop support, and a myriad of useful gestures that even as a power-user make life on a MacBook Pro delightful, forget the external mouse. But if, like me, you make the move to one of Apple's desktops and you would like to continue to use those useful gestures... Well, there's a special hell waiting for you if you don't spring the extra hundred bucks for their desktop trackpads.
I have used many Apple mice. The least offensive was their Pro Mouse, which was pro in the sense that if you were a professional computer photographer, you would have really liked using it as a model. It looked good but the functionality was severely limited and the ergonomics were lousy. The Mighty Mouse added functionality but tried to maintain aesthetics at the expense of reliability, and the Magic Mouse... look, I used one of those for years, and eventually I switched to a flipping TRACK BALL because I could tell I was going to wind up with an RSI that would eventually result in surgery just from using the abominable bar of soap. That was before they put a rechargeable battery in there, so it's only gotten worse since.
And don't even get me started on the Puck Mouse.
In comparison to those Apple mice the MX Master is like a breath of fresh air to a man who's been drowning for decades. It is comfortable, feels great in the hand, has a lovely build quality, and an abundance of features. It gives me analogues for all of those power-user tools I enjoyed on my MacBook, and it helps avoid pronation to boot. It may look silly, and it may be expensive, but I honestly cannot imagine being a desktop Mac user without one of these anymore.
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