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2008 Gadget List

Posted by Daniel Hölbling on January 14, 2009

While reading Georg’s list of gadgets he bought in 2008 and suggests I thought it might be interesting to compile such a list myself.
So, here it is: A list of gadgets I bought and would recommend (and it’s boring to be honest).

Dell XPS M1330

image After running Ubuntu on my old laptop (1.6ghz Acer Aspire) for almost a year due to the lack of system resources I finally got myself a new laptop this year. The old one was a quite heavy 15” WXGA screen so I decided that this time I’d go with something smaller and more portable.
Since I like Dell for their brilliant support I choose the XPS M1330 (the only 13” laptop available from Dell at that time).
Haven’t regretted it since, I’ve been working exclusively on my laptop for quite some time now and this thing hasn’t failed me since. It’s speedy (except for fancy 3d graphics) and still light and has great battery life.
I also found that 13” is enough to actually program on, but it takes some time to get used to bringing up most panels through shortcuts while working in VS fullscreen.

Canon EOS 450D

image I’ve never had a camera before. I never even bothered to buy one because I simply never deemed the price appropriate for what I’d get.
While occasionally taking some snapshots with various point and shoot cameras I was never really content with the results once I’d try to view the images on my PC. Pictures would either be noisy due to bad light, or when using flash all colors would simply look wrong.
This time though, I found the EOS 450D at pricey 470€ and gave it a try.
The camera is everything I asked for and more. It’s light, fast, picture quality is great and the battery lasts me for more than 2000 pictures (still amazed about that). Although I may still suck at photography (I hear little Yoda whisper to me “much to learn you have padawan” all the time *g*), I think some of my pictures actually don’t look too bad, so I've put them on Flickr.

Since my girlfriend blogs for a German speaking magazine on art and culture the woman-acceptance-factor on this one was quite high since can borrow it to take pictures of events she’s blogging about.

XBox 360 Elite

imageOk, maybe it was just silly to buy this thing 1 month before the WoW addon Wrath of the Lich King was released, but I haven’t really regretted it either. The XBox is just another awesome console that simply works. There are tons of games (although too few that can be played in coop and aren’t of the shooter kind), and using it as a media center extender also works quite well. Since the console also gave me an excuse to get myself a new TV and transform my basement into a “media room” I’m quite happy with the investment after all :).
Why consoles? Put in a DVD and play, it just works. No installs, no settings no hassle. I don’t have too much time for games, and not wasting on installation / configuration issues any more was totally worth it.
I’d also suggest getting yourself Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock, the most fun game I’ve played for quite a long time.

Note: This has a very low WAF so consider buying her something nice too before confessing your sin :).

iPhone

(I’ll spare you the obvious picture ;)) My old phone broke and I needed a new one, since I didn’t want to switch carriers (tele.ring) I was stuck with a very bad selection of low-end consumer phones that didn’t really satisfy my needs. But buying a smartphone in Austria without signing a contract usually means spending >500€. Since the dollar was so low at that time it I got an original iPhone for less than 300€ and unlocked it myself.
Still convinced that it’s the best smartphone available to date. But I guess that may change with new releases from Android and the Palm Pre looks interesting. I’d also like to note that it’s not really smart to buy an iPod nano and order an iPhone 2 weeks later.

HP w2408h 24” Widescreen Monitor

imageSeriously, do yourself a favor and get one of these. More space is always better, and I’m already waiting for the Dell 30” displays to drop in price because I need even more space. 1920x1600 pixel of space provide plenty of room for parallelism, and the display simply looks awesome. Although some people don’t like TN panels, the colors are just stunning.
Also with the new Windows7 dock features the big resolution will be even more useful.

 

So that's it. I guess I spent way too much money on way too few things ;). Now this year will probably get a bit heavier on photography equipment (still looking for some maybe a new zoom lens). And with Windows7 up ahead I will probably also update my home pc once again (components are just ridiculously cheap right now)

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