United “Polaris” Business Class. Flew it over the pacific and my seat area had trim falling off, the food was only okay, the lay-down seat was okay. It’s supposed to be “the best,” but all other airlines have caught up, at 2/3 to 1/2 the price.
Adobe Creative Cloud. It’s really expensive, and once you stop paying, you lose everything.
No wonder why it’s some of the most pirated software in the world.
Losing access to a work I put hours and days, sometimes months of my life was the main reason I now absolutely refuse any non-open source products. My advisor/colleagues sometimes say “university gives it for free”, or “we pay all that money for this softwares”, but I am not going to use them even if they are slightly better than open source.
You’re making great progress.
Anything made by Razer, any Google hardware
Chromebooks suck ass but Pixel phones are pretty solid
Chromebooks are amazing for a certain type of low technical skill person. Older parents and grandparents in particular are exactly the kind of people that Chromebooks are for. There’s zero technical support burden and if anything goes wrong a power wash solves it.
That sounds pretty good, why wouldn’t you recommend it then, are there better alternatives?
Oh I totally recommend Chromebooks, they almost entirely eliminate the tech support burden from having a parent/grandparent who doesn’t get computers. It was the dude above me who crapped on them.
You’re the one who replied “any google hardware” though.
So buy Chromebooks from other oems?
To be fair, they are nothing special, but the tradeoff is worth it for GrapheneOS.
they have nice cameras. but the battery life is attrocious and sometimes will run into radio issues (iirc fixed only one or 2 generations ago)… lack of otp support is also one minor issue
I got a bundle of a Razer keyboard, mouse, headset, and mousepad for all of $50 one time cause it was on sale and we just happened to come across the last one they had. This was about a year ago, because I was needing new ones anyway, and they’ve been perfectly fine ever since.
I try to avoid razer because their products seem so gimmicky and are quite expensive. But i have an mmo mouse for a long time now (longer than any other mouse) and the tartarus, because they were the only ones at the time wgo had something like that. It still works perfectly fine. The s button is almost gone because of usage, but other than that, 10/10
Any Apple product, mostly the iPhones. If you live in Latin America, those things are more a burden than something useful. They are too expensive, too fragile, and too Eye-catching for burglars.
They eats up your phone plan in hours just by existing, you can’t borrow a charger because everyone around you has Android. The simplest things to do on Android are an ordeal on Iphone.
The only way it can be worth it is if you have all Apple products (iMac, AppleTV, iPad, etc). But for that, you better be prepared to pawn your soul.
The simplest things to do on Android are an ordeal on Iphone.
Can you give us any examples?
- sigh *
Ok, let me see. Again, this is my experience and my opinion, so some things may not be a problem for you at all, for example:
Testing self-developed games or apps. I develop games. To test them on android I just need to create the APK, pass it to the phone, install and done. I may be wrong, but on Apple it’s not that simple.
File management. Many times I use my phone as a Pendrive, others I want to save my music to listen offline. Of the latter I remember that on my old iPod it was a headache to transfer music from my non-Apple PC to the device, transferring other files was just impossible, and it seems to me that that has not changed in Iphone, but I don’t know for sure, since I don’t handle an iPhone.
Going back. All modern Android phones have three on-screen buttons, the order varies, but in general they are: one to see all open apps and close the ones you don’t need or all of them, one to exit the app completely, and one to go back to the previous tab in an app. The iPhones I have been allowed to handle do not have any of the three buttons, the back button is the one I miss the most.
The first paragraph, I can get along with and understand where you’re coming from.
The second paragraph, could you elaborate what you mean by “eat up your phone plan just by existing”? I personally use an iPhone and have had very normal data usage rates that is accurately tracked through both the phone and my carrier’s app.
Also regarding borrowing a charger, they just moved to USB-C so that will be a non-issue a few years down the road when lightning is phased out.
Plus how can you hold “borrowing a charger” against a phone company? If you don’t have a charger on hand that’s your fault.
Because they insisted on using the inferior lightning connector instead of using USB C like everyone else.
Yes, that would’ve been a very valid reason for that person to not recommend an apple product. But to not recommend it because they can’t borrow one from everyone around them is such a weird way to put it that I didn’t even consider Apple’s absurd reasoning for using the lightning connector
Should probably point out thatbthey were forced to move to USB-C
Sure, but whether they were forced to move over or did it out of the (non-existent) goodwill of their hearts wasn’t the point of contention in the discussion and results in a similar outcome. The initial commenter pointed out that they couldn’t share a charger and I just mentioned that this should be a non-issue once lightning is phased out.
Considering they made it so that you need apple issued usb-c, and have problems with normal one (probably fixed now because people obviously complained). I’d say avoiding it is a good choice.
