Damn You Technology!
Every so often I call to mind some device or other that I would like to have. I call it to mind not from having seen it in a shop, or advertised in a magazine, but the assumption that something at such and such a price, with such and such a function ought to be feasible in this capitalism paradise in which we live.
So, having become fed up of the stupid, sound-leaking earbud headphones that came bundled with the horrifically badly designed Samsung E900, I sought out a teensy box with an audiojack on one side and a mobile phone cable on the other. Simple, thought I! Plug the box into the phone and then any old pair of headphones (such as the nice white RAB ones I got from work) and bob is very much your mother's brother. So off I trot to my grand-father's chest and bought me a box of the very very best. No of course not, because a device of such simplicity, that I would happily spend 10-15 pounds on does not exist. What does exist is the biggest pair of headphones in the world at the price of £199 that uses bluetooth. If I'm going to spend two hundred quid on a pair of headphones, I'd be pretty insistent on them being tethered to something, making their cablelessness very much a two-edged sword.
And now, with the calendar ticking away to the next NaNoWriMo I fancy that there must exist something in the £20 range that allows one to compose something akin to a txt file with a minimum of fuss - either with a stylus and touchscreen or a dinky qwerty keyboard that I could wrap my big sausagey fingers around - and then let me slot into a USB to transfer them across. This would allow me to write on the hoof without worrying about all the typing that might ensue. More to the point, when one is supposed to be writing and not editing, it is very difficult to take written work and type it up. Well, having beavered away at Kelkoo, Amazon, Play, FireBox et al, it would appear, again, that no such device exists. The Palm Zire comes close, but it is £30 which seems a lot to pay for what you're getting.
I suspect I shall have to try using dead trees and squid blood in its stead.
So, having become fed up of the stupid, sound-leaking earbud headphones that came bundled with the horrifically badly designed Samsung E900, I sought out a teensy box with an audiojack on one side and a mobile phone cable on the other. Simple, thought I! Plug the box into the phone and then any old pair of headphones (such as the nice white RAB ones I got from work) and bob is very much your mother's brother. So off I trot to my grand-father's chest and bought me a box of the very very best. No of course not, because a device of such simplicity, that I would happily spend 10-15 pounds on does not exist. What does exist is the biggest pair of headphones in the world at the price of £199 that uses bluetooth. If I'm going to spend two hundred quid on a pair of headphones, I'd be pretty insistent on them being tethered to something, making their cablelessness very much a two-edged sword.
And now, with the calendar ticking away to the next NaNoWriMo I fancy that there must exist something in the £20 range that allows one to compose something akin to a txt file with a minimum of fuss - either with a stylus and touchscreen or a dinky qwerty keyboard that I could wrap my big sausagey fingers around - and then let me slot into a USB to transfer them across. This would allow me to write on the hoof without worrying about all the typing that might ensue. More to the point, when one is supposed to be writing and not editing, it is very difficult to take written work and type it up. Well, having beavered away at Kelkoo, Amazon, Play, FireBox et al, it would appear, again, that no such device exists. The Palm Zire comes close, but it is £30 which seems a lot to pay for what you're getting.
I suspect I shall have to try using dead trees and squid blood in its stead.
Labels: market forces, NaNoWriMo, technology
posted by Hamilton's Brain | 2:07 pm
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