Samsung
Why Do The Gadget Makers Hate Me?
You can spend as much as you like on new gadgets, gismos, software, hardware, firmware and upgrades. The fact will remain that at some point, usually within a few weeks you will wish you’d waited that bit longer or bought something else instead. It’s obvious that the Technology industry is growing all the time, new technologies are discovered, old technologies become cheaper and then obsolete.
What is the point in continual spending on having the next biggest, best gadget? Or having the fastest computer and the biggest television? It’s just like having a fast car, there is always a faster car. Or if you get a big house, there is always a bigger house.
The problem is, if you have the slowest computer, the oldest phone, the smallest television and a Dial up Modem then you will spontaneously combust. This is what we are conditioned into thinking by the Marketing. What’s more it’s true, If you haven’t got an iPhone or a Blackberry then I would recommend staying away from petrol.
So it’s quite clear i’m a believer in trying to stay current. I must confess my television is a couple of years old, I haven’t upgraded this because I’m very bitter. I bought this 40” Samsung television for about £1200, roughly 1 month later it was £1000, 4 months later it was £600 and obsolete because it’ll only do 720p. Watching 720p is like driving a fast car with cataracts, enjoyable but ultimately life threatening.
So people are popping up around with 1080p 50” TVs they swapped for a Mars Bar and they love to show it. However if somebody comes along with a DLP projector and a 102” projection screen in their front room, 50” TV man is going to feel pretty bad. They’ve always got the excuse of “I don’t need one that big for my front room” which actually means, “I can’t afford or justify one.” I am that person, except I’m worse because I only have a little 40” Television and it’s can’t even do 1080p.
I got a Macbook last year, the one Apple took the Firewire Ports off and replaced a year later with a Unibody plastic one. So on one hand, I feel bad because Apple want me to buy a MacBook pro to use a Firewire device. On the other hand I feel good because they’ve turned the MacBook into more of a freak show now. Mine is a great looking aluminum specimen, if you buy a MacBook now then it’ll be white again, and plastic.
This isn’t me doing this to you or even you doing this to you, this is Apple doing this to you. Apple hate you like Samsung Hate Me. I can at least put my Televisual Bitterness down to advances in technology. Apple took away my Firewire Ports because they hate me, they gave you a plastic Laptop because they hate you.
In the early Naughties, Microsoft gave us Windows XP. After about 4 years it started getting good. Then they brought out Vista and stopped you being able to get a PC with Windows XP. Vista was a mistake, Microsoft were forced to give you a choice again because Vista just wasn’t practical for businesses.
To run Windows Vista smoothly you need a PC with 32 Cores, 4 Billion Terabytes of Ram and an Array of Solid State Hard Disks. To run Windows XP smoothly you needed a Pentium 4, 1GB of Ram and a Mouse. Then there is all the different editions. Microsoft basically make you feel like Oliver Twist if you don’t get Ultimate Edition. You will feel poor and left wanting more. To be fair they’ve done the same with Windows 7 but at least that works.
With Windows Vista there was Poverty Edition, Poor Edition, Business Poor Poverty Edition, Business Poor Edition and Mans Only Option Edition. This is all because Microsoft Hate you. So you keep Microsoft happy by buying Mans Only Option Edition, they then punish you for trying to make them happy by giving you an Operating system that is unusable. They slowly put it right (better) over two years, leaving you feeling like you’ve had a two year bout of PIles.
You might think advances in technology have brought down the prices of Computer hardware. You can get a computer now, with and Microsoft Operating system for less than £250. I don’t believe it’s due to advances in technology, I believe it’s because of Windows Vista. Hardware had to get cheaper to make Personal computers affordable again.
It’s either that or consumers stick with what they’ve got and don’t put any money into the industry. This would in-turn stop money going into the Technology industry and we wouldn’t get any new gadgets to play with. Even that makes me feel like the entire industry hate me, they’ve got me up against a wall, they are telling me that if I don’t spend money with them, they’ll stop making me new toys.
Without a doubt the prize for the manufacturer who hate you the most, has to go to Cisco. Cisco are a manufacturer of Networking hardware for Business. They make routers with bugs. Most routers come with bugs as not every eventuality is covered in testing. This is usually not a problem, you go to the manufacturer’s support website and download a new firmware.
With Cisco, you go to the manufacturer’s support website, add a download to your basket and then are told you need to Pay, in one way or another, for this update. You can’t just buy it either, like an online shop. You need to pay for a Support Contract to get an upgrade.
Imagine if you bought a brand new BMW 5-series, a nice business class car. Imagine if it came with a time bomb and you didn’t know the time it was set to. BMW tell you they know how to deactivate it but you need to pay them.
Imagine if you were doing a sky dive and your shoot didn’t come out, this was an extra you had to pay for. The bag for the parachute was all you got and you had to pay if you wanted your chute to come out.
Both these examples involve certain death and so does not upgrading the firmware on our Cisco. If left in it’s factory state it would stop the internet working randomly, when it wanted. This would certainly cause a similar type of spontaneous combustion I talked about earlier.
I like buying gadgets but moan when I can’t afford better ones and I am a firm believer in Retail Therapy. I groan about certain ‘advancements’ in technology and I hate standing still. So where am on all this? I’m confused like everybody else, I feel loved by the money which buys me the gadgets and hated by the companies who make them.
I’m always left wishing I’d waited a few more months or given somebody else my business.
Consumers are left hating the Technology Industry because, like all industries, they want your money. Consumers having obsolete technology is just collateral damage. If this didn’t happen then the Economy would be in an even worse state and we’d all still be cave men.
Holiday in Lanzarote
I´m currently on holiday in Lanzarote with Sarah. We flew out on Sunday and the weather has been really good. We are staying at the Ficus apartments in Costa Teguise and we don´t have anything to complain about. The food is great and the rooms are nice.
We went to the Timanfya national Park on Tuesday for Sarah´s Birthday and we rode on Camels which was fun but bumpy.
We took a bus to Puerto Del Carmen on Wednesday as we lost our ticket for a free excursion. It was great there though, we walked right from one end to the other occasionally stopping in souvenier shops.
We had a nice Sit down with a San Miguel before catching a bus back to Costa Teguise.
Yesterday was a day of Relaxation, we had breakfast then lay by the pool for about 4 hours. Then we had a bit of a swim and chilled on our Balcony.
It´s going to be similar today but we are going to have a walk across the sea front a little later on.
I bought a Samsung HD Video Camera at the airport, it was right bargain (cheaper than you will think Dad!) as it just does 720p (which is all my Tele does and looks awesome enough on Rambo). We´ve taken lots of videos of our travels and lots of photos on my Digital Camera so, combined, should make a good Hi-Def holiday video.´
We´re missing our little reptile dudes and dudettes but know they are in capable, caring hands. My mum says Tilly really enjoys coming out for cuddles but scratched her chest (she does get excitable and flail her arms about… Tilly that is, not my mum)
We fly back on Sunday and I have the monday off work so it should be nice, to just unwind and catchup with English life again.
It´ll be a shame to leave the island though as we are both really enjoying it.
Photos and Things
Well I managed to borrow an SD Card reader earlier in the week from a Collegue. I downloaded my Pictures and Videos off the card out of my kerput Samsung S830 Camera.
I bought a new Digital Camera today to replace ‘The Dropped Item’ – It’s another a Samsung, as Samsung P1000.
Here is the Custard-R…
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