Wired News: Gadgets Built to Fail : Someday, much sooner than you'd like, that shiny new toy you just bought will break. When it happens, you'll swear, you'll cry -- then you'll sigh and open your wallet. You've been here before, with the jammed Walkman, the DOA answering machine, the fritzed digicam, the blue screen of death. Let's call it the buy-die-buy theory: Manufacturers design technology to fail so you're forced to upgrade regularly. This is beginning to really upset me. It's one thing to have this happen with a 25 quid Walkman or a 50 quid CD Walkman. it's quite another when it's 250 quid of iPod or 1000 quid of laptop. What ever happened to consumer durables. Maybe if Manufacturers followed the Make manifesto, it wouldn't be so hard to take. |
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[ 11-Dec-06 11:34am ] [ gadget ]