I’ve been sort of a gadget junkie for years.  I try not to get carried away, meaning I don’t have the latest of every gadget.  I pick and choose.  I tried a GameBoy when they came out, but it didn’t resonate with me, so I sold it to a co-worker at a huge discount.  The Palm III was a favorite for a long time.  Then I had to upgrade it to use some software I wanted, but the version of the Palm I had to upgrade to, while very nice, had a tendency to lock up and have to be rebooted.  Kind of a hassle, but it did have an SD card reader, which I liked.

As for laptop computers, I started with a top of the line computer in 1998 for $5000.  In 2004 I replaced that with a Sony TR-5, which was about the size of two and a half iPads stacked, and I loved it.  I bought an extended battery for it, and got five hours of battery life.  That laptop was limited in hard drive size but still functions today.  I replaced it in 2010 with an 11″ MacBook Air.  The Air is much slimmer but a little larger in other dimensions.  I compromised on a lot of features for the Air though, and I’m rethinking that strategy.

My husband found an early iPod nano on the streets of Chicago many years ago.  Half the screen was not functioning, but the iPod worked.  I already had (and still have) a 40G hard drive third generation iPod.  I replaced the battery a year or so ago, and, while it works, I don’t use it that much.  I used it a lot when I was traveling to Europe for work nearly once a month.  An audio book was great listening material for those long flights crammed into coach.  I eventually replaced the nano  with an 8G third generation nano and gave the broken version to someone who couldn’t afford one.  When that person could afford one, he passed the broken nano on to someone else, so that iPod nano has done a lot of good.  I’m considering passing my current iPods on to someone else, because I’m not using them very much.

I bought a first generation iPad (16G WiFi) and followed that up with a second generation iPad (64G WiFi).  I do lament the poor camera quality of the iPad, but I appreciate the capability.  The Retina screen is clearly better, and I’m looking forward to a 128G retina screen version at some point.  I’m just not sure when. It may be the next release, or I may go for the 4th generation one with the Lightning connector.  I’ll  compare capabilities. I may decide to wait, but that Retina screen on the iPad is beautiful.  I can’t tell the difference on the MacBook, but I can tell at a glance on the iPad.

What are some of your electronics preferences?