The pace of technological development is frightening, with AI tools doing things we would have barely believed just a few years ago.That doesn't mean newer is always better; I still use several gadgets daily that are 10 years old or more.A fourth-generation Kindle Abandoned by Amazon, but still incredibly capable Close In May 2026, Amazon dropped support for all Kindle models released in 2012 or earlier, including my Kindle 4.
Despite being in perfect working order, I can no longer access the Kindle Store to buy or borrow books, download books from my Kindle library, or even sign back into my account if I need to factory-reset the device.The Send to Kindle feature is also no longer available.Since my Kindle is no longer supported, I finally got around to jailbreaking and installing KOReader, and my eReader is now more useful than ever.
I can read a much wider range of file formats, and with KOReader plugins, my Kindle can do far more than it could before.I use it every day, making a mockery of Amazon abandoning the device.Related I tried living like it was 2005—here’s the tech that still holds up I knew there was a reason I held on to all this stuff.
Posts 2 By Tim Brookes A Sonos Play:1 The app may be bad, but the hardware isn't I've owned my Sonos Play:1 speaker for well over a decade, and it's brought me countless hours of listening pleasure.The relatively small speaker delivers great sound quality: a 3.5-inch mid-woofer handles vocals, midrange, and bass, and a separate tweeter handles the high frequencies, each with its own Class-D digital amplifier.Trueplay room correction measures how speaker placement affects the sound and adjusts the EQ to optimize it for the room.
Sonos really screwed the pooch with its disastrous release of an updated app in 2024.The update was missing a ton of features such as alarms, sleep timers, playlist editing, and more.Thankfully, I wasn't bothered by these issues; I use the speaker via Music Assistant, so I never need to touch the app.
The Play:1 is still going strong and offers far better sound than the other smart speakers around my home.A mini hi-fi system It's more than a decade old but still beats my smart speakers My Sonos Play:1 lives in the dining room so we can enjoy music while we eat.I spend far more time in my home office, and for years, I listened to music through small smart speakers and thought nothing of it.
It was only when my dad passed on the old mini hi-fi system that he was no longer using that I realized what I'd been missing.It's a Panasonic SC-PMX9DB, released in 2013.It's only a small system, with two bookshelf speakers, but the sound quality is vastly superior to listening to music through a smart speaker.
The first time I set it up in my home office, I genuinely thought something had gone wrong because it sounded like the music was coming from the direction of my computer in the middle of my desk.It took me a moment to realize that it had been so long since I'd listened to music in stereo on anything other than headphones that I'd forgotten what a huge difference it makes.I now enjoy listening to music even more because it just sounds so much better.
Whenever I'm working at my desk, music is always playing through the stereo, and it's more than a decade old.A 27-inch iMac 5K It's barely hanging on, but I can't let go It's a stretch to call a large all-in-one desktop computer a gadget, but I use it every day.My iMac Retina 5K (Late 2014) passed its tenth birthday some time ago, but it's still the device that I use more than any other.
While my MacBook Air M2 handles tasks that require more powerful hardware, I still do all my writing and editing on the iMac because its stunning 27-inch display is just so beautiful to work on.My iMac is still hanging on, but only just.The internal Fusion drive has died, so the whole thing runs from an external SSD.
I've even had to set up a script that kills the Fusion drive every time it tries to spin up because it crashes the Mac.Many apps, such as browsers and Microsoft apps, are no longer supported on macOS Big Sur, the last version the computer officially supports.To keep using these apps, I've had to use the unofficial OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) to install versions of macOS beyond Big Sur.
My iMac won't last forever, but I'm going to keep using it for as long as I can.A Logitech Harmony Hub It's no longer supported but keeps on doing its job I bought my Logitech Harmony Hub and the companion remote in 2015, and it served me well for years, letting me replace the remotes for my TV, surround sound system, Apple TV, Roku stick, and more with one remote to rule them all.Like many of Logitech's most useful products, the company abandoned the hardware and stopped making it.
When the buttons started to fall out of my remote, I needed another solution.Eventually I ended up building my own universal remote with a cheap Wi-Fi remote and a very complicated automation in Home Assistant.The Harmony Hub is still a key part of this, however.
Some devices, such as my surround sound system, can only be controlled via infrared, and my Harmony Hub lets me control both IR and Bluetooth devices.Updates have made my Harmony app effectively useless, but thanks to Home Assistant, the hub still helps me control my TV and other AV equipment daily.Old tech doesn't have to become electronic waste We live in a disposable world where companies try to convince you to upgrade your perfectly functional smartphones every year, and devices that work perfectly are abandoned by their manufacturers.
I have plenty of gadgets that prove that tech can last ten years or more and still be a central part of your daily life.
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