Replacing working electronics

No matter the state of the economy, cool stuff continues to show up in stores and sooner or later hearts begin to yearn for something new and shiny. Normally, you'd want to wait until the old thing either breaks or stops working because of some change in technical standards or file formats or whatever.

But what do you do when you really would like the new thing and the old one just won't die? This must seem a ridiculous notion to those who lived through the real Great Depression and World War II and learned to "Use it all; wear it out; make it do; or go without." (And I'm talking here about the real depression, not the pretend one we have going on right now.)

Two things bring this to mind today. First of all, I have a Creative Zen Micro digital music player (I don't say MP3 because I work at Microsoft after all). I got it for free from work for doing something involving developer community that I don't really remember. I think the original one had a 5GB hard drive in it, but when I sent it in for warranty repair, they replaced it with the 6GB version. I really like it. It has a removable battery that lasts 12 hours and came with a spare. It plays nicely with Napster (where I buy most of my music) and Windows Media Player (where I listen to my music on the PC). On occasion, it has a tiny glitch when a song starts, but it is built like a tank. Like me, it has been to Taiwan, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, and all over the US - filling many a lonely traveling hour. Secretly though, I'd really like something newer. Not that I've seen one that I want more - not an iPod, not a Zune - I just want something that when I plop it onto the seat tray on the plane people don't look at it like they should take up a collection for me.
"Yes, for just $10 a month, you can help this middle-aged man get a cooler music device."

Attention music player makers - I don't want to watch movies and TV shows on a 2 inch screen. I don't need to see pictures on it either. I just want the battery to last a long time and I want it to use the music I already have. And if it isn't too much trouble, can we please let me change the battery? I swear - I'll buy a second battery. It's pure profit for you.

So, while I would like to get something new just to get something new, there just isn't a device out there that I'm jonesin' for. Someone please make one - just in case my Zen falls under a tire on the day you release it...just in case.

Second case in point...my wife's cell phone.
Let me say first that we are trapped on T-Mobile like passengers on a plane that has sucked a bird into the engines. It isn't because of contracts, those are long over. Through an evil combination of great pricing, good coverage, and the fact that we now have four phones on T-Mobile, no one can match what they offer us.
My talented assistant got her phone years ago. It is a cute little Samsung flip. No camera. No MP3 ringtones. No nothing really. What it has going for it is that it is quite small, the edges are organically round, and the sound it makes when it opens is, as she describes it, "Like opening a little earring box."
Having been with T-Mobile since the earth cooled, she's entitled to upgrade her phone with a contract extension (and we aren't going anywhere). So I finally talked her into going to the T-Mo store and Car Toys to check out some new phones.
I tried to be enthusiastic so I could get something new to play with, but WHAT IS THE DEAL with T-Mobile? All their phones suck!
AT&T has nice phones. Verizon has some nice ones. Not so T-Mo.

The square and angular look is definitely "in" right now, which is lame.
The menus on the phones are all lame compared to this many years old Samsung.
And the quality of the phones according to CNET reviews (thank goodness for CNET) seems to be uniformly poor. We had settled toward a Sony-Ericsson TM506. It had a cute UI. It was square and pointy, but flat enough to carry it well. The camera is pretty good. Turns out it is just a crappy phone though. Grrrr... Luckily we didn't buy it on the spot before checking the reviews.

So long story short, no new toys at our house this week. So no help in stimulating the economy from us.