As far as our technology is concerned, we live in a really interesting time. I could probably do a series of posts on everything that is interesting about what’s happening in the world right now, but because this is a tech blog, I’m going to stick to what I know best. In this case, we have reached a point with our technology where our digital lives are no longer hardware dependent. I remember the old days when you needed to use specific programs; you needed to be able to use particular hardware, to say nothing of a specific operating system. For example, if you were a fan of Word for your word processor, you bought a windows machine. Now, however, you can use Word on Macs and Pages on Windows machines. You would think that because programs are becoming more and more hardware agnostic, the hardware would no longer matter. The trick is that the hardware you choose has never been more important.
1) A brand can be important to you – Let’s give the example of an iPhone. Most people who use iPhones love them and have been using them for years (I should know, I’m one of them). What brand you use for your technology can be very important for you. I know that for many years I was a windows only user. This was because I’d spent a lot of my school career using PCs, and when I was getting out into the workforce, I used PCs, so I figured, why change? Well, that all changed when I bought my first personal Mac, but that’s another story. The fact is that your hardware is more than just your computer. For those of us with home offices (and since the pandemic, that number has drastically risen), we can choose the various components that make up our computer system. Things like your keyboard and mouse, the external display and the number of displays you’d like to use, and a speaker or a headset for a phone are all critical components for using your computer. In your home office, you have the unique opportunity to do more or less whatever the hell you want to do with your setup.
2) Don’t be taken in by price – no matter where you are on the subject of the price of something, either “It costs too much for me, I’ll go with something cheaper” or “It’s a lot of money, that must mean it’s good” the cost will always be a factor. From my point of view, I’m willing to pay more for something computer hardware related if either A) I hear a good recommendation from a source that I trust or B) if I have a history with that company where paying more has worked out well for me. I have paid for things that seemed inexpensive and ended up being of poor quality. I have also paid a lot of money for other things that ended up simply not working correctly with my system (THAT annoyed me to no end). I can (and have) make recommendations to you about what the best insert thing here gadget is, but I usually find that the best solution is to try things out, do a bit of research, and you will land on a solution that works for you.
3) Always get Apple Care – I would like to use “Apple care” as a placeholder for any warranty for your tech. I can’t tell you the number of times where I have had a tech issue that required someone to do a proper fix or replacement of the device, so having a warranty program is seriously helpful. With the cost of devices getting higher and higher, having a comprehensive program that will help you fix or replace your device for little to no cost to you is critical. I remember a time when I was packing to go on a trip. My flight was that afternoon, and it was early morning when I was getting everything together. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but I dropped my phone, and it landed screen down on my wood floor. The screen was completely busted. I was so upset. That being said, I went into the apple store as soon as it opened, and they were able to set me up with a new phone within 20 minutes. By the time I was on the plane, it was as if the accident had never happened in the first place. I was fully backed up so getting everything up and running was easy.
I love dealing with hardware as it basically acts as a shell for whatever programs you want to be able to use. Now that most of the software you will use in your day-to-day life is Hardware agnostic which may appear to mean that whatever hardware you use is no longer relevant. The opposite is true. Because the hardware you use has to be able to run programs you want (no matter where they come from), their ability to operate efficiently has never been more important. Good working equipment that allows you to do whatever it is that you do on the computer is critical because if it doesn’t work right, you, as the user, have the power to choose something else. Hardware companies that can produce good quality equipment will distinguish themselves going forward because they will be able to give their customers good quality equipment no matter what operating software they choose to use.
What is your favourite hardware?
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Cloud computing computing has changed everything when it comes to what hardware we can use and build. Back in the early days we used to use what was called a “Thin Client” a stripped down computer whose only purpose was to connect to and control a stronger computer. Unfortunately at the time, lag was also born.
Skip forward to today. The client no longer has weight issues, latency is very nearly a thing of the past, and client/server methodology has evolved to truly amazing capabilities.
As a developer my computing requirements are constantly maxed out. Multiple Virtual Machines on a single computer. Animation and 4k rendering. These things HAMMER on a machine. But what if I told you, using the power of thin clients, that I can do it all on my phone. I can…and I do, as my phone has become the thin client we dreamed of in the past.
Clouds are the great equalizer between all hardware vendors. Whether you make your own cloud, purchase space in a main stream cloud (AWS, Azure, etc), or develop a hybrid system like the one I use for development, the computing power of the interface system matters less and less for the average user.
Even for a developer, more and more of the heavy lifting is done by remote computers. Leaving my machine shiny and clean to work at peak efficiency for whatever local task I require of it.
What I see this meaning for the future of hardware is a greater focus on the interfaces. AR/VR being the most obvious, HDR and curved screens will get better and more flexible. Home systems will likely cap out on core counts that almost no one uses and max out clock speeds instead. While servers will go the other direction maxing out cores for virtual machines and parallel processing. I am very excited to see what comes next.
Great topic as always Jay! Keep em comming 😀!