What's a tech trend you disagree with?

[7412]

For me, it's how smartphone companies have completely given up on pop-up selfie cameras, despite them having suffered no catastrophic failures when they were a thing.

They held up well, and the OnePlus 7 Pro remains to this day the best looking smartphone screen you can get in 2022 despite despite being a 3 year old device.

 

But they went back to notches. All brands did, even Xiaomi (Poco) and Asus (ZenFone).

[Arika]

more of a consumer tech trend:

 

upgrading every generation

 

the amount of people i've seen on this forum and else where on the internet with the last gen top of the line hardware saying they are upgrading to the top of the line for the next gen (3090 > 4090, i9 12900k > i9 13900K etc)

[RONOTHAN##]

Slightly controversial opinion: M.2 devices are one of the worst thing to happen to motherboard design in recent memory. 

 

To be clear, I'm not against the gum stick SSDs, they're fast and make a ton of sense in applications like laptops and SFF rigs and are great ways to get more expansion options for very little storage space. On full size desktops, however, board vendors are sacrificing connectivity options in order to get more M.2 slots. Instead of giving standard size PCIe slots that you can populate with any type of expansion card you could think of, a lot of boards have stopped giving those slots in favor of populating the PCB with more M.2 slots. 

 

Take a board like the GA-Z97X-SOC Force, a reasonably high end (~$200-250) motherboard from Gigabyte back in the Haswell era just before M.2 slots were a thing but still when boards were likely to get BIOS support for them so you could boot off them. It had 4 PCIe x16 slots setup to run x16-x0-x0-x4, x8-x0-x8-x4, or x8-x4-x4-x4, so you could run a lot of reasonably high bandwidth expansion cards on it without too much issue (say a GPU, a network card, a capture card, and an HBA for a ton of storage), and if you wanted PCIe SSDs, you could run them in one of the aforementioned PCIe slots with a cheap adapter. In comparison, a high end board today (let's stick with Gigabyte for consistency sake) you can get a Z790 Aorus Master for $500, and that has 3 x16 slots running x16-x4-x1 while having 5 M.2 slots on the board. If those M.2 slots were converted to actual PCIe cards, you could run x16-x4-x8-x4 with 4 x16 slots letting you actually use expansion cards in the system for people who actually use them for things other than M.2 devices, maybe leaving a single M.2 slot on the board for a boot drive. 

 

M.2 slots just don't have the same flexibility that a standard PCIe slot has, and adapters from PCIe to M.2 are cheap and easy to install in a motherboard, while going the other way is not easy (and for the case of high bandwidth slots like x8 just impossible) and almost impossible to mount in the majority of cases. Their existence has just seemed to cause board vendors to do some really wacky things in order to get more of them, including resorting to weird things like stealing PCIe lanes from the primary GPU slot to get more M.2 slots. They just seem to be there to limit functionality of motherboards, not really increase it, and motherboard design would be much better off if we had boards with just single M.2 slots, brought back proper expansion options, and included an adapter for people who did want 2+ M.2 drives in their system and just adapt from PCIe rather than having dedicated slots for them. 

 

 

Also I want HEDT back, though Ryzen/consumer Intel with HEDT levels of expansion options should be possible, just no board vendor seems willing to do it.

[jaslion]

I want my batteries to be easily replaceable.

 

I want my devices to last as long as I myself damn well please. I get to decide when I upgrade not someone else.

 

Subscriptions everywhere for no reason.

 

Removing existing software features and then moving the cost to the consumer. Whilst also usually making the old version unobtainable/broken

 

Always online bs

 

GIVE ME MY DAMN HEADPHONE JACK BACK. NO EXCUSES IT FITS EVERYWHERE. BT IS NOT THE SOLUTION

 

Disposable tech

 

Notches. Why did we stop pushing for normal no notch screens? Why the fuck are they in laptops? It looks awfull, cheap, like a design oversight and serves no real function as there are better ways to go around it. Or just keep a top bar nobody cares. The iphone se still sells like crazy and it has chonky borders.

