Many of our habits and daily tasks have changed during the last few months because of the disruption to society caused by the CODID-19 Coronavirus.
In my household it’s meant everyone is home every day, some working from home long hours and others stood down or on paid leave to stay at home.
I’ve noticed during that time that our habits have changed and certain technology products and services have become indispensable.
1. NBN Fibre to the Premises
Thank goodness for the NBN and that our family is lucky enough to live in a home that has rock solid reliable 100 Mbps download / 40 Mbps upload fast internet connection via Aussie Broadband.
Five years ago I lived in a home that had a 6Mpbs download 0.9 Mbps upload ADSL connection which regularly failed when it rained a lot and the run down Telstra copper network got damp.
Stay at home iso would not have been possible for my family to work and entertain ourselves with that slow mediocre internet connection. I feel for those who are stuck with that technology still today, or who have been promised so much by the NBN, only to land on FTTN which is barely better than their crappy old ADSL.
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
Some people say tablets are dead as a product category and Android tablets especially so. It’s true that tablet sales are down and before COVID-19 I used my tablet perhaps once a week.
However during this lockdown period, my Samsung Tab S2 9.7 has been used for hours every day to play online scrabble with friends/family and read online digital magazines like The Saturday Paper, WIRED and Bloomberg Businessweek for free on PressReader and RBdigital via my local library access.
3. Sony WF-1000XM3 Noise Cancelling Headphones
It will be a long time before I use them on a plane trip but that’s fine.
In the meanwhile these comfortable headphones have provided hours of comfortable high quality audio enjoyment everyday so I could listen to things without interrupting other family members working from home.
The WF-1000XM3 have excelled whether used bluetooth wirelessly to listen to Pocketcasts podcasts and my Amazon Music subscription or connected to my TV via headphone jack audio cable while I watched STAN, Fetch TV and Amazon Prime Video.
4. WAHL Salon Series V7000 Hair Clipper
I’ve always had my hair cut at a barber shop. However when the government closed all hairdressers as part of the lockdown I realised I would need a haircut soon and the only option was to buy hair clippers.
The problem was solved within a few days when the WHAL V7000 clippers I online ordered from Shaver Shop were couriered to me and my wife cut my hair following instructions from the WAHL Youtube channel.
We’ll probably continue doing this after the lockdown is over which will save a lot of money over time not having to pay for my monthly haircuts.
Has technology helped you during the COVID-19 lockdown?
We’re curious to know whether technology has been a help or a hindrance to Ausdroid readers during this time of upheaval to all our habits. Please let us know your experience in the comments.
