2015: My tech-year in review

Another year closes and as Moore’s vision gets validated every year, this year was a whirlwind for all things technology. A lot of things changed. I know they did for me, I’m sure that they did for you too. So, with 360 days having passed, now is as good a time as any to sit down and look back at how the technology that we use changed and what that meant. Let me talk about the changes in the technology that I use.

1. Started the year with a LG G3, realized in a couple of months that the phone was too taxing on my hands to comfortably read on and that my heart lay with iOS, got an iPhone 5s, saw the iPhone 6s keynote and dropped my plans to buy an Apple Watch, oscillated between buying the 6s or the 6s Plus and finally went with the 6s Plus for the battery, marginally better camera and bigger screen.
2. Missed my iPad 3 and got it couriered to me from home (have done this twice in two years now, didn’t find much use for it the first time as it is the WiFi only version. Hopefully, I’ll keep it for longer this time. I find it becoming too slow for me, though. Argh, iPad Air 3, where are you?!).
3. Finally, after years of waiting, bought a Macbook Air. A gift for accomplishing something big in my professional career. My Acer Chromebook C720 had to go and was sold off.
4. Got onto the wearable bandwagon after a year of trying to convince myself that wearables weren’t ready yet. Turns out, wearables weren’t cheap enough for me to take the plunge yet. I bought the Mi Band as soon as it came out. Fitness has, kind of, been a goal this year (won’t disclose how successful I’ve been with that goal, for obvious reasons). I liked the step counting bit for some time but the ecosystem wasn’t mature enough to keep me hooked. I fell off the bandwagon for some time. But, I decided to give it another shot, put in a lot of research (as always) and got a Pebble Classic (have been a fan of these guys since 2013, another ‘finally, I got it’ case). Here, it was a fight between the Garmin Vivofit 2 and the Pebble Classic but I went with the Pebble because I got the Vivofit 2’s features plus some more at the same price point.
5. Got lazy of using iTunes to transfer music to my phones (the paltry 16 GB storage configurations of my phones didn’t help) and got into the whole streaming music thing with the launch of Apple Music. I used the family sharing plan for the free first three months, paid for it for a couple of months after that, then moved to Saavn because it has both, English and Hindi songs and is free, which suits my needs better.
6. Bought a Chromecast and tried to change my lifestyle around it but realized that streaming content to my TV over WiFi with an internet connection from Indian cable providers is like Captain America trying to lift Thor’s hammer. It works just a bit!
7. Bought a new TV too. Wanted to get a 40 incher with HDMI and a 1080p display which didn’t break the bank. Did a lot a research (you see the trend?), got all misty eyed with Modi’s Make In India campaign and went for a Videocon.

How has your experience with technology been in 2015? Do let me know in the comments. Here’s hoping for an even better 2016.