The Kindle Paperwhite and Nintendo 3DS

I usually love the latest gadgets, but I’ve started keeping two older devices beside my bed, and using them frequently over the last few weeks. My Amazon Kindle Paperwhite from 2015, and my Nintendo 3DS (technically New 3DS XL, but that's a ridiculous mouthful of a name) from 2014. (Yes, 2014-15 is old now...)

I've been reading on my iPhone a lot in the last year or so, mostly due to the necessity of doing things one-handed while dealing with sleeping children. For the same reason, I haven't really played many games other than iPhone games for a few years. Now that I've got that bit more freedom to use both of my hands during my leisure time, I can consider other options.

Reading

The Kindle is a nice way to read a book. My Paperwhite is showing its age, in that it's pretty unresponsive now when I open it up and when I browse my library, so it takes ages to actually let me start reading. But once I do start reading, it's smooth, and it's really relaxing not to have notifications pop up. It's great not to have the draw of "oh I'll just pop out and check RSS/Mastodon". And it's more comfortable to have the bigger screen to read on, so that I'm not constantly turning pages. Overall, it just feels like a better way to read a book than my phone does. Funny, that.

Gaming

I love my Nintendo Switch, but I still find it a bit big to use in bed or to carry around. And the games I want to play on it, like Tears of the Kingdom, are big games that I feel like I want to play on the big TV to fully experience. That’s not an option often enough for me to get into the games properly.

So instead, I've been trying out my 3DS again, and it's a great device for sitting in bed, on the couch, or commuting. It's small, it's portable, and it has some really good games.

Right now, I'm finally playing through The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past for the first time, which I bought on the 3DS store years ago. After that, I'm probably going to play through Pokemon Yellow again, which I also bought years ago and have just left sitting on the 3DS that whole time. Pokemon games are great for jumping in and out of on mobile platforms. And I'm browsing eBay and Vinted to find other games that I didn't play at the time (e.g. I never played Super Mario 3D Land or Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire), and having fun doing it. I'm excited to play games again, thanks to a 10 year old console that was never that big a hit in the first place.

Gadgets don't stop being good just because something new was released. Take another look at what you've got sitting around in drawers, you might find something useful or fun.