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

Being an adult!
When you are a kid you can't wait to grow up and do what you want, but 90% adulting is really dull! 🤣

I don't know who Neil Postman is but its often good to take a step back if you don't understand the point of something and consider its maybe not designed for you. Both smart lights and in app ordering are huge benefits to the Visually Impaired. Since in app ordering has come in I meet with a group regularly and every one of us, even those with no useful vision at all, can just turn up, access the menu independently, order independently, it might not seem like much but its a huge deal to some who may never have had the confidence to go to the pub and meet friends by themselves before.

If I'm carrying more than one bag, I always put a print out in each bag, if not I put one in my coat pocket as well as my main bag.

What a nasty attitude.
Be interesting to see how you get on when you're 80 and there's new tech to learn all the time for basic society transactions
Let's hope you're just "stubborn" rather than any physical / cognitive impediments which most 80 year old have to some degree

Re the elderly being stubborn etc I was on a train opposite 2 elderly ladies, one of whom had booked their tickets on the app. When she got to the barrier there was either no signal (rural Scotland) or she couldn't get the app to load. The guy was going to make her buy the return tickets all over again but luckily another staff member saw sense.

So not all elderly people are useless with tech - sometimes it doesn't work. I'd far rather have a paper ticket in my hand but no doubt this option will become obsolete in the future.

I can't stand ordering food on apps. Firstly I don't want my phone cluttered up with apps I will probably never use again and secondly it took us about 20 minutes to order a roast dinner in a pub.

What meat do you want?
Boiled, mashed or roast potatoes?
Which vegetables do you want?
Do you want gravy?
Which sauce do you want?
And on and on and on

Whereas I could have told a human my order in about 10 seconds.

Now if there's app only "service" I walk out.

Our landline got upgraded and now we have no phone during power cuts. Also this is a mobile blackspot so we'd have to walk half a mile to get a signal if we needed the emergency services.
When the upgrade was about to happen they said we'd get a battery pack that we could use in power cuts but that never materialised.

So a decision maker (but not my one) called me as I asked yesterday for an update and they said they will get someone to call me. They didn’t ask any questions but I was told that my decision maker is on AL until Thursday! When my 25 weeks is tomorrow…mines an MR 2/10

Suspect you've posted on the wrong thread, @Chedder123 but, since you're here ... there's probably an app for that! 😜

Yes, this annoys me too - my mast near home has been not working properly for over 5 years meaning everyone misses calls and no option for voicemail on mobiles. I hate it. No amount of complaints get them to fix it.

Why oh why don't people have a bit of cash on them at least as a back up?

On Saturday I was helping out at our local community cafe. The mobile signal there is pretty rubbish and people kept trying to pay on their phones. (I don't have it so I don't really know how it works). They would order, I would ring it up on till (nothing over about £15), they would wave their phone over the payment machine. Nothing. They would then wander all over and back outside trying to get a signal and then, when that didn't work took ages to log on to our internet. All the while the queue was getting longer and longer and some peope were giving up and leaving, losing us trade. Must have happened about half a dozen times. One woman must have taken at least 5 minutes to try and pay on her phone and then got a debit card out and paid within seconds. Why the absolute necessity to pay by phone?

And don't get me started on the attempts to unlock their phones by facial recognition.

All that faffing about to pay and then waiting 39 mins(only half jesting) for the coffee to be put in the little metal thing, wipe the stick, froth the milk, skimmed, semi, oat, soya , almond, sweetened , unsweetened ? ad infinitum
Bring back filter coffee , pour and go.

Totally agree about "barista" coffee. Utter nonsense.
I remember getting 2 choices of coffee - black or white and we managed fine on those.
We were at a fancy hotel for a wedding - no kettle in the room, just some fancy contraption. It didn't have instructions so had to ask at reception . The guy looked at us like we had 5 heads.

Ready salted Pringles 🤢. WTF have they done to them?? I was so looking forward to my annual Christmas Pringles fest and I ended up throwing them away. And they have the audacity to call them “original” flavour 😡.

I wonder if you live near me? Ours has been broken for about the same amount of time. o2 don’t care and tell us you use WiFi calling but that only works at home and also why are we paying for line rental then?? They wanted to know the exact postcodes that our phones don’t work in… everyone in the 10 miles surrounding our house! (And many, many other places but that’s a different moan).

Subscriptions are a bloody ripoff. Subscribe to MS 365? Absolutely ridiculous.

Art frame TVs that switch themselves on and off randomly and won’t let me subscribe to the art membership pack.

Same reason why I can't use deaf aids. They leap out of my ears

Things like smart switches, voice activated music/tv, auto closing curtains/blinds are an amazing invention for people with all sorts of disabilities, giving independence where there was none.

I also like ordering food at the table. Perfect if you are on your own, as there’s no need to ‘save’ your seat by leaving your coat or shopping to indicate the table is taken.

I love my ear buds, my Alexa speakers, my ability to turn on my garage lights from my car using my Alexa enabled dash cam as I approach my driveway, and open my garage door by pressing a button. I can then reverse into the garage without needing to stop.

I love my smart switches, enabling me to turn lamps on and off (or on timed sessions) when I am not at home. A real boon for security when on holiday anywhere in the world, as long as one has WiFi.

I’m in my mid 70’s, and I love this life enhancing technology.

I’m still using an IPhone 5 for this reason. Remember when one of the virtues on mobile phones was that they were small? If I want to watch videos I have an iPad for that

Well, it is an O2 mast! South East?

The ever-increasing size of mobile phones these days makes me think they are more suitable for women than men; (there's a novelty, eh?) they are so big now you really need a bag to carry them around in, getting too big for a pocket, certainly a jeans pocket.

"Customer service" lines where they leave you waiting for ages and every 5 minutes an annoyingly chirpy voice tells you to use the app instead. If the bloody app was helping I wouldn't be wasting hours of my time waiting to speak to an actual human!

I've never got over headphone jacks going. Those idiots.

Yanbu

These new toys that come with a rechargeable battery and a bloody charger for it. Too many chargers which end up getting lost or the connection gets broken and the toy is no good. I was perfectly happy with good old batteries thank you 🤣🤣

I miss the 9pm news. I can barely stay awake for the 10pm so I nod off on the sofa & then struggle to sleep when I do go to bed.