Your heart beats with a disturbing irregularity, although your mouth does not ingest anything caffeinated or illegal.
You are already foaming in several places.
You’ve just got your hands on the Samsung Galaxy S20, which appeared in stores on Friday.
Please try to explain your enthusiasm to my wife.
Look, I tried. It’s hard when you’re writing a tech column to not be at least slightly fascinated by the next new thing from Apple or Samsung.
These things are constructed as events. You are in a hurry to see the show, then talk about it, then buy the souvenir product.
So we were there, desperately supporting the ecosystem of restaurants in the Bay area – seriously affected by the fears of coronaviruses – eating outside, when my wife grabbed her phone to answer an urgent text message. Then she put it on the table while she searched for her wine.
The screen of his phone has this slightly yellow tint which, well, my face appreciates from the morning. The paint on the housing flakes off in the two upper corners.
It was, I thought naively, the moment to tell him that there was a new Galaxy – the S20 – coming and that it might be time to upgrade it.
My wife, you see, clings to her Galaxy S7. She insists that Apple is the devil’s own brand and thinks that Samsung is somehow more of the people. Which seems odd when Samsung is now launching phones for $ 2,000.
Still, I whispered, “Isn’t it time to upgrade your phone?”
“Why?” she replied.
“Well, your phone is getting pretty old. It must have slowed down a lot. And it looks a little cranky.”
“I married you,” she replied.
And Chris goes down, contemplating his second wedding anniversary, which should arrive soon.
I pulled myself together and asked, “But don’t you want a phone with a better camera, so you can take better photos?”
“Why? I’m already taking better photos than you with your sophisticated iPhone,” she said.
My iPhone is not up to the fantasy. It’s an XR. My wife is right, however. She takes better photos with her S7 and I can never understand why.
“What about 5G? Are you not interested?”
“What about 5G, anything? Is it really supposed to be better than all the Gs they had before?”
I was not going to give up. I tried, “Someday soon your phone will die and what are you going to do? These things are not going to last long.”
“What do you mean? My phone is only four years old,” she said.
It’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it? For my wife, a four-year-old phone is still a dynamic machine. For many inside the tech bubble, he is one of the remaining presidential candidates.
Suddenly, I thought I found the answer: “But the life of the battery … your battery sometimes dies and it really bothers you.”
“No, it isn’t,” she insisted, a little annoyed. “It usually lasts all day, except when I have the clock display, then it runs out faster.”
I was starting to despair. “But you like new things and a new phone would be newer and brighter and you wouldn’t have to think about it for four years.”
“But I love my phone and I would hate having to get a new case,” she insisted. I hadn’t expected it. My wife has a case which, on her back, likes sparks which move hypnotically up, down and sides.
Did I mention that she is a scientist – a specialized subject: alcohol (seriously)? She believes in things like research, evidence, and evidence. She also believes in things that serve people well and is still confident that her phone does just that.
She is looking at new phones and sees no real reason to be excited.
“Oh, come on,” I persisted. “You really like some new things. You can certainly see that this latest phone needs to be more technically advanced. “
In its own way, all of this is very flattering for phone manufacturers. In the past, they have made phones so good and reliable that they have lasted longer than some expected. Since then, most of the developments have been progressive. That is why they are now making foldable phones. At least they could move people.
And then the last element of the nucleus emerged. My wife said, “I’m not paying $ 1,000 for a new phone. It’s just ridiculous.” She can’t imagine what a phone could be or do that would suddenly justify this kind of price.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 starts at $ 999. The S20 Ultra starts at $ 1,399.
With sales already disappointed in South Korea – Samsung accuses the coronavirus – is there anything about the S20 that can really move people, other than a need for something new?
Naturally, I will go and see it for myself. But my wife now seems to represent at least something of a large minority, if not of a majority.
When the pickled vegetables arrived and she was bathed in my defeat, she picked up her used S7, pointed it at me and let the sparks fall slowly to the bottom of the case.
