My 2024 technology upgrade is now complete, I think. As mentioned above, in the last couple months, I've upgraded my iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch to the latest releases. I also traded in my M1 MacBook Pro for a Mac mini. Today, I just added the very nice (and not inexpensive) Apple Studio Display monitor to my desktop. I've been wanting one for quite a while, but have been "making do" with my 4K Dell monitor. So today I took advantage of the $300 off Black Friday sale at Best Buy and got the new monitor. At $1299, it cost more than my Mac mini did. But boy, is it a nice screen. It also solves my problem of not having a webcam and the speakers are better than what the mini provides. I decided to keep my Dell monitor and I now have the 2 monitors set up side-by-side to work as one extended desktop.
The Dell monitor is nice. And the Apple monitor is really nice. In reality, the noticeable difference between the two is not that all that significant for my uses. But I'm very happy with my new office setup. I also put my HP All-in-One Windows 11 computer in the closet. I rarely used it, and I'm going to see if I really want it at all by banishing it to closet storage for a while. With the HP out of the way, I moved my new Brother laser printer to my large desk so that I no longer have to wheel my chair across the room to pick up a print out. Luxury!
Additionally, I also just ordered an EcoBee Premium Thermostat (Black Friday sale) to upgrade my Nest thermostat. I've been having problems getting the Nest app to control my thermostat in a timely manner. Sometimes, I'd use the phone to change temperature and it didn't respond immediately like it used to do. Sometimes it would take minutes before the furnace would kick in. Honestly, this problem started when I got the new iPhone and had to re-install the Nest app. It's possible the issue is really with my iPhone or iOS 18.x. But I decided I was going to go big and upgrade to the Ecobee.
Oh, and I also ordered 14 solar-powered post cap lights for my deck. I've been wanting to add some lighting out there and saw these at my nieces house recently and decided to give them a try. I was surprised how expensive these were to get ones that fit on my 3"x3" metal posts. But they were slightly on sale for Black Friday as well, so I nabbed them.
Blow that dough!