Things that I miss in a digital world

I've been having a bit of a sort out recently, and going through some of my stashes of mementoes. It's made me feel a little sad at how much has been replaced now that there are digital alternatives. Maybe the options are more sustainable, and easier to use for the customer, but I think that we are missing out! Here are some things that either no longer exist, or that I feel won't be around for much longer.

Catalogues

The other week I received a Lakeland catalogue in the post and I was unashamedly thrilled. So many gorgeous pictures of Christmassy things to pore over. We took a trip to Ikea and I felt bereft that you can no longer pick up a catalogue to keep on the coffee table at home (I just looked it up, the last physical Ikea catalogue was printed in 2020). Yes, webpages and apps are more up to date with current prices, special offers and detailed information, but nothing beats flicking through colourful shiny pages filled with inspirational images. 

Physical tickets

I love keeping tickets to things - theatre, cinema, concerts, museums, travel and so on. I have a stash of cinema tickets from the 90s when I used to go every week with my friends, no matter what was showing. My books are filled with concert tickets that I've used as bookmarks. Now you enter a venue with a QR code, and once inside you never look at it again. 

Alarm clocks

I loved the battery alarm clock I had as a teenager. It was cube shaped and had a dial on the top which you could turn to see the time in different countries around the world. I loved looking at all the exotic countries and imagining what people were up to. I've tried to source myself something similar but I can't find one that I like. I have Echo Dot next to my bed which displays the time and acts as an alarm clock but it's just not the same.

Writing letters

As part of my degree I spent a year studying in Germany. I had quite a lot of free time, and I kept up a steady stream of written correspondence with my husband-to-be, my family and lots of my friends. I loved checking my little letter box and discovering a handwritten letter from home, and I've kept them all. These days communication would be more frequent via WhatsApp or social media updates, but it would be fleeting and transient. The age of bundles of love letters is gone forever, it's just not the same scrolling through short and insubstantial text messages. Of course there's nothing to stop me picking up a pen and writing to my friends, but they are busy people and I don't want to burden them with the thought that they would then have to take the time to write back to me!

Stamps

Stamps used to be so pretty! I know that Royal Mail do release special themed stamps, but I never see them because most letters that I receive just have the postage printed directly on the envelope. 

Photo credit Ali Bakhtiari via Unsplash

New album releases on cassette and CD

It used to be such an event going out to buy the CD when a new album was released, and listening to it while flipping through the little booklet that came with it containing the lyrics and photos. Now I listen to a new album release on Spotify and it's just not the same. My daughter tells me that you can still buy physical albums for bands which come with posters, photobooks etc. - but we don't even have a CD player any more!

Postcards

I've written before about how I love to collect postcards, and I remember sending and receiving postcards from all of my summer holidays. Now we just share regular photos in the family WhatsApp groups.

Paper maps

Whenever I visit somewhere new I always try to find a map to keep and remind me of my travels, I have boxes filled with maps and leaflets that I love to sort through. You can sometimes still get a map in a touristy place, but of course it's much easier to use an app that knows exactly where you are. You lose the souvenir though! I particularly enjoy looking at old maps of places like theme parks because they change so often and it's a little slice of time. But they are being slowly phased out and I know they won't be around for much longer.

Real dictionaries

I am very tempted to buy myself a physical copy of the Oxford English dictionary. I used to have several, including a huge one which was decluttered years ago. I'm sure that there's a dictionary app that I could use, but when I'm reading I don't want to be distracted by my phone to look up an unfamiliar word, it would make it harder to get back in to the book again.

Photo credit Joshua Hoehne via Unsplash

Packets of printed out photos

It used to be so exciting going to get photos developed, seeing how well your shots had come out and reliving all those holiday memories. You can of course get photos printed but it's so much more effort deciding which of the hundreds of photos to print, working out how to upload them, and trying to find the best deal when it comes to price. I also feel that the quality isn't as good as when printing from film. Most of my old photos are in boxes with some of my favourites in albums, and I love going through them. I need to make an effort to print out more of my digital pics!

What do you miss that now has a digital replacement?

The launch of the Apple Vision Pro, and some of my thoughts

Earlier this month the Apple Vision Pro was launched in the US, priced at $3500. If you aren't sure what it is, here's a short introductory video:

The Vision Pro looks and behaves much like a VR headset but Apple are very keen to make sure you don't call it that. Instead they are referring to it as a 'spatial computer'. I'm not an expert on the technology, but in summary it has cameras on the outside so that you can still see what is going on around you, and eye tracking cameras on the inside. These inside cameras along with body movements allow you to navigate between several different virtual screens at once, which are projected around you. The cameras pointing at your face mean that other people can see an image of your eyes on the front of the headset, and you can turn a dial to adjust from an augmented reality style experience to full immersion. 

