It's been nearly four years considering I first started out to invite myself clearly how an awful lot I modified into lacking out on with the aid of no longer proudly proudly owning a cellphone. At the time, I concluded that, even as a smartphone may want to in truth have its uses, there wasn't an lousy lot I have to do with one which I couldn't do with out one?Virtually now not enough to justify the rate of the cellphone and a high priced statistics plan to go along with it.
Since then, I've been revisiting the problem sometimes. I've come up with several extra things I may additionally want to do with a cellphone that I can't resultseasily do without one, including:
- Looking things up to answer questions that occur to us while we're away from home.
- Using it as a GPS. (Yes, I can print out maps and directions from Google ahead of time, but only if I know where I'm going. If I make a trip on the spur of the moment, or get lost or detoured, having something that could steer me back to safety would be useful.)
- Geocaching, a kind of real-life treasure hunting game. It looks like fun, but I've never had a chance to try it because it requires a GPS-enabled device.
- Electronic coupons and rewards apps, such as SavingStar.
- Taking pictures of things for future reference. For instance, I could snap a photo of my car to remind myself where I parked, or take a picture of an interesting plant so I could look it up later.
- Keeping my calendar and address book up to date. (I currently use paper versions, but they're harder to update. The squares in the date book are too dinky to write much in, and the only way to update the address book is to cross out an entry and write a new one, so I eventually run out of lines.)
- Keeping a list of gift ideas for friends and family that's always on hand, so I can jot down ideas as I think of them (or snap pictures of possible gifts).
However, I've determined that it's far clearly possible to get records with this same plan on an as-desired foundation: simply $5 for a one-day bypass, or $10 for one week. And we in all likelihood wouldn't ought to do that extra than more than one instances a month; quite a few the sports activities listed above do not even require an Internet connection, and others (collectively with downloading coupons) could be achieved at home, the usage of my domestic wireless network. So common, the value could not be too awful. (And expertise that I must pay for my statistics by using the day could in all likelihood keep me from using the telephone too regularly, so I wouldn't chance becoming one of those humans who's not able to appearance up from the rattling element.)
So all in all, I've more or less decided that this will probably be the year we finally take the plunge and get a (basic, prepaid, refurbished) smartphone. Which will put us only, what, about seven years behind everyone else in the Western world.
Now, you could snort at me all you want for being up to now in the returned of the instances. But I firmly maintain that my wait-and-see technique to new technology is definitely a tremendously ecofrugal choice. All those folks who rushed out and acquired the first actual iPhone whilst it first got here out ten years again paid $500 or for a barely clunky first-technology tool with 4GB of memory. The cellphone I've got my eye on proper now has 16GB, a much advanced digicam, Bluetooth, and all types of specific capabilities?For $150. In other terms, with the useful resource of dragging my feet in this desire, I'm getting a miles better product at a far decrease fee.
Being a late adopter has benefited me in distinctive approaches, as nicely. For example, I've in no way gotten spherical to searching for a Blu-Ray DVD player, because of the truth I'm not that choosy approximately video great, and the better decision wouldn't make a whole lot distinction on my smallish TV besides. I used to determine I'd probable ought to get one finally, because by the time our vintage DVD participant bit the dirt, widespread-decision gamers could now not be to be had?But by means of the usage of now, quite a bargain the entirety we want to look at may be streamed besides. So by the time this player conks out, we might not need a present day one in any respect. Voil??Via getting rid of shopping for this new system, we prevented having to shop for it the least bit!
These reports have been the muse for my contemporary Money Crashers article, that is all about the advantages of being a overdue adopter. I do no longer spend the complete piece bragging about how tons time and money I've saved by using waiting to adopt new generation (despite the fact that I'll admit to doing it a hint bit); rather, I speak why past due adopters, or
Here's the full article (complete with an incredibly clunky title chosen by the editorial staff, not by me):How Being a Laggard or Late Adopter of Technology Can Save You Money. Please do your best to ignore the frequent use of the phrase "late adopters or laggards" through out the article, as well; apparently my editors are convinced that the word "laggard," which I've never used once in my life until I wrote this piece, is a term that people might actually search for, and so they need to stuff it into the article as often as possible.
