Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

_Flat screen TVs all sound terrible and require a sound bar or audio system_

not mine - Sony A1E uses actuators so that the screen is a speaker and there is a small subwoofer in the stand, it sounds pretty excellent (and I am fussy)

xp to self oh unless this is because of them removing the headphone socket?

Regarding ipods : did they really sound better than today’s iphones

Not really, they definitely impart a color to the sound (maybe a lot of muddy low mids?). It was pretty striking when I compared some of my own rough mixes (although you still have to wonder about the differences between the Dropbox player vs the Soundcloud player etc). I'm used to the 'ipod sound' though, and I still like them for carrying around a ton of music.

tbh some of these issues can be resolved by just not buying iPhones, I mean I know people like them for some reason but my phone costs 1/5 as much but has a battery just under twice the size of an iPhone X

Regarding ipods : did they really sound better than today’s iphones ?

well they had this warmth to them

do landlines really not work during power outages now? because that's the main reason I still pay for one.

― ☮ (peace, man)

not if your provider has switched to VoIP:

VoIP phones will not operate when the power is down, unless you have an uninterruptible power supply.

https://www.steadfasttelecom.com/you-have-the-power-voip-and-poe/

https://voipstudio.com/blog/how-do-you-deal-with-a-voip-power-outage/

Feel like this is just the tip of the iceberg for technology no longer being ready for infrastructure problems.

google maps is next to useless now, and i'd put google search up there too. once they started customizing your results to your location is when i think the slide began. of course the migration of all content to five websites didn't help this either

How are the maps useless now?

+1 to google search, what a complete waste of what was once an amazing tool.

of course the migration of all content to five websites didn't help this either
a chilling truth -- seriously makes my skin crawl and yet

for me the transition to streaming has not been a positive or forward step wrt music. it feels like a loss because i used to invest time, money, or both into a thing and now that money is almost expected to go to a gross middleman company that is giving me a preposterous buffet when i would prefer to order a la carte, the backwards way. :(

not only giving me a preposterous buffet, but watching me closely as i eat and saving the data to use to sell things to me
gross!

Well said

Elements of Car Repair, two stories:

--My Mom accidentally bashed in the front fender of her Yukon in a parking lot (separate long story). To replace said fender, you have to basically dismantle the whole front clip (remove bumper, hood, grill etc.) before installing the new part.

--A friend of mine was filming something at a bar. She was getting ready to leave at closing time when a drunk backed his Mustang into her Lincoln. Cosmetically, not a lot happened, just stuffed paint and clear bumper damage. Unfortunately, the computer was damaged enough her car had to go back to the dealer for several days of repairs.

"Scuffed Paint" even.

A car's "Check Engine" light 99% of the time has nothing to do with the engine but rather the onboard cpu/diagnostics.

I'm in favor of all changes that make people loathe their cars more

LL otm

the times when i most enjoy music, these days, is when i actively try to resist the current paradigm of listening and constrain myself to repeated listens of 1-3 things until i've memorized every note

it's like that with a lot of times. my best reading experiences are when i force myself back into 1989

"it's like that with a lot of times"

how do i still have a job

i'm mostly talking about the navigation features of google maps, the UI is terrible many xxp

The iPad was a bit of a stumble
-techno beaver

― calstars, Tuesday, August 13, 2019 7:13 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

lmfao

Back to printers, I bought when I moved to AZ and was gonna be working remotely. A "smart" printer oooh I'm living in the future. Had automated setup routine, get to nearly the final step: loading the paper. It would not recognize the paper was loaded, no matter what. So the thing was unfuckingusable.

Printers and scanners have always been bad and don’t belong on this thread.

If you only need b/w get a brother hl-2350 or 2360 from Craigslist for like 40$. Duplex laser printer. WiFi works. Fast enough for the home. Replacement no brand toner is $10.

