gadget regretThe iPad Air has me regretting my Mini a little. When I got the Mini, I was in search of the lightest and smallest Apple tablet I could get. Now that the Air is out though, I am reconsidering. A full-size tablet, but with the Mini’s weight? That is compelling to me.

I am not in such a hurry to jump ship though, because experience has taught me that something better will come along someday, and I have made the mistake too often of adopting early and then being sorry later.

The iPad is the perfect example. When the Mini came out, I regretted that I had upgraded to the iPad 2. I should have kept my iPad 1 to run into the ground, and used the Mini as my small and light one. If I had done that, there would be some justification in selling the Mini and getting the Air now that it’s out. But Apple still sells the iPad 2. There is nothing wrong with it other than that something better has come along now. And I need a new computer soon. So I am stuck with the iPad 2 I never should have bought, and I’ll have to keep it now until it can’t be used anymore—-at which point the Air 2 or Air 3 will be out, and I can pick up an Air 1 for a swan song.

I have been a little luckier with my ebook readers. I don’t regret the Sony 505, since it was the only game in town at the time, and I don’t regret the Kindle, even though it cost more than double when it first came out. I had a few in-between Kindles I could have probably managed without, but I enjoyed them while they lasted and sold them for almost what I paid. As for my current Kobo Glo, I enjoy reading on it and I feel better about using an epub device these days because it’s somewhat more open of a format than the mobi is and I can edit out the errors using free software. But I have to admit, the Kindle Paperwhite is a little slicker, software-wise, and syncs better with my phone and tablet (the Kobo tablet software is awful). I periodically contemplate trading in the Glo for a Paperwhite, but have not yet taken the plunge and ultimately I am not sure I ever seriously plan to.

How about you? Any gadget regrets you want to confess to?

7 COMMENTS

  1. I am sad to say I have a Palm T|X still fresh and new in the box. I had a TX and it died. I found a great deal on eBay for a new in box and asked if he had anything else. He said I could get a second TX for the same price and I jumped at it. Thinking I would now have a PDA for a good long time without needing to replace again.

    How true that was, wry grin.

  2. The only gadget regret I can think of right now was my Kindle Touch, which I bought just a few months before the first Paperwhite came out. I recently sold my Touch, and if it had been a Paperwhite, I think I’d still own it.

  3. Here’s a little tidbit that may take the edge off of some of that regret for some people. I have a second generation iPod touch that cannot be upgraded beyond iOS 5.1.1. Unfortunately, it was upgrading to apps that required a newer version of iOS. Thus, apps such as iBooks and Skype were no longer functional on this device. It had become prematurely useless so I set it aside.
    Then, Apple changed the way downloads to older iOS devices is done. Using an older device, one is now told that the current version will not work on that older device and you are offered an older version that will work. Thanks to this operational improvement my second generation iPod touch has a new lease on life. This information hasn’t gotten a lot of notice so I pass it on here for those of you who may benefit.

  4. I regret being a “close-to-first-user” with my AT&T Note [1] … ATT is a poor carrier, few bars a lot, updates are few and slow to come, last one (Android 4.1.2) ruined battery life and Samsung’s SNote software is hard to use.

    On the other hand my 2nd Gen Kindle gets lots and lots of use.

  5. I always buy new gadget after my current one doesn’t work any more. One of the reasons is that I don’t have anyone that I can give them my old one. As long as the gadget is working fine, I stick to it. I am using my iPad 2 every day and I still enjoy it and think it is an amazing gadget, It was amazing two years ago, so it is still amazing now as it still fulfil my needs.

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