Foldable phones - at least the early generations hat lots of troubles with the hinges and scratched screens.
Still as of today, testers are undecided if these category of devices really has a benefit compared to just buying both a tablet and a phone (and still saving money).
Well the folding aspect is pretty good.
Software otoh…
Fuck everything samsung touches for software but I love the zfold series. Only phones I’ve ever owned that I can carry without a case and not break the screen. Not sure if it’s still a problem with other phones as I don’t see as many cracked screens as I used to. I am clumsy as fuck amd drop my phone all the time but these plastic flexible screens never break. The early models were breaking from common use where the fold crease would break but they seemed to have improve that flaw. It also only happened to me after a year or more of heavy use and it was covered by insurance so never really turned me off to the phone.
yeah its cost. If the cost could be the same or only a slight increase then I would go for fold.
The people yearn for flip phones
Still miss my LG VX1 that closed with a nice <thwack>
I want one but I use a lot of apps still so I wouldn’t be able to replace my smartphone with it
Nah it was about feature phones. Cool phone though, I’m glad phone manufacturers realized the Game Boy Advance SP’s design is perfect
Oops, sorry ^^
Spicy take: high speed Internet (specifically high-speed) and cell phones.
What the fuck am I smoking?
Listen. Look around you. People expect for you to be connected 24/7. Your boss, your friends, family, they all expect you to be connected nowadays. Hell, Australia had to pass a law stopping employers from contacting you outside of work hours.
Then everyone has an opinion and they all want to share it (me too!), and if you don’t have an opinion, you’re a fucking weirdo, a dirty centrist, ignorant, or many other things (you’re probably a Nazi or something, shithead).
Social media is designed to make you feel like shit and you’re antisocial if you’re not on some social media site.
Everyone is depressed and tormented by the constant flow of negative information on their pocket squares that they feel obligated to subject themselves to, all because someone they care about will get mad or be disappointed if they don’t know or have an opinion about everything that happens every second of every minute of every hour of every day. I have a pocket square (which I’m using right now) because I feel like I have to have one nowadays. A significant amount of this is enabled by widespread high-speed Internet. Some of it would still exist, but a lot of it would become unfeasible due to the Internet being too slow. Doesn’t matter if you have some crazy 32core phone with 64gb of ram and 2tb of ssd storage if you’re limited to T-1 speeds or slower.
Sigh I’m doing the “old enby yells at clouds” thing aren’t I?
Yes, the Internet is great and has done a lot of good things, and quite honestly, at the end of the day I honestly think it’s done more good than bad. But I also think it’s massively overrated at this point.
Cell phones kinda fit into the same category of, “everyone expects you to always be reachable”; and with the same conclusion (still good but overrated). I don’t know how I feel about non-cellular tablets.
That’s why I like Lemmy so much, quirky, slow updates, small…
The error was letting normal people in, like video games 🥲
Sounds like it’s extremely overwhelming, in a bad way. Wouldn’t call all that “underwhelming”.
Perhaps it’s just whelming.
I can agree. Anything business wise with it worked just fine before the internet and was not all that annoying. going to the bank regularly or such. heck much of it could be done by phone. Even something that theoretically should be a no brainer win like streaming media has become increasingly worse to the point its value is questionable. What am I really getting from it. Then there are single player games requiring network connections???
I’ve been thinking more, and I think the Internet would be better off if it was segregated into two, mutually incompatible lanes. Lane 01: slow lane for webpages, online games, general web usage. Lane 02: high speed but exclusively for filesharing. Lane 01 content can provide links to Lane 02 content for filesharing purposes, but Lane 02 is set up so it can’t actually be embedded.
You make a very good point. Things aren’t black and white and because something has produced Benefits, it doesn’t mean that it has only positive consequences.
The side effects of an amazing technology…but the technology is still amazing. I wouldn’t interpret it as overrated at all.
When something comes along that can be misused so easily, then it takes a conscious effort to avoid misuse. It’s the same with cars, processed foods, or any modern innovation really. Be the change you want to see. Reject social media. Turn off pretty much every phone notification. Have screen free time. Socialise without screens. I’m trying to do all these things. It’s difficult when no one else is interested in following suit and I just get excluded when I’m not on the platforms everyone else uses…but I’m trying to gather a circle of people who are aligned in this way of living.
