My rules for technology acquisition

[dsrtao]

• Don't buy the first generation of any product.
  
• Don't buy in the first month.
  
• Where are you going to put it?
  
• What are the ongoing costs?
  
• What can it replace?
  

I hope these are all obvious by now. I'll just mention that ongoing costs include subscription fees, software purchases, accessories, media, and time-sink/time-savings tradeoff. A smartphone, for example, has a hardware cost (could be subsidized by) a contract, a new incompatible accessory like an earpiece or a battery, a new SD card, and some time savings (over not having a phone) and some time-sinks (getting it to sync with your gizmo thingy).

"What can it replace?" also means "are you going to stop using what it replaces? is the old one broken?"

Any others?

Comments

[cellio]

Is this the cheapest/easiest answer to your current/projected needs? (E.g. it is not worth paying double for four times as much disk space if you only need half of what you're buying.)

Can you support its needs? This is like "what are the ongoing costs", but is meant to cover things like "I really can't connect another USB device" or "I can't safely run any more power strips there".

What proprietary formats does it rely on that I'll regret later?