My Tech Gadgets

*I wanted to title this entry “The Things I Will Pawn When I am in Dire Need of Money” or “The Things You Should Be Looking for if You Wanted to Steal from Our House,” but I realized that “My Tech Gadgets” would suffice.

I am a techie. I like anything that has an LCD screen on it whose brightness can be adjusted. However, I’m not the kind of guy who shows off his gadgets (or anything else for that matter) just to let others know that I'm a techie. For the sake of having a new blog entry this week, however, I’ll be showing to you the devices that have been making my life more convenient and more fun.

Here are my "babies":

1) PSP-2000 2) iPhone 3G 3) Nintendo DS Lite 4) Samsung S760 Digicam 5) MacBook 6) iPod Shuffle 7) MyPhone B12 Duo 8) External hard drive

Unlike others, I don’t give names to my gadgets. I don’t want to be emotionally attached to them. It will also help me avoid being teary-eyed when I sell them on eBay. Thus, I just call them by their brand names.

iPhone 3G

My sister gave me her old iPhone 3G as a gift last Christmas. Prior to that, I owned an iPhone 2G, which I sold on eBay after obtaining the 3G. Now, I use the iPhone 3G mostly to play games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope and to listen to music. I seldom use it as a phone because of my other gadget, my dual sim phone.

MyPhone B12 Duo

I have two SIM cards: one is for personal use (I have it for eight years now), and the other one is for business (contacting applicants and eBayers). I decided to buy MyPhone B12 Duo, a cheap, basic, color phone, supposedly as a secondary phone (for my business line), but I ended up using it as my primary phone, replacing the iPhone 3G. It’s dual-SIM, so why do I need to bring two phones, right? Also, there are some places where I cannot take out my iPhone for it might attract evildoers.  This phone is more durable and reliable than I expected. I have not experienced any problem with it so far.

iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen

It has become my habit to listen to music when I am on the road, and by “on the road” I mean on a jeepney, while commuting. Being a precocious, paranoid guy, however, I would not dare take my iPhone out while traveling (I do so though, most of the time). My MyPhone’s music player is crappy, so to address this problem, I bought a used, 4-gigabyte iPod shuffle (on impulse) in Greenhills.  It’s cheap, and it's cute. I will have no problem giving it away to bad guys if needed.

Samsung S760 Digital Camera

My first digital camera was drenched in seawater when my friends and I went to Bohol three years ago. Traumatized, I was hesitant to buy a new one after. However, when I chanced upon this Samsung digital camera on eBay, I decided to buy it because the seller was selling it 2,000php cheaper than its mall price. I seldom use this though because I’m not really into photography, especially after photography became mainstream. I think my neighbor has used this more often than I did.

Nintendo DS Lite

This is the first brand new gadget that I bought with my own money. I’m a proud Nintendo Game Boy boy. My godmother gifted me a Game Boy Color when I was 13 and a Game Boy Advance when I was 16. When I was 20, I thought I was too old to ask my godmother for a Nintendo DS Lite, so I bought one myself. My ultimate favorite games are Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda. I also play Professor Layton and Final Fantasy games. I like this more than my other handheld game console.

PSP-2000

My brother-in-law gave me his PSP Fat because he seldom used it. However, the PSP that you see in the pic is not the one that he gave me. You see, my very good friend lost it for some reasons, but he was kind enough to replace it with a (used) PSP Slim, which is better.  Some of the PSP games I played are Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Final Fantasy Crisis Core, and God of War. I don’t enjoy PSP games that much. Thus, I have installed some homebrew emulators to play Game Boy and classic NES games.
 
MacBook

This MacBook is my fifth laptop. My first one, a generic laptop, was a graduation gift from my godmother (the same one who gave me my first two Game Boys). It still works, but I had some of its parts replaced or upgraded. I sold it to my cousin. Then, there came a time when I owned three laptops – a14-inch HP laptop, a 9-inch Acer netbook (a gift from my sister), and a 12-inch iBook G4. Which one I used depended on my whim, but I would say that the iBook was my favorite. I thought it was ridiculous to have too many laptops, so I got rid of them. It’s true that once you go Mac, you’ll never go back. Thus, after a positive experience with my iBook, I decided to buy a used MacBook on eBay.
 
External Hard Drive

I have two external hard drives. One is 80 gigabytes and the other one is 120 gigabytes. The one with the smaller capacity is for my Time Machine Backup. The larger one is where I keep my videos, games, and important documents. You want a tip? Instead of buying expensive external hard drives, buy a laptop hard drive (a used one if you really want to save money) and place it inside an external hard disk enclosure that sells for 200php or less on CD-R King.  My hard drives are actually from my and my friend’s old laptops.

If you noticed, I like my gadgets black. I once spray-painted my Game Boy black; it was originally green.  I wanted to do the same with my white iBook. Good thing I was able to control my obsession. I bought a black MacBook instead. Also, though I really like gadgets, I am not someone who would buy new, expensive gadgets. I’m a cheapskate (or just plain poor). I prefer used gadgets that are in very good condition, or I will wait for their prices to drop, when they become less popular or outdated. I also scour Greenhills for bargains. Gadgets there are cheaper than in major malls.
 

So what’s missing in my collection?

 I always want to have a Nintendo Wii. My sister and her husband have one, which is black (perfect!). I will wait for them to get tired of it then ask them to send it here (I hope my sister is reading this). Otherwise, I’ll just buy one for myself next Christmas. Also, I like to have one of those iPad clones that run on Android. I see many of them on eBay and in Quiapo. I am not crazy enough to buy the iPad, but I am crazy enough to buy an iPad knock-off. Tee-hee!