In order to keep up with the latest and greatest technology, I do a different equipment set update each year:
1st year: Computer upgrades
2nd year: communication upgrades
3rd year: photography/videography upgrades
This year, I ended up doing mostly communication upgrades, with a focus on cellular technology. The main driver in this process was the acquisition of sprint buy T-Mobile. A short while after that acquisition, T-Mobile started forcing customers to change equipment, whether they were fully ready to do so or not.
So my planned (computer) and unplanned technology updates for 2012 are as following:
- New laptop (Dell 5515 touch with Windows 11)
- Mobile hotspot (T-Mobile MiFi)
- New phone (Apple iPhone 12 pro)
- New tablet (Samsung 8 inch android tablet)
- New vehicle tracker/Wi-Fi (T-Mobile Sync Drive, 2 units).
Upside: save the iPhone, none of the T-Mobile gear cost a nickel — effectively a free upgrade over the next 24 months
Downside: lots of reconfiguration and some compatibility issues between the MiFi and my Wyze cameras. The latter is been particularly annoying. I’ve spent hours and hours trying to solve the problems by downgrading the Wi-Fi security, clearing cache, doing factory reset, and a variety of other things to no avail. All the work I did last season getting a five camera mobile security system running has been totally destroyed by the upgrade process. I am miffed.
This evening I will go through the packing list and make sure I have everything packed and ready to go for the trip. I have had some equipment changes lately, so my 2019 daily checklist will have to be updated. I can pack using the marked up edit copy then print the 2022 version at my local Office Depot. This is all just part of a pre-trip ritual, but sometimes it gets old.