What technology purchase felt like a major upgrade in your life?

Upgrading my computer's primary storage from a hard disk (HDD) to a solid state drive (SSD). Really young folks on here have no idea how amazing it was for computers to go from taking minutes to start up to taking seconds.

Buying my first cell phone, which was a Nokia smartphone, in 2003. Having email and useful applications in my pocket, including maps and web search.

GPS was life-changing. (Yes, I am that old.) It used to be necessary to find printed maps of wherever you were going, which wasn't always easy. Then you had to figure out a route. The hardest part was often the last bit of the trip, since you weren't likely to have a detailed map of your destination city. An if you got lost, figuring out where you were was sometimes quite difficult.

People tend to think of it as mostly affecting longer trips, but finding new addresses in a city was at least as much of an issue. When I lived in the bay area I had a Thomas guide that was 3/4" of an inch thick, just for finding my way around town.

Bidet attachment for a toilet. Absolute life changer.

Bidet. Not even the fancy ones. Like the cheap ones that are no more than $20-30. Every poop, I've got a squeaky clean butthole.

A countertop water boiler, I have one of the Zojirushi 4 liter units. It turns out I drink 3/4 of a gallon of tea or so per day. So not having to boil a kettle for every round is oddly luxurious.

Bought a dishwasher.

Life changing improvement. Don't be afraid to use the pots and pans setting for everything.

You don't need fancy soap and remember to top up the rinse aid.

(Also every 6 months run a special cleaner through it)

A goddamn dishwasher. I used to wash a lot of dishes by hand growing up so it took until my 30's before i realized that dishwashers are a wonderful invention.

For me, it was a Quest 3. The first VR headset to cross my personal threshold. My main requirement was that when I wasn't playing actual VR games, the headset was worth using as a virtual computer monitor from the comfort of my recliner. While Quest 3 doesn't quite have enough pixels to truly display my 4k screen at a 1:1 ratio, it is close enough that with the perceived clarity boost from the micromovements of your head meaning the same set of pixels is never sampled twice in a row and the headset running at 120hz, my 60hz real life 4k screen looks exactly as clear in real life as on the headset.

I also have a supplemental completely fabricated virtual 4k 120hz screen in the headset that I use for any games that are easier to run and benefit more from framerate than perfect individual frame clarity. The screens are 20 feet away, but each take up 80 degrees of field of view, twice what is considered comfortable, but I have always preferred what I guess in that context can only be classified as "intimate?" distance from my screens. I only use one screen at a time, the other is stored just out of sight up above. I can still look at it comfortably, and there is a button to swap the monitor locations when I want to change which one is being primarily used.

I also have my real world surroundings in the headset. So the screens are just floating within reality. I can still engage with my family, and thanks to the clarity of the passthrough cameras, I can watch TV with them too. Clearly enough to read the closed captions. The TV screen is about 30-40 degrees of my field of view, and is thus only represented as about a 720p screen, but with that same "temporal antialiasing" the clarity is boosted up to about 1080p level.

So, with all that, I spend about 14 hours a day in my VR headset now. Wirelessly, with a magnetic battery swap every 2 hours. Sometimes standing up and playing real VR games, sometimes reclining in a super comfortable chair playing desktop games. With the bobovr system, or whichever option you prefer, the headset is comfortable to wear for an infinite amount of time. And when I visit my real computer monitor now, I just leave my sit/stand desk in stand mode and no longer have a computer chair.

It has basically replaced every other screen in my life, except my phone. Which is still a main sticking point of VR. They will concievably replace the phone too eventually, but there is alot of software and hardware infrastructure needed to get there. At least Quest 3 is finally a headset clear enough to use your phone without taking it off or peeking through gaps. But only just, a phone tends to take up about 20 degrees of your field of view when used comfortably, even holding it twice as close as that is only 720p(temporally upsampled to 1080p) so holding the phone closer is still only about half the resolution of your phone. Assuming you run your phone in 4k normally. It's probably fine for people without a gaming phone that likely already only run it at 1080p, then they might have text large enough to resolve at a comfortable distance in VR. But anyway. It's not too bad now, so hopefully next headset is enough to completely solve that too, while we wait for it to not even be necessary eventually.

