Wishlist Wednesday: All the new technology, or at least to understand it

Choices, choices, mind-boggling technology choices:

An iPhone 4, an Android or an HTC EVO 4G, which, apparently, is sold out almost everywhere? (I don’t know anything about the Evo. Please enlighten me.)

An iPad, with the 3G network or just wifi?

A mobile phone that tethers to a wireless network so I can have wifi with me all the time? (Or, does the wifi tether to the mobile phone?)

Switch to AT&T or stick with U.S. Cellular? Do I really need an iPhone or can I live happily ever after with my iPod Touch?

A CDMA network or a GS one? What the heck does that mean anyway?

A Wii trade-in at Game Stop so I can get a new one with an enhanced motion-sensor remote for $50 and download Netflix movies onto it?

How do I pay for it all? How are other people paying for all this stuff? Do I NEED it or just WANT it, concepts I’m always stressing to my kids in trying to teach them how to spend money?

With all these new devices, there’s too much technology coming at me all at once these days. I’m trying to sort through it all, and I appreciate the sales clerk at Best Buy who explained some information about mobile phones to me yesterday: The business people still like the Blackberry; younger people like some other phone; developers like the Droid, which is more open and easier to program; different types of users like the iPhone for its ease of use, and so on. At least that’s what I think he said.

My mobile phone contract isn’t up for another year, and my garage sale profits from last Saturday won’t get me anywhere close to an iPad, so luckily I don’t have to make decisions about what I might use as extensively as my iPod Touch anytime soon.

It’s good to be ready, isn’t it? Whew. My brain is tired. Is yours?

I’d love an iPad, but the iPhone 4 is awfully appealling. I could use it to explore all the photo apps, for one. But I will also need a phone that’s I’ll use for real conversations and texting; is the iPhone good for that? I like U.S. Cellular’s network because I can always get through on it at a crowded OU football game while many of my AT&T friends can’t. I’m mostly content with my Blackberry Pearl Flip, although a year from now … ?

The “wow” factor continues for me as I watch all these new products roll out. I want them all, but I don’t know where to start to narrow it down. Also, for which ones do I wait for the second generation? Any ideas?

~ Lillie-Beth Brinkman (lbrinkman@opubco.com)

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