How Do You Keep Up With Tech?

Lsbcal said:
.... I could go into my good/bad experiences with Google phones but don't want to bore you or start a quasi-religious iPhone/Android discussion. :) ....
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And neither do I. It was just that the way you phrased your post, it sounded as if you can only get those features with an iPhone.

Choice is good! Enjoy.

-ERD50
 
I worked in (and retired from) “tech.” I have no desire to keep up with it any longer, have deleted ALL social media accounts and, instead, spend more time outside, read more physical books, and physically interact with people much more. IMHO, life is much better.

Also, I almost exclusively use an iPad (media consumption device) for my minimal remaining online activities.
 
After starting this thread, reading and looking into many of the suggestions, I guess I should have stated post #1 differently. Many of the sites suggested were hardware focused, that’s not where I sometimes miss the boat.

It’s knowing all the original and then added software/app features of use to us I sometimes miss.

Some/many I catch right away, others somehow elude me for a while. Someone mentioned AirDrop has been around a while, yet I missed it until a few days ago. :facepalm:
 
T-Minus said:
I worked in (and retired from) “tech.” I have no desire to keep up with it any longer, have deleted ALL social media accounts and, instead, spend more time outside, read more physical books, and physically interact with people much more. IMHO, life is much better.

Also, I almost exclusively use an iPad (media consumption device) for my minimal remaining online activities.
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+1 I had to keep up with all the latest stuff in my job. And most of it was fluff that was no better than the preceding tech. I'll look into something if it has value to me, but I'm not putting every new gizmo app onto my phone just because.
 
Midpack said:
After starting this thread, reading and looking into many of the suggestions, I guess I should have stated post #1 differently. Many of the sites suggested were hardware focused, that’s not where I sometimes miss the boat.

It’s knowing all the original and then added software/app features of use to us I sometimes miss.

Some/many I catch right away, others somehow elude me for a while. Someone mentioned AirDrop has been around a while, yet I missed it until a few days ago. :facepalm:
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YouTube has a lot of great tutorials for tech products that can save you a lot of time. I use them when (or before) I get a new phone. I also got a lot of use out of a YouTube tutorial that ran through the various navigation, settings, and menus on the 2 screens in my new (used) car.
 
I try not to pay attention to new "technology" anymore since retiring from that field . I do have to admit, however, that I sometimes find myself thinking "I could design that better" when some existing piece of "gear" catches my eye. Like some of the stone age medical equipment I see in my doctor's office practice (just had that conversation with him today, matter of fact).

I do cozy up to some of the ~applications~ of gizmo gear, like "instacart" shopping & delivery at the supermarket. But there's a price ($$) to pay.

_B
 
Music Lover said:
YouTube has a lot of great tutorials for tech products that can save you a lot of time. I use them when (or before) I get a new phone. I also got a lot of use out of a YouTube tutorial that ran through the various navigation, settings, and menus on the 2 screens in my new (used) car.
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I agree, and use YouTube for that often. But some functions and features still escape my attention, my own fault, and I was trying to improve.
 
#1 discovery came a year ago with "Mercury Reader" Stops ads and is great for reading... 'specially for type faces and size of copy. Great for reading ER.
Smooth and no surprises.
Would trade all other new stuff for this.
 
Midpack said:
I agree, and use YouTube for that often. But some functions and features still escape my attention, my own fault, and I was trying to improve.
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Hopefully you are not too anxious about keeping up. This stuff should be fun ... I keep having to remind myself it's not a j*b. :)

Most of us here are way ahead of the average American's tech knowledge.
 
i use what i have , until it no longer does what i want don't ( breaks down , or just can't cope )

often i will upgrade parts ( if the new parts are cheap )

new is interesting , just like science fiction a lot of dreams and fantasy , but rarely value for money ... until i can see a use for it i will refrain from buying newer stuff
 
After being in high tech all these years as an engineer, I am slowly turning into a Luddite. Chasing the latest high tech is a never ending task and what you have today is outdated next month.
It seems to take a lot of personal life energy keeping up. Also, I am leaning towards simplifying life and reducing intellectual clutter.
 
I gotta ask; what is the purpose of staying on top of high tech stuff? Is it a hobby, some sort of entertainment value? My life is fine without it and what little I have engaged, just seems to either waste my time (games and such) or involves more work than I used to do in order to gain the info prior to the high tech.

