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

yeah ... I mean, I get that Apple tends to predict design changes to the PC market that come later tho, just that there are large segments of users that are very very very set in their ways in terms of design and functionality and ... maybe I overestimate the market share of those users

like maybe if Covid eradicates the majority of baby boomers, then Apple's anti interface posse will win?

give a few more minutes and I will become old man yells at cloud computing

xpost yeah that's what I was getting at - apple ditching something usually portends an eventual fall from grace for ports

Other brands already following. Dell apparently makes a recommended USB c hub for just that purpose.

i have a 2015 macbook which still thankfully has 2 usbs and the magnetic charger thingy. the small screen is a feature 4 me bc it's easy af to move around/carry.

a future with no ports is one where i go off-grid probably

I do appreciate the invention of the wireless printer

thousandth post

1001 posts

xpost yeah the 2015 and 2016 Macbook pros that still had all the ports can can be easily outfitted with bigger SSDs and more RAM before they changed to the new body style hold their value

I have a 2011 that I just upgraded to 16gb ram and a 1tb SSD and it's been working great, better than my newer work Macbook Air

i got some sennheiser bluetooth headphones the other day and was kind of shocked to see that its charging socket was USB-C. my first non-apple sighting of it.

I think all Samsung phones switched to USB-C a little while ago

When we upgraded my daughter's Gizmowatch (children's watch with limited calls, texting, and GPS), they had switched the charger from USB to some sort of magnetic thing. It keeps falling off the charger when the cat hops up on her desk or whatever.

USB c is the first fully functional version of USB connectors. Fuck messing around with directional cables, mini and micro versions. I love that my monitor powers my laptop and that I can plug it into any USB c power supply anywhere.

those memes about plugging usb-a cables in the wrong way will be historic novelties in a decade when the youth only remember a usb-c world

or we’ll backslide and end up with some other godforsaken standard that is worse than anything heretofore imagined

Eventually everything will just be a 3.5mm stereo TRS jack and Apple is going to feel very silly

that reminds me: Sony uses a proprietary version of a 3.5mm stereo TRS jack, so that you have to buy their cables. all it is is something about the sculpting of the socket in your headphones, so that most plugs won't sink all the way in. you gotta buy the Sony ones. whaaaaat the fuck.

What Sony device has that? I have Sony headphones and the 3.5mm jack seems to work fine with every device I've ever tried to use them with.

My Sony studio monitor headphones are 3.5mm but have a thicker threaded base that’s meant to accommodate a screw-on 1/4” jack so you can plug it into pro gear. This butts up against the case on my iPad so the jack won’t seat properly. It is infuriating.

use a screw-on 1/8-to-1/4 adaptor, then a 1/4-to-1/8 adaptor

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/d6a/dc7/4a5001b7beea096457f480c8808572428b-09-roll-safe.rsquare.w700.jpg

@ o.nate - they're in the sony MDR line of over-the-ear headphones

I've taken a Dremel to some of my iPod/iPhone cases to solve that issue.

I have Sony MDR over-the-ear headphones with that screw adapter and they work fine with my iPhone (an old model which has a 3.5mm audio jack). I don't use a case though, so maybe that's the difference. I guess it's a moot point now anyway, what with Apple deep-sixing the audio jack on all new iPhones.

This butts up against the case on my iPad so the jack won’t seat properly.

ohhhhhh! this sounds like a case issue rather than a sony issue? (what early rejecter said) -- I had this problem with my old phone (for which I used a case) -- now I just don't use a case

Ah, parking lots/garages where ominous signs warn you that you MUST pay at a pay station or kiosk.

First, they are often a lie. The dirty secret of those self-pay kiosks is that (in my experience) you can always pay at the exit gate with a credit card.

(To clarify: I don't mean the kind where you print out a ticket and put it in the car. Or the kind where you tell it what space you're in and pay virtually. I mean the kind where there is a self-pay kiosk AND an exit gate where you have to prove you paid in order to leave.)

There are two reasons: first, if you ignore all the PAY AT THE KIOSK signs, they still don't want you to gum up the system when you try to exit. If there's a line behind you, it's not like you can get everyone to reverse so you can get put and go pay at a pay station.

Also, if the pay station is out of order, they still have to let you leave. So they will always (again, in my experience) give you an option to pay on your way out.

Second: look at your ticket. Notice what size it is. About the same size as a frickin credit card. Which means that the machines that read them are totally able to process a credit card.

All the signage - take your ticket with you! You must pay at the pay station! - are just designed to make you think that there's no other way. In reality they just want to speed up the exit lines, and if more people self-pay it goes faster.

I have never encountered a parking garage of this type where you actually could not pay at the exit gate.

All of the ones that have PAY AT KIOSK signs but also have payment at the gate that I've been to *used* to not have the ability to pay at the gate.

