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Tech We’re Using

By VANESSA FRIEDMAN

How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Vanessa Friedman, The Times’s fashion director and critic, discussed the tech she uses.

As a fashion critic, what’s your favorite tech product that helps you spot and keep track of fashion trends?

My iPhone 5, embarrassing as that is to say, and my laptop. I am stuck with my iPhone 5 because I have a keyboard attachment for it that turns it into a BlackBerry, and which I love because during fashion shows I file reviews on my phone and they can be 1,000 words long. I can’t do that on a touch screen. I hate lugging anything bigger than the phone around since I carry so much else.

I also use the gadgets mostly to surf around Instagram and Facebook and various news sites to see what regular people are wearing during their everyday lives in places I am not. For runway trends, I just use my eyes.

You’ve written a lot about wearable technology. Are smart watches ever going to be fashionable enough to replace normal watches?

I am sure they will be at some point, but who knows when that will be? The problem is they just look too much like gadgets — or like wannabe traditional watches. Someone has to come up with a third paradigm. Then whoever does that will be in clover.

Beyond your job, what tech product are you currently obsessed with using in your daily life?

My Kindle. It’s really the only other tech product I use. I have gone through iPad and tablet phases, and smartwatch moments, but they all end up in the back of a drawer somewhere or my kids take them. I am really interested in tech that is efficient and functional and solves problems that are real problems, not theoretical ones. After that, I find it hard to get worked up.

What do you and your family do with it?

Read! Plus, a Kindle is very good to take to shows, because I am lugging a heavy bag full of stuff all day, and it is light and takes up almost no room. And it gives me something to occupy my mind during the endless minutes I spend waiting for shows to start.

What could be better about it?

The light. Shows have very complicated lighting plans and sometimes that makes it hard to read.

What is your children’s favorite piece of technology and why?

The favorite app for my 16-year-old and 14-year-old daughters are Snapchat and SoundCloud. That’s because they can use Snapchat to connect with their friends and stay in touch with those that are far away, and SoundCloud because it is easy and a good way to find new music and fun remixes.

For my 11-year-old son: Spotify, because he loves listening to music.

Favorite piece of technology (from all of them): Their iPhones. It is like “another limb” for them.