A phone cover with a pocket for cards. No more wallets!
Ditto, I discovered this a few years ago, and 90% of the time I don’t need my wallet. I just take my driver’s license (ID in the US), ATM card, transit card, and a $20 bill.
Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
381–390 of 530 posts
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#382Apple Airpod Pros -- long battery life, near instant bluetooth tethering. Even other expensive headphones/earbuds (Bose) for instance could not compete with the ease of use, noise cancellation, and comfort. I don't think about headphones anymore, they just work the way they're supposed to.
You all might want to read about long term irreversible health effects (read: hearing loss) of in-ear speakers (irrespective of which company makes/markets them).
I think that's incorrect. All the research discussed in-ear headphones that are not noise-cancelling, which lead people to turn up the volume to drown out background noise, which leads to hearing damage.
This is relevant to regular Airpods, but not Airpod Pros which are noise-cancelling. These sort of headphones are actually safer for you hearing, as you can keep the volume lower and still hear well.
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#383Kindle - had one or another model for many years, but in terms of utility to price ratio, it's still one of the highest. Youtube Premium - I realized I was spending a ton of time on Youtube, both for education, entertainment and podcasts. Removing the annoyance of ads and not being able to just listen to a video while out walking is worth it to me.
Slightly more friendly for sideloading books out the box; Kobo Glo HD
Its my favorite gadget.
Pretty sure kindle are better value though, and can still be hacked/sideloaded onto.
E-Ink is marvel in itself and it is disgustingly uncommon. I hope more products emerge that use them.
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#384Hate to say it, but iPad: I have a non-internet cell phone (still have a small data plan, just pretend I don’t) so during the day, it’s just calls and text messages (SMS or iMessage) and useful stuff like camera, music (offline) and calculator. I will turn on location data for maps if I’m traveling (so not much, especially recently)—otherwise those stay off. At night, I have an hour or 2 with the iPad, airdrop and post a few photos to social media, catch up on local news, watch a few select YouTube channels. All my internet and social media happens on the iPad that never leaves the house, and my phone is locked down and disabled as much as possible. Benefits are no tracking, no distractions, no notifications, and all my social media and video is on the larger iPad.
The tool I use the most at home: bench-mounted vise. I’ve owned a home for 15 years and try to fix everything I can myself, so I had lots of other tools (cordless everything) but never a vise until getting one as a gift. Now I clamp (almost) everything for cutting, drilling, sanding, whatever, and I don’t know how I managed before (I remember straining to hold things and getting upset when they slipped—or even injured).
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#385I bought a cheap Mi Band (fitness tracker watch) that is partially supported by Gadgetbridge. For $40 it does most of the things a real smartwatch does, with great battery life and niftyness. I was in need of a watch and it is cheaper than a traditional or "smart" one and yet extremely functional and pretty neutral/stylish.
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#386My wife and I both work, but our lifestyle does not require two incomes. So we've tried to find trustworthy charities to entrust my salary to. It's harder than it sounds, and we're only about 60% of the way there, but it has measurably improved the quality of life of many people - not just us. I also "purchased" a 4-day work week, which has had a substantial impact on my own quality of life.
This is such a wonderful thing to do.
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#387I have a "BahnCard 100" [1], the German national public transit flatrate. My employer pays for it in lieu of a company car. I only have to pay income taxes on it, which comes out to about 170€ (200$) a month. For that price, I can use all trains across Germany as often as I want and also get free local transit (busses, subway etc.) in 120 cities, including the one where I live.
2020 is my first year with a BC100, so due to Corona I couldn't use it that much yet, but it's kind of mind-blowing to go to a train station and just be able to hop on any train [2] whenever I feel like it, no questions asked. When Corona has blown over, I will definitely make a habit of just exploring Germany every other weekend.
[1] https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/bahncard/bahncard_100-co...
[2] There are some rare exceptions, e.g. night trains require a reservation.
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#388Used power cables for my Thinkpad from a computer recycler. Have them all over house and dedicated one for my bag so I never think twice about packing or forgetting it somewhere
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
AdGuard is what I’d recommend; it supports the default uBlock Origin lists such as EasyList, Fanboy’s lists, etc. I’ve tried other blockers before (including paid ones) and I found that most come with their own lists (typically derived from the aforementioned ones) and those are not always kept up to date.
I just checked it and it turns out AdGuard is open source. Interesting. I always had an impression (assumption) AdGuard would be closed source. It's also free (that's even more surprising). So, it's more like uBlock Origin, isn't it? There's another famous OSS ad blocker - AdBlock Plus and it's quite shady as it goes. AdGuard isn't like that, is it?
All free software that we make is open source. Paid - closed source (save for AdGuard for iOS, it's open source despite having some premium features).
Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?
#390Kindle - had one or another model for many years, but in terms of utility to price ratio, it's still one of the highest. Youtube Premium - I realized I was spending a ton of time on Youtube, both for education, entertainment and podcasts. Removing the annoyance of ads and not being able to just listen to a video while out walking is worth it to me.
For those who don't want to fund youtube, Youtube Vanced is a hacked version of the official client that provides all the features for free (no root required), and there are also various open source clients available.
I also use Youtube on Chromecast, and my phone. It's just easier to pay than to try to hack all different devices.