Thursday, July 5, 2012

Geeky News

While I'm not generally a Microsoft fan (Nor am I an Apple fan), I must say that this keynote and product excited me.



Why?


1) The tech here will compliment my increasingly paperless home.

I have been doing more reading and critiquing on Google Docs than in another form.  The ability to use a pen to edit could help the screen adopt the same functionality as paper + pen, which is really a big thing to me.

2) The keyboard.

I do not own a tablet.  The guy's was a gift, but he uses his electronics mostly for reading (books/comics/blogs), listening to podcasts, some Youtube...so the accompanying keyboard has never been a priority and we never bought one...

I write and blog, waste time on social media, play a few simple games, Pandora and read (other people's writing, blogs, books).

In short I need a keyboard, and most tablets out there offer it separately.  So, I would have to save up for one device, get it and then save up for another?  No can do. The device would sit collecting dust until I had a keyboard.  At which point I'd wonder why I hadn't just saved up for a laptop?

Tablet v. Laptop:


I want something with the portability of a tablet, but the specs of a computer.

I am hard on cords, so I have determined I require either a desktop or a device that maintains a charge for a long time. I dislike buying 3 chargers over the course of the laptop's 5-yr life.  So, I have fallen out-of-love with laptops.

I would love a tablet that had laptop-like functionality, because I could use it as a computer, e-reader, I'd check e-mail and use it for cloud uses (reading/critiquing/editing/etc). but I just don't go very many places right now....and everywhere I go is running errands between 4-8pm...so this is more an "eventual" thing than anything


Price



Microsoft very obviously omitted the actual cost. Which means this will be, no doubt, over-priced.  


Then Why the Excitement?



My guy is a lover of tech and has taught me something about it, well a few things:


a) never buy the first iteration of any new tech

b) if you love the tech, wait a year or two for someone to do it better

c) don't buy anything right when it's released, wait a few months at least, because when something newer circles the corner the price will fall--if not on the main websites, then as a sale on a smaller third-party site, Amazon, New Egg, or some other techie-e-store.

d) don't pay full price if you can avoid it, and most of the time there is a deal somewhere that enables you to get something for a much better deal.

e) always do your research, don't follow trends, and recheck all assumptions you have about a product before actually making a purchase.

f) Know your rights as a consumer, because with phones and devices that require contracts with a telecom, there's generally a way to wield your contract and service to your advantage, you just have to do it right and be respectful to the people on the other end of the phone.  Remember, customer loyalty and retention is important to companies, especially when you select a smaller business (on a relative scale).

So I get excited about this stuff, when something comes out with more friendly specs, but I am not going to hop up and buy it.  (Sorry)  I'll maintain the excitement going forward, eager to see what the market will do with these ideas, and wait for something similar that's actually in price range to appear.







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