Ten on Tuesday
Today's Ten on Tuesday is ten favorite iPhone apps, a topic I am singularly ill equipped to address, since I don't own an iPhone. I've played with my sister's, and I've watched my friend Kathy use hers to zip through cyberspace, and it is definitely a very cool toy, but... I don't need one. I don't need one for business, and I spend most of my life in front of a computer or at any rate near one, so I can really live without an iPhone (or Droid, or Blackberry) perfectly well. The human race went tens of thousands of years without ever seeing an iPhone, or ever dreaming that such a thing was possible, and somehow managed to thrive anyway, so obviously what we have here is marketing and advertising yet again creating a "need" for something we don't really need.
Except for one thing: I want one. And I am too cheap to buy one. I refuse to buy an iPod, either, even after watching my daughter get lots of mileage from hers, and I am not about to get Tivo so that I can waste yet more time watching TV.
Hmm... there might be a theme here.
Ten Gadgets I Want But Am Too Cheap to Buy
You may notice that while some of these are relatively new on the scene, others have been around for a while. What can I say? I'm an equal-opportunity fuddy-duddy.
Except for one thing: I want one. And I am too cheap to buy one. I refuse to buy an iPod, either, even after watching my daughter get lots of mileage from hers, and I am not about to get Tivo so that I can waste yet more time watching TV.
Hmm... there might be a theme here.
Ten Gadgets I Want But Am Too Cheap to Buy
- iPhone. Carole assures me that resistance is futile. I'm sure she's right. At least if I got an iPhone I wouldn't have to walk around with one of those earpiece thingies (I expect the arm attachment to be out any day now).
- iPod. Even though I could listen to Dire Straits 24/7 if I wanted to. (My husband and my daughter disagree on a lot of music, but they both abominate Dire Straits. Of course.)
- Tivo. See above.
- Wii. My SIL Ellen has one — actually she has quite a few nifty devices, her husband being a gadget freak. Watching my daughter play WiiFit games during our last visit I began to wonder if I might actually drop a few pounds if I had one of those things. No! I resist! We have a perfectly good exercise bike.
- Electric can opener. I really don't even want one, except that there's something mesmerizing about watching the little arm make its way around the can. Yes, I need to get out more.
- Direct TV. See Tivo.
- Call waiting on our land line. Since we all have cell phones, we could probably get rid of the land line and save some money, but I perversely cling to it like a security blanket, a connection to the good old days. And we have a phone with an actual cord, so we can make calls even if the power has been out for three days and all our cell phone batteries are dead, so there. (The fact that in the 15 years we've lived in our current house the power was once out for almost 24 hours has nothing to do with it.) I am still not having any of these newfangled contraptions. Besides, I hate being put on hold.
- Cuisinart. Well, actually we have a food processor; it's called an Oster Kitchen Center, it was a wedding present, and it's old and big and clunky but still perfectly serviceable. Kind of like me.
- Knitting machine. It would be a lot of fun to play with one of these, and once I got up to speed I could certainly make room for more yarn in a hurry, but, let's face it, my speed is one stitch at a time.
- Golding wheel. Or Norm Hall, or Lendrum Saxony, or... you get the idea. I have a wheel already. Several, actually. Quite nice ones. Not miracles of engineering, not stunning marriages of form and function, but still with a lot of good years left. Kind of like me.
You may notice that while some of these are relatively new on the scene, others have been around for a while. What can I say? I'm an equal-opportunity fuddy-duddy.
posted by Lucia at
5:22 PM
6 Comments:
Meh, I have an iPod that I almost never use. Once in a while I remember to bring it to the gym, but most of the time I forget it. and I absolutely HATE it the rest of the time. I got an audible.com subscription and downloaded a book. It's supposed to be a great book, but listening to it puts me to sleep. Music, I mostly feel "meh" about. If it's on when I go to a cafe, or shopping -- love it when shopping -- great. Or if it's on for a romantic dinner or something, great. But I never think to listen to it otherwise, and I really hate the earbud thing, or fixing up the Bluetooth device to make it work wirelessly. So the iPod was pretty much a waste of however much it cost me, which I now can't even remember.
I've got a BlackBerry and mostly I like it, but I think I *MIGHT* like an iPhone better. Then again, I don't feel terribly strongly about it. Land line is a necessary evil for us up here in the wilds of Vermont. Our power DOES go off from time to time -- not for terribly long periods usually where we live -- but our cell service is spotty, so we can't live by cell alone.
This comment is starting to get as long as a blog post, so I'll stop now. :D
By
Norma, at 5:47 PM
I feel exactly the same way about an iPhone. I want one because it would be a fun toy, but I have absolutely no need for one. My prepaid Tracfone without internet access serves my needs just fine for well <$100/year.
I have an iPod -- actually my second one -- and love it, get lots and lots of use from it. Mostly I use it for audiobooks, but music and podcasts are nice, too.
No cable or satellite TV here, so no need for Tivo or such. No cell phone reception in the house or on our property so we need our landline.
By
Anonymous, at 10:11 PM
I use my iPod only when traveling. But then it is indispensable for keeping me calm during plane flights.
The iPhone is great if you travel, and roam the wilds of Boston. I like the convenience, and the augmentation of the middle aged memory. Since I am a data junkie, it works for me.
As you know, we don't have cable. Or TIVO. Or satellite.
By
Laurie, at 6:25 AM
We have a couple of friends who are about to get the Blackberrys surgically implanted in the forearm. Ok, not quite that bad, but they live with those things in hand. We can be talking, and I'll say, "Is Don Knotts still alive?" and they'll both whip out the berries to look it up. If he comes up with the date, she'll tell you the cause of death. - - uh, guys? It was just an idle thought.
I really like the paper and pencil way of taking notes.
By
roxie, at 9:18 AM
I'm with you on several of these, though I'm still "nibbling" around the idea of getting some sort of iPod-type thing, and the fancy phones intrigue the gadget-freak in me ;o)
By
joyknits, at 11:15 AM
no ipod, no cell phone, mobile luddite... but i do drool over those droid things
By
Lisa/knitnzu, at 6:12 PM
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