STACK #213 July 2022

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JULY LIFE TECH Technology has become an integral part of Australian lifestyles and continues to advance in leaps and bounds. From smartphones to smart homes, STACK keeps you up to date on the latest consumer tech in user-friendly terms, along with key points to consider before you buy. If you love tech, you’re in the right place.

STACK ’ s TECH tips

RECYCLING YOUR EAR GEAR There comes a time when, due to failure, wear and tear or battery malfunction, you have to say goodbye to your earbuds and headphones. But whatever you do, don’t throw them in the bin. General landfill is the last place you want non biodegradable electronics to end up; electronic devices contain materials that can be hazardous if they leach into the ground.The good news is

that some manufacturers offer a recycling service for ‘past the sell-by date’ devices. Failing the above,

general waste management centres now offer comprehensive recycling services so you can be certain that your broken headphones and earbuds will be responsibly recycled.

Do you have a tech horror story? Has tech come back to ‘byte’ you hard? Have you sent a text to the wrong person or deleted your employer’s hard drive by accident?Well, we want to hear about it. Send your terror byte to editor@stack.com.au This month, Jane P recounts her own tech nightmare. G etting married brings out the best and worst of everyone. The stress involved is next level and, with so much to organise, I (regrettably) allowed my mother-in-law into the inner sanctum to lend a hand. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We had a venue and were down to the final organisation like table seating and catering for everyone’s food requirements. I had asked said mother-in-law to liaise with the venue and pass on the seating arrangements and dietary requirements. But she had other ideas and started moving people from table to table to suit her own needs, dismissed people with food allergies as ‘prima donnas’ and lumped vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians all in the same bracket. I realised at the 11th hour and managed to rearrange everything

2015

What was the hottest tech in…

For years, consumers just accepted that a tangled pair of earbuds and the accompanying Mensa-strength challenge of untangling them was all part of the experience. For years, Bluetooth earbuds that connected each unit via a single wire were called ‘wireless’ but the advent of the termTrue Wireless would not arrive until 2015. A year before, two European start-up companies, Earin and Bragi, announced crowdfunding for two separate true wireless

earbud concepts loaded with ambitious ideas. They went head-to-head to be

first to market, but the earbuds were plagued with problems. Meanwhile, Japanese audio

giant Onkyo were about to pull a Steven Bradbury and claim a victory seemingly out of nowhere. The company had been beavering away on its own true wireless design, developing the W800BT. These earbuds had on/off, mic, volume control and a battery built into the earbuds – not a wire to be seen. Early reports were promising, and the earbuds were released in late 2015. The W800BTs weren’t without issue on launch, but they worked, highlighting the commercial opportunities in the true wireless space. Within a year, Samsung and Apple had entered the market and the floodgates were opened.

August might be the middle of winter, but it’s also our big rideables feature and the time of year when we go deep inside the world of electric mobility, lifting the lid on the very latest e-rideables to roll into JB Hi-Fi. Who doesn’t love an escooter or ebike, right? On The Radar

at untold stress levels. Furious, I typed a text to my husband calling his mother just about everything I could think of in a rage (yes, including THAT word) and, accidentally, sent it to my mother-in-law instead. The fallout was monumental, and the text was quickly circulated amongst her peers. She was talked into coming on the big day, but we haven’t spoken properly in over eight years!

JULY 2022

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