Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Cthulhu
A big part of "tech remorse" for me is actually what seems to give Bob R. & Nightwing contentment: I agonise over the purchase, checking stats, playing with it in the store, making lists for and against, and, the most difficult, explaining to my young wife why I need a $300 phone. I try so desparately to justify my new gadget that I have built it up in my mind to be the sine qua non of tech gloriana that when I do buy it and it only does what it says it does, I am dejected.
|
I agree with you and I share the same behavior. I can tell you that I tend to take any "con" as they are pointed out in reviews and whatnot as a real detriment to using the product.
Let me offer a couple of examples. (For those of you not interested in the musings of a self-admitted nutjob, please scroll to the end.)
For instance, I had been looking at the Samsung Q UMPC for awhile as a primary, mobile media station. I'd carry it for podcasts, video podcasts, and ebooks. I had reasoned that since I listen to podcasts daily, and since I watch video podcasts often, and since I would like to read more ebooks and have a better chance of finding a format I can read without distraction, then the Q would be a nice purchase.
But then I started to read the reviews and I read about how the cheapest model (at $999) is fairly slow and needs RAM. Then I read about how, while not much so, it's still somewhat bulky. And then I saw the newer models that have a faster CPU, more RAM, and more. But they cost into the mid-1k range. The price started to gnaw at me.
So, I moved on. I reasoned to myself that the iPod w/ Video would be just fine for podcasts and video podcasts and since I'd already more-or-less budgeted $999 for the Q, I could get the Sony Reader and the iPod.
Then I thought, but the battery is not very good. Well, what about the PSP for all of these functions. It can do ebooks, video and audio. Why not? Then I saw the downsides of that. The ebook screens would be quite small and all of my books, as they are, would have to be turned into JPEGs and shown through the photo viewer.
My point here being that each device has downsides that, for me, blow the sky-high ideal that the initial wave of enthusiasm brings.
It seems that I do best when I just buy something and work with the limitations. The only device that I bought where that worked against me was when I purchased the TC1000, Compaq/HP's first TabletPC. Ultimately, it was simply dreadful to use and bothered the heck out of me. But in the case of my Samsung i730 PDA/Phone, I went in knowing only a couple of the downsides and it's proved to be a capable phone, capable PDA, with some minor nuisances that are fairly easy to ignore. (Although, if you read the forums you find yourself ready to pitch the thing out of the window.)
I am simply not very good at buying gadgets.
Cheers,
tcv