Fire re-buy – tech from last year I can’t live without

Posted Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 10:37 am by Jason Cartwright |

When the year ticks over, most people take a moment to reflect on the year gone buy. As a technology lover I started to think about which devices are now in my home that I simply can’t live without. Perhaps the ultimate test of just how critical a piece of electronics is to you, is what I’m calling the Fire re-buy. If your house was to burn down and you get your insurance cheque, what would you re-buy it ?

Once you get that new shiny piece of tech home and spend some time with it, not all turn out to be great choices. Others prove to be invaluable to everyday life. So here’s my list of fire re-buy technology that I got (not necessarily released) in 2009.

 
TiVo – Whilst not a brand new device, it’s still relatively new in Australia. This single device has fundamentally changed the way I approach watching television. I watch television when I want. Strange concept I know, but I no longer have to worry about being in front of my TV at 7.30 on Tuesday night and conform to their rigid programming. The shows I want record to the hard drive and when I have time I watch the shows I want. Of course I’ve used VCR’s in the past, but as soon as you upgrade to a HDTV, they become redundant. While the cost is still high, this is definitely one of my best purchases.

HP MediaSmart Home Server – My digital files are now secured, backed up and accessible by multiple users, multiple machines, from anywhere in the world. I now have around 4TB of storage, better yet, this will grow as my needs grow over the next few years.

Macbook – Wether your a Mac or PC really doesn’t matter when you can do both. The Macbook turned out to be a great mobile solution. Being able to dual-boot Windows 7 and Snow Leopard lets me get the latest software regardless of which platform it gets released on.

Gigabit ethernet / Wireless N – Files are getting big, really big. The HD video files I work with are often multiple gigabites in size. Sometimes these are as large as 20 and 30 Gigabytes. Moving files of that size around a network can be incredibly painful using yesterday’s networking technologies. An upgrade to our router and switch (located behind the home entertainment setup), home networking particularly to and from the home server is a significantly better experience. Like the move from dial-up internet to broadband and every step up to ADSL2+ I’d never want to go back.

Hope everyone had a great NYE, leave a comment with your fire re-buy technology.