Scott McNealy once famously said “technology has the shelf life of a banana,” and he may be onto something: in the last decade alone, we’ve gone from black and white phones to colour to smartphones with touch screens. With so many advancements to technology being made every year (and not enough advancements in pay rates), it can be difficult to keep up with the rising number of gadgets you want to own.
When it comes down to it, nobody can predict where technology is going – who could’ve seen Apple’s iPhone revolution? However, there are a few items that are worth investing in now, and some that you should hold off of until the next wave of “revolutionary changes” comes along.
Smartphones
Smartphones are something you’d be wise to invest in. They are no longer something exclusively for the rich and are accessible to anyone who can afford to sign up to a monthly plan. Smartphones have completely revolutionised the mobile phone industry; they aren’t just phones, but can take high resolution photos (with some phones boasting more megapixels than your average digital camera), record HD video, watch HD movies on astounding display screens and act as a GPS and daily planner. They have access to the internet and allow you to play games and download incredibly useful apps to check your email, Facebook, YouTube, your bank balance, and countless other things.
Computer hardware
When buying a new computer or getting a computer rental, it’s not necessary to get the latest hardware. With new graphics cards and processors coming out every couple of months, you may find that what you bought for $500 only costs $300 a few months later. So long as what you’re getting isn’t ancient, (ancient in hardware terms being two years old) that hardware should be enough to smoothly run most software, games, movies or programs that are released for the next couple of years.
Game consoles
If you’ve been dying to get a new gaming console but have decided to wait until the next generation of consoles to be released, I’d advise you to go ahead and buy the current generation consoles. The highly anticipated next generation consoles like the rumoured Xbox 720 and PS4 are likely to be undoubtedly superior to their predecessors. Even so, it’d be wise to remember that- newly released consoles are rarely released at the same time as highly anticipated and popular games – often you get remastered, rushed or mediocre games released. Also, it will take a while before game developers start to develop games exclusively for the new platforms and their games will still be released for the older generation consoles for a considerable amount of time – time enough for people to migrate to the new hardware. Finally, upon release, these consoles are insanely expensive. Wait a while, make the most of your current console and wait for the market to work its magic fall before committing yourself to buy next-gen consoles.
About the author: Adrian Rodriguez is a freelance writer and university student whose needs to use services like computer rental to pay for his tech habit.