New Tech for a New Year (Premium)

My wife and I decided to take a step back this Christmas and give each other, and the kids, one big gift each instead of many smaller ones. There were a few reasons for this change. We didn’t really travel per se in 2020, and we generally go on a major trip in the form of a three-week international home swap, and that obviously didn’t happen. But we’ve long felt that experiences are more important than things, and that made this year of the same never-ending experience a bit difficult.

Tied to that, we’ve been pushing our respective families for years, with some success, to emphasize time together over gifts during the holidays. But that obviously couldn’t happen this year either. What can you do?

Anyway, it worked out that our big gifts this year were mostly tech-related, which is a bit unusual. But given the nature of the site, I figured some would be interested in the new personal tech that came into the Thurrott household over the holidays.

Sonos Sub

2020 was the year we finally embraced Sonos after a few years of struggling with Chromecast Audio, a technology that is no longer even available for sale. Sonos is, of course, expensive, and that means that rather than outfitting our entire home with Sonos gear upfront, we’ve been doing it piece-by-piece over time. And we were helped mightily by Brad, who sold us a pair of massive Play:5 speakers at a nice discount early in 2020.

My wife loves these speakers. I mean, I do too, of course. But she’s actually been bugging me all year about getting more speakers for the sunroom in which they sit, which I’ve argued doesn’t make any sense at all: The Play:5s are thunderously loud as it is, and I’m not clear on how adding more (smaller and less expensive) speakers in there would change things.

I’d entertain testing a Sub, which is the Sonos subwoofer, I guess, but I also feel like this solution would be better served by mating it to the Sonos Beam soundbar in the living room. The thing is, Sonos Sub costs $700. That’s a crazy amount of money for a subwoofer. Crazy.

But there we were, the week of Christmas, and we had racked up exactly $700 worth of Amazon gift cards. I think it was the exactness of the figure that put the idea in my head, so I said to Stephanie, my wife, given how shitty this year was, why don’t we buy something unnecessary with this money? Like a Sonos Sub. She immediately agreed, I ordered it, and it arrived this past Sunday.

Now, my wife’s idea for this speaker is that it will go in the sunroom, so I’ve tried it there first. And yeah, it definitely makes a difference. But the Play:5s already have great bass, really, and no one could claim that we improved the sound in there by $700. So I’ll be experimenting with the Sub in the living room this coming weekend. I expect to get some pushback. Stephanie really likes the set-up in the sunroom.

Sonos Move

My wife loves the sunroom, as noted, but she loves our back patio even more. She bought some used outdoor couches on Craigslist this past year, and we like to sit outside at night, look up at the stars, and talk. But she’s also expressed an interest in having music out there. To be clear, I’m against this. I don’t like when I hear music or other similar sounds drifting out of a neighbor’s yard, and I don’t want to inflict that on others either. So I’ve pushed back, and maybe once or twice this summer we opened the sunroom windows that face the patio and played a bit of music that way.

Over Black Friday, however, Sonos had a sale, and for the first time, it put its Move outdoor/portable speaker on sale, for $300, which is $100 off. So I figured what the heck, I’ll buy this thing for my wife, she’ll love it, and I’ll just have to make sure it just never gets stupid-loud.

I did so but I immediately had buyer’s remorse. Was this too much money? Did this make any sense?

Tied to this, we had been eating outdoors each week this past summer at our favorite restaurant, The Trapp Door, and they had a pair of JBL Charge 4s for music. I was surprised by how well they sounded, and that JBL had its own stereo pairing system for its Bluetooth speakers. And they only cost $130, so a pair of them would be $260, about $40 less than the Sonos Move. Maybe that would make more sense for the outdoors.

Worried about this, I told my wife that I needed to ruin Christmas and describe what I had bought for her and why we might want to go in a different direction. But as noted above, my wife is quite taken with Sonos, and she thought spending a bit more for something that worked with what we had made sense. So I held on to the Move. Christmas Day, we set it up, and … wow. It’s impressive. Aside from being portable (and weather/environment-proof), the Move is really the Sonos Play:3 replacement that fans never got. Two of these paired in the sunroom would be amazing. Not Play:5 amazing. But still. Really solid.

I’ll deal with the outdoor thing when the Spring comes, I guess.

iPhone 12 Pro(s)

Right around the time I reviewed the iPhone 12, I started thinking about my kids’ phones, which were four years old: Mark has been using an iPhone 8, and Kelly was on an iPhone 8 Plus. The original plan was that this would be the last phone we bought for Mark, but Kelly was probably good for one more upgrade. But since they were both away at school, I didn’t really have a handle on how it was going. So I asked each separately, and both had similar stories, mostly concerning really bad performance issues. Hm.

Discussing this with my wife, I said that I thought we should get them new iPhones, probably for the last time. I could return the iPhone 12 I had reviewed, which means that the PayPal account I use for my own device purchases would fund half of it. And besides, we hadn’t traveled at all this year, so it was perhaps a reasonable time to spend some money on something like this. She agreed, and we had to ruin the surprise for them, too, since we had to make sure they were OK with such a thing.

Obviously, they were. But Mark also upsold me on the iPhone 12 Pro after I explained that I preferred they go with the less expensive iPhone 12. Why? I asked. Better camera, mostly, but he figured that since they would be keeping these handsets for another four years at least, it reasonable. Fair enough. We let them choose the colors, plus a case. And I grabbed two USB-C power adapters because Apple doesn’t include them in the box. Oh Apple.

Logitech Brio

Readers and viewers have been complaining that my webcam is blurry for, well, years, and while this doesn’t really bother me all that much, I received another Amazon gift card right around Christmas and figured what the heck. I’ll give a gift to everyone who has been bothered by this and get a new webcam.

I chose the Logitech Brio, which is a $200 4K/30 FPS webcam (which I’ve configured to 1080p/60 FPS). I honestly don’t see a difference, and given that I’ve tried multiple webcams in the past, I think the real issue has something to do with my connection or something. But whatever. You’re welcome. 🙂

Exercise ball

I read a lot of articles about health, fitness, and nutrition, and I came across one about sitting on an exercise ball instead of a chair while using a computer at a desk. Curious about this, I asked my wife, who you may know writes about these topics. And she told me that it was indeed advantageous for your core, and that she had ordered one recently for herself coincidentally. She then ordered one for me for Christmas as well.

It’s a little weird. And while I won’t be using it during podcasts, I’ve been trying to use it while writing. We’ll see how that goes.

HP Renew Backpack

One of the more embarrassing I’m into is bags, by which I mean laptop bags and backpacks as well as luggage of all kinds. My wife rides me for this all the time, as if I subscribe to Cosmo or something. But … whatever. I can’t explain it.

Obviously, 2020 wasn’t a great year for travel, and it was likewise not a great year for buying bags. But while researching something on the HP website the week of Christmas for a reader, I came across a bag that seemed to be exactly what I’ve long wanted. It’s called the HP Renew Backpack, and it normally costs $80, but it was on sale for just $32 (still is). I mean, what the heck. So I ordered it, and I was surprised when HP told me it would arrive before Christmas. Which it did.

I look forward to using this backpack the next time I travel, whether it’s a day-trip to New York City, a full-on work trip, or a vacation. But really, I feel like this purchase was me psychologically getting ready for a new year in which I’ll be able to travel again in whatever capacity. And that is a somewhat hopeful outlook for the future, I think.