More and more people are ditching their smartphones in favour of older tech, and it's not hard to see why. In the past few weeks, I've tried to come off as much of my personal social media as possible, mainly because my feed is flooded with AI rubbish and people smiling over their food. It doesn't enrich my life at all; in fact, it sends me down rabbit holes and wastes time I'll never get back.
I came across the NanoNote a little later in life, but with me thinking about leaving modern tech behind for good and wishing I could just write all of my articles on a typewriter instead, I've been looking for a copy to use instead of iCal. That's mainly so I can prove my girlfriend wrong when she says I play games all of the time too...
Konami released the NanoNote back in 1992 in Japan. It's a data entry cartridge and not a game, turning the Game Boy into a pocket organiser that you could also slot the likes of Super Mario Land into when you were finished being super organised. Instead of saving your progress on a game, you save your progress in life, or future progress if you're putting in upcoming dates.
I can buy NanoNote (#sponsored) for around £10 with postage from Japan, so it's not a rare game at all. It is, however, all in Japanese, but as I'm trying to learn Japanese in my spare time, it could be a good way of combining all of my interests into one and actually getting me to learn on the go instead of listening to that weird green owl on Duolingo telling me I'm not working hard enough. You can write in English, but the instructions are in Japanese, so it would be a good brain exercise for sure!
Tech like this takes me back to the days of the gaming watch and the evolution of wrist-based gaming. I'd much rather have a Nelsonic gaming watch than an Apple Watch, and I'd much rather use a Game Boy that doesn't show me adverts for things I've searched for to take my notes and keep my calendar!