I'm basically retired, built up a big enough money ball that my passive income from it slowly increases, so this is the rest of my life. Slowly getting better and better VR. And while it started at Oculus DK2 for me, all the headsets before Quest 3 were only fun toys that I played with alot. Steadily increasing in capability, but not crossing the threshold into permanent screen replacement. Quest 3 did it, it crossed over that line. While the size of screen I use to represent my 4k TV is only actually physically covered by about 1440p worth of pixels, the free temporal upsampling makes it as good as 4k(2160p).

Though it will take double the current resolution for people that want a 4k screen at 40 degrees of field of view, for now people that like that distance (most people) would have to make due with it looking 1080p. Which might be fine for most people, it is still the most widely used screen resolution.

Edit for plugs for anyone that wants to do this too:

Outside of the Quest 3 itself, I use the third party comfort and runtime mod "M3 pro" from BoBoVR(dumb name, quality company), and Virtual Desktop software to stream my computer screen and create the better supplemental virtual screen out of thin air. I also use Virtual desktop to play my PCVR games when not just running something natively on the headset. Having a good network setup is pretty important too, especially in my case where the aforementioned recliner is on a different floor of my house than my computer. I have a background in networking, so in my case I'm able to setup my router in such a way that I can comfortably stream VR while we have 50 other devices on the router. But for most people, either a second dedicated router or specific VR streamer is going to be a better route. My router was 600 dollars, these bespoke units can be as little as 100 dollars and give you almost the same experience. Plus they are pre-configured specifically for VR streaming. Otherwise there can be alot of configuration changes needed.

I apologize for my verbosity, I hate to leave any details out, even though someone could just ask if I forgot to cover something. I am, unsurprisingly, Autistic. Communicating clearly is a common problem for us. Never know what knowledge I have that isn't common and needs to be conveyed. And I don't change mental gears well, so I like to get everything out once, if possible, to reduce the likelihood of having to get back into this mental space again later.

Steam deck finally got me working through my steam backlog again.

Might have played everything before I die now

Internal SSD with the operating system on it. No other upgrade I've made to my PC has ever been so substantial.

Wireless ear buds.

I was pretty adamant that I was absolutely never going to get any, preferring wired and really looking for a phone that still had the jack. Then when new phone time came, I ended up having to choose between a micro sd card slot and the headphone jack. I tried for a bit with a USB-C to headphone adapter but ended up seeing some ear buds on sale and giving them a shot.

They last way longer than I expected, and the carrying case as the charger means I hardly need to worry about keeping another device charged. The freedom of not having the cord is really nice, especially when going for a bike ride or jog. I upgraded to a pair with a little over-the-ear hook and use them probably 10hrs a day every day they are great

Constant Glucose Monitors compared to the archaic finger stick monitors was like getting a blow job after spending a lifetime hacking it with sandpaper.

iPhone 3G. I’ll never forget the day I put the internet in my pocket

Lighting system as a wake up tool.

Have now been using a light or lighting system as a morning wake up for over 15 years. It’s life changing.

Lights start off dim and red/orange, and brighten very slowly to warm white. Works every time.

I wake up without the jolt of an alarm at home.

In fact - automated lighting in general - just so good.

A raspberry pi.

Installed Pihole on it and now get almost no ads on all devices at home.

Setting up my own NAS and offside backup.

Big project for sure, but being in control of my vital backups was important for me. Additionally the up front costs is lower than the subscriptions I would have needed.

A good docking station plus KVM for a good work & home setup since the pandemic hit.

I can dock my work laptop when I work from home and have my two screens, ergonomic keyboard, mouse, webcam etc all attached in one go, then a single button on my desk to toggle to my gaming desktop and start playing without having to disconnect anything, reducing wear and tear on the connectors.

iPhone 1.0. I was notoriously good at getting lost cause I'm not great with directions. A couple days after I got it, I was going somewhere in a city that isn't my own. I stepped off the train and pulled up the map app, looked at a couple of street signs, and said, "I'm going that way."

