Sometimes I come across items that I’d like to have that I don’t really need or cost more than I want to spend.
For example, a year or so ago I bought a standing mixer, which I like very much. But every now and then I notice that it strains as it’s working. So the thought occurred to me that perhaps I needed a more powerful model, even though I really don’t use it enough to justify the expense.
Then I came across this video of the Ankarsrum standing mixer.
A little web searching revealed that the price of the Ankarsrum has now increased from $750 to $799, and it’s available at the Ankarsrum website and authorized resellers such as King Arthur. (Amazon is not an authorized reseller, although I’ve seen it on Amazon for a helfty $1400!)
As I said, I really don’t have much use for it, although as it excels at making dough, I could get rid of my bread machine as I only use that for making dough. Plus, it makes it really easy to add ingredients on the fly because it’s so open at the top.
I’m still thinking it over…
And then there’s the iPhone Duo.
My iPhone is five years old, and I had already decided this was the year to replace it. I planned on the iPhone 18 Pro.
Until I saw the Duo.
I’ve always pooh-poohed foldable phones, but those were foldables from other vendors like Samsung. Samsung might be ok at copying (ripping off) Apple’s designs, but they aren’t very good at designing from scratch.
So their foldable phones didn’t tempt me. I mean even if I’d consider an Android phone, which wouldn’t. I mean, what? Me Android? I’d rather hear a choir singing flat.
Then I watched Apple’s event the other day and the Duo actually seemed like something I might want.
But that was Apple’s people demonstrating it. What does an independent reviewer like Joanna Stern have to say?
Still, it has a $2000 price tag, it won’t be available until sometime in October, and I really want a new phone sooner than that.
But wait.
I went to the Apple website and discovered that the trade-in value of my 13 Pro is about $225.
Hmm.
But I’d still have to wait until the middle of October…
I doubt that I’ll get either the Duo or the Ankarsrum, but if I were a betting man, I’d put better odds on the Ankarsrum.