Things that are meant to be better but are not better

Apparently car manufacturers are reviewing touch screens in cars because they're more distracting and dangerous than good old knobs and buttons that you can do without looking.

Klarna is another one that solves a problem that doesn't exist, because a credit card is a better solution to what Klarna offers but as charges are regulated, Klarna is 'different' so can charge retailers more.

Those plastic smartcards that have replaced train tickets on some railway lines. You have to sign up, get the card, add your ticket to it, and then because you can't see the expiry date on it, you have to have a bloody app (everyone has a bloody app) to remind you.

And whilst we're on railways, some train companies send your advance ticket as a QR code. All fine & dandy until your phone runs out of battery.

Don't upgrade then.

Cash and card don't give a cut to the parking app companies. Which brings me to Deliveroo, Uber, Just Eat, Get Your Guide, employment agencies, etc. These days there are far too many companies out there set up to make money by exploiting the labour of others.

"Solving a problem that did not exist..."

Precisely, Neil Postman talks about this, it's very illuminating

The other issue with Bluetooth...it had connected to my car when my DH got in it..I was having a conversation with my dad on the phone in the living room..imagine if it was a private convo 😂 and I'm suddenly blaring on a car speaker.

Parking apps
What's wrong with cash or card?

why have headphones jacks been removed from phones and tablets?

because they are not water tight.

As once said by blur… modern life is rubbish

Sunday lunch sharing platters. I don’t want to spend time carving a joint for a whole table and doling out roast potatoes whilst letting my own go cold, thank you.

My Bluetooth earphones are pretty good, too, @Bjorkdidit. But they fall out of my ears! I wanted some wired ones so they'll still be attached to me when they fall off. Now ordered from the Evil Chinese Marketplace for four quid, thanks to this thread. (I totally do buy stuff from there, when it's patently the same thing a UK seller charges five times as much for!)

Apple anything. Plus AI is useless if you can't trust what it tells you, which you can't as it 'hallucinates' aka makes things up.

But OP I don’t want Bluetooth headphones or earbuds that I have to worry about charging before I go anywhere and that cost a zillion dollars

My Bluetooth earbuds cost about £30 and last for tens of hours on a single charge. I used them on a walking holiday last week for hours every day and they didn't need charging once.

I'm meh about a lot of technology, but my earbuds, podcasts (and my Kindle) are the three things that I've really embraced. I love that I can listen when I walk and run without getting tangled up in a wire when I need to take my coat off.

Thanks! Just went to buy one of these, and found you can also now get earphones with a USB-C connector 🙂

I do kind of agree that everything's being digitised whether it needs it or not. Why, in the name of any god, do household appliances need to be online? It's great for those who like being able to switch the washer on remotely or have their fridge order their shopping for them, but why is it getting so difficult to find machines that just do what you want when you push the button?? My washer isn't 'smart' but it still needs three different button presses in the correct order to get going - and has secret functions that you access with secret button sequences, which you have to go online to find out about

My printer won't even work if it's not online. This baffles me. My shonky broadband goes out when we have heavy rain, so I can't bloody print anything in wet weather. It also plays tunes for no reason I've been able to discern. Someone in HP product development actually went "Let's build in a feature that stops the customer using her printer!" ... and they all went "Great idea, Sam, go for it! And make it musical!" WHY??

News of connected medical implants terrifies me. I'm not afraid of "Them" controlling me remotely or any of that shit - well, apart from the function the device is supposed to control - but have these people never visited the real world, where wireless connections drop or don't exist at all?

I love tech and am the opposite of a Luddite. But I do a lot of eye-rolling about pointless improvements that needlessly complicate things. God help us all when the Great Cyber Attack succeeds. No making yourself a cup of tea, since the power and water supplies depend on t'internet, and our analogue phone service will have been switched off so we won't be able to moan to each other 😬

Touchscreen cookers- give me a damn dial!

I've come to the conclusion that at least half of the people I interact with are AI. Can't decide whether that's good or bad though.

I also miss the news just being at 6pm and 9pm. A headline, second headline, other important stuff, a couple of overseas things, local news and weather and I am as knowledgeable as I need to be about current affairs. This, combined with the morning paper was sufficient.

Now you turn on Sky or BBC and it’s just random chatting or really in depth analysis. I miss the old news style.

I'm disabled so turning lights down / off with my voice is a life saver.

On the electronic booking, try booking a theatre seat and a 'carer' ticket. They tell you to call, and then charge you for not booking online.

You can get an external CD drive off Amazon for twenty quid.

I'd agree on the headphones thing, also I preferred when phones had batteries you could separate/replace

Smart meters.

Digital everything is shit.

Analogue was better. And it worked.

I solved this by pirating everything, not even sorry.

Which means you can't charge while using headphones

All of the above! Thankfully, my laptop at least has still got a headphone jack port (although, sadly not longer a CD drive). The technology exists today to hear wonderful music with great fidelity, but most of the time, we don't/can't take full advantage of it.