I know some people still swear by their old iPods or film cameras. For me it’s a 15 year old Western Digital external HDD. Do you have any older gadgets or tech that you refuse to let go of?
A car without an internet connection.
My 1980 Honda XR500 is an absolute workhorse of a machine. Almost 47 years old (built 08/1979) and still effortlessly pulls wheelies on command. Very little wiring, and most of it is for the lighting to make it street legal.
My wired headphones.
I hate constantly needing to charge headphones and dealing with bluetooth connection issues. Way more annoying lol
This, and the fact that no matter how good the headphones/earbuds are, their batteries will, inevitably, die after some time. Even if the drivers and mics are ok, you will not be able to use them anymore unless you can replace said batteries (which I don’t know if it is possible, particularly with earbuds). And if not, they transform in e-waste that cannot be recycled easily.
On the other end, I still have pairs of wired headphones and earbuds that I bought many years ago (some of them from the late 90s), that still sound as good as the first day.
My 90s bike.
Most of the components have certainly evolved when you look at a modern counterpart.
But it’s still fully repairable, serviceable at home or on the trail, extremely reliable, and doesn’t require any firmware updates or batteries to use 😄
- Cantilever rim brakes.
- Square tapered bottom bracket.
- Cup and cone hub bearings.
- External cables.
- Friction shifters (may latest “upgrade”!)
- Steel frame.
So much about it is “outdated”, but I love the hell out of it.
EDIT: Photo of my metal steed in “winter mode”. LOL
Old ass kindle. Physical buttons, no modem to phone home / update itself / delete my shit, only thing it can do is display books
I have the original Kindle fire. You can have it for free. It even has a micro HDMI port.
Still rocking my kindle keyboard. Great little device, however I would love a backlit screen and usb c port for charging now. I’d actually like it to be a bit more multipurpose for reading and annotating pdfs (I read quite a bit of spec sheets for work) so I am looking at remarkable/boox but only if my company allows me to expense it.
Doorknobs.
