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

My wife could dominate this thread with all the home automations I’ve implemented and forced upon my family.

But get that stuff voice activated. Pulling out an app to control lights is pretty terrible.

I use voice control quite a lot for music and it's OK but there's still something oddly tiring about barking your instructions to a machine. I think my ideal interface for turning things on and off would just be a remote control with a fuckload of dedicated buttons.

Jeff otm. I was promised a future where I could control things via statements like, "computer, dim the lights". Not a future where I had to pull out my phone, unlock my phone, scramble to remember which app I needed, scroll through the screens full of icons to find it, initially click the wrong app, close it, open the correct app, realize I've been signed out, forget password, click 'reset password', open email, reset password, open app and *PRESTO* light is now dim!

"cool"

I dislike the anti homeless drm pic.twitter.com/pvV1FB85qg

— aerie ka (@AnemoneAndMe) July 29, 2021

i hate voice control. i refuse to live in the future the nerds wanted.

I told Alexa to go play in traffic and then it stopped working

I don't mind voice control, but I'd much prefer it if our options now weren't all to feed our personal data directly to awful tech companies.

can’t bring myself to talk to a machine

The #1 reason I like it is when I run out of stuff when I'm in the middle of cooking, I can just say out loud to add it to a shopping list. It's super handy and less likely for me to forget to write it down when I'm done.

We have Google Homes with voice control all over the house (I live in a shared house, it was like that when I moved in), and every so often you're in the middle of a conversation and Google thinks it hears its name and starts talking to you out of nowhere. A creepy reminder that you're always being eavesdropped on.

I've had similar experiences with Amazon Echo, it's a pain in the ass. I don't think I could ever have a connected home like that. I don't want things like lights and HVAC being dependent on an internet connection. Plus, at least here, the electric company can override your HVAC in emergency situations, like when ERCOT wasn't generating enough electricity a few weeks back. Thanks, but no thanks.

yeah for me all the smart home stuff feels like the house from Mon Oncle at best, and super sinister and gross at worst. just not for me and my lifestyle at all.

Yeah it creeps me out in a big way and I would never have gotten a device of that kind on my own. I like everything else about this house so I just had to deal with it.

I don't mind voice control, but I'd much prefer it if our options now weren't all to feed our personal data directly to awful tech companies.

How many of the options are to feed your personal data directly to awful tech companies?

LINK IN BIO

the app door key thing is so stupid, had that at one contract gig. most of these are a total solution-in-search-of-a-problem. key card on a lanyard is incredibly simple and easy.

why can't Instagram make comments/posts with URLs in them into clickable links? (genuine question)

they don't want to you take your attention elsewhere?

yes and as a new insta user i hate it so much.

Lack of physical buttons on modern TVs.

Guess who mislaid the remote.

mine has touch buttons on the front. seeing them and working out what the icons mean is another matter.

Check under the frame on the bottom of the TV. Took me a few months to realize we had those down there.

yes to that one. we have one of those internet TVs and if you wanna use the HDMI port you have to push a button way in the back. it's so dumb

You can use your phone as the remote in a pinch with some tvs

I'm sure it's been mentioned already but phones that are too big. A couple of months ago I bought a new phone, and the first thing I noticed was that it was a lot bigger than my old phone, annoyingly so, and I was right to be annoyed because I'd had a few days and it fell out of my jacket pocket and cracked the screen. I persevered with it until the screen became unreadable then last week bought a new phone - but all of the phones on sale seemed to be the same size, i.e., too big for your pockets. Anyway, I've had this new phone for three days and today it fell out of my pocket but, because it already has a semi-protective cover, it didn't break this time. Maybe the problem is old school pockets are too small these days?

Time to trade up, Tom.

https://i.imgur.com/r6BHOst.jpg

You could still buy smaller android phones three or four years ago, might not be too long till I have to find out if that's still the case.

I think I've been taking pockets for granted for too long, assuming that everything will fit in there with scant attention to the possible difficulties that can arise with items of awkward size or dimensions. It's a new world out there, in the world of pockets, time for me to face up to reality.

I haven't broke a phone screen yet, but once I had my phone in my pocket and while I was getting my dog back on the lead I stupidly put my can of lager in the same pocket to free up a hand. It was a waxed jacket so the pocket was almost watertight and the phone drowned in lager.

lol

I'd never broken a phone screen before the advent of the big phones, and to think I used to see people with phones with broken screens inwardly smh at their carelessness.

You could still buy smaller android phones three or four years ago, might not be too long till I have to find out if that's still the case.

It's not exactly technology, but it's frustrating that there are no good, interesting and comprehensive listings for London in the way that TimeOut used to do.

Amen to that, my cultural life has never recovered.

It is technology in a way because instead of the magazine they have a shitty website everyone hates and no-one uses.

i hate voice control. i refuse to live in the future the nerds wanted.

― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Thursday, July 29, 2021 1:44 PM (one month ago)

otm

In the UK you can get a 5.9in Galaxy A40.

My current one is 4.8in! (Galaxy A7 2017)

instagram as online sales platform -- related to: link in bio

the phone drowned in lager

that's not such a bad way to go. I wouldn't mind dying this way myself, tbh

My current one is 4.8in! (Galaxy A7 2017)

Is that the maga phone?

Went to an area of my city I don’t usually go to yesterday, had to pick up an order and when I parked I discovered that there is literally no other option for paying for parking besides the local, proprietary parking app. They pulled the old meters with coin and card readers a few years ago, but they also pulled the machine where you can pay by license plate. A ten minute errand required 15 minutes of downloading the app and working through the terrible user design to upload my payment info. Just awful and, presumably, a way to trick out of town visitors into getting parking tickets for not knowing the app.

My town started doing that too, and I think its terrible. I don't think the government should make having a smartphone a requirement for performing regular necessary daily interactions with the government. Perhaps a good lawyer could fight this and win.

otm

I also forgot to mention that I walked three blocks from my spot before encountering a single sign that actually showed the name/icon of the app to use. All of the signs at the individual parking spaces just said "Pay by App / Zone #xxxx". Just so blatant in the attempt to make it as difficult as possible for people to actually pay for parking.

that's how it is near Cocoa Beach here too. having to walk far to find out what app to d/l, and the reception is so bad d/ling is slow unless you can find nearby free wi-fi.

ugh it was bad enough when the meters here recently switched to card payment only.

Yeah, we switched to card payment only a few years ago, which was annoying enough. Maybe they just decided it was too expensive to maintain the machines?

“i seem to remember this here sawbuck was legal tender for all debts public and private”