My ebook reader. In the German speaking area, there are even some DRM free ebooks available that I can buy.

A Logitech speakers system. Got it about 20y ago when the brand was still awesome (and actually called Logitech). 100% analog and it works to this day. I dread the day it dies.

The most recent, best tech purchase was the Nintendo Switch 2, and not for the reasons you think.

So, this is Denmark. A Switch 2 with Mario Kart World goes for 4000 DKK (€535, $630). With my budget there isn’t a chance in hell I could afford that. Even if I could, the Switch 2 simply isn’t worth it, especially considering I have a Steam Deck.

So what’s the story?

Well, last year a telecommunications company rebranded themselves into “Norlys” (“Northern Lights”) and started making some deals to attract costumers. One such deal was a 20% discount on a Switch 2 with Mario Kart World bundled, if you subscribed to their most expensive service. Yeah whatever, that’s still 3200 DKK (€428, $504) and then you’re stuck paying 300 DKK (€40, $47) every month for six months.

But…

I have a friend who works for Telenor, and he has a friend who works for Norlys, and my friend of a friend called my friend with a real hot insider tip; someone royaly fucked up somewhere, and anyone buying the Switch 2 and the six month subscription lock-in will get it for 99 DKK (€13, $16) and no subscription lock-in!

So yeah, me and my friends all got a Switch 2 and a game for a tiny fraction of the cost.

Switching to macOS as my daily driver years ago. Seeing the enshittification of Windows in the last ten years has been pretty breathtaking.

Side note, switching to Linux (hell yeah CachyOS!) for gaming has been a pretty rewarding endeavor. It has plenty of pitfalls, but I work in tech, and that’s half the fun. The other half was that I re-imaged my Windows 10 gaming PC to be a CachyOS gaming PC, for free, and CachyOS wasn’t all like “your hardware is too old, create e-waste and buy a new one with a Copilot button on it”.

For me the best tech purchases aren’t really the ones that bring me joy. They’re the ones that become invisible because they take away points of friction.

So I would say my Brother printer is one. It’s been incredibly reliable for more than a decade now.

Switching over to Ubiquiti Unifi access points for wifi has been worth it too. It’s a pain to run wires for them, but having a solid signal everywhere in the house in all kinds of weather is just amazing. They’ve been running for a decade too, though I did just replace one so I can have a 6GHz connection in one room. Not really sure that particular upgrade was actually worth it, but the system as a whole has been so nice. There’s just never anything to fix about the wifi anymore. (Well, okay, occasionally there’s something to fix with the Internet, but it’s usually just “Comcast is down,” and we have to wait until they fix it, and sometimes also reboot the modem. The wifi itself is pretty bulletproof.)

So yeah. Tech that works reliably and invisibly for years on end is what I find really valuable. Gadgets can certainly be fun, but great tech is just there in the background making things easier.

• Steam Deck (I spend 90% of my time gaming on my couch than at my desk)
• Minidisc Players (There was some MD hate in the other thread but community-made software has come a long way)
• Kobo (Freeing myself from Amazon’s DRM)
• DAS (Creating my own media collection on Jellyfin)

Not a purchase per-se, but Linux - investing time in learning it has paid for itself hundreds of times over. A MacBook Air with apple silicon - it hurts to use anything else. ESP8266s / ESP32s with ESPHome - being able to craft real world solutions with very limited electronics skills is amazing.

Two right now. One is a Kobo e-reader. The other is a bone conduction headset. The latter allows me to ride my bike with my tunes but allows me to hear traffic and other environmental hazards. Very comfortable to wear too.

Macbook Air probably (Apple silicon)

Apart from the repairability it’s just THE perfect laptop

I really like my unihertz Atom phone. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s small and damn near indestructible. Thinking of trying to install linux on it.

I can think of a few that I can’t decide between:

My IBM Model M that came with my childhood PC was my primary keyboard into my 30s until a coworker sabotaged it (it was a bit loud I suppose). Not technically my purchase, but damn was it solid.

I bought a used 21" Sony Trinitron CRT monitor crazy cheap back in the mid 90s when typical monitors were 14". I felt like a king, that thing never stopped working, but I was pressured to part ways with it two decades later by my wife.

Edit: I’ll add on my Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones. My current pair are 20 years old and I have just replaced the pads a few times as well as some cheap support part (was less than $3 from the manufacturer). These things are basically invincible and they are still my travel headphones as they can take a beating on the road.

an ereader (a decent, 3rd party software compatible one, not amazons ewaste)

Formerly steam deck, now unseated by my AYN Thor. It can play 70-80% of the games the deck can in a package that fits in your pocket.

My breville coffee maker and bratza burr grinder. It makes the best coffee and doesn’t complain.

Also, my dolphin pool cleaning robot. Vacuuming a pool manually is such a hassle. Outsourcing that to a bot is truly amazing.

Anything that buys me back my time.

Number 2 is an electric vehicle.

Number 1 is a non-smart TV

Honorable mention; The Apple Watch SE 2 I bought for my wife so she stops thinking she’s going tachy or having a heart attack 9 times a year. Considering the cost of an average ER trip, and the hit to my sanity when these things only happen at like 3 AM, I’ll gladly upgrade her to the pro version or whatever when the SE kicks the bucket.

My favorite tech buy is a good 3D printer.

The ability to imagine something, model it in 3D, and then send it to a box and have it “magically” become real via 3D printing will never not amaze me or stop being cool.

Plenty of other useful tech toys like a jellyfin PC or a 3D scanner, but the printer is the thing I enjoy the most.