Today I return the goodies lent me, namely, the Motorola e680i and it’s sidekick, the Bluetooth headphones HT820, the Panasonic EB-VS3, the fabulous Motorola ROKR E1.
The subsequent write ups (can’t really call them reviews in the strictest sense as I wrote with a ‘lifestyle’ bent), are here for the ROKR E1, and here for the e680i and the ht820.
The Panasonic writeup should be out today Dec. 13, 2005, but I couldn’t find it in the PDI site as of yet, so I’ll probably have to wait a couple of days.
The only ones left for me to write about are the Canon Pixma ip3000, which unfortunately requires I buy / steal / borrow a printer cable, which is the primary reason why I’ve not yet even taken it out its box, and the Canon Camedia C 480 Zoom (can’t find a proper website for the link, so had to resort to a Italian shopping site. duh.). Plus another Canon item I’m supposed to be receiving next week likely.
How do I feel? How does RELIEVED sound? Relieved at the fact that none of these things broke under my watch, and everything I took out of the box is exactly as I put it in (well, at least I hope so).
Of course, I will miss some of them, the ROKR for its ostentatious look-at-me look-at-me design, the e680i for its easy to use radio and the 256mb amount of mp3s I put in it. The total hours I used the headphones probably sum up to 1. I’m just too much of a scaredy cat to take that expensive thing out the house and in an fx or bus. It’s just too eye catching and since it’s wireless, anyone can just grab it from behind me and run.
For the rest… to be completely honest, the Panasonic was the hardest to write about because really, it didn’t deserve more than two paragraphs. While I really believe it’s value for money and I said so when I wrote about it, it’s just another fancy looking affordable phone, so I lay on the fluff writing it, describing the push button opening ability and likening it to Star Trek’s communicators and the like. The things one does to fill up 4000 characters.
Anyway, I’m returning these primarily because someone is already claiming the ROKR, as they are prizes from Digital Exchange’s promotional. After these I’m supposed to write a “Year In Tech” and a “Fearless Forecast” due the following weeks from now, and boy am I gonna need help with that.
Another feeling I have to say is – fun. It was really fun having these things to toy around with. I know it may appear to people who don’t understand how it works like I’m full of myself whenever I ‘show them off’ to them, but I do so in the full knowledge that these things aren’t mine, that they’re just lent to me (almost bregrudgingly I imagine), by the manufacturers or dealers because they need the press mileage, and not because they like me, they think it’ll look good on me, or because I’m in a position of power to merit such a thing.
Their job is to look for ways to be written about in the paper, so they make a deal with the paper, the paper makes a deal with me, I write about them, the paper publishes it, and everyone’s happy. I get paid for it sure, but it’s a pittance really – a secondary to the thrill of being published.
The whole point is, it’s all fun to do. I love to write, and I love writing about things that interest me. Hell I’d be doing this even if they weren’t paying me, so to actually be given something as interesting as these to write about AND for it to appear in a national daily is a thrill beyond delight. Something I can show to my grandkids one day. It really is a blessing, something I share with the other writers of 2bu!, Lifestyle, and all the other publications.
Anyway enough talk. Time to pack up, and hope nothing goes wrong in the trip to Ortigas. Meanwhile, I’m back to using my trusty old – OLD – phone.
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