If you want to know more and see one in action there are numerous reviews and videos from technology experts and new users, or there is this longer promotional video from Apple:

I've been following the release with great interest, because I am fully expecting at least one of these devices to enter our home within the next few years. It's expensive of course, but not out of reach expensive, and I'm sure that the price will reduce over time to bring it within the price range of most people, just like smartphones. At the moment it's very bulky, and you need to wear a separate battery pack while using it, but technology moves so quickly that I'm sure it won't be long before it's much more streamlined.

It seems to be tailored perfectly for someone like my husband. He is always working on multiple things at once, and this device allows you to have so much going on at the same time within a large field of vision - you can be writing an e-mail, responding to messages, scrolling social media, all while watching a video. You can be literally living in your own little world, sitting on the sofa in your home but completely absorbed and oblivious to what is going on around you.

I must admit that I am very worried about what technology like this means for the future. I'm not sure that I personally could cope with lots of screens at the same time, and it will take any smartphone addiction and ramp it up to the max. I can see people becoming used to communicating with each other virtually rather than in person, and it would be so easy to never leave the house when life can be run from inside a headset.

Having said that, I would love to try one out, and I'm very interested to see where this technology leads over the next few years. At the moment I find them a bit overwhelming and can't see that one would benefit me, but if you'd shown me a smartphone when I was a teenager I probably would have thought the same, and maybe I'm just too old!

Are you interested in the Apple Vision Pro? I'd love to know what other people think about it!

Should we have more strict screen time rules for the children?

A few weeks ago I was browsing on social media somewhere and I came across a version of these screen time rules for children over the summer. Over the last few years I've seen lots of different versions copied and shared at this time of year.



I showed it to the children to see what they thought and must admit that their reaction wasn't particularly positive. They seem not to have noticed that they usually have to do many of these things anyway - dress, breakfast, brush teeth and hair - before we do any kind of activity, whether it's in front of a screen or not.

Apart from that, I must admit that we are very lax when it comes to enforcing any kind of screen time restrictions. I know that I just said they must be up and dressed and so on before starting the day, but when I say that I'm not counting the time that they spend on their iPads before breakfast when the husband and I are dozing before we have to get up!

Until now I've always been happy that the children do use screens, but that they can entertain themselves without one. Even though there can be a bit of overlap - for example recently Harry has become a bit obsessed with learning to complete a Rubik's cube, but he needs to refer to videos on YouTube to help him learn the moves. Mia likes to write stories, but prefers to type on a computer as it's quicker.

Recently though I've noticed that Mia in particular is struggling to entertain herself without a screen. She's quite capable of spending ages in her room with her teddies and other figures and will play complicated games by herself, but only when she takes herself off to do it. She's not very good at spontaneously entertaining herself if I decide that they need a screen break. She's always needed someone to play with and entertain her, and if Harry wants to play by himself or read a book then she gets cross, frustrated and whiny.

It's very easy to offer her a screen in these situations, because the alternative is me sitting down with her to do an activity or play a game, and often I have something that I want or need to do. But I'm well aware that this is a lazy approach, and it's something that I need to avoid otherwise it will only get worse.

I do try and spend time away from my phone around the children, and I'll read or work on a craft so that they can see examples of things to do that don't involve a screen. I think what I really need to do is come up with some kind of list of screen free activities that they could turn to - like reading, getting out a particular toy or an activity like Hama beads or play dough. I might need to start getting on with that now, ready for the holidays!

How do you manage screen time for your children over the summer holidays? I'd love any tips!

Everything always needs charging

Before we go to bed, we make sure that all the tablets (currently three in active use) and our two phones are plugged in to charge ready for the morning. It's as much a part of the bedtime routine as brushing teeth and turning out the light. We have many chargers throughout the house, and two in each car. 

It's not just the phones that need to be kept topped up. I tried to make a list of how many things we have in the house that need to be kept charged and there are so many. There's my Fitbit - it can last for a week without being charged which is really handy, but I'm always loathe to take it off to charge as I don't want to miss counting any precious steps.

Then there's my Kindle, fortunately this can go for several weeks without a charge, but I like to keep it topped up in case I fancy a long reading session.

