As much fun as it is getting your hands on new tech, sometimes it's worthwhile to step back and take a look at the growing mounds of electronics and wiring you've accumulated. Sometimes you've gotta trim the fat and just pare down to the bare essentials. So get rid of the extraneous gear in your life and downsize your tech!
Go Without Cable
When your cable bill is $100 or more and you're having to rent several cable boxes, it might be time to cut the cord. Just because you're going without cable doesn't mean you can't get your favorite television programs and movies. With services such as Netflix, Hulu (Plus), Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes, you've got a bevy of much cheaper alternatives to cable, at a fraction of the cost.
• Weighing the Pros & Cons of Cutting Cable
• When You've Cut the Cable (But Still Love TV): Roku 2 XS
• Three Cable TV Alternatives
Merge Your Devices
With the huge amount of media available, your desk or entertainment center can get swamped with devices. If you've got a cable box, video game console, computer, sound system and more, that's a whole lot of redundant hardware. Take your video game console: it can access online video content, play your music, surf the web, and of course play games. If you're not a video/audio/whateverphile, then it might be time to streamline and trim out the unnecessary tech that's taking up space (and making a mess no doubt with all the cables), draining your electric bill, making lots of noise, and generally gathering dust in your home.
• How to: Stream Any Type of Video To Your Playstation 3
• Sony PS3 Plans To Be Your Official Internet TV Box
• First Impressions: Netflix Instant Streaming on the PS3
• PS3 Media Server: A Great Tversity Alternative
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Get a Universal Remote... NOW!
If you haven't already, go out and get yourself a universal remote right now. It doesn't have to be a super complicated and fancy model — the inexpensive ones will serve you well also. One remote to control your TV, sound system, cable box, DVD/Blu-ray player, etc. Toss out the many many extra remotes and think of all the batteries you'll save. Well, don't toss them out, but you can put them in storage and clear up the clutter.
• Logitech Remotes In Harmony: A Comparison Guide
• Three Ways to Ditch the Traditional Universal Remote
Share Your Devices
Why waste money on extra hard drives, printers and other devices when they can be shared across your family network? Network attached storage (NAS) offers flexibility and ease of access to store and share files. No need to buy every kid their own printer when a networked (go wireless while you're at it!) printer will do.
• All In the Family: Storing Data As a Family
• 5 Easy Network Attached Storage Solutions For Your Home
Go To The Cloud
Why even bother with physical storage and devices when you can store everything online in the cloud? Free yourself from hardware and have access to all of your content anywhere you have internet access.
• The Pros & Cons of Life in the Cloud
• Cloud Storage 101
• The Cloud Storage Showdown: iCloud vs Dropbox
• Amazon Cloud: Pros, Cons & What It Means for You
Ditch the Computer? No way! Hm Wait, Maybe...
Granted, computers have their place in the home, but for a growing number of us their use is pretty much limited to internet browsing. And with the tablet market just growing and growing, there's often times not much of a reason to need to get on a full fledged PC. This isn't for everyone of course, but chances are a tablet can handle quite a bit of what you casually do on the computer, and from the comfort of your couch, or bed, or plane, or car… you get the picture!
• Tablets on Apartment Therapy
• Android on Apartment Therapy
• iPad on Apartment Therapy
Get a Lower Data / Internet Plan
As much as we complain about the lack/expense of unlimited data plans or slow internet speeds, If we really analyzed our usage we might find that we don't always need everything anyway. It's the concept of wanting everything supersized, no matter if we drink the whole thing thing or not, we just want it. Spend a moment to look at your data usage and find out if you really need unlimited bandwidth or that pricey top speed internet connection after all.
• Do We Really Need Unlimited Cellphone Data Plans?
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Too much tech? Damn right! Why is it when I go to a bar everyone (those under 30) spends their time texting people who aren't there, and don't converse with those people sitting right next to them? How "f"ed is that?
Unplug people, experience life and people around you while you still have them.
