Upgrading

In The Sims 3 you may upgrade objects with various abilities. Starting at Handiness skill level 3(fact check) you may begin upgrading your interactive objects with upgrades.

Upgrades are things like "Unbreakable" or "Self-Cleaning" that can be applied to most anything, while upgrades like "Fireproof" and "Cook Meat Better" apply to specific objects like the Oven. Certain skills, such as the "Hacker" skill, may enable your sims to apply upgrades of this variety to computers via the "Tinker" interaction.