In addition there are all the toothbrushes - we each have an electric toothbrush now. The children have one with an app on the tablet and a little character to earn rewards for, I've only had mine since Christmas and there's been a noticeable improvement in the cleanliness of my teeth. But the children's toothbrushes don't have a low battery indicator, so I can't keep track and remember which one I've just put on to charge. This has led to Mia having hysterics at bedtime in the past because she's had a message on her tablet to say that the battery is running low.

I found two old digital cameras the other day which I passed on to the children, and they were delighted. The trouble is that they need charging before they can be used and I always forget, meaning that some planning is required before use, they can't just be pulled out spontaneously.

All these things need so many different cables that are lying about all over the place in every room, getting tangled up and generally adding to the visual clutter. My husband assures me that it's not long before we'll have some kind of mats that will charge devices without the need for tangled cables everywhere. Just the other day he was showing me some new magic Ikea wireless charging pads that look very good, even if they do require you to bore massive holes into your furniture to fit them in nicely. 

It's one piece of technology that I can't wait for!

Image credit rawpixel.com via Unsplash.

Review - Kano - the computer that you build yourself

Familiarity with technology is very important these days, and with the new school curriculum involving the teaching of coding to children as early as Key Stage 1 (5-7 year olds) Harry is the perfect age to begin his computing education.

Ram is continuously upgrading our home computers, and a few weekends ago Harry was watching with interest while he built a new home server. So when we were offered the chance to review a Kano kit he was delighted. It was the opportunity to work on something similar together that was especially designed to appeal to and be appropriate for young children Harry's age.

Kano Computer Kit is a computer that you build yourself. The kit contains everything that you need to build a fully functional computer that can be completely customised, and allows children to develop their coding and programming skills at a level that suits them. 

The Kano comes in a really sturdy well designed box - more akin to a luxury gift item. Inside the box - a Raspberry Pi Model B chip (the original Raspberry Pi, not the newer faster one released over the last 6 months), instruction books for the basic build and coding, a speaker, a wireless keyboard which is also Bluetooth enabled, the Kano operating system, an SD Card, a case with stickers to customise it, HDMI cable, Charger  + USB charging cable and a WiFi dongle. You just need to supply a screen with HDMI input.

Harry is only just 6, but he's very good at following instructions for construction kits like Lego, and we found that the instruction booklet was very clear and geared to children that age. What I really liked about the instructions is that they don't just focus on how to connect certain pieces together, it explains what they are and their purpose. This is good because the key purpose of this kit is not just to be able to put it together but also to learn how it works.

Building the Raspberry Pi within its case and connecting the speaker to it was not tricky for him. The Raspberry Pi is not like a PC - it's a chip which effectively has its on-board memory, the CPU, already on the motherboard, so it's simply a case of putting it into a study case and locking it.

Attaching the speaker was a little more tricky as you have to connect the power for the speakers to the motherboard with some small pins that need to go in the right order in the correct place. Once this is done, you simply insert a standard SD card which contains the operating software, exactly like you would in a phone.

The Raspberry Pi is connected to a screen via the HDMI lead. To start with we have the Kano connected up to the television in our living room, but in the longer term we are going to use it with a PC monitor as that will be easier to operate. The Kano comes with a handy WiFi dongle to connect it to the Internet, as well as an Ethernet port. As we had a internet Ethernet socket nearby we used that instead.

The wireless keyboard comes with a USB WiFi adaptor, which plugs into the device so that you can use your keyboard nearby. I like the fact the keyboard doesn't need batteries and can be charged via a connected USB lead. I also like that it is Bluetooth enabled - this means it's also possible to use it with modern day TVs, iPads, phones and so on, which is a great added benefit.

Finally you can connect the power cable to the device, and turn it on. It takes a while to get to the actual interface. First you go through some boot-up and pages to connect to the Internet and learn how to use the keyboard. After this it connects to the Internet and updates the software - which did take 15-20 minutes to do.

Once you get into the interface, first impressions are that it has some good basic games, access to YouTube, as well as the ability to install apps such as XBMC. However navigating around the interface and loading up items can be a little slow - which is to be expected as the Raspbery Pi is not a high powered PC.

We've not had the chance yet to explore all the further features that the Kano can offer, so I'll be writing an updated post when Harry has had the chance to really get his teeth into it and look at the second book that came with it around coding.

We received the Kano kit in exchange for a review.