I'm much happier utilizing what ever high tech time I'd otherwise spend doing stuff like fishing, hiking, working in the yard, even volunteering in my community. My face into a screen is not my idea of a good time and just about all high tech is just that.
 
skipro33 said:
I gotta ask; what is the purpose of staying on top of high tech stuff? Is it a hobby, some sort of entertainment value?
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Some is a waste of time, some is entertainment, some is really useful.

Maps on a smart phone is an example. You might say that everyone uses or at least knows about them now, but I don't think that's quite true (not everyone even has a smart phone), and certainly wasn't always true. I find it way more handy and safer to have a voice give me directions and a screen show me exactly where I am and where a turn is coming up, than to try to pull up a map while driving or rely on scribbled notes or a hand-drawn map.

And I've recently figured out that I can export a gpx file from my running watch to map out a trail system on our mountain, so that people can load that custom map and see exactly where they are on the map and not get lost. And I can map out a running route on trails so people can stay on the course we had planned for a group run.

This doesn't happen unless I keep up with tech and learn about Google Maps, how to use it, and how to create my own maps.

That's just one example.
 
skipro33 said:
I gotta ask; what is the purpose of staying on top of high tech stuff? Is it a hobby, some sort of entertainment value? My life is fine without it and what little I have engaged, just seems to either waste my time (games and such) or involves more work than I used to do in order to gain the info prior to the high tech.
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RunningBum said:
Some is a waste of time, some is entertainment, some is really useful.
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I never said I wanted to stay on top of everything in tech, but some of it is very useful or entertaining. But it would be helpful to me to “discover” useful changes in a timely manner. None of it is games in my case.

For example, in the last few days I’ve learned how to do some things on my iPad that could only be done on my PC before, but it turns out I could have made those changes at least a year ago. And I can now share with DW’s iPad or our iPhones easily, very helpful.

Like RB, I use GPS in cars and boats and that’s constantly evolved to be more useful if you follow changes.

If none of it is useful to you, that’s great and this thread probably isn’t of much interest for you.
 
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skipro33 said:
I gotta ask; what is the purpose of staying on top of high tech stuff? Is it a hobby, some sort of entertainment value? My life is fine without it and what little I have engaged, just seems to either waste my time (games and such) or involves more work than I used to do in order to gain the info prior to the high tech.

I'm much happier utilizing what ever high tech time I'd otherwise spend doing stuff like fishing, hiking, working in the yard, even volunteering in my community. My face into a screen is not my idea of a good time and just about all high tech is just that.
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I get a new smart phone every year or two and spend an hour or so familiarizing myself with the new features and then I'm good to go for another year or two.

It's a fallacy that high tech requires a person to spend all day with their face glued to a screen...those who spend all day glued to a screen want to do so. Like many people here, I simply want to learn the features of a new product and then get on with my life.
 
skipro33 said:
I gotta ask; what is the purpose of staying on top of high tech stuff? Is it a hobby, some sort of entertainment value? My life is fine without it and what little I have engaged, just seems to either waste my time (games and such) or involves more work than I used to do in order to gain the info prior to the high tech.

I'm much happier utilizing what ever high tech time I'd otherwise spend doing stuff like fishing, hiking, working in the yard, even volunteering in my community. My face into a screen is not my idea of a good time and just about all high tech is just that.
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Well...I don't want to be LEFT BEHIND in tech. It has gotten so much easier since the days of CompuServe and DOS. I love my Apple products (computer, iPad, iPhone, Watch and TV) since their products make things so much easier for me. My old age and Apple products will go together into the beyond.:cool:
 
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I stay up to date.....only when I have to. Many years ago I went to a record store to buy an album (obviously, I hadn't bought one many years prior to that). No record albums, just CD's. So, went home, did a bit of research and bought my first CD player. That episode kinda epitomizes my adapting to new technology. No joke, a similar thing happened when my VCR broke and I went to the store to buy a new VCR.
 
audreyh1 said:
BTW Airdrop has been around for years, but many times it was quirky and unreliable. Guess it’s more robust now.
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It's not.

Anyways a lot of tech buzz is marketing, like AI, machine learning, etc.

We're not seeing big breakthroughs every year, despite the hype.
 
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