New fancy tech you bought early at a premium and DIDN'T regret

[peanutbutter]

So I got a mad cheap oculus headset last week and I'm loving it but I know the novelty will wear off and I feel like I got it at the right time and right price for that to not matter so much. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out that sweet spot for me. With games it's usually right near the end of a console life cycle, but the increased focus on online services is making this harder.

Are there things you got super early and paid mad money for but are glad you got to experience earlier on? Was the upside social (showing shit off to friends, or becoming part of a small group) or just being able to follow things as they were happening (e.g. I can imagine something like Lone Echo being a bit mindblowing to someone with a VR headset in 2017).

Some things I can imagine would've justified the cost and been amazing:
- Getting a digital camera super early on could've been pretty neat, being able to email jpegs to people directly after an event and whatnot?
- Bit annoyed my parents were so slow at getting a camcorder too, being able to record that stuff of us when we were young seems like it would've been worth way more than the camera possibly could have costed.
- Amiga seemed like such a leap up and so much more of a real computer that I can imagine it being both not exactly what someone hoped for but also x1000 times better than they imagined.
- Maybe a CDRW drive circa 1997/1998?


Anyways, the only ones I have are:
- getting a smartphone in 2009: paid like £450 for it which seems insane to me now but was obviously a gigantic step up from before and it got me away from my computer enough to improve my social life a bit (was pretty much on my computer 24/7 by 2009)
- PSP: launch day, emulation beast for the time, still gets some usage but it seemed like it'd be ridiculous holding off on getting one when it was inevitable. Hadn't an mp3 player at the time either so until it got cracked it filled in for that role too.

[QDRPHNC]

The Toshiba HD-A1.

No regrets. It was a thrilling time, in the middle of a format war.

[peanutbutter]

The Toshiba HD-A1.

No regrets. It was a thrilling time, in the middle of a format war.

What was the appeal? Was there some weird factionalism going on that felt a lot more real than the console wars do?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I think the only thing I've bought right out the gate (pre-ordered actually) was my Wii. No regrets.

[touchingcloth]

The Toshiba HD-A1.

No regrets. It was a thrilling time, in the middle of a format war.

$150 for a used DVD player? Does it suck you off?

[Hand Solo]

£500

Worked great, thought I'd get fucked.

[Dex Sawash]

I got one of those ammo case size Motorola bag phones 1989ish. Was able to annoy people from places other than home.

[Famous Mortimer]

$150 for a used DVD player? Does it suck you off?

I'm seeing it at $59 (plus a lot for postage, admittedly). The D-3 version is $80 with free postage, though.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I got one of those ammo case size Motorola bag phones 1989ish. Was able to annoy people from places other than home.

My dad had a Philips car phone for work that could be 'undocked' and reassembled into a bagphone. I've upcycled 2 of the bags into holding camera equipment as they're well padded and about the perfect narrow depth for lenses.

[pigamus]

My iPod in 2003

I sill miss it

[Dex Sawash]

I got a load of vhs-c tapes of the kids in the bag now. Daughter (28 now) would probably love to rip and edit them but we cant let her because we may have said things that would damage her to hear now.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I got a load of vhs-c tapes of the kids in the bag now. Daughter (28 now) would probably love to rip and edit them but we cant let her because we may have said things that would damage her to hear now.

I bought a film I'd been looking for for ages and was unable to find, ended up getting a VHS promo copy that was sent to video rental places (barcode has 'SAMPLE' over it to make it unusable). I want to rip it but no VCR, my parents still have one, and the plan was I do it when I visit them or they bring it up when they visit me. But covid.

[studpuppet]

Mine are both Apple.

1. 20GB 3rd Gen iPod - it's still plugged into my stereo for when I'm not listening to vinyl/CDs

2. MacBook Pro - bought the best specced version new back in 2005. Used it up until 2017, and only stopped because the OS couldn't run the most recent version of iTunes, and it stopped syncing with my phone. It was still in pristine nick when I sold it - wish I hadn't!

[Hat FM]

i got the new bose sound cancelling wireless earbuds the day they came out at the beginning of October. been waiting for them so long. definitely worth getting asap.

[Bence Fekete]

I got a second-hand Oculus DK2 which I paid £350 for in bitcoins around 2016.

It was worn, parts were missing, and it took me a week to set-up. The lenses were scratched and I have to use an interior cushion and extreme cable management in order to play for longer than 5 mins. Of course there's no controllers either so you can't play almost anything.

Buuuutttttt

It has allowed me to play Elite Dangerous in VR for 4 years on and off which is still just about my favourite gaming experience. I've got my setup down to about 3 mins, like a pitstop challenge, quick bong, grab HOTAS, load up spotify for background atmos and I'm in. I make the noise of the station gateways as I'm putting on the headset--- nwwwwooongggaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn like a five year old. It still feels fresh and like pure fun but then space and weed are my perfect psychological combo. Naturally over time you do notice the limitations and yearn for bigger/brighter/better. 

My PC is only minimum VR spec too, then and even moreso now. To upgrade any further I would need a much larger outlay than just a headset so next I'm saving for a CV1. To me, ergonomically if nothing else, it will feel like a huge upgrade.

If you can find a game you love Vr does recoup its cost. At least it did for me. 

