Are you at the leading or trailing edge? gadgets | General discussion ( non motoring ) | Back Room Forum

Fri 9 Jul 2010 08:50

Are you at the leading or trailing edge? gadgets - oilrag

As long as i can remember I`ve been on the trailing edge - though, I can`t remember exactly when that started with gadgets.

For me, with tech, It might have been with the Packard Bell computer in 1999 (or was it 98?) Freeserve came in and that was the sort of `tipping point` along with computers dropping to around £700.

I remember going to look in Dixons at computers and choosing one which was second up from the bottom in price range. Was it a Patriot? the one below, or was that the name of the chip??

The same with smartphones - we bought two Nokia E63`s about 6 months ago and then, (we use two phones each) a couple of weeks ago bought two Nokia E71`s from 3. These were amongst the possibly last batch held in the store as the E72 had been released.

Mature firmware was the thinking behind that - with the E71`s being not on the first version, unlike the E72`s. (It`s interesting to read the Nokia support forum about alleged E72 firmware issues)

Then there were the hundreds of people in Meadowhall trying to get an Iphone 4 - just as we were buying the -two years in production - E71`s.

In the end of course, it`s whatever makes you happy - if you get a buzz out of brand new tech, then great.

Ever noticed though that you can`t `make` yourself change with this.

You`re either a `trailing edge` or `leading edge` person and stuck with it ;-)

Regards

oilrag

Edited by oilrag on 09/07/2010 at 12:50

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Sat 10 Jul 2010 03:13

Are you at the leading or trailing edge? gadgets - billy25

Imust have been the "last person" on windows `98, and on dial-up internet! - i`m now on Windows Xp (basic - no service packs) and have been for some months! i`ve progressed to a router on broadband, and am stunned at the speed of my "up to" 8mb connection, which is usually about 1mb. I still have and treasure my Nokia 3310 phone, i can t take photo`s, play music or blue-tooth, but i can txt and make phone calls! I still cut the finished -with Sunday paper up into small squares, but "she" bins them!!!! and i still insist on using a tea-pot! - old- fashioned? moi? never!!

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Tue 27 Jul 2010 09:56

Are you at the leading or trailing edge? gadgets - MrTG

Now I'm in my 6th decade I am quite openly proudly in the trailing edge. Although using internet and computers has been an essential and very useful tool in self employment. I was stealing loads of business from Google searches before Google finally put the screws on everyone after they'd killed off Yellow Pages and other competition. I still am very keen and savvy in getting high search engine placings though.

But everything else? I'm happy with an old Nokia phone from around 2003, I deliberately and sensibly buy cars that once I've whipped off those plastic "keep out" covers from under the bonnet I can easily work on them. I am always looking at Classics and probably will end up with a '46 Austin on rod brakes soon and then realise it's not safe to use! I cannot be bothered even switching on the TV and scrolling through Digital Channels.

There is something re-assuring and connecting in messing with bicycles, gardening, looking after animals and such like. The only Blackberry I know is a fruit, and that's all I want to know.

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Tue 27 Jul 2010 22:51

Are you at the leading or trailing edge? gadgets - captain chaos

Hear hear! Nothing wrong with the old stuff. If it ain't broke and all that. Must admit though it's getting harder finding tapes for my eight track...

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Tue 27 Jul 2010 22:59

Are you at the leading or trailing edge? gadgets - Avant

In terms of the information super-highway I'm probably still on the hard shoulder.... I like gadgets but only in so far as they do things I need them to do.

The worst offender for unnecessary gizmos is probably the digital cine-camera (or camcorder or whatever you're supposed to call it nowadays) - endless little buttons that do things I'd never thought of needing to do.

And of course there are the TV remote controls with those rows of buttons - I only ever need about six of them.

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 12:51

Are you at the leading or trailing edge? gadgets - Cliff Pope

"Be not the first by whom the new is tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside"

Alexander Pope

I've said it before - the optimum place to be is a comfortable way behind the crest of the new wave. That way someone else picks up the depreciation, the design faults, the blind-alley technology, and you still get carried along as a free-loader.

The place not to be is left behind in the surf as the wave moves on.

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