“Look at the sparks,” she said. “I don’t need a new phone … You don’t need a new phone …”
Your heart beats with a disturbing irregularity, although your mouth does not ingest anything caffeinated or illegal.
You are already foaming in several places.
You’ve just got your hands on the Samsung Galaxy S20, which appeared in stores on Friday.
Please try to explain your enthusiasm to my wife.
Look, I tried. It’s hard when you’re writing a tech column to not be at least slightly fascinated by the next new thing from Apple or Samsung.
These things are constructed as events. You are in a hurry to see the show, then talk about it, then buy the souvenir product.
So we were there, desperately supporting the ecosystem of restaurants in the Bay area – seriously affected by the fears of coronaviruses – eating outside, when my wife grabbed her phone to answer an urgent text message. Then she put it on the table while she searched for her wine.
The screen of his phone has this slightly yellow tint which, well, my face appreciates from the morning. The paint on the housing flakes off in the two upper corners.
It was, I thought naively, the moment to tell him that there was a new Galaxy – the S20 – coming and that it might be time to upgrade it.
My wife, you see, clings to her Galaxy S7. She insists that Apple is the devil’s own brand and thinks that Samsung is somehow more of the people. Which seems odd when Samsung is now launching phones for $ 2,000.
Still, I whispered, “Isn’t it time to upgrade your phone?”
“Why?” she replied.
“Well, your phone is getting pretty old. It must have slowed down a lot. And it looks a little cranky.”
“I married you,” she replied.
And Chris goes down, contemplating his second wedding anniversary, which should arrive soon.
I pulled myself together and asked, “But don’t you want a phone with a better camera, so you can take better photos?”
“Why? I’m already taking better photos than you with your sophisticated iPhone,” she said.
My iPhone is not up to the fantasy. It’s an XR. My wife is right, however. She takes better photos with her S7 and I can never understand why.
“What about 5G? Are you not interested?”
“What about 5G, anything? Is it really supposed to be better than all the Gs they had before?”
I was not going to give up. I tried, “Someday soon your phone will die and what are you going to do? These things are not going to last long.”
“What do you mean? My phone is only four years old,” she said.
It’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it? For my wife, a four-year-old phone is still a dynamic machine. For many inside the tech bubble, he is one of the remaining presidential candidates.
Suddenly, I thought I found the answer: “But the life of the battery … your battery sometimes dies and it really bothers you.”
“No, it isn’t,” she insisted, a little annoyed. “It usually lasts all day, except when I have the clock display, then it runs out faster.”
I was starting to despair. “But you like new things and a new phone would be newer and brighter and you wouldn’t have to think about it for four years.”
“But I love my phone and I would hate having to get a new case,” she insisted. I hadn’t expected it. My wife has a case which, on her back, likes sparks which move hypnotically up, down and sides.
Did I mention that she is a scientist – a specialized subject: alcohol (seriously)? She believes in things like research, evidence, and evidence. She also believes in things that serve people well and is still confident that her phone does just that.
She is looking at new phones and sees no real reason to be excited.
“Oh, come on,” I persisted. “You really like some new things. You can certainly see that this latest phone needs to be more technically advanced. “
In its own way, all of this is very flattering for phone manufacturers. In the past, they have made phones so good and reliable that they have lasted longer than some expected. Since then, most of the developments have been progressive. That is why they are now making foldable phones. At least they could move people.
And then the last element of the nucleus emerged. My wife said, “I’m not paying $ 1,000 for a new phone. It’s just ridiculous.” She can’t imagine what a phone could be or do that would suddenly justify this kind of price.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 starts at $ 999. The S20 Ultra starts at $ 1,399.
With sales already disappointed in South Korea – Samsung accuses the coronavirus – is there anything about the S20 that can really move people, other than a need for something new?
Naturally, I will go and see it for myself. But my wife now seems to represent at least something of a large minority, if not of a majority.
When the pickled vegetables arrived and she was bathed in my defeat, she picked up her used S7, pointed it at me and let the sparks fall slowly to the bottom of the case.
“Look at the sparks,” she said. “I don’t need a new phone … You don’t need a new phone …”