EDitorial ± 2-Jun-2003
File Of Facts
I wouldn't consider myself an early adopter: you know, one of those people who has to be first on the block with the latest gear. We use a colour portable most of the time; there's no Sky or digital in the house; and DVD? Not for me yet, ta very much, though the VHS shelves at Blockbuster are shrinking like the latest Big Brother viewing figures.
Here's a cautionary tale. Back in 2000, I got me a snazzy PDA for my birthday. This was the very recently launched Handspring Visor Deluxe, and I was one happy camper. It could store around 100 times more names & addresses than I knew, it could run endless downloadable bits of freeware, and it was the same colour as my iMac at home, a small but essential detail.
One of the best features, IMHO, was the ability to take a long article or out-of-copyright short story from the web, something that would be a pain to read online, and download it to the device. That way, I could slip the Visor into a coat pocket at lunchtime, then idly flick through the pages while sipping a caffeinated beverage in town. Saved on dead trees and looked cool too.
Over time the novelty wore off. You get out of these things what you put into them, and I put in less and less. And when I did extract it from the leather case, it demanded fresh batteries before it would play. Consequently it fell into disuse. I wasn't proud of this state of affairs.
Having been carted around in my rucksack for months, I decided a few months ago that it was time to give it another go. Only then did I discover a crack in the screen, and it resolutely refused to recognise a single tap of the stylus. Not good. Really not good.
Much more recently I've been using a retro PDA that:
- is stylus independent,
- requires no power source,
- fits in my back pocket,
- and is practically disposable
Yep, my trusty WHSmith 32 sheet narrow ruled notebook is doing the job, ta. A snip at 49p.
If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
The lure of tech:
- ebay has Visors for around £35, a sixth of the original value
- no way I can justify getting an iPod, desirable as they are
- mind you, these Sony Clies are pretty good value (must resist)
Be seeing you!