I haven't had cable TV in about 10 years. I do miss certain channels but for the price of cable, it's just not worth it.
I watch Hulu for free on my laptop and I've been a Netflix memeber probably for the same about to time.
Don't miss TV nor all the cables and boxes that go with it.
It's funny how so many of my friends and family ask how I can get by without TV..Read a book, sew, bead, walk, ride,....
I got an antenna that gives me access to most major networks for $0 a month.
It's not always a perfect reception but for no money, I think it's worth it.
When I really want to catch a football game, or if there's a show (Game of Thrones) that I can't get without a subscription, I go to a friend's with some appetizers and make a night out of it.
This is a very PS3 heavy post. The Xbox360 is actually a much better media hub. The new fall update will also provide a web browser.
Agree with JMILB. The Xbox 360 has a friendlier UI for viewing media such as Netflix, Amazon Prime TV/Movies, and Hulu.
I agree so much with the first 3 posts!!! I have a basic cell phone, but when I go out with friends (and not just those under 30!) they are always on the internet or texting on their phones and sometimes I'll get bored because I am not attached to my phone like that, half the time I forget it at home and don't even realize it until I have to make a call. So I hang out much more with friends who can carry on a real, not virtual, conversation.
I haven't haven't had a TV since 7 yrs ago when I went off to college. My freshman year neither myself or my roommate brought a TV and neither of us missed it. I don't even understand how people have time to keep up with all the shows on TV these days. Occasionally on a rainy or sick day I'll throw a DVD in my laptop. I have some friends with cable, but most are budget conscious and just invest in a good antenna for the local stations. It's amazing how much more time you have to read, work out, clean, cook, etc, when your not glued to technology.
Sadly, I'm not sure I'll ever convince my wife to go without cable, but yeah, for the five years before we dated, I was cable-less, and even when I bought a big screen tv, it was always cheaper to buy DVDs of full seasons of the few shows I wanted to watch then it was to pay for cable. Right now, she pays for HBO all year so we can watch True Blood and Game of Thrones as they happen, but that's her choice, and my suggestions that she wait a day and buy the episode on iTunes or the like is untenable.
Recently I cut off basic cable. Now Netflix and Hulu, Cooking, gardening and... more sex.
My partner used to have a slogan: "It's TECHNOLOGY, dammit!" As you might imagine, he gets all the techie toys and it's his life and hobby -- he's a software engineer, makes decent money, and that's how he likes to spend it, having whatever tech means something to him. I get to go along for the ride (he's paying, after all!) I, myself, wouldn't pay for everything we have, but I gotta say, I love having it! (So "too much?" -- not to us!)
(The universal remote in the home theater turns the lights on and off, runs the projection TV, DVD player, Apple music thingie, TiVo, Netflix et al, and I don't even know what else -- you need "special training" to run it, so I just let him do it. I can operate the universal remote in the living room, which is where I watch more TV, anyhow...)
Amen, Edmundo!
I'm approaching 50, and it's really glaringly RUDE to me, when I go out with younger friends and they talk to no present people on their cell phones, or sit there and text. If I wanted to have tea alone, I wouldn't make a date with friends!
KIDS!! Be present where you are!! Talk to the real people sitting with you - the ones who took time out of their day to spend it with you!
Another tech disaster: I watch my divorcing friend battle her ex via text. 24/7 access to a needling man you left because you didn't want to have him with you 24/7. Child care issues are important, but there's nothing good coming from a written record of parental squabbling and ugliness, nor from the 'in your face' nature of allowing the constant flow of negative energy into your life.
Unplug yourselves and get some balance, people!,
@JMILB - the 360 is nice but it has some killer flaws. One is simply its lack of bluray, which for some people is a big minus. The other is all its streaming media services are only accessible through XBL Gold which while not expensive, is kind of a big FU to users. That said, rocking the new dashboard update, having an actual usable browser on my console is really awesome.