Things that are meant to be better but are not better

[CrocsNotDocs]

Look, I’m not a Luddite- I usually love technology.

But why oh why have headphones jacks been removed from phones and tablets? 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. I want cheap old fashioned headphones that don’t go flat that can be plugged into your device and just work. I don’t want to use the charging port for headphones- I like to charge my device while using it. I want headphone jacks back.

YABU- Everything new is always better
YANBU- some things were not broken and should have been left alone

OK so not those who are reliant on NHS aids. Only for the rich

I agree mostly, but it is a godsend in Excel.

I copy and paste and formula that isn't doing what I want it to do, explain what I want it to do and hit enter.

It gives me back an adjusted formula that I can copy and paste straight into my workbook.

I tried googling originally and it was hopeless.

For now my biggest bugbear is the transition between the various different types of adapters to USB-C.

It will be great when absolutely everything is USB-C and I only have to have one cable, but now I have to have two different cables to charge my phone and my airpods. I've had to buy yet another cable that does both as it's a PITA swapping them out all the time.

Another one on the "meant to be better but aren't" topic - touchscreen cars

If it's not safe or legal to touch the touchscreen of your phone, why are you allowed to in your car?? I had a courtesy car the other day that I had to use the touchscreen to change the temperature of the heater on a menu system that I didn't know. What was wrong with a dial?? Plus, all the bloody fingerprints!

DH would say tv sports subscriptions. Opening up football to other providers such as BT and Amazon was supposed to support competition, but all it's achieved is us now having three subscriptions instead of one.

A family friend of mine has these. The hearing aids are so discreet, I didn't even know she wore them, then suddenly she held up her hand to me and started talking about something completely unrelated to our conversation.

Took me ages to realise she was on the phone! 😂

Yep. This is why I left 3 and went to EE. I found the lack of coverage ridiculous.

@Gogogo12345, mine are NHS aids. It's all very dependent on your local health authority. I have moved to a different area since I had these aids and my new authority doesn't provide Bluetooth aids yet. I have been told by an audiologist that I need to start saving for private aids if I still want this technology. I am due a new set in the summer, which I really need, as my hearing has deteriorated drastically in the three years since I have had them, especially in the last twelve months. As I am a professional classical musician, poor hearing is more of a liability for me than it is for most. I am far from rich, as you enviously suggest, but, for my livelihood, I will need to find some way of affording the £2,000+ that these aids cost.

Just get usb-c headphones ? Doesn’t take much research to find a solution if you don’t want to modernise

My relative is not eligible for Bluetooth NHS aid and would have absolutely zero chance of saving 2 k.

Track pads on laptops are a backward step from a wired mouse. There's nothing about them that's an improvement.

@DazzlingCuckoos

I copy and paste and formula that isn't doing what I want it to do, explain what I want it to do and hit enter. AI gives me back an adjusted formula that I can copy and paste straight into my workbook.

...where's the fun in that?

Aren't they just an alternative.
95% of the time I use a wired mouse. The other 5% I'm travelling with the laptop and the trackpad is useful.

Online only banking...I changed my phone number the same day my son dropped my phone down the toilet. Trying to install my banking app on my new phone with my new number is not easy. I rung the bank up but failed their security questions!

Ah now that would just be to easy!

*too!

Electric handbrakes. Mine doesn't always come on if I haven't got the clutch down enough, even if I've pressed the button, and before now I've wondered why the car next to me is moving when it's actually me that's rolling backwards. Or I have to double check the 'P' symbol is on when I've parked - I didn't have that problem when I had a big lever I pulled, I knew the brake was on.

What problem were they trying to solve with this nonsense?

And YY to:

• parking apps (oh look, I don't have the right one and I haven't got much signal in order to download the damn thing, and I'll spend so long creating an account that I get a ticket for taking too long to buy parking)

• train ticket apps (no I don't want an eticket that I have to pay a "service charge" for when I could get one from the ticket machine for the face value, AND it won't run out of battery), and

• apps in general ("Have you downloaded our app? Then we can hoover up your data and sell it on...")

• needing a login for ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY EVERYTHING.

I loathe restaurants that don't have menus only an app. My eyesight is poor, phones are too small to look at extensive menu options.

If they have menus as well that's fine but we have been in places where they don't have menus at all. It's look at it on a phone or nothing. To be fair this was abroad in Spain but I wouldn't be surprised if there are places here like that as well.

I still print paper confirmation of all tickets and bookings

It's all very well thinking "Your phone is your ticket" blah blah blah but it could get lost, stolen, have a problem so they're not the be all and end all.

Job applications and HR. Yes you can apply for 100 jobs in 1 second, no you will not ever get one because HR were presumably so overwhelmed it was cheaper to get CV's read by AI which now filters out anyone without a degree in ADMIN as well as experience, obviously.

Overdrafts. Yes get charged because we allow you to get into debt every month rather than when we used to just shut up shop and decline payments. Credit has gone too far and people don't care they die with debt leaving it to family to pay off.

Degrees - really should only be for people who need academic jobs and roles that need extra learning. Everyone having them means quality has declined to spending the first year doing GCSE English writing in most courses. Not amazed people are getting loans and dropping out at all.

Bins - now every house has to have enough room to store 4+ giant bins because men paid to "do bins" cannot touch plastic or lift anything, instead these monstrosities need replacing after being hurled about all over the street at £50+ a pop and often take months to be delivered. Even after all this we still can't recycle most of our rubbish.

Or - as happened to me - you find yourself at an airport that a) won't let you in without a ticket, b) is a significant distance from the nearest internet connection/printer (except for those inside the airport - see point a), and c) is door-staffed by somewhat twitchy (and armed) security who only accept paper tickets.

Trying to explain to them that your ticket is on the screen because you have the BA app did not go well, I might as well have performed it in the medium of interpretive dance for all the door guard thought it was a legitimate ticket.

The key problem with all this tech is that is further marginalises people who are already marginalised because elderly, poor, foreign, disabled, cognitively challenged etc

It's totally impossible to tell HMCTS you have changed address over the phone.

God knows how people with limited access or understanding sort it out.

Another gripe (for me anyway) is often how they insist that you telephone the company and then have a call centre operator with a shocking language skills or that they have a really strong accent be it foreign or an English dialect.
As someone with hearing issues - I have come up against this problem time and time again. So many times I have had to ask people to repeat what they have said or to slow what crib sheet they are reading from as none of it makes sense or god forbid - that they put someone else on the telephone who speaks queens English!!

Customer service is almost non-existent because they have us over a barrel now they are all using it.

Before that, it was little raised lump between g, h and b keys. Very time consuming if needed to guide cursor onto a small area. I have laptop and use a wireless mouse with a usb dongle.

Having to have a bloody app for everything. Its only a matter of time before we will be needing an app to flush the toilet or breathe.

I can't help wondering whether the daily annoyances caused by apps etc. are the reason why so many people are on a short fuse nowadays. I am normally a placid person, but when confronted with technology and all its frustrations I can feel my blood pressure rising to dangerous levels😡