My Favorite Tech of the Year (2024)

[@ChrisLawley]

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[@CleanDesign_]

Have you considered changing all your cables to Thunderbolt 3? They are probably considerably cheaper than Thunderbolt 4 and 5 cables. It is nice to have the latest and greatest, but I think TB3 covers almost everything, and probably will continue to do so for a long time. Only exception I can really see is if you have a really high end external GPU you want maximum performance from or if you have a crazy 1 cable laptop battle station that has more than 10 devices all hubing off that one cable. USB C SSDs still aren't fast enough to fill the bandwidth of newer TB generations. Most devices like thumbsticks, keyboards, mice printers, etc will use less than 1% of the bandwidth. Monitors can eat a lot, but most of use have one maybe 2, but even 3 monitors is fine on TB3.

[@ChrisLawley]

I have a few thunderbolt 4 devices already, including the Studio Display.

[@ChrisLawley]

What’s your favorite piece of tech of the year?

[@mcavatar]

iPhone 16 Pro. First new phone since the 13 Pro. Really enjoy the Camera Control and the camera upgrade.

[@nauscakes1868]

I came for the tech, but stayed because of the Lego fandom. That Nintendo alarm clock thing seems tempting. If only it had a temp readout on it. I bought one of those Amazon Alexa things with a screen a few years ago on sale, and I use that, but the stupid thing likes to cycle through background photos and sometimes it won't even display the time! I'll want to glance quickly and it's in the middle of a damn transition and I gotta literally wait for it. So freaking annoying. Perhaps there's a setting in there to change it, but I'm not balls deep in the Amazon ecosystem to mess with that. I just wanted a clock that also could answer questions. On a side note, I've been toying with my Apple M1 FOMO purchase laptop, and I've been absolutely in love that I can talk to Siri with it. Talking to a laptop? What kind of madness is this! I grew up with a PC (and Lego), so I'm still in the stone age of remembering when I built a PC and it literally never had any extra functionality beyond what you built into it. It still amazes me that the internet cable plugs directly into the motherboard and I don't need a network card! I don't think my PC even has a microphone on it, unless those are built into the MOBOs now too. So I use my Alexa thing to answer basic questions. Rumor has it that Apple wants to make something like that, and I would be tempted. I live in a weird limbo between PC and Apple. The M1 macbook was my first ever laptop and first ever Apple computer. But I've always used an iPhone, and I have an iPad. So I'm fairly familiar with their non PC stuff. And I love Siri despite how stupid she is. The idea that Apple's AI is going to make Siri better was the best announcement all year, but I hope they follow through. --- I'll probably always be a PC/Windows main, because I do a lot of high end gaming, and Apple just doesn't do gaming.

[@mcavatar]

Great Year in Gear video!

[@Akella1986]

Didn’t expect you would pick an E-book

[@ChrisLawley]

I’m loving it!

[@rangerz48]

How do you have an IPad mini and a kindle and use them both enough to feel like you’re getting your worth out of it? I want a mini but i have a MBP m3, and iPad Pro m4, and a kindle too

[@jael4132]

redundant dont get fooled into buying them

[@Todd.Shillington]

Great video!!! Thank You

[@TrevorMatthews]

I have that owc dock as well and curse the design every day

[@tyronesmith4075]

What cable do you recommend for data transfers?

[@ChrisLawley]

Thunderbolt 4 cables.

[@Willymaze]

McLaren F1, good taste.

[@Drewbydrew]

Why a Legion Go over a Steam Deck, out of curiosity?

[@ChrisLawley]

Steam Deck (for the most part without hacking it) is limited to steam games. I wanted to easily be able to pick up my Xbox library.

[@Drewbydrew]

Fair point! You’re able to boot windows on it and do whatever, but I can’t speak to that experience. Probably a good idea to pick something that was intended to be used that way

[@jael4132]

lego is just way way way more versatile device than any of handhelds out there

[@BrendonBigley]

dragon quest xi spotted 👀

[@ChrisLawley]

Started it the other night! It was on sale for $20, I couldn't afford not to.

[@LikeAMathClass]

What books are you reading these days?

[@ChrisLawley]

Right now I’m re-reading Dune. After that I’m doing the whole of Lord of the Rings, including the Silmarillion.

[@LikeAMathClass]

The Silmarillion?!?! I tried that once and did NOT get very far. Good luck!

[@TheBlindEternities]

First