STACK #203 Sep 2021

visit stack.com.au

STACK ’ s Tech Tip

F or decades, washing machines, fridges and other kitchen and laundry appliances were designed and built for practicality. Aesthetics were never a consideration; colour-wise, everything was white or occasionally for the risqué, almond, and these devices consumed vast amounts of electricity. Today’s kitchen tech embraces purpose with form, ditching the vanilla for innovative designs and colours built to be the focal point of the room. Look over our fridge and laundry features as you turn the page, and you’ll see a range of products that not only offer better savings in energy consumption and a suite of impressive features, but also appliances that look cool to boot. Connectivity in the house, or the Internet of Things – the buzzword used to describe TECH LIFE SEPTEMBER

While most data from our devices is automatically backed up in the cloud these days, chances are you’ve got one or two external hard drives kicking around that are crammed with family memories. Here are five tips on how to keep these precious treasure troves in good working order:

devices that connect over the home Wi-Fi network – now extends to the kitchen and laundry. Washing machines and tumble dryers that talk to each other? Sounds very Ex Machina , right? No, it’s right here right now. Once paired, smart laundry appliances can exchange information about the clothes that are being washed, so the dryer knows what cycle to prepare for. The only part you’re required to do is move the clothes from one machine to the other. In the kitchen, coffee machines, blenders for that perfect smoothie, smart crockpots, and everyone’s favourite domestic darling, the air fryer, are all essential devices we rely on, and we take a good look at these and others, too, this month. Cool tech in the kitchen? We’ve got it covered.

1 Be aware of environmental factors. Temperature, condensation, vibration and sudden motion can all affect an HDD. Use power surge protection for all your electrical devices. 2 There are many programs available that can be used to monitor the health of your HDD (Windows has a feature called CHKDSK built-in for this). These will give you a heads-up on any developing problems. 3 Don’t cram your HDD full of data. If it nears its storage capacity, remove any unwanted data or compress any data that you can’t remove. 4 Treat your HDD with care. Leaving it loose in a bag that gets dropped or thrown onto an office floor is asking for trouble. 5 Never pull the cable out of the back of the HDD while connected. Eject the HDD through your computer using the Safely Remove icon on Windows devices or drag the drive icon to the Trash Bin if you’re using Mac OS.

On The Radar

What was the hottest tech in… 1996

Using tech to monitor our health and wellbeing grows in popularity every year. Blood pressure monitoring, fitness data, and even ECG technology can all be found in a device strapped to your wrist. In our October Life Tech feature, we’re going deep into the world of wearables to uncover what’s new and what all the tech jargon means.

Phone design in the mid-90s had come a long way from the brick wielded by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps , but they were still basic in the realm of technology and a little on the large side. However, all

that changed with the introduction of the stylish and sleek Motorola StarTAC. With its clamshell design that flipped open, it was absolute Star Trek communicator territory. This was a mobile you took pride in whipping out, and the first phone to vibrate with an incoming call. 60 million of these little guys ended up in people’s pockets.

48 SEPTEMBER 2021

jbhifi.com.au