Our favourite everyday personal tech

Let’s talk about personal tech. When we’re referring to personal tech, in the context of this article, it simply refers to non-buinessey products and services. It’s things you’d mainly make use of at home, or for something personal.

So let’s begin…

Amazon Alexa or Google Nest Smart Speakers

We’re not going to get into the whole Alexa v Nest here – it’s simply the principle we’re talking about here. Whilst these devices can do many, many things, the best thing they do at home is providing audio, in the form of the likes of Spotify or simply your favourite radio station. Personally, we think it’s great to walk into the kitchen first thing in the morning, and just to be able to say “Alexa, play Radio X” and off you go, is brill. Yes, we know a traditional radio can also do with ease, but what it can’t do is have your family, children or guests say “Alexa, play the party freeze game”.

Fitness tracking watch

An example we’ll talk about here is a Fitbit, but you can explore the devices from the likes of Apple, Samsung or a cheap and cheerful ‘unknown’ brand on Amazon – the point is keeping track of your health and fitness. The number one thing you should look at is tracking your steps. By tracking your steps, you’ll be surprised how much motivation they give you, to do that little more movement to get to your goal, or simply beat yesterday’s total. Personally, a Fitness tracking watch is one of the best things I ever did for my own health. I use the Fitbit Versa (had a Blaze before that), which I love for the step counting, heart rate monitor and for tracking my more intensive exercise such as running and playing football.

A good quality/value Bluetooth speaker

From a very personal perspective, I love listening to music, podcasts or having slightly better audio whilst watching a YouTube video in the bath. This is where a good-quality Bluetooth speaker comes into play. The main benefit here is, if you get a waterproof one, is delivering audio into your bathroom/shower room safely with ease. We love the speakers from Sony, but there are of course plenty to choose from out there. My one from Sony is discontinued now, but it was less than £20 and is still going strong after a few years of use. The battery lasts a really long time, and the audio quality is amazing for the price. They’re also perfect for taking away with you for hotel stays etc.

Google Chromebook

For personal home Internet use, we just love a Chromebook. They’re fast, secure and good quality products. We’ve just both a budget (was £100) Asus Chromebook, and a high-end PixelBook. I’ll be honest, the £100 Asus was retired about a year of use, as it just wasn’t quick enough, so don’t go for the cheapest/lowest spec one, it’s worth stretching if you can, for a slightly higher spec. My own PixelBook was a top-of-the-range model at the time, but I bought it around three years ago refurbished for around £450. It’s still going strong now and is the only laptop I use at home. The build quality is amazing, and to this day, it has probably the best keyboard I’ve ever used.

Spotify

Spotify – or your music streaming app of choice is a must for us. For everything from Podcasts, to the latest Pop music or ‘classics’, for us, it’s hard to look beyond Spotify. Personally, the reason Spotify is the app of choice for us, is the ease of use, the music library itself, and just the seamless start/stop/pick up where you left off when you go from home into the car and want to carry on listening to the same thing. We do ‘dabble’ with Amazon Music and Google Music as well, but Spotify remains our app of choice. I’ll confess I’m slightly biased as I’ve had a premium subscription with Spotify for a long time, so I’m deeply embedded in the ecosystem – but putting my long-term relationship with Spotify to one side, it really is something you should at least try out.

There we go then, that’s five of the best personal tech from the real world for you… we’d of course love to hear what your recommendations and choices are, feel free to comment/get in contact with us.

Gavin Moorhouse is the owner of Lucid Computer Solutions, an IT Support and Computer Services business based in Worcestershire. He’d be lost without his FitBit and Spotify subscription.