My 2023 in Tech

2023 turned out to be a big year for tech upgrades here at Chez Soltys. That was partly due to getting some money from parents' estates and partly due to aging equipment needing replacement. 

• I bought a Kindle Fire HD 8 tablet primarily to use as an ereader because I'm finding it harder to read on the Kindle Paperwhite. It works well as an ereader, but it is underpowered for any use other than web browsing and Amazon's proprietary O/S is limiting compared to stock Android. 
• I upgraded my ancient HP desktop PC to a custom-built system with an AMD processor, an Nvidia 3060 TI video card, and SSD drives housed in a large and quiet Fractal Designs case (no RGB lighting, thank you). I've had no issues with the hardware but I'm finding Windows 11 to be a mixed bag. Paul Thurott's Windows 11 Field Guide and Stardock's Start11 have been a great help.
• I was happy with my Pixel 4a phone but Google stopped providing updates. I upgraded to the Pixel 8 Pro and so far I'm very happy with it. The cameras are spectacularly good and have made me reconsider my investment in Fujifilm's X-S10 camera.
• At my doctor's suggestion, I bought a FitBit Sense early in the year. Then Google offered a free Pixel Watch 2 with the pre-order of the Pixel 8 Pro, so I moved to that. It doesn't have the battery life and real-time arrythmia detection of the Sense, but it's superior in every other respect. 
• After upgrading my desktop PC, it became clear that the gaming experience was less than ideal because my Lenovo 28" monitor couldn't keep up with the video card. I bought a very nice LG 32GP750-B gaming monitor on sale. It is basic in features (speakers and USB ports would have been nice), but otherwise is just fine with excellent picture quality. 
• When I retired five years ago, we treated ourselves to a Vizio P55 TV. It was great until a couple of years ago when the active backlighting started to exhibit problems and Vizio no longer provided firmware updates to fix them. We decided it was time for a new and larger TV and bought an LG C3 65" OLED set. This is a vast improvement in picture quality and we are very pleased with it despite some minor issues noted in my first impressions post. 
• On the smart home front, we bought a smart plug for the backyard lights, that Google Home saved from the recycle bin,  and an Aosu video doorbell, both handy little devices. 

Next year should be quieter on the tech front. We have to start dealing with some long overdue household renovations which will not be as much fun.