I thought to myself, this changes everything. Younger people who never had to rely on paper maps will never understand how profound that moment was.

Recently, my car. I was driving around a 2006 and recently got a 2024. A backup camera is amazing. The collision detection, touch display, and Bluetooth are a nice bonus also.

Google Home did when it first came out. Unfortunately, the quality has been consistently tanking since inception

64gb of ram. 32 cores.

if you keep many chonky applications open it's lovely.

Wireless noise cancelling headphones and earbuds.

I was reluctant to pay $400 for a gimmick but holy shit, once I did they became my most treasured possessions. Then I got buds for $400.

If we are talking cost per hour of use, they might be the most cost-effective tech I own

induction cooktop? I'd say dishwasher but that's probably more plumbing and pumps than "technology".

With all the other gadgets, I'm not so sure. I've had computers, laptops, phones for ages. Of course my first everything back in the 90s or 00s was a big thing. But since then it's just the newest generation, a bit faster and with more extras, but noting substancially different.

Affordable solar panels and batteries. With this we were able to life off-grid surrounded by nature.

Electric blanket!

It's not high tech, but it's so good.

Getting a second monitor for my work computer gave me a 30% boost in my productivity.

Besides upgrading to an SSD like another person said, I guess an electronic pressure cooker was a pretty sweet upgrade. It's incredibly multi purpose, cuts cooking time dramatically, allows me to walk away and forget about cooking with no consequence, and often only requires cleaning a single pot for an entire meal.

Like ya know those old TV ads for kitchen gadgets that try desperately to convince you it'll change your life, but you never actually use them? An electronic pressure cooker is one the few cooking gadgets that actually lives up to the hype.

Linux?

Surprised nobody has mentioned a computer yet, so mine is going from a $200 dell optiplex I saved up for to a ~$3,000 gaming rig my parents convinced the government to buy me.
The government had a $5,000 thing to parents with autistic children (diagnosed before the age of 10) and they could spend it on stuff that would help the child. They had to fight tooth and nail to convince them that it would let me play games with my friends (a total lie, I only played Minecraft and terraria then). They surprised me with it on my birthday I think 5 years ago and it was AMAZING.

I've spent nearly every dollar I've earned in the past 5 years improving my setup and game library.

Oh. And a high quality Bluetooth mouse. I used a Glorious Model O (for Minecraft 1.8 pvp) since it came out and used it till the battery only lasts a day or two, also I wanted more buttons. Only 6 months ago have I switched to a g502x and I went like 3 weeks without charging it. Its amazing.

I don't think I could ever go back to a single monitor setup. Screen real estate is ALWAYS at a premium. I feel so constrained when forced to use just one.

Haven't seen this in this thread yet, but I'm going to say an improved sound system. For me, it was just a soundbar and rear speakers. I live in a tiny apartment so couldn't fit a full sound system with front speakers, but just that was a huge improvement over just the TV speakers before.

A small vacuum and mop Roomba clone. Having two dogs leaving fur everywhere made vacuuming every day a necessary chore but now I only need to empty out their base every day and they take care of keeping the floors clean. I don't have them connected to my Wi-Fi though so hopefully that helps mitigate any hacking attempts.

Bicycle technology. Suddenly I could travel three times the speed of walking for the same effort.

Semi professional wifi(networking) at home (TP link omada or ubiquiti) and just buying excessive amounts of access points in my home.

Fuck you, low wifi signal. Fuck you, crashed router.

Beetlecrab Audio Tempera is the most inspiring electronic musical instrument I own. I got it in April, and I'm still finding new ways to use it. It does so much.

Oxi One really is the hardware sequencer to rule them all. Though I'm sure you could get by with a Hapax or Deluge if you don't mind spending twice as much.

Not a purchase, but Csound has always been an invaluable companion to my music making process. It's also entirely free and open-source.

A kneepad for my NC Miata. Kept digging my knee into the center console. A pad was the best upgrade I've made to that car.

On a tangent, is it just me, or has there been a notable uptick in this type of question? Feels a lot like astroturfing, but so far as I can see there's been no malicious intent