A GIFT NOT A TRAP
December 11th 2010 00:00
Illustration pic source: Wikipedia
Christmas is just around the bend, once again, so I suppose a gift idea is not a bad contribution to a world that is about to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Almost a year ago, I had a not so crazy idea of giving myself a gift.
It was one of the latest electronic gadgets available at the time, an expensive popular smart phone, but it will not cost me anything. It was free! All I needed to do was to take it.
I did, thinking that I can’t go wrong with something like that. Well, I was wrong. I ended up spending an amount that I was not willing to part with. Not because it was something that I cannot afford, but because I felt cheated.
I ranted about it in one of my previous posts here in Orble, but a friend told me that was about all I can do about it since the guys who gave me the free phone can easily prove that I used the service they were charging me for. He said the phone was automatically set to do that and it was up to the clients to turn off that service.
A stupid thing, because who would know how to switch off something that he didn’t know was switched on? (Hey, I am the kind of guy who reads brochures and literatures that comes with the unit.) It was like a trap, and before I knew it, I already have the biggest monthly phone bill ever in my entire life!
Well, if I have money to spend for gifts this Christmas, I will not be buying traps or electronic Trojan Horses that will drain the finances of my recipients.
So, my gift idea this Christmas has almost the same frills as your expensive tablet (Ipad or smart phones) but it will not burn a hole in your pockets and it, most definitely, will not be connecting to the internet on its own and run a huge bill that you are not aware of.
It is that thumbnail displayed with this post. If you didn’t recognize it, it’s an “Archos 70”. A 7 inch internet tablet that runs on Android software (froyo), with high resolution touch sceen, and it is said to have access to thousands of apps. It has wifi and Bluetooth 2.1 but best of all, it doesn’t have a 3G feature.
Why is an internet thingy that does not have 3G feature a good thing?
Well, I can only speak for myself. To me, it is good because I don’t want some pseudo-respectable companies putting one over me. I have a 3G phone with Bluetooth anyway. Archos 70 has Bluetooth, wifi and supports 3G tethering. There’s nothing like knowing when you are spending money on some internet connections.
Why a 7 inch screen? Because it is a tablet my dear fellas, not a table.
Sure, it is not an Ipad but I am not really into buying names. I go for functionality. This one does almost practically the same things, it’s of the right size and it comes at about half the price.
Here’s a caveat, everything I know about this gadget I only got from reading about it on the net. I wanted to have a look at it and buy one, but it is not readily available in the Philippines at this time. I wonder why…
But I reckon, it is really worth checking out.
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