If you're active in today's society, you can't have missed the word 'gadget'. The word itself is confusing, and means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Well this is my first blog ever i am writing. You all may first think why have i chosen this topic itself. Actually its a long long story =P as i am too talkative and leave no place but the people to say, "Dude - I am bored to the hell" just like this one of my dearest one with whom i used to talk much and shar e everything. I think you understood the Relation, INTELLIGENT FELLOWS ;) . She was very fond of the new gadgets in markets, and me never paid attention on her curiosity towards gadgets. She loved talking about gadgets and me-I just talked in airs usually. And one day came when she told me "Cant we talk something new? don't you have any common interesting topics to discuss?? I understood at that point itself, that i made one more fellow bored. And from then, my interests in gadgets and related things came out within me. And now I am daring to write this blog.
Without wasting your time, I would briefly like to discuss about GADGETS.
How come an item can be a gadget one week, and not the next? What makes one mobile phone a gadget, while another isn't? Does something have to be high-tech to be a gadget? What draws people to gadgets?
Gadgets are devices that enrich your life in one way or another, usually in a way that can be perceived to be more elegant than another way of solving the same problem. One example is keys with built-in lights: Strictly speaking, you could do perfectly fine without, or you could carry a torch with you, but if you live in an area with little lighting, and find yourself struggling to find the key hole to your house frequently, a key with a LED LIGHT built in has added benefit. Whilst not particularly high-tech, this could be considered a high-tech solution to a low-tech problem, and it can be argued that this device could be a gadget.
The ur-gadget: Apple iPod
Another definition of a gadget is a device that does something that another device does as well, but does it better, or differently for aesthetic reasons. The iPod, for example, started off as a gadget: 'why the hell would I want to pay stupid amounts of money to carry 4 GB of songs around', was the question that resounded during its launch. Around the same time, Creative had an MP3 Player on the market roughly the size as an early Discman, which stored twice as much music and cost a lot less. On paper, the player from Creative should be the definite winner. In practice, however, people were drawn to the clean design and ease of use of the iPod. To this day, synchronising your tunes with an iPod, for example, is easier than with any other music player, largely due to the genius that is iTunes.
Well an iPod can be used for 'serious' things (examples include transporting the daily rushes of footage from the LORD Of THE RING films, and doctors training to listen to different heartbeat patterns on their iPods, in an effort to be able to recognise different heart ailments by their sound alone), the vast majority of iPods are frivolous investments: There are cheaper MP3 players out there, there are players with more capacity, better video capabilities, and things that do all of this, and are still cheaper than iPods.In fact, if you compare MP3 players based on specifications alone, nobody in their right mind would buy an iPod. And yet... the iPod is the best-selling portable music player in the world today (with a 70% market share), and has been since its launch in 2001.
A lot of explanations are possible, but mainly, its popularity due to the fact that its iconic, instantly recognisable design — not least due to the white earbuds that have become symbolic of the iPod, something that has been re-iterated again and again in the now-famous iPod Silhouette advertisements — has turned it into a cult icon and a fashion statement.
Mobile phones
It is believed that, in a world where you really have to fight to stand out from the crowd, gadgets have become fashion items in their own rights. People have grown to enjoy the added benefits and aesthetic advantage of pretty, nifty things in their lives. Ten years ago, mobile phones barely existed and were ridiculously expensive. Today, the vast majority of people carry around, and rely on, the mobile phone entirely. A mobile phone has a real, tangible advantage (having a phone number that follows you, and being instantly contactable), and while mobile telephones were definite gadgets in the time of the yuppies in the 1980s, their ubiquity means that arguing that a mobile phone still is a gadget is difficult.
There are hundreds of different mobile telephones out there, however, from the most basic 'phone with a phone book and sms messaging' to the bleeding edge smartphones of today which can run operating systems, can print directly to printers, use WiFi to get on the internet, can run software and games, and have sleek, modern looks to boot. It is hard to draw a line between mobile phones that are purely functional devices and ones that could be considered as 'gadgets', but everybody can agree that some phones are high-tech fashion and technology devices, while others are tools. As an example, only a few years ago,
mobile phone with cameras were a novelty gadget, now nearly all mobile phones come with a camera — is it still a gimmick, or are people using the mobile phone cameras as tools?
So, what exactly is the appeal of gadgets?
In many way, gadgets are the culmination of a consumerist society. There's not just the urge to buy things, but to buy the newest, best, and fastest, but to demand a great design to boot. Combined with all of this, the items you surround yourself with — be it High Definition televisions, portable gaming gadgets, or high-tech sporting equipment — project a lot about who you are to the outside world.
Apart from the pleasure derived directly from using technology that just.. works. To me, well-designed technology that makes life easier is something that really excites me. If it, in addition to making my life more effective, also offers entertainment and helps project the image of me as a tasteful, successful individual, then those are great bonuses.
In a way, personal technology — or gadgets, if you like — have become the extension of your personality in some circles. Are you the sleek, efficient, luxurious and gorgeous black MacBook, or are you a bargain-bin, last-generation Windows 95 behemoth of a laptop? I don't know about you, but I know which one I'd rather be...
The cost of most forms of energy has increased a lot recently and will likely only go up in the future. And not only the monetary cost but the cost to our environment needs to be considered. Thankfully, the energy emitted from the Sun is still free... The Freeloader Portable Solar Charger can help you tap into this free source of energy; you simply plug it in and point it towards the Sun...