Well, it is necessary to clarify that I speak not so much from my own experience but from those close to me (family and friends who have or have had iPhones, I have only had iPods). With regard to the phone plan, the people I know who have had iPhones always tend to have no data to browse, because the data on their phone runs out surprisingly faster than on Android phones. I don’t know what the technical details would be, I suspect it has to do with processes running in the background that require internet.
With the chargers, on the one hand the thing is that most iPhone phones circulating in Latin America are older, so none have the Type-C port that is now Standard. And for the iPhones that do have it, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think those iPhones have a particularity that only cables manufactured by Apple can effectively charge the iPhone, while any other cable either can not charge it as quickly or can even damage it. I think something similar happens with the Nintendo Switch, that its port is Type-C but only cables made by Nintendo work, but I insist in saying that I could be wrong.
To conclude, I must say that this is just my opinion according to a specific context. I am sure that in more developed countries like the United States, Japan or European countries, the experience of having an iPhone is as normal as with any other phone, or even better.
Gotcha. It could be entirely possible that the anecdotal experiences regarding phone data that you’ve heard could be simply because they’re heavier users or that they purchased a smaller quota. From personal experience, I really have not noticed any background processes that suck up data.
Regarding the type-C cable though, I have actually experienced that problem where cheaper cables do not work for charging. This part is PURE SPECULATION on my end, but I suspect Apple stops cheaper cables from charging on the off chance that it increase the risk of a fire (cheap cables = thinner wires = more resistance = more heat) because when stuff like that makes the news, the headline is typically “iPhone caught fire while charging” and not “Cheap cable caused a fire.” I spent a lil more on a third party USB-C cable that was higher quality and rated to charge up to 65W and have had no problems with it. I’m not sure what the economic situation is in Latin America, but where I am (Malaysia), I spent about RM60 (which is roughly equivalent to $13) on the cable that worked compared to RM20 for the cable that didn’t, just to give you a point of reference.
A phone plan with a phone. You pay more over time and you get stuck with a contract.
Buy a phone and get a plan from a MVNO. Your monthly plan will be better and cheaper. Also since you own the phone when a better plan appears you can just switch.
Roku anything
I have a tv from them and one day the PBS kids app just stopped working. I contacted customer support and they just told me it was the app developer’s fault, nothing to be done. Waited months thinking it would eventually resolve but never did.
And recently where they:
- Blocked people from using their tvs until they accepted a new agreement and
- Filed for a patent that defines how they can start overlaying ads on top of other connected devices over hdmi
Glad I shut off wifi to my tv years ago and plugged in a separate smart tv hdmi dongle. And not getting anywhere near anything that says Roku on the packaging again.
I’ve never had a Roku TV, but I’ve been using two of their HDMI connected devices for years.
I’ve never had an issue, but one is too old and needs replacing. What alternatives would you suggest I have a look at?
We’ve used the Amazon firestick before and it worked well. Currently we use the google chromecast/tv dongle for both ours tvs.
Nice thing about the google one is that it makes any Google movie/tv show purchases available, and Amazon movie purchases are still available through the Amazon video app.
But they’re pretty comparable. Depends mostly on what ecosystem you’re in or would prefer to be in.
Any Google smartwatch. I bought 2 at one point. A sport and a dress watch. Both only lasted about a year before the software rendered them useless. I’m now back on analogue watches.
It’s almost aggressive how quickly smart devices get shuttered, being an oldschool techhead I’ve always dreamed of being a walking compute center, but just like smart house gear, you can’t expect a thing you buy today to work next week and we are just conditioned to accept it.
I absolutely loved my LG Android watch from a couple years ago. Used it constantly
But then a major update for Android Wear was released, and it completely changed the UX and UI. It was absolutely annoying to use suddenly
Stopped using it a week after the release. Never had an android wear watch since
I have a pixel watch I bought around its launch (IIRC) and it’s still going fine today. The only issue I’ve had is, since starting farming, the little dial can gum up a bit, but it can be cleaned.
“Old Spice” flavored candy
I don’t think that means what you think that means
I hope to God you mean black licorice
And Old Spice flavored candy would be absolutely dimented
Kids
Tile countertops. Our house came with them and they are terrible. Who the fuck thought of these?
Can you elaborate on what about them sucks so bad? I don’t know that I’ve ever seen them in real life.
The little grout space between the tiles…can’t clean the fucking things well enough and shit always gets in there
Grout is impossible to clean, kitchens ought not have so many seams to hold bacteria; they also inexplicably had a painted surface that is coming off now. They are so hard they can break a glass if you set it down too hard, and they can themselves also crack.
Counterpoint: granite countertops. You can’t see when or where they’re dirty.
