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2016 is wrapping up and we saw a lot of tech gadgets come and go. I use and own most of these products (and paid for them out of my own pocket), but not all are great. Here is my list of some of the hits, misses and “meh” products of 2016.
Apple Watch 2
If you are already an Apple Watch user, then the Apple Watch 2 upgrade can be skipped depending on what your needs are. Two major improvements include waterproofing, which allows you to wear the watch during activities like swimming, and GPS, which is good news for runners. That said, dedicated trackers like Fitbit are far better than Apple Watch when it comes to tracking physical activities. Other than that, from an experience point of view, I didn’t see any value in upgrading to Apple Watch 2. It’s a ‘good’ product, almost at the borderline of meh. I upgraded mine because I love to play with the latest toys. You can skip it.
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iPhone 7
I upgraded my iPhone 6s Plus to iPhone 7 Plus, partly because I am on T-Mobile’s Jump On Demand (JoD) program that allows me to upgrade to own 3 phones a year. I didn’t much mind the lack of 3.5 mm jack, except on one occasion when I forgot my adapter and had to use Bluetooth, which drained the battery faster. That said, I wish Apple used a USB Type-C connector, instead of forcing their own proprietary Lightning port, especially because macOS is moving to USB Type-C and it's becoming a mess to manage connectors within the Apple ecosystem. After using the dual lens for a while, I found gimmicky: the bokeh is created by software and looks artificial. The only thing that I really liked about the phone is the fully waterproof body. But if it were not for JoD and my enthusiasm for new toys, I would not have upgraded to iPhone 7. I put it in the meh category.
Google Pixel
I have been playing...