Do you find it hard to commit to products that feature rapidly evolving technology?

In My Humble Opinion
1

It took me forever to embrace the CD and not because I’m an audiophile. I clung to my VCR player like a Titanic survivor, until 2003 and not because I can’t afford new.

I still have a 31-inch television, a non-5.1/6.1/7/1 stereo receiver, used until recently Windoze 2000, prefer my corded telephone and don’t have a wireless network, MP3 or iPod player. I only got TiVo because my GF wanted one. Don’t have an MP3 or iPod player.

I can easily afford better and don’t think I’m a tightwad, but when I walk into Best Buy, it’s hard to commit to cutting-edge technology. My fear? That I’ll buy something that becomes obsolete 2 months later. Not wanting to miss the tech boat, I delay (and miss the tech boat). And so I stand in front of the plasma, DLP and LCD televisions and stand and stand and stand.

Anyone else this way?

2

Definitely! On the one hand, I don’t want to be like those folks clinging to their precious, precious laserdisc and Betamax collections. But on the other hand, there’s no real right time to buy into new technology, and sometimes you just have to steel yourself and take the plunge. I agonized over buying an iPod for years because there are newer (and cheaper!) models coming out all the time and because it’s obvious that in ten years they’ll either be: 1) fifty bucks a pop and as ubiquitous as CD players, or 2) completely obsolete. But sometimes you just have to take the plunge and buy something that’s useful and pleasant to you right now, regardless of what might happen in the future. Difficult, I know… :wink:

3

I commit faster and faster as time goes by:

CDs - 1986
DVD (player) - 1999
DVR - 2001
DVD recorder - 2002
MP3 player - 2005
Downloading music - 2005
Plasma television - (probably 2006)
HDTV - ???

I usually wait a couple of years for the manufacturers to get the major kinks out (and to lower the price) before committing, though.

4

I divide “tech” into different categories, with vastly different approaches to adopting the latest.

E.g., as a serious computer geek, I do not upgrade the core hardware & software that I use very often. I am usually at least 2 years behind “the cutting edge.” This puzzles less knowledgable people but it’s really quite simple: I can do more on an old system than most people can do on a new system because I do things right. I tweak the hardware, keep the disk tidy, don’t allow any unnecessary startup crap, etc.

So, I have something in common with the OP.

But when A Revolution hits, I sometimes jump onboard ahead of many others. E.g., when I first had access to a CD-writer (a 2x Kodak box larger than a scanner), I was hooked. Never gone without one since. I used it only for data but was aware that it could write music CDs. I thought “uh-oh, this is going to be big trouble for the music industry.” All years before most people heard of CD writers let alone Napster and all that.

OTOH, I never owned a fax machine, never installed software for a fax-modem, etc. I’ve been using email since the 1970s and saw the fax boom c1990 as a dead tech’s last hurrah.

Took a long time to adopt CDs due to preference for analog sound.

Only got a DVD player relatively late but it was a gift. I don’t rent or buy videos. So it sat unconnected for a month since I had no use for it. I only found it useful once I discovered the joy of VCDs and SVCDs. (I now burn DVDs some too but the authoring is a huge pain.)

One problem I have with some rapidly evolving consumer tech is the price issue. Why buy something that’s going to cost half as much next year and that will do more? HDTVs will quickly drop in price once the FCC digital-tv ruling goes into effect. (Even though officially one has nothing to do with the other.)

I have fairly high standards as to functionality and bangs/buck. So I have stayed out of the PVR game for now. It is not to the level I want yet. (TIVO totally screwed up the market for PVRs. One big exec for a major Japanese gave me a personal rundown on how mad the other companies were at TIVOs marketing mistake. Essentially, you don’t want to compete in a market where the major player’s business model is to lose a lot of money indefinitely.)

I also see certain things as being touted forever but never going to make it. E.g., Bluetooth. If there was something to it, it would have taken off by now. It also turns out to be astounding insecure and the ideal medium for spamming. 802.11* has beaten it by more than a country mile. True, an inferior system, but it hit the sweet spot of the adoption curve so early it doesn’t matter.

So there’s a lot of things like Bluetooth that I have always avoided.

(Now, if we could just get the American consumer to go with Blu-Ray rather than HD-DVD.)

5

This is the very reason I haven’t got an mp3 player yet. I was this close to buying an iPod after Christmas, went to Circuit City intent on coming home with one, then at the last minute I decided not to. I just couldn’t part with that $300! (I’d have to have one of the more expensive ones) And for what? I knew they’d just get cheaper and cheaper. Next thing I know, they’re out with color screens. And now the Nano (which I wouldn’t get anyway because it doesn’t have nearly enough memory). Now I’m hearing a lot of complaints about the iPod, which makes me glad I didn’t get one, which in turn means I’ll just keep waiting and waiting… and waiting.

I do have a damn fine TV though. :smiley:

6

I have a nice 7 megapixel digital camera.

Its predecessor? An Instamatic X-35. You don’t know what that means, do you?

126 cartridge film is what that means.

I still have spare film and “magicubes” for it.

The last time I brought a completed roll into one of those One Hour shops for development I got a “What in the name of hell is this??” followed by two phone calls and “We don’t do this. I don’t know anyone who does but you might try _____ and see if they know some lab they could send it off to”

I still have not only Classic Mac applications but Classic Mac applications that won’t execute under anything newer than MacOS 8.1, and I have MacOS 8.1 and the hardware to run it on. I also have some 68K Classic Mac applications. I even has some 68K Mac applications that aren’t 32-bit clean. OK, I don’t use those very often.

