gadget depreciation

I've sold my PS3 since I haven't touched it for months. Last December, I bought a copy of Final Fantasy XIII-2 because I was a fan of the series. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it and it wasn't enough to convince me to keep the console. So, I sold it, along with all my games.

It was not really a good deal, but I had no choice. It has the latest firmware on it. I don't regret selling it though since I sold it to a good friend.

I also sold my Galaxy Tab. I wasn't using it that much as well since I grew tired of always carrying a big lump of plastic everywhere I go. Plus, I feel dumb holding it up to my ear whenever I took a call since I don't always have my headset with me when it rings.

Also, like the PS3, it wasn't a good deal. I sold it for some measly amount of cash and an old Android phone. I then sold the Android phone to my aunt at a really low price since she's family and I wanted her to learn how to use smartphones.

So, with the small amount of money I got from selling my toys, I've decided to buy a used Galaxy Note. I've always wanted one the moment it was launched but I didn't buy it then because it was too overpriced. It hasn't been a year yet and now they are selling it for only 70% of its original price. With the steep price difference from a brand new Galaxy S3, I thought (and still think) that the used Galaxy Note was the better purchase. Used Galaxy Notes now sell for 55-60% their original prices.

The one I got was only barely used for a few months. The original owner desperately wanted an iPhone so he really wanted to dispose his Galaxy Note. So far, there seems to be no issues with my new toy. I flashed it with the latest ICS official firmware and it really feels good as new. There were no bugs, no scratches, and no hidden defects. Hopefully none will appear, ever.

Finally, after months of waiting, prices have plummeted.

Thanks to fast-evolving technology, last month's treasure is this month's trash. Even though I sold my good stuff real cheap, there will always be other people making the same mistakes as I am. You just need patience to wait for the right oppurtunity and the wisdom to see through possible scams.

I'm happy with my new gadget. I hope this happiness lasts for a year. More even.

Ice Cream Sandwich goodness

I've been wanting to sell my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus so that I can buy one of the newer smartphones that just came out recently. I bought this thing 7 months ago on the very day it was officially released in our country. Unfortunately, only after 7 months from its launch date, this tablet is now considered old tech. I think it is now being sold at half of its original price. Its a good thing that I got a discount when I bought it (won a discount in a raffle that I, sort of, cheated, haha) so it doesn't really hurt that much when I think about the price drop.

I was about to sell this to get myself a Samsung Galaxy S3, but then I realized that I shouldn't be buying gadgets 'hot off the pan' as I'm sure that prices will drop in just a few months. So, I've decided to get something older but still better. I was eyeing the Samsung Galaxy Note. It was one of the gadgets that 'had me at hello.' It was love at first sight when I first saw it but I got turned off knowing how overpriced it was. And now that the Note is over a year old, I looked up its price online and I found out that it's now selling for half of its original price. I don't think it will get any lower than that so I've decided to get one once I've sold my tablet.

I was able to find a friend who was willing to buy my Tab. I gave him a really low price that's a little bit hard to turn down (even if he knew that I've had the screen replaced since the original one shattered when I once dropped it.) But unfortunately again, he run out of funds due to an overdraft in his credit card or something of the like and he wasn't sure anymore if he can pay me soon. So, I deferred my plan to upgrade and just told myself to just keep my money and stick with the Tab. It was hard to accept as I was really psyched to buy the Galaxy Note.

And then news came of the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for my device. Woot! As of now, the official version of the OS for my country isn't available yet so I had to flash one from a different country.

I've just finished upgrading my OS to ICS and it is as if I'm holding a new gadget. I'll just pretend that this is the new gadget that I bought. At least, this can keep me distracted for a few more months. Maybe then I'll get back to my senses and stop wasting my money on these stupid gadget craze. Haha.

protected by cdr-king

We've set up CCTV cameras around the house. It seems hard at first but I can attest that it is DIY-able. Our setup is composed of 3 cameras and a web-accessible DVR, all courtesy of CDR-King - a local distributor of questionable tech gadgets and accessories.

So far, it works as expected.

I'm just hesitant to advertise that we are protected by gadgets from CDR-King. Thieves may intentionally break into our house knowing we are protected by sub-par tech. Haha...

high tech doodles

I bought this dirt-cheap stylus for my gadget and I'm checking if I can easily write down notes with it. I'm posting this just to check how my doodles would look like when shared through the Blogger app.

Update: The dirt-cheap stylus broke. We really get what we pay for. I should have bought this instead:

exploding video cards

The capacitors of my old video card blew up. There were four of them on the board and I think they gave up one at a time without me noticing. Months earlier, I would hear “plastic-ky” explosions in my room and I would search far and wide where it came from but would always end up empty-handed. There wasn’t any smoke and nothing smells burnt. Just the other day, I heard another one. I didn’t bother looking for its source and just carried on with what I was doing – playing World of Warcraft. Everything was okay until I decided to restart my computer. After it shut down, it didn’t boot. All the LEDs were still blinking normally and the fans seem to be working fine so I was able to deduce that the problem was with the video card. And it indeed was. There they were… 4 blown capacitors bleeding orange stuff.

Medic!

Poor thing… and poor me – I need to buy a new one because of this. It’s a good thing that WoW can run on the built-in video card of my mobo. I can hold off any purchases for now.

Oh no, you didn’t.

Oh yes, I did… I’ve started playing World of Warcraft again. I’ve decided to revive my account after almost 3 long years of dormancy. For now, I’ve just been using the free 10-day trial offered by Blizzard for the Cataclysm expansion pack. If I’m hooked after the trial period, I may be subscribing again.

I was supposed to buy myself an iPad 2 last Friday but after a recent unfortunate event, I decided to just give my hard-earned cash to Blizzard instead.

* * *

Yeah, I almost owned an iPad 2. I was at the mall during the device’s launch but I just stood outside – watching as the people eagerly handed out their credit cards to the cashier. I kept telling myself that the iPad looks good now only because of the hype surrounding it and that I will never actually use it. After 2 hours of that, I finally decided to just go home.

I know I will have no use for it but to be honest, I really want one. I’m trying my best not to give in to temptation and I’m wishing that by the time that I’ve REALLY decided to get one, there won’t be any stocks left.

It’s also not helping that my officemate bought one. I think he left it charging in my cube just to tease me.

Apple’s reality distortion field is really good.

lemons and more lemons

I successfully revived my dying wireless mouse. Thanks to Google and a step-by-step guide that I found over at overclock.net, I managed to fix my auto-double-clicking  Logitech M305 mouse.

I’ve never had so much hassle over a piece of disposable PC peripheral because I usually buy the cheap ones which I just throw away once they get broken.

If you will notice, Logitech is not really a cheap brand. The mouse that I bought actually costs five times more than the unbranded ones. And it really annoys me that of all the mice that I bought, this is the only one that did not even reach 6 months of sporadic use. Considering that the only reason why I bought this is for its ‘renowned’ quality, it’s annoyingly ironic.

We don’t have service centers for Logitech from where I’m from and I’ve already lost the purchase receipt so I really can’t do anything about this but try to fix it myself.

With the help of the step-by-step guide that I found, I replaced the problematic copper springs with ones that I took off of an old set that I no longer use.

 

So far, it has been working properly. Due to this experience (and another one on my ‘lemon’ Logitech Wireless Keyboard), I don’t think I will be buying anything Logitech in the near future – or until they’ve established a service center locally.