 

The need to keep making the internet heavier and less efficient by including tracking, ads, ...

 

On that last point legit when a company optimizes their websites, doesnt just dump a crapton of useless data for the loca machine to process, optimizes the site and understands and uses the appropriate libraries even if older you can have a BLAZING FAST light weight browsing experience on a mid range phone from 2013 as if you are using a flagship.

 

Data, data everywhere. So many data centers consuming so much power storing literal garbage just so it can be sold to advertisers. Just stop please.

 

and much more

[jaslion]

34 minutes ago, 7412 said:

For me, it's how smartphone companies have completely given up on pop-up selfie cameras, despite them having suffered no catastrophic failures when they were a thing.

They held up well, and the OnePlus 7 Pro remains to this day the best looking smartphone screen you can get in 2022 despite despite being a 3 year old device.

 

But they went back to notches. All brands did, even Xiaomi (Poco) and Asus (ZenFone).

Dude same I have the mi 9t (basically same device as the one plus) and to this day people go like wow thats a clean looking device.

 

PEOPLE WANT THEIR SCREENS BACK WHY DONT THEY KNOW THAT?

[rrats]

Removal of headphone jack, notches, multiple useless cameras, lack of FM tuner, lack of home button in any shape or form, lack of SD cards, as well as reparability of products being insanely complicated and finally, Android "protecting" my data by breaking older apps while stealing information for their own. There is a reason why I have a good AV setup as well as a solid custom built PC  and yet I still own an old galaxy s8 with a broken screen. It suffers from being nearly impossible to fix but at least it doesn't have all the modern tropes of recent devices which annoy the hell out of me. I'd argue that it was the last good Samsung phone

[solado]

Companies lower end products being so under powered they're obsolete rapidly ending up useless after a short period of time, entry level products should be able to perform a task well for at least a few years before degrading to the point of needing a replacement.

Entry level phones / tablets are particularly guilty of this.

 

Non-user replaceable batteries in any tech in general, yeah I know IPC water resistance but not giving people the option to sacrifice this for a user replaceable battery isn't great.

[Needfuldoer]

That everything must be as small, thin, light, and non-serviceable as possible.

 

That a tablet with a keyboard attachment is as good a laptop as a real laptop. The weight balance is all wrong; the heavy part should be on the bottom!

[TetraSky]

Impossibility to listen to FM radio on a smartphone, just because there's no headphones plugged in. It literally works without it, I confirmed as much when a bug happened in my FM radio app. But nope, need to have wired headphones plugged in, "bEcAuSe ThEy AcT aS anTeNnAs". Now that they are removing the headphone jack, you basically HAVE to pay for data, to listen to what should have otherwise been free.

 

Also, quite frankly, I don't understand the whole wireless ear buds thing. How are they not falling out your ears!? I tried a few pairs and they just noped out of my ears within a few minutes at best (apple airpods, samsung buds and some other brand). Plus I hated having to carry that stupid case everywhere in my pocket, as another large plastic crap I need to carry in my already tight pockets. I had to buy one of those cords that hooks to the earbuds and rest on your neck so as to not lose them. At that point, why didn't I just buy a pair that already had a damn wire connecting the two!? I gave up on those and just got ones with a over the ear "hook" on them, at least when they "fall out", they still remain on my ears, even if they are not "fashionable".

[Heliian]

5 hours ago, jaslion said:

The need to keep making the internet heavier

Exactly.  When I got to a vendor website and it loads incredibly slow because of useless bloat.  It's perpetually getting worse, now we need 5g just to browse? 

[da na]

15 hours ago, Arika S said:

more of a consumer tech trend:

 

upgrading every generation

 

the amount of people i've seen on this forum and else where on the internet with the last gen top of the line hardware saying they are upgrading to the top of the line for the next gen (3090 > 4090, i9 12900k > i9 13900K etc)

Indeed, this is quite wasteful. That's my top pick for disliked trends.