If you have a smartphone and you are scanning documents (not slides or photos etc and you don’t need a document feeder) then you don’t need a scanner. Just use scanbot or whatever. Even the notes app on iPhone is better than a cheap scanner.

"it's like that with a lot of times"

how do i still have a job

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, August 14, 2019 11:28 AM (thirty minutes ago)

this made me lol, ty karl :)

My mobile has stayed connected through a number of local power outages. Don't know if the nearest mast has some backup power or it was just luck.

In my first job in the late 80s I flogged laser printers. They cost silly money but were quite reliable tbf. The OG HP DeskJets were OK as well IIRC.

E-ink was one of the best innovations ever and it’s baffling to me that “advanced” e-readers switched over to basically just being tablets (this doesn’t really count tho as they are still coming out with kindle classic and equivalents)

E-ink was one of the best innovations ever and it’s baffling to me that “advanced” e-readers switched over to basically just being tablets (this doesn’t really count tho as they are still coming out with kindle classic and equivalents)

― YouGov to see it (wins), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 1:12 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

did you see https://remarkable.com/

LL otm re a la carte music. me too! I use streaming to check stuff out but still want to have actual mp3s or, gasp, a cd of stuff I want to "keep" and revisit. I pretend this is because I mostly listen to music on my car cd player (it does have an aux for my ipod but the file structure somehow does not let me select anything specific so it's just shuffled) but also i like experiencing music this way rather than a sort of radio that can be shut down whenever "they" choose.

That is why I started buying vinyl again. Streaming allows me to check out a ton of stuff, but if something actually knocks my socks off, I'll plunk down the cash get a hard copy for the house.

I have a playlist on my phone of my favorite 1000 songs or so and whenever I play it in the car I'm just constantly skipping songs, I never know what I actually wanna hear

someone was telling me that you can fairly easily repurpose an old smartphone to use as a media player. ... because eventually my 10 year old iPod will die

I have 1000 playlists. It's pretty awesome.

someone was telling me that you can fairly easily repurpose an old smartphone to use as a media player. ... because eventually my 10 year old iPod will die

was it me? i just did this!

The only problem w using smartphones as media players is their audio quality is often pretty lacking

the “sharing economy”

xp to sarahell -- my ipod is on its last legs but i deleted all the apps from my old phone and am going to use it as an ipod/bluetooth connected to a speaker/wifi for streaming when necessary

it's heavenly! for home and the classroom. i am not a fiend for TOP quality, i will settle for medium good if it suits my life otherwise.

Assuming the old smartphone doesn't have a busted headphone socket, no Bluetooth and/or a worn out non user-replaceable battery.

Theres a related idea that I think about often, about tech we thought we wanted but then discarded - when I was a kid two things that signified Our Amazing Future were video phones and food in pill form. Now we have those things, but if you actually met someone today who was like "I only eat soylent & supplements and only communicate via FaceTime" youd be like wow this person is deeply troubled

yeah I've bought several old iPhones for $20 which you can just use as music players. it's pretty neat.

hoping to get one of the 256 GB ones this way in a couple years

was it me? i just did this!

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 10:45 AM (ten minutes ago)

maybe!

More and more kitchen gadgets (and doubtless other gadgets, but kitchen is what I know) are now only controllable via smartphone. This makes the gadget cheaper to manufacture (no buttons!) and "smart" and horrible. How I love losing that hands-on instant feedback and instead setting up lots of bluetooth pairings with greasy wet fingers, pairings which invariably fail either silently, ruining the food, or with loud alarms.

normal versions of these things still exist. why would you buy these smartphone versions?

in case you need to tweet from your refrigerator

you mean like, if you are stuck inside and need someone to let you out?

the day i have to use my phone to operate a kitchen gadget will be a dark day indeed

xp to sarahell

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/13/teen-smart-fridge-twitter-grounded

I've been tempted to when the gadget is in every other respect significantly better than the competition.

are there actual fridges on twitter? tweeting about fridge things?