Web1.0-punk. Probably needs a catchier name.
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Well, I think the deteriorating effect social media and the modern internet has on society affects all of us, whether we participate or not. Russians stole the 2016 election using the internet - it’s not like it didn’t affect people who didn’t use Facebook or Twitter.
Of course there’s a lot of wonderful things as well. I use the internet all the time, obviously. But it would have been fascinating to see what the world would have looked like if the Internet had remained much more primitive and run largely by enthusiastic individuals.
Google Glass.
I hate it so much I’m almost sad it didn’t take off more for just a little while. Would have been fun to get the chance to hate it even more.
VR - It has been through a few hype cycles, but never quite makes it. Cost, weight, battery life (or tethers), lack of highly desirable games, required floor space, nausea (in some people), etc.
Starlink - when announced it sounded like the solution to ISP monopolies and rural broadband access. But the roll out was so slow that other solutions have caught up. For people with no option other than satellite internet, it is still great (if they can get it) but for a lot of people, better options now exist.
Disagree on VR, depending. I use a VR dry fire training system, and it’s def. improved my real-world shooting.
Also, it’s way overpriced tbh. Sure I get that it’s internet from space and all but I just see the price keep rising instead of dropping over time.
Playstation vr has been worth it for me. Great games and very good tracking. The library overall is underwhelming but the quality is there.
Beatsaber (obviously) Arizona Sunshine Walking dead Gun Range VR Swordsman VR Moss RecRoom
Those are some of the top games.
Apple Vision Pro
Seems only the influencers took the bait. And then they returned it once the channel had its run. Anyone know of any real world users/ uses for it?
It’s actually got traction in industry where we were already exploring AR for things like using 3d models to enhance maintenance on large facility equipment.
Compared to the value prop of increased reliability and enhanced frontline accessibility of consumable model data its cost is not a barrier and its quality is a MASSIVE step up from the equipment we had.
I’ve heard about it being used in high cost per unit sales experiences too, like jets or whatnot, it haven’t seen that directly.
I recall talking to a vendor back… 8 years ago? Who had a colleague trialling hololens augmented maintenance. I personally felt it would be amazing to be able to look at equipment, bring up a model and explode it to get a look at (Yeah I know you can do that with a laptop, manufacturing lines have notoriously shitty wifi, not to mention greasy around equipment), assisted procedures were a cool idea too, helps people who may not be super familiar with your specific equipment, like shift or loaner maintenance people.
Over a decade ago, different company, they had a bounty on video procedures, you’d strap a go pro to your head and record something like changing batteries, replacing o-rings, removal of electronics etc for a cash bonus. I’m a text and photo person but I totally see the value in video documentation.
Microsoft had a demo at an ignite conference in 2020 if I recall of hololens doing ar metrics, person looked at things like the elevator and would give them real-time performance data, definitely a gimmick but I still think AR could be useful in an industrial setting.
Probably nothing beyond normal VR stuff. It’s still pretty new and it sounds like Apple is still trying to figure out the chicken or the egg problem when it comes to developing an entirely new platform and have decided to try putting the egg first to see if anyone will incubate it for them. Who knows if they’ll commit long enough for it to pay off. Tbh I can see VR enthusiasts still getting something out of it since it sounds like people have figured out how to get it working with steamvr. Other than that though, I don’t really see any uses for it. I think they’re going to have to spend a lot of time looking for problems that are worth paying $1,000~$2,000 to solve (I’m assuming that’s what a “consumer” version would cost), and then refine their solution until it feels natural before widespread adoption will be a thing.
Ok so I do agree that the Vision Pro is crazy overpriced and never gonna succeed by itself.
But remember the first gen iPad? That thing sucked!
The iPad 2 was a genuine quantum leap forward for the form factor, so I’m waiting to see the next Vision device before making a proper call.
The iPad had the Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field to save it
Apple Vision Pro. It’s incredible for the first days. Then there’s no reason to keep using it.
Really? This sounded promising to anyone?
Why, don’t you buy anything Tim Apple the marketing master tells you to?
