My techo-life has actually been rather settled. I have had a Motorola G6 Android phone for about a year now. It is a budget model -- not remotely close to any of the high-enders from Samsung, Google, or Apple, but it's done everything I need it to. I wish it had a better camera, but beyond that it's been fine and it was cheap and I see no need to move.
I use Verizon for my service because it is the most reliable in the area where I live. Even AT&T has inconvenient dead spots around here and back when I had Google Fi, which was supposed to use the strongest signal of with Sprint or T-Mobile, it was still a crapshoot. I could probably save a few bucks by switching to one of the cheaper services that use Verizon network like Total Wireless, but I can never get a straight answer about what I give up by doing that and frankly, the thought of slogging through service reviews and coverage maps and connectivity policies exhausts me.
I rarely use my laptop at home any more. I can do most everything on my iPad although I must note that you often run into really stupid behavior in Apps that you don't get on striaght up websites. Apps make a lot more assumptions about your behavior in the interest of simplifying things for small touch screens. For example: Google Maps app on iOS is a disaster. I can map out a route easily enough, but as far as I can tell it offers no information about the exact distance of the mapped route. It just assumes you are using it for driving or walking directions and that you don't really care about the details, you just want it to start telling you what turns to take. Frustrating as hell. (I often try to map out running or biking routes so knowing the total mileage is quite important to me.)
The only real need I have for a laptop with a legitimately speedy processor is for Photoshop, and since I don't do much photography anymore I could do without it. A full size keyboard and screen are also nice for writing, but I don't like writing at home, I prefer the local library where computers, keyboards, and monitors are freely available. Besides, I could probably hook up a keyboard and external monitor to my iPad. Barring a wholehearted return to travel and photography my next purchase in this area will probably be a Surface tablet of some sort to split the difference.
I still haven't cut the cable cord. I have concerns -- I question the ultimate cost savings since as soon as I cancel my cable, Spectrum will up the price on my internet service through the roof and I have very few alternatives, none are comparable speedwise. Then I will find myself subscribing to who knows how many services to get the shows I want.
While I understand that attraction of not paying for things you don't watch, I am very skeptical of unbundling as it is playing out. Things aren't really being unbundled so much as repackaged into fractured smaller bundles. The frugal dream of paying for only what you watch is lost and instead you'll be paying $10/month for that one series you like on any given network, never mind the luxury dream of paying one price and getting to see anything at any time. Like the Web, we may find "improving" it is its ruin.
Honestly, I would have thought these glaring annoyances -- unreliable, expensive, inconvenient phone and cable services -- would have been sorted out by now. I mean, that's what the entire point of tech is in the 21st century: relieving inconveniences for your market. It kind of makes you wish you could turn it all over the Amazon to run and be done with it. (Joking. Am I?)
