What do I need a computer for nowadays?

[Orang Utan]

I'm no audiophile so I wouldn't know. It's good enough for me. I value convenience.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

But I get a great deal of pleasure from the process. It's very important to me. Also (but this is by no means the main point) I've never heard a Bluetooth speaker that sounds any good. Mostly people who have them seem to put up with some very crappy sound.

You can get good ones but they are expensive. I use a mix of old and new. Ancient Yamaha amp with floor standing speakers connected to my PC.

 

[cybershot]

The only thing i possess that can play CDs is my car.

Not even sure the new new cars have CD players as everything is going Android/Apple inside the cars too.

Saying that I did buy a shed load of old CDs from ebay recently even though I have the digital copies, mainly because the sleeve notes for those albums were very good, and I should never have given them away in the first place. You just don't get that anymore, not even with physical CDs to be fair. The booklets that came with CDs back in the 90s were brilliant.

 

[danny la rouge]

The only thing i possess that can play CDs is my car.

Not even sure the new new cars have CD players as everything is going Android/Apple inside the cars too.

Saying that I did buy a shed load of old CDs from ebay recently even though I have the digital copies, mainly because the sleeve notes for those albums were very good, and I should never have given them away in the first place. You just don't get that anymore, not even with physical CDs to be fair. The booklets that came with CDs back in the 90s were brilliant.

For example, I have this one, with a 150 page booklet!

 

[twentythreedom]

The only thing i possess that can play CDs is my car.

Not even sure the new new cars have CD players as everything is going Android/Apple inside the cars too.

I bought a new car, it has a CD drive and memory card slot in the glove box, you can stream to the stereo over WiFi and Bluetooth, there's a 3.5mm jack line in, it's got android auto and Apple car which has Spotify and Google play - it's ridiculous but fucking awesome

 

[danny la rouge]

I bought a new car, it has a CD drive and memory card slot in the glove box, you can stream to the stereo over WiFi and Bluetooth, there's a 3.5mm jack line in, it's got android auto and Apple car which has Spotify and Google play - it's ridiculous but fucking awesome

Glad to see the CD drive and jack line in still there. All is not lost.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I can't afford new cars like some flash gits.

My last few cars I've equipped with mech less car stereos to get Bluetooth. Seemed no point paying for a CD I wouldn't use.

 

[marty21]

I have an old PC that I occasionally use , my laptop is about to give up the ghost and I haven't yet replaced it (probably go for a Chrome thinge) mostly use the phone for stuff ,and listen to music or watch films on the ipad mini or Kindle Fire ,or on the telly.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

One thing I find hard to do on other devices is move files around, from phones, memory sticks and backup hard drives.

 

[quimcunx]

I can't be bothered reading the whole thread, danny, but if your work is sitting at your own desk at home for 7 hours a day then a PC is better than a laptop.

 

[danny la rouge]

I can't be bothered reading the whole thread, danny, but if your work is sitting at your own desk at home for 7 hours a day then a PC is better than a laptop.

Of course. But in my case my work isn't sitting at a computer at all.

 

[quimcunx]

Of course. But in my case my work isn't sitting at a computer at all.

Then you may ignore my post with impunity.

 

[danny la rouge]

I'd forgotten that I need to use a scanner. (Doh).

There will no doubt be other functions I'd forgotten.

(Are there scanners that connect to phones?)

 

[chilango]

danny la rouge There's all kinds of "scanning" apps that use the phone's camera.

I've yet to find one as good as a flatbed scanner (for pencil drawings etc. which is what I mostly scan).

Won't be long before someone gets it right though.

 

[danny la rouge]

danny la rouge There's all kinds of "scanning" apps that use the phone's camera.

I've yet to find one as good as a flatbed scanner (for pencil drawings etc. which is what I mostly scan).

Won't be long before someone gets it right though.

Yeah, I've tried some of those apps in the past. And also just taking pictures of documents. A flatbed is still the best.

 

[mauvais]

(Are there scanners that connect to phones?)

Yes.

 

[chilango]

Yeah, I've tried some of those apps in the past. And also just taking pictures of documents. A flatbed is still the best.

Yeah.

Purely a work issue for me though these days (I rarely draw anymore sadly) and an increasingly rare one too (as I'm not formally an Art teacher anymore). But I still grimly hang on to the knackered old flatbed on my desk at work.

 

[cybershot]

A scanner!

Take a photo of it! lol.

 

[danny la rouge]

A scanner!

Take a photo of it! lol.

I've tried that. It's not a satisfactory way of transmitting music notation.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

For any kind of proper reproduction of documents you still need a scanner. I use my phone sometimes for receipts and rough sketches, where the quality doesn't matter if they're legible, but that's it.

Actually I've not used my scanner for documents for ages - it gets used for negatives.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

No, seriously.

It's an expensive bit of kit. But there's actually less and less I need it for. My phone gets me on the web, does emails. I haven't yet done banking on it because I am afraid of the security and of fucking things up because of the touchscreen, but maybe that's not worth the cost of a new desktop to me when my current one expires.

I've been looking at laptops, thinking that might be the way to go when my desktop packs in, and noticed that many don't have optic drives. This has really been the thing that made me question the point of actually having a computer at all. I load CDs onto my iPod, but really I don't use it much. I'd rather hear the CD.

I never stream anything - music, films, TV. I never download music or films. I rarely use Word. What am I really paying for? It would seem weird to be without one, but actually things have moved on and the things I used it for are largely done elsewhere now. Aren't they?

What am I missing?

Good question, my laptop has come to the end of its life and I'm struggling to think of reasons to spend another grand on a laptop when an iPad at half that will take care of 99% of everything I do...


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