Google glass. Sounded like we’d all be wearing these glasses that we’d not be able to do without, but even looking back that sounds like such a poor idea. I try to not be on my phone as much as I can, I can’t imagine wearing glasses with an interface in my direct vision constantly, especially when a lot of it would be shit like emails, LinkedIn notifications of people I might know, and my siblings sending me 12 Instagram posts in a row.
I wanted to be like the kid from Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide and have a mouse wired up to it. Lol.
I want smart glasses that are a scaled down smartwatch. Give me like 3 lines of text & a vibration function.
If I could insert the interface from my Pebble into a pair of glasses I would be content.
Guess what, they’re already working on the 3rd version.
I just wanted to be able to read a book without (possibly) straining my neck :(
I feel like it would probably be terrible for your eyes, but I feel ya.
Audio books maybe?
They’re just not the same for me, unfortunately. They have a place, but I prefer reading.
Are audiobooks with subtitles still audiobooks?
‘multimedia device’
Would’ve been awesome for maps though
smartwatches are surprisingly good for directions/routing. they vibrate one way for left turns and another way for right turns.
Companies keep trying to recreate something similar for motorcycle helmets
3D internet/web.
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Blink Security Cameras.
Record for 30 seconds, then can’t record for the next 10. So you miss 25% of whatever’s going on at your house. Can’t add other users, so anyone you want to give view access to your cameras, you just have to give them your password, and thus, full access. No web UI, just the mobile app. No Home Assistant integration. Subscription required.
Hold up, so I can just stand still in a room for >30 seconds to sync the timing, then spin in a circle for 32 seconds, then sprint right up to the camera and rip it off the wall?
They only record when they see movement, so no need to stand still. The spinning is what gets caught on the recording. Then if you can rip it off within ten seconds, all that gets recorded is your spinning.
The 30 seconds is a buffer between entering the space and spinning, so it doesn’t catch you running up. Like if it starts recording as you enter the room, how do you know when it started/stopped recording
You can just look at the status light on it that shows whether it’s recording.
I’m not saying it’s necessary, just explaining what it was for
You’d have to determine when the camera turns on in order to determine when it shuts off. If it’s 30 on 10 off, you stay still for >40 seconds to ensure the camera is idle and ready to record, and then you spin, you can ensure camera turns on at your spinning, and then you know it’ll shut off on your 30 seconds, and you’re totally synced to the 40s cycle
I see what you mean. Yeah, that would work.
Large language models
They are great if you don’t care whether they are accurate at any given point in time.
Yep they’re a great tool if you know what they excel at. But instead if you’re not familiar and you hear the over hype in the media, companies leaders etc, you’re going to have a bad time.
Segway scooter
Smartphones in general.
They were cool until the industry decided tall, skinny rectangles were the final form factor.
I’m on the last week of my dumb phone challenge (been daily driving a flip phone for the last 3 weeks), and I think I’m gonna keep it.
my dream is a dumb phone that can access the internet and act as a wifi gateway for my laptop or tablet. oh also a local webpage for managing the phone.
I was actually surprised to learn that most current dumb phones (at least ones that run KaiOS like most of the Nokia ones) do actually support acting as a wifi hotspot. Not sure of any that have a REST API for management, though. They also have at least primitive web browsers.
Actually, you might be able to make a REST API (and web app to use it) with NodeJS or Python with Termux, though that requires an Android device (so not applicable for a dumb phone). Termux has an API that lets you interact with the phone hardware, though I’ve had issues with some things not being implemented (I’ve only briefly played with that, so I may just be missing something or it doesn’t fully work in Android 14 yet).
The “dumb” phone I chose for my challenge is the CAT S22 Flip which runs Android 11. I disabled most of what made it “smart” for the challenge, though. At the end of the week when the 30 days are officially up, I’m going to re-enable some of those features just for convenience. (That device was $20 cheaper than the true dumb phone I was looking at, so I figured I’d just dumb it down for the 30 day challenge and then use it as the unique smartphone it is after that).
you know someone told me this one on chat and all I really remember was it did not really seem to be that way. There was something I believe but it was as expensive as a smartphone which I get it may not be as cheap as a typical dumb phone it should not really be that much more with just the one function.
But the convenience of being wired in every possible second of your life!