I do also hate granite countertops. They are ugly! I do keep one granite slab top cart because the cool surface is great for working pastry or chocolate.
Best countertop we ever encountered in a rental was that Corian stuff, I’m sure it terrible for the environment but it was seamless and wonderful. Second place the old old old Formica counters in my old house. Those I could clean with bleach and they survived more than 70 years, so tough.
Granite comes in a myriad of styles. I don’t understand the blanket statement. It’s literally just a type of stone.
Any guitar under $700 with any feature you’d expect to be standard in medium to high end guitars. If a brand new guitar has a floyd rose but is $300, it won’t hold tuning, and the screws will strip easily.
Not saying expensive guitars are good by default, but there’s very little room for innovation in the guitar world, and corner cutting will happen in cheaper guitars.
This guy guitars
Harley Benton Fusion 3 owner here… €450. Nothing at all wrong with this thing.
Hm, yeah that might be the case. Last guitar with a FR I bought was well over 10y ago.
Paper drinking straws
Silly, but I like those because I can eat bits of it after using them :3
My guy, pasta drinking straws are for you!
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Any computer mouse, frankly.
The sad thing is when I bought my first gaming mouse in the mid 2000s it was a Razer and that thing ran great for almost 10 years. I only replaced it because after handling it for that many years it was worn and kinda gross.
I replaced it with a Razer that went sure enough went faulty after a year. I then tried other brands (name and no-name). I’ve never had a mouse last me 18 months before it started to go faulty. It really feels like they all colluded a planned obsolescence. Even my current mouse, a Zowie FK3-C, has begun to drop the mouse input when i click and hold the left button. I bought this in June 2023!!
I still like the Zowie a lot, it has great features like a button to toggle the refresh rate without the need for installing dumb software to set it. But it’s been 10 years of this shit, for me, so I will never recommend a computer mouse to anyone. Just use the one that you get from your office job, I guess.
Always been happy with Logitech. But I switched the software to SteerMouse since Logitech jumped on the AI train.
I got a Kensington trackball. I’ll never use a mouse again.
I’ve been using logitech for years and they’ve all been holding up well for me. The only issue I had was an older trackball mouse design. I owned two and one had some issues but the other lasted almost a decade.
Middle mouse click is indispensable but it seems to be first to fail on my mice
Man, Logitech all the way. I’ve only had to replace one or maybe two with 8-hr/day, 5 days a week constant usage
Been using a cheapass dell mouse we got free with our servers for about a decade now and it’s great.
I’ve had Razrs, expensive assed MS nostalgia grabs, Kensingtons of every configuration, Logitech of both gaming and office models and nothing has been as accurate and problem free as this cheap assed dell server mouse.
Well that’s cause one is made to look fancy and make money, the other is meant to do its job
I’d argue that it’s more of a ‘If we don’t send them something to get bootstrapped, the customers will complain, so throw in a cheap kbd and mouse and stick our logo on it’, but they JUST happened to be SLIGHTLY less cheap than everyone who makes ‘gaming’ mice.
I’m under no illusions, it’s a really cheap mouse, just its one that has a good sensor.
Mainly I have it because it was free and we had a closet filled with a few hundred of them.
I used to have an old MS Pro mouse that was literally my favorite pointing device EVER made but it was SD resolution so useless in modern machines, and the cash grab piece of crap that MS just re-released a few years ago to get a piece of that sweet nostalgia pie was worse than any razr I’ve ever used.
I just want to click on heads and it’s crazy that gaming mice are so poorly made nowadays that free server mice are objectively better.
For me it was the Microsoft intellimouse, the led one. It had 5 buttons, one on each side so it was also ambidextrous. Now I have a mouse graveyard box.
The only ones that seem to last for me have been Logitech, and even then its not even close to the 10 years. Maybe around 3 years, a couple more replacing the switches
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It’s about never recommending, not never buying. You can buy something unrecommended ;)
Logitech mouse. They keep making them worse in order to sell more overpriced usb adapters. The software is hilariously bad. The world needs a Logitech alternative. Please China, I’m begging.
I swear by the marathon mouse. And I love the scroll wheel unlock of logitech mice. Scroll wheel goes brrrrrrrr
Yes I love that too. I got the MX Anywhere 3 to replace to 2 I had. I’ve had a bunch. They all fail in the same way, they start doing double clicks for single click. But usually after a couple of years, I’m fine with that part.
The bullshit is when they make the new mouse incompatible with the old USB adapter OR THE SOFTWARE! And you have to install Options PLUS! And doesn’t work often and needs to be reinstalled.
They make good stuff but the bullshit is bullshit.
I feel like their MX series is still very good.
Exception should be made for the MX Master range. I have had all models: 2, 2s, 3 & 3s. They were always great, but have got better and better with each iteration.
