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A comment on Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?.

Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by t-3 on Sunday February 06, 2022 @10:54AM (#30233619)
Wireless charger - it doesn't really save time, and I still have a ton of cables everywhere, but it totally eliminates battery anxiety and provides a surprising amount of peace of mind. Obviously, you have to have hardware that's capable of charging wirelessly, but it's becoming more common these days. Also, you never lose your phone anymore.

Ebook readers - I've been using them for years, and recent models with flat bezels are very much designed to break, but it makes reading electronic documents so much nicer than bright backlit screens. I've resigned myself to buying a new one every year until the technology comes out of patent and readers get nice unbreakable screens like modern cellphones.

Retractable metal poker - got this off Amazon for my weed paraphernalia, listed as a metal toothpick. It's incredibly useful and has saved my ass countless times. Need to poke that reset button? Scrape some gunk out of a USB port? Clean your nails? It's good for everything except picking your teeth, which is just unnerving.

Fridge-magnet box opener - not really a game-changer, but very convenient!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by solarmist on Sunday February 06, 2022 @03:37PM (#30236728)
I like the wireless chargers, but until Apple added the MagSafe to ensure your alignment was correct I wouldn't have recommended them to people.

My wife and I had too many times where we'd put our phones on the charger and in the morning realize it hadn't charged.

...not sure how that leads to never losing your phone though? I don't see the connection. How would wireless charging affect that? You still have the hardware you connect to.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by t-3 on Sunday February 06, 2022 @04:49PM (#30237365)
I'm talking about charging pedestals, using inductive charging.

Edit: Apple apparently does carry inductive chargers, but I don't know anything about alignment issues. I use a OnePlus phone.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by solarmist on Sunday February 06, 2022 @05:38PM (#30237765)
Yes. I know what wireless charging is.

We had flat induction chargers because we also used them for our Airpods.

And they were finicky if you didn't center them carefully. So MagSafe has been a massive aggregation saver.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by heavyset_go on Sunday February 06, 2022 @08:02PM (#30238859)
> Retractable metal poker - got this off Amazon for my weed paraphernalia, listed as a metal toothpick. It's incredibly useful and has saved my ass countless times. Need to poke that reset button? Scrape some gunk out of a USB port? Clean your nails? It's good for everything except picking your teeth, which is just unnerving.

This is what I use a set of precision knives for.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by Cr0s on Sunday February 06, 2022 @01:06PM (#30235106)
Any specific ebook readers you would recommend? I have been thinking about getting one recently.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by t-3 on Sunday February 06, 2022 @04:56PM (#30237422)
Right now, Kobo is the best, IMHO. Pocketbook is overpriced and underpowered, Onyx Boox run locked-down Android, Amazon is full of customer-hostile practices and spyware.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by BuckRogers on Wednesday February 09, 2022 @02:20PM (#30277134)
You can't sideload on the Onyx? I've been comparing Kobo to Onyx and I saw that Onyx does support the Google Play Store, which is good enough for me. I'm guessing what you're alluding to is no sideloading of apks.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game chang... by t-3 on Wednesday February 09, 2022 @03:55PM (#30278350)
You can sideload, but the interfaces are weird and it's not anywhere near as open as a normal stock Android, let alone LineageOS or a real Linux like Kobo/Pocketbook (my older Kindle Paperwhite also runs some flavor of *nix IIRC, but not as easily hackable, and no idea about newer versions).
[ Parent | on HN ]