TOP 10 ‘DON’T BUYS’ IN 2010

Oh, the times — they are a changin’.

There once was a time when every home wouldn’t be caught dead without certain “must-have” items.  Remember the Rotary Dial Wall Telephone?  Or the Record Player?  What about the Typewriter, Portable Cassette Player, or VCR??  Those things all seem ancient to us modern types.  But there once was a time when we couldn’t live without them.

Well, it’s 2010.  A new tech year and a new decade.  And plenty of our current day “must-have” items are soon about to go the way of the 13 inch black and white TV. But with technology rapidly changing and about to make some serious leaps and bounds in this year and decade, here now is a list of things NOT TO BUY in the coming year:

DVD’s – Remember when we all used to traipse down to Blockbuster and rent a video for a night or two… then race back and return it to avoid the steep late fees?  Well, how many of you have actually done that since the year 2000?  No one rents or even uses videos anymore, and DVD’s are soon to follow.  With the rising popularity of NETFLIX OnLine, APPLE iTUNES STORE, and others, the wave of the future is to sit on your living room sofa, push a button, and have a movie instantly streamed to your television via the internet.  Why own 1000 hard copy DVD’s that you watch maybe a couple of times in life, when you can simply stream those movies to you anytime, anywhere?  Even those family home movies, or the kids’ concert recitals, etc. that you have on DVD can now be converted to a digital file stored neatly on a computer.  DVD’s are on the way out.  Unless you have room for them in your box of cassettes and 8-Track tapes you still secretly store in the attic, 2010 might be a good time to start letting go.

DVD PLAYER – When DVD’s become no more, why would you need a DVD Player?  Enough said!

CD’S – Tower Records closed worldwide 3 years ago.  The flagship Virgin Music Store in Times Square New York shut its doors last year.  And good luck finding the old Mom-n-Pop Music Store you grew up seeing on the corners of Anytown, U.S.A.  Why you ask?  BECAUSE NOBODY BUYS CD’S ANYMORE!  So why then are you still loading your shopping cart with 12 of them?

Let CD’s go in 2010 (if they even last the year).  Go get an iPod or some other digital media device, and start listening to music “files” like the rest of the world, instead of hanging in there with the beloved old round coaster we call a CD.  You’ll find you have plenty more room in your luggage or the trunk of your car, when you can just hear all your sounds digitally from something the size of a cigarette box.

CD PLAYERS – When CD’s become no more, why would anyone need a CD Player?  Enough said!

OLD HOME PHONE SERVICE – These days, most people use only a cell phone.  I love my iPhone, but it’s not my end all.  I don’t want to pay huge monthly fees and per minute charges just like the old Phone Company used to make us all do back in the old days…and just like cell companies are making us do now.  So don’t buy another old home telephone plan again.  Instead, consider VONAGE, OOMA, or netTALK, which all provide digital voice transmission via the internet through an actual landline inside your home or business, WITHOUT the huge monthly fees or per minute charges. Say goodbye to charges by the minute or more expensive call rates during the day like most cell plans.  And wave goodbye to dropped calls and dead zones too.  I use the $24.99 per month VONAGE plan to call virtually anywhere in the world for free, then I pay $39.99 per month for the cheapest iPhone plan, to have a phone in the car or traveling.  I even take my VONAGE modem with me around the world, plug it into the hotel internet, then made or receive calls for free as if I were at home. You can’t beat that with a stick!

SMARTPHONE WANNA-BEES – Let’s face it — the BlackBerry and the iPhone rule the market.  Anything other than those 2 are wanna-bees.  So stop trying to buy the next “Like-a-BlackBerry” or “iPhone Killer” and just get the real deal.  Most of the knock-offs trying to be like something else will soon be on the outside looking in by the end of 2010.  Then what will you do for service, updates, and the like?  Don’t be caught with a brick in your hand.  Just get the best now and save yourself the hassle later.

COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERAS – Once we realized we no longer had to carry around portable cameras with film in them, the handheld digital camera became all the rave.  But unless you’re a professional photographer or “Suzy-Snappy” how many of us are actually getting our money’s worth out of these devices?  With cell phone cameras getting better and better, soon the Compact Digital Camera will be obsolete.  Why carry around a camera and digital card to capture a still photo of your drunk co-worker at the company picnic, when you can just use your cell phone to snap a still or even record a video?  Compact Digital Cameras are not dead yet, but they soon will be.  Might not be a smart purchase for the new decade.

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES – I have a professional photographer friend, who happens to own literally dozens of these external hard drives where he stores tens of thousands of photographs.  But soon, they become hard to manage and keep organized.  Music and video files are getting bigger, especially with the increased availability of HD format. So most of us will soon be like my friend — owning dozens of external hard drives, unable to quickly locate our files, and unable to access anything unless our external devices travel with us. 

The solution?  Store it in the cloud!  MobileMe, Mozy.com, and others offer nearly unlimited storage on their servers for a monthly or yearly fee.  With these services, you no longer have to locate the correct external device to plug into a computer to access your files.  You simply sign into your account, and all your files instantly show up on ANY computer, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE there’s an internet connection. Good huh?

NEWSPAPER or MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS – This really should be a given.  But just in case you think it’s still 1950, signing up for home delivery of the local newspaper or your favorite magazine is an old concept that is on life support, and authorities are about to pull the plug.  Who needs a hard copy newspaper or magazine anymore now that the KINDLE, the iPhone and the newly introduced Apple iPad are available?  Already, we can read just about any newspaper or magazine online via our computers.  And soon everyone will have some sort of handheld device to peruse their favorite periodicals while on the subway, elevator, or airplane.  We’ll be able to upload plenty of readable content to access at the push of a button. It’s the wave of the future people and we’re right in the midst of it.  Plus, it saves a tree.  So the next time the neighbor kid tries to sell you a subscription to the Hometown Times, take a pass!

NOVELS/TEXTBOOKS – Just like above, Novels and College Textbooks are going the way of the newspaper, CD, and DVD — nobody actually needs a hard copy of them anymore.  This may not be the Jetson’s era with flying cars, but we are definitely deep within the digital era where hard copies of nearly anything are just about unnecessary.  Why buy a novel or college textbook when you can just download the audio or text version to your computer or handheld device? Amazon.com, the upcoming Apple iBook Store (on iTunes), CheapestTextbooks.com, and others offer a virtual store of nearly anything you’d ever need to read.  Once upon a time, college students bought new books.  Then they learned it was cheaper to buy and sell used books.  Now, they’ve learned a new lesson to not buy any books at all.  Just buy the digital file and save hundreds — and a tree!