I learned the bad way why they leave the kiosks and encourage people to pay there. If the payment system breaks, would you rather have someone call from the machine at a kiosk, or from the gate as people behind them assume they're merely incompetent and not dealing with a broken system? They yanked the kiosk completely at a garage downtown here and immediately went to pay-at-gate and it broke multiple times before they hammered out the bugs.

there's an infamous garage in Orlando here that requires some apt steering getting in and out as it has a winding ramp. compounding things = they do have the 'pay at kiosk' machines, and after you pay, you're told you have ten minutes to get the fuck out (or presumably, the now validated ticket won't work).

you can pay at gate, but mh kinda hit on the problem - I got stuck in there 20 minutes once when people in both available lanes who opted to pay there realized it wasn't working once they got to the gate. your only other option other than waiting for them to fix is paying at hte kiosk, which may or may not be manned, depending on the time of day.

there's also a garage at Pointe Orlando like this, but the issue there is just about every idiot doesn't see there are three lanes available and all pile into one and you're stuck behind them because there's not enough room to get around the vehicles in front to get to the other lanes until you move up a little.

tourist Orlando is a hellhole.

by *kiosk*, I am actually referring to a diff kiosk than the downstairs ones they tell you to pay at, there's a manned one to the right and front of the exit gates where you can manually pay, 1991 style

it has always seemed fairly obvious that they pay at kiosk thing is to encourage efficient exit from the garage? i am more than happy to do my part in advance if it means i can exit the garage quickly, particularly if i'm in the vicinity of a sporting event or concert.

the one time I got stuck at the pay-at-exit place, which no longer has a payment kiosk, I ended up having to hit a call button that connected me to an operator at some unknown remote location. luckily it was merely payments that were broken and not his ability to remotely open the gate

I was in Jacksonville once and some of their parking garages are weird, so I went in one and took a ticket and I was ready to go home after and I pull up to the machine and of course it doesn't work where I can pay, or it didn't read my ticket....something weird was going on. the office next door appeared to be unmanned.

I don't know how I got the gate to go up, I guess it just did when it sensed my vehicle coming near, and then this alarm went off and I freaked out as I saw someone's head pop up in the office in reaction.

drove away, and to this day I keep waiting for Jacksonville police to take me in

I know it's been a thing for a while but I'm finding ads are getting dropped more and more aggressively into videos on YouTube lately, interrupting speech in ways that would never fly on trad TV. And these ads, skippable though they are, can run for minutes. WTF is with whoever permitted this.

there's a scenario I have in my head where Apple invent a beautiful new kind of lavatory, so sleek and white and beautiful looking, ergonomic and practical. Except it doesn't have a flush. Not even an automatic thing where you pass your hand near it. It literally does. not. flush. because they figured that flushes are ugly and cumbersome and that "people in 2020 will not want to flush".

xp - I went on a date with a guy recently who labels and categorizes youtube ads ... now I understand why he has this job.

the Apple Deuce

I know it's been a thing for a while but I'm finding ads are getting dropped more and more aggressively into videos on YouTube lately, interrupting speech in ways that would never fly on trad TV. And these ads, skippable though they are, can run for minutes. WTF is with whoever permitted this.

I've been seeing this more and more often lately too, most recently right in the middle of a song. Super obnoxious.

"You can run
and you can hide
but I'm not leaving
unless you come with--OLD SPICE MAKES A MAN'S NUGGETS SMELL LIKE BAKERY-FRESH MUFFINS! HERE'S THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT"

I thought the increased YouTube ads were something to do with us watching more (my kids like inane cartoon stuff on there) but it has been noticeably worse.

remember, if you skip ads, you are stealing that programming!

Seems like if the YT video starts with an ad that is skippable quickly, it's a sure sign I'll get one of those mid-video ads. But if I get one of those ads at the start that I can't skip, odds are that will be it. Wish I could pick!

lol Neanderthal

btw man what a jam, that song

there is a firefox extension that block yt ads btw, it is so good

if you are referring to ublock origin it blocks a whole universe of adtech on pretty much every platform (except for the new FB interface afaik).

a backward step we all accepted long ago: printer manufacturers not bothering to update drivers for older models

sorry, HP LaserJet 1012, you're in perfect working order but suddenly my Mac can't talk to you anymore

they are better about this for Windows operating systems tbh ... maybe Apple should go into the printer manufacturing business

The Apple printer will only be compatible with Apple paper, and there will be only one button for clearing jams. Any jam that cannot be cleared with The Button needs to be resolved at the Genius Bar.

it will be very cuet tho!

what is needed is the printer equivalent to Vue Scan. A massively compatible 3rd party print driver.

I have fond memories of early Apple LaserWriters, those things were huge but reliable

a new Apple printer would probably not use paper

It would print your documents indelibly onto your gossamer, futuristic hopes and dreams, which exist in a cloud that is yet to be realized