What is Your Perfect 10 Gadget?

Posted by simon.ly on June 22, 2012 03:32 am 3

Originally posted on Shoot&Scribe

Having just listened to last week's Vergecast (about technology culture, culture culture, cult-culture, cultural culture...), I got to thinking about what I thought was my 'Perfect 10 Gadget'. Here is my Perfect 10, and my Perfect 9.

Unibody Macbook (late-2008)

In 2009, I started Law School having just finished high school (yeh, you can do that here in Australia). It was pretty crazy - I was (am) quite slack and I was fairly disinterested in the first semester. I'd go to classes and almost everyone had a laptop and I was there using pen and paper. I thought nothing of it until my grades came back for that semester. So then, I decided to buy a new laptop. I was poor, very poor. I jumped on a forum and had a look around for some laptops and stumbled upon an interesting post for a Unibody Macbook for $950 (it retailed for $1500 in 2008-09). Bargain! So, I met up with the guy and purchased it. He looked pretty dodgy (I think it was stolen) so I finagled a lower price out of him since the meet up was in a very public place. $900 later, and I've had a laptop to use for almost four years.

Four years. That's pretty crazy. This is my Perfect 10 Gadget because the hardware (sans internals) remains relevant. There is seldom a scratch on the aluminium surface, my keyboard runs perfect, and the trackpad shits on every other one that isn't Apple-manufactured.

Now, this computer is not without it's faults. In early 2011 I purchased a Logitech Cooling Pad because this thing just overheats like you wouldn't believe. I can't even run Skype for two minutes on this without the fans spinning out of control. This computer died on me early this year (partly my fault - I smashed the palm rest). Alas, it was saved when I walked into the Apple store (it had to be reformatted, but luckily all my important docs are back-upped to Dropbox).

The battery life now sucks (just on two hours). Applications bounce on the dock for an eternity before deciding to open. I have to always manage how many apps I open. Microsoft Word (ugh) is prone to crashing. There is no backlit keyboard. It's slow. And fast at the same time (reboot's around a minute since reformat). HD videos sputter.

But, man o man, do I love this machine. It has basically taken me through University (not quite - I still have two years left). I run everything off this and I am grateful for this machine beyond these words I type. It's at its end-life and if not for my run-on-your-last-dollar-attitude, I would have upgraded. I think I will sometime soon (weighing up between the just-announced 13-inch Air or choosing to wait for the Retina 13-inch Air). I don't know if I want to let go of this device just yet. I don't think I ever will. It will be my Apple II that sits in the home office in 20 years time. It is my love.

Motorola v70

This device was the first true design-centric products I ever owned. I think I was about 14 or so when I shelved out something like $300 (it had already been released for about two years) for a pre-paid version of this phone.

Just look at. It is beyond sexy. It even had an aluminium casing all around! The hardware is absolutely superb. It's thin-non-user-friendly number pad is just beyond words beautiful. I think this to be the best designed phone Motorola has ever produced - even more so than the Motorola RAZR v3. Oh, and that backlit keypad is super sexy, too.

The screen was beautiful. In a world of non-colour screens, this was the first inventive way to make it *not* look bland. Unlike the Nokia's of the time with their quasi-green backlit screens, the v70 had a pure black background, with neon-green loving on the typeface. Speaking of which, that thin sans-serif font that Motorola was known for, was absolutely gorgeous for the screen it was employed on. It allowed so much more to be displayed on that 96 x 64 pixel rectangular screen (there was dead space between the circular and rectangular shape).

This phone was inventive, lovely and unexpected. It was something that never was thought of back then. And probably something of such calibre will never be thought of again by the design team at Motorola. It's design was loved so much so that they released a shitty-looking, obese, overly-designed "modern" version called the Aura. In 2009. You do the math. (The v70 was released in 2002. But I digress.)

I think I will jump on eBay and buy a v70 right now. I guess my Macbook Air will have to wait a bit longer, then.

@simon_ly

What is your Perfect 10 Gadget? I would love to hear your thoughts below!