Aug 16 2007
Second Guessing
Now that my husband’s Nokia N770 is in for repair, I have now begun to second guess my decision to buy it from Woot. My cost per tablet was 132.48. A really good price, but that comes with no warranty options. So does that make the offer still good? Usually I am not a fan of extended service plans and at the time I purchased the tablets I was unaware of the device’s possible screen failures. So really this is not an issue for this purchase, but I will keep it mind for the future. I was at Tiger Direct this morning and they are selling the tablet for $139.99 plus shipping for a total of $148.48. That’s a bit higher than what I paid, however Tiger Direct offers insurance. Their extended service plans start at $21.99, but only start after the manufacturer’s warranty ends. So I would’ve still had to go to Nokia. They also offer a 2 year Accidental Damage coverage that starts from day one. It’s expensive at $42.99, which is roughly one third of the tablet’s price, only slightly higher than the $37.99 two year replacement option. But when I really think about it, will the N770 be around in two years? For that matter will it be around by the end of this year? So what would I be buying other than a chance to get two-thirds of my money back? Most devices I buy, I only expect to use for about a year, and maybe less if I get bored with it. If it lasts until then I am satisfied if only for the excuse it gives me to buy something else. This whole thing has made me cling tighter to my dedicated e-book devices. My original Rocket e-book is still going strong after seven years. I have taken with me during Army field exercises to include a month in the Mojave Desert (in a zip lock baggie) and the cold and snow of Alaska. Imagine if I had an extended warranty on that, not that it was offered, but it would have been a total a waste of money. I may not be able to buy best sellers for it anymore, and when it finally does pass on to a better place, it will take my purchased books with it. But I have enjoyed it through the years and it has never let me down. I am not saying that dedicated devices are made better. What I am saying is that I only depend on it for one thing—reading. If any of my e-book readers die, I will not lose game playing, video, music, email, and web browsing. The Nokia tablet was a multi-function device and it’s sad to see my husband going through Internet Tablet withdrawal. So the moral of my story is that second guessing does no good. When we get a new tech toy, we should enjoy it, use it for all its worth, and not worry about whether it was a good deal or not.
This past June, I was one of the many people who bought a Nokia N770 Internet Tablet (IT) from Woot. In fact, I bought two, one for my husband and the other for my daughter. I really wanted to buy three, but didn’t want to spend that much at one time. Besides, I figured that one of them probably wouldn’t like the Tablet and it would then revert back to me. Wrong! They fell in love with it. Of course I had the job of getting the tablets setup for them. So far they have been quite pleased with them. There are some buyers that have not had the same experience. There was a rash of White-Screen-of-Death (WOSD) among the Wooters, causing many potential buyers to rethink purchasing the device from other retailers that had similar prices. While I am sure that most of the WSODs are valid I also think you can avoid this tragedy. Before going forward, I need to state a few things. I have no programming skills what-so-ever. I have like negative knowledge of Linux. The little knowledge I have about command lines come from my long ago DOS days. I’m telling you this so that you won’t dismiss this as “Well, she’s a techie, of course it worked for her,” or to take what I say as gospel. The following has worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you too! That said, here is my experience with the Nokia N770.
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