Our music’s on an iPod though, and we have a growing collection of DVDs on a shelf above the VHS tapes. So I’m not entirely a Luddite codger, I just keep the old stuff :wink:

7

I have a 3.1 megapixel camera (HP Photosmart 315) that I paid about $275 for. I saw a generic camera with nearly the same specs in a blisterpack hanging on a rack at Office Max (as opposed to behind the counter) for $99!

I used to have the same instamatic camera. I used Flip Flashes instead of cubes, though.

Was this your camera?

I took many a picture with that thing.

8

I now regret not buying a digital camera or videocamera earlier. Missed a lost of precious memories, because I was waiting for The Perfect Time to Buy Tech. :rolleyes:

You’re right. There isn’t a perfect time. Reminds me of that phrase, something like: Life is what happens in between all the planning.

That said, I still can’t commit to a PDF. I think the problem is summed up as “I want more for my money.” Problem is, “more” is an ever-receding point on the tech curve.

9

Make that: I can’t commit to a PDA. :smack:

I can ABSOLUTELY see me entering Best Buy and asking a sales dude where their PDFs are located. :wally

10

He’d probably take you right to the PDA’s!

11

Same family. The X-35 had a close-up lens setting and an “insufficient light” indicator telling you you’d need a magicube to take the shot. Used the same film and had the same form factor as the X-15.

12

That’s not so bad. My (easily flustered) aunt went to Best Buy about two months ago, where she told a group of young, male sales associates that she wanted to get prices on their “lap dance” computers.

13

No, but I find it extremely difficult to KEEP UP with rapidly evolving technology.

While the “kids” all seem to pick it up within 15 minutes of purchase, it took me nearly a week to learn how to operate my camera phone, and frankly, there are still a few things I don’t know how to do on it. :rolleyes:

I just bought an iPod, partly because I feel positively ancient carrying around a walkman, and partly because I know that if I don’t learn this step of technology, there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to learn the one after it. And I just don’t want to be one of those “old people” who is the equivalent of the person who 15 years ago couldn’t figure out how to program the VCR. :eek:

But it’s a struggle. To give you an example, I’ve had iTunes on my computer for several months now and only this week decided I’d better get in there and figure out what it’s all about. And after several straight days of finding a music store, downloading music, and playing with iTunes, I still haven’t figured out how to get the album covers to show up. I’m just sad, aren’t I?

14

You should have a thumbnail icon of the cover in the lower left corner of the iTunes screen. Double click on that. :slight_smile:

15

No, that’s what I mean, they don’t show up down there when I play a song. It says, “drag album cover here” or something like that. If I drag one over, it doesn’t stay after I switch to another song and switch back. I probably need to download the images to my harddrive, but I’m trying to avoid doing that.

16

Me too. Sometimes it’s because I’m cheap/broke; sometimes it’s for sentimental reasons; sometimes it’s because the “old ways” work just fine for me, and I don’t feel like changing.

My current graphics program, for instance, I got free on a floppy disk with a Macworld book in 1994. It works fine for me, it still runs on my system, and I know how to use it. Why change?

Heck, I’m probably the only person still using a “Hockey Puck” mouse.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for adopting new technology when it suits my needs and budget. I’ve been downloading music officially since 2003…and until this year, I was running a snakework of audio connector cables from my computer to my second-hand stereo (with integral turntable) so I could dub the Mp3s onto audiotape, so I could listen to them in my car.

17

Everytime I get near buying a cordless drill, I retreat. Hey, I like cords. I hate dead batteries. Why change? Today’s killer 24-volt drill will look silly next to tomorrow’s 88-volt model.

My favorite home telephone is almost 15 years old. My uber-modern cordless (a nice, if unwanted, gift), meanwhile, sits largely unused.

18

I know enough marketing to realize early adapters pay through the nose for often untried technology. I’ll get something if I really, really need it, but waiting a year or so cuts the price a lot. That’s why I have no credit card debt.

I got given an MP3 player, and used it only once, on the plane back from the meeting. (Oh, I also used it to transfer files from one computer to another once.) I’m happy I never bought a PDA. We got a DVD player free with our large screen TV.

The one thing I really bought early was a Commodore 64, when they were sold at office supply stores and cost $1000. I should have waited until they got to Toys R Us. Never again.

19

I still don’t know how to set my VCR to record.
We’ve had it 15 years. Yes, fifteen years.
We have a capture card on our computer. I strongly suspect that in 2059 I will grasp the concept of how to use it.

My philosophy is that for each new thing I learn, something old has to be jettisoned from my one bit memory drive.

This is why I have never learned how to score a bowling game ( never mind the fact they are all computerized now.) because if I did learn how to score one I would forget how to tie my shoes and I knew If I waited long enough a) someone else would offer to score the game b) a computer would come along to make it easier for everyone. c) I wear clogs now as a precautionary measure.

20

Ummm…that plasms will almost certainly be HD already. Hell, i don’t think it’s possible to get a non-HD plasma.

(oh, and BTW, plasma? Ewww…go with LCD. But then, in a year or two, maybe plasma will get it’s kinks (like VERY short life span) worked out.)