early adopter: a person who embraces new technology before most other people
do.
out of all my peers i’m usually the one who’s been there done that. First “chat”, about 1987, Commodore 64, via BBS. First digital camera, about 1997 – it took 4 AA batteries for the camera part, 4 AA batteries for the LCD lens part and came with an 8Meg CF card. With Videogame systems I usually go for the underdog, i.e., Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, and now XBox. Mp3 player: iRiver ihp-120, 1st gen iriver, now obsolete, but not plagued with DRM restrictions, oversized by today’s standards even though smaller than a deck of cards. PDAs: Palm III, Palm V, Ipaq H3800 series, and a multitude peripherals like digital tables, GPS receivers, and webcams
the risk of being an early adoptor is that you get all of the bugs from the 1st gen products. I’m not on the bleeding edge like I used to be, (guess I’m all caught up) and it’ll probably be 06 before i get anything else that’s hot (yeah it’s only 2 months away, but still).