Dictating notes into my journal (eg obsidian/mediawiki/dokuwiki) is very nice though.
Self-driving cars
I bought into the hype 10ish years ago. I had expected it to revolutionise road transport.In my (in the industry) experience: Agile killed safe development by pushing superficial internal deadlines that look good instead of are good. Safety requirements therefore are never met, but people keep looking like they’re approaching at least one, but end up sacrificing other things that no one is concentrating on, causing more set backs than improvements. Self driving will not be legally commercialized until either someone lobbies bad development onto the roads, or capitalism realizes that quarter profit isn’t as important as ten year profit and Agile finally burns in a god damn fire.
Interesting take. Do you have any material about the shortcomings of agile? Podcasts or articles or w/e
I’ve seen a few, but it’s still kind of controversial. That being said, there is a time and a place for agile where it works, but also there is a team composition and a style of agile which works and that style tends to piss off micromanaging middle managers, so it rarely is allowed.
I had an article saved in my work slack before I left that company (for health reasons), but a currently popular one seems to be this one: https://johnfarrier.com/agile-failure-what-drives-268-higher-failure-rates/
My take is based on years of interaction with companies and friends in other companies. The biggest problem isn’t necessarily Agile, but instead that agile is not intended for long term projects. Agile is fantastic in short turnaround interactions such as web dev, and because these short turnaround places have such easily visible results, managers take them to be gospel. Thus comes Corporate Agile: https://web.archive.org/web/20240524230754/https://bits.danielrothmann.com/corporate-agile Link is from the Internet archive because I can’t find his new site if he moved.
Long story short, corporate agile is the agile the bosses want, as it allows them to be constantly involved with more and more “agile” meetings. You know. Meetings. The antithesis of Agile. The place productivity goes to die. I had to remind our bosses that Agile dictated that stand ups included the developers and the scrum master ONLY multiple times and pointed them to the agile training they gave me. Didn’t matter. They’re the boss. This is a pretty common breakdown in Agile. So, that turned daily standup into daily meeting, since the quick status updates now had to be broken down for the boss. Every. Single. Day.
Agile at its most basic is intended to reduce meetings to once a week so the rest of the time can be spent developing. Every company I know starts including devs in at least 300% more meetings (even junior devs) after switching to Agile for at least 6 months. And on average, it takes half an hour for a programmer to return to the level of productivity they hit before any interruption. This is generally due to the limitations of working memory. (Many research papers on this if you want.)
But to get back to the original point. Because agile concentrates on short immediately tangible and verifiable benefits, any progress that takes longer than a sprint isn’t allowed. (It actually is, with proper implementation, as Agile is supposed to be edited on a team by team basis to make things work, but companies want everyone on exactly the same page.) Guess what doesn’t have immediately tangible and verifiable benefits? That’s right, research. Guess what it’s still in a research phase? Aside from basically anything that isn’t in market yet, self driving technology is very much research driven. Lots of trial, error, and long development cycles. Longer than a sprint for sure. And anyone who says self driving is in market should try an exercise if finding one level 5 self driving car that hasn’t been recalled due to false marketing or safety concerns. The technology isn’t there yet. It could be getting there, but profits are getting in the way of progress.
Realistically. Trains will revolutionize road transport of goods and people if the train industry properly maintained their rails, operated above board (unlike the one that had the chemical spill in Ohio and other issues), and expands a bit. The largest expense in good transport is long haul and no one wants to drive long haul. Last mile will probably need trucks and drivers for at least 3 to 5 more decades. And taxi services have similar challenges to last mile delivery. Personal self driving systems need even more consideration than taxi services, and will likely take five to ten years after taxi services become recognized as safe.
Microconsoles in general never really became a thing. Guess there isn’t much of a market for them.
It would have been good if they didn’t lie so much about what you can do with it and fail spectacularly
But if they didn’t lie, who was gonna buy it?
The whole notion of phone games on your TV is dumb. I can play my phone games on my phone, anywhere. Even while watching tv!
I’m pretty sure I could get usb-c to HDMI and a Bluetooth controller and play phone games on my TV with just my phone.
Still have mine somewhere, I wonder if it would be possible to take a Shield and put it in there or a RPi…