[TrenterPercenter]

After about a year of deliberating I've just taken the jump and bought one of the new MacBook Air M1s, they area absolutely brilliant and really great value for what they are.  Very unlike apple to make these so accessible (hmm still a grand but for apple it is as good as it gets) I've been massively impressed so far just a delight to use.

[Dex Sawash]

Going to sign up for build slot for new Bronco. Will be a tribute to Faye Dunaway's  Bronco from 3 Days of the Condor (I've misrembered the color though)

[Absorb the anus burn]

The OP mentioned it already, but getting a plug-in CD/DVD ripper burner for my Mac, sometime in late 98 or early 99, was a revelation. I was able to build up a big mp3 collection (ready for the first generation scroll wheel iPod a few years later) offload 500+ compact discs, make compilation CDs for friends (who were genuinely impressed for about three months) and really mine the DVD / CD rentals in various London libraries.

[peanutbutter]

After about a year of deliberating I've just taken the jump and bought one of the new MacBook Air M1s, they area absolutely brilliant and really great value for what they are.  Very unlike apple to make these so accessible (hmm still a grand but for apple it is as good as it gets) I've been massively impressed so far just a delight to use.

I reckon I'll get one the second the pandemic wraps up as I'll be switching to working remote some, honestly everything about it sounds wonderful. I gather some engineering quirk means it can only do one external monitor but I'm very much in favour of one GIGANTIC monitor vs 2 normal sized ones so that sounds okay. Keep expecting other stuff to come up but yet to hear anything major.

Drastically improved battery life, ~20% lighter than my current laptop, doesn't need a fan and drastically more powerful (single thread geekbench scores are over twice what I've currently got).

[TrenterPercenter]

They are just excellent.  Everything is just so zippy yet it makes no noise whatsoever so the form factor just feel right.  I've bought mine for work purposes and it is a joy to type on, a colleague of mine had bought the MacBook Pro m1 but it just looked really uncomfortable to work on.  This is just perfect you can just take it anywhere it's always on the battery is ridiculous and the ergonomics spot in - I'm thinking about doing the same and getting a bit monitor as I've been unable to hook it up to my old iMac (2009).

[mrpupkin]

I bought one of these new Airs for music making after a long hard road of trying to find a Windows laptop that does what I want it to without a massive compromise somewhere or other. It might be the best thing I've ever owned. Anyone interested in its capabilities for music production just have a quick look on Youtube for vids about running Logic Pro on an M1 machine (they all have the same CPU). It's mental really.

[GMTV]

In 2010 a couple of guys at work got HTC Desires. It was a glimpse into the future, basically full Internet access and videos on your phone. Very quickly decided I wanted in on the action. Looked up phone reviews and the Samsung Galaxy S was just released, and said it better than the HTC desire, bigger screen, much better battery life etc. Went straight into town that morning and got a two year contract, felt like I was on top of the world. Amazing phone, got four years solid use out of it.

I doubt I will ever buy anything close to a top of the range phone ever again, I'm in the budget range now. But at that moment in time I bought the most expensive phone just released and was delighted with it.

[Hand Solo]

Looked up phone reviews and the Samsung Galaxy S was just released, and said it better than the HTC desire, bigger screen, much better battery life etc. Went straight into town that morning and got a two year contract, felt like I was on top of the world. Amazing phone, got four years solid use out of it.

I doubt I will ever buy anything close to a top of the range phone ever again, I'm in the budget range now. But at that moment in time I bought the most expensive phone just released and was delighted with it.

Same here, stuck to budget ones ever since because the price vs actual functionality is massively negligible on smartphones for almost a decade now. Also it was the first phone shipped with Swype, so I've never been a tapper typer, always been Swyping since it was so much faster and intuitive. Except after about 4 years after many updates Swype's predictive text turned to dogshit for some reason and the company was either bought up or folded, the technology was incorporated or copied in most other keyboards going so I still swype but on Google keyboard. Showing off Swype in those early days though would blow people's minds as you only needed a single finger iceskating across the screen to type up whole sentences in seconds, especially as even a few years later Apple users were still tap tap tapping on a tiny keyboard letter by letter like a right proper narner.

The Galaxy S got me straight into flashing custom roms and modding the software as well.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Swiftkey always was better than Swype imo. Shame it's owned by mickeysoft now, no doubt at some point they'll ruin it.

[Rizla]

Remember dropping well over 2 grand on the best mac powerbook you could get back in 2004, no regrets. Still kind of think it was better than the current models, with all the inputs and the wicked light-up keyboard. I miss the Sony cameraphone I had around that time too, took such nice-looking pictures and was lovely to use. (Replaced it with one of those motorola iTunes phones, that was well rubbish).

[Hand Solo]

Swiftkey always was better than Swype imo. Shame it's owned by mickeysoft now, no doubt at some point they'll ruin it.

Nah, Swype's technology had been going since 2002, I tried Swiftkey a few months after the Galaxy S came out in 2010 and it was shite, I re-installed newer versions a few times since and never could get on with it, this was a long time ago though maybe it eventually improved? Swype definitely started to get worse over the years though up until it was so slow, bloated and unusable I got rid of it all together around 2016 when Gboard came out, it got discontinued in 2018. It was definitely streets ahead of all the other keyboards for those early years though, I think the company who acquired it Nuance just would completely fuck with the perfectly adequate software with every update until the almost flawless auto-predict became fucking useless. I was wrong about the Galaxy S being the first phone shipped with Swype though, Wiki says it was the Samsung i8000 Omnia II in 2009.