Daft Old Duffer returns. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
Whenever a new gadget appears on the market I have a two-fold reaction.
1) That looks interesting, I want one. And
2) I’m not going to buy it – at least not yet.
The reason for such a reaction is three-fold. One, I know if I do buy it I will play with it for a while then consign it to the neglect shelf for evermore. Two, if I ever do buy it, it won’t be at its initial, vastly inflated price but after the first feeding frenzy is over.
Three, when the first feeding frenzy is over and the price has dropped dramatically I still won’t buy it because I know a newer version will be about to appear, laden even more densely with bits and bobs no-one will ever find useful.
Looking after the pennies
So I watch the flow of ever arriving newbys with an air of smug superiority. Reminding myself that in place of the piles of forgotten plastic electroniky others harbour I have the many hundreds of pounds they represent safely tucked away and earning a little interest.
And yet I have to admit, the yearning is there. Secretly I am no different to anyone else in my urge to possess the latest gizmos.
Renewed interest
So it was, after a deal of humming and hawing and ‘stop being so silly-ing’, recently I succumbed. I purchased a Kindle Touch electronic reader. You may remember me blogging about it a week or so earlier. And how I almost immediately – and quite predictably – wished I’d saved my money.
Since then however I have begun, very sparingly, to use it. It serves as a moment’s relief from the rather heavy history paperback I am currently ploughing through.
Which makes me feel a bit better about buying it.
Predictable replacement
Or did, until just a few days ago the inevitable happened. When my Kindle Touch not only reduced in price, it seemingly disappeared from the market altogether. To be replaced by an altogether better, shinier version called the Kindle Paperwhite. For the same price, of course.
Naturally I’m not surprised. I expected nothing else. I have even half persuaded myself that, considering how little I use the damn thing, it doesn’t matter.
Yet I am all too painfully that the Kings of Gizmoland have ripped me off. Again
And, as always, with my full compliance.