Upgrading every generation and less repairable/upgradable devices (and thinner lighter laptops with less I/O) are an issue.

 

Beyond that, I hate calling 1440p '2K' personally. 

 

9 hours ago, Heliian said:

Exactly.  When I got to a vendor website and it loads incredibly slow because of useless bloat.  It's perpetually getting worse, now we need 5g just to browse? 

But how else is Amazon, Facebook, and Google going to be able to serve you ads on exactly the specific thing you're looking up? Poor Mark Zuckerberg, he's just a working man trying to make a living off honest data collection!

[Dedayog]

16 hours ago, 7412 said:

For me, it's how smartphone companies have completely given up on pop-up selfie cameras, despite them having suffered no catastrophic failures when they were a thing.

They held up well, and the OnePlus 7 Pro remains to this day the best looking smartphone screen you can get in 2022 despite despite being a 3 year old device.

 

But they went back to notches. All brands did, even Xiaomi (Poco) and Asus (ZenFone).

I don't like RGB but I don't disagree with it. If you like it, you like it.

 

I very much disagree with the push for 4K gaming.

 

1080p and 1440p are incredibly viable and cheaper.  And really barely noticeable in looks.

 

 

[Heliian]

4 hours ago, Mel0n. said:

, I hate calling 1440p '2K' personally

I'm petitioning to keep it in line with 4k

So 1080p = 2k

1440p = 2.5k

[wseaton]

One trend that's driven me nuts forever is the psychosis that a laptop is better than a desktop.....because....well...its a laptop. Congrats...you are now obligated to work from home with your new portable desktop. Laptops are far costlier to support and lack the performance and longevity of a desktop that costs a fraction the price. The docking station might be the dumbest invention ever in the history of technology.

 

Server virtualization for small biz is another one. No, a retirement home doesn't need an ESXi host with 6 VMs and two domain controllers. Server virtualization is amazing for larger data centers. Its been abused when marketed to small business. Just locks them out of upgrading when they should because of all the added complexity.

[Crunchy Dragon]

20 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Also I want HEDT back, though Ryzen/consumer Intel with HEDT levels of expansion options should be possible, just no board vendor seems willing to do it.

Lack of modern HEDT is why I upgraded from X99 to X299. The longer we go without it, the less willing I am to leave it...

 

To answer the actual topic, making things smaller and thinner has been an issue with me ever since Apple started it way back in the day. There gets to be a point where you reach diminishing returns, and there's still a point even farther where you reach a point that it just doesn't make sense anymore.

[Spindel]

”Gaming” aesthetic

 

A nice corded computer mouse with a good sensor and a fair amount of buttons that isn’t unicorn diarrhea RGB gaming mouse is basically impossible to find.

 

(recently my spouse stole my mouse and thanks to the gods that I had a G500 laying around and I could fix both the double click and wobbly sensor issues in it would only some glue and a lot of patience)

 

[QuantumSingularity]

I like pretty much all of the innovations that come with the technologies these last 2 years. I like RBG (unsatisfying childhood i guess), i like tempered glass panels i love M.2 slots on the boards, taking much less room, than ordinary SATA drives. I like that we are back on track where generational improvement is a thing again and makes get old and obsolete with time. I even like the sealed batteries where ordinary users can't replace them anymore by themselves (more work for me = more money). I don't even mind the ever increasing cloud services of apps. Yes, it basically gets rid of privacy, but is making things so much more convenient. 

 

The only 2 things i don't like - the stupidly high prices of EVERY.SINGLE.POSSIBLE.THING and the switch from purchasing a product like a game or a program to subscription license. That is by far the worst trend, not only in IT, but other walks of life as well and i hope Tesla and all their worshipers will burn in hell for making this a trend.

[mr moose]

23 hours ago, solado said:

Companies lower end products being so under powered they're obsolete rapidly ending up useless after a short period of time, entry level products should be able to perform a task well for at least a few years before degrading to the point of needing a replacement.

Entry level phones / tablets are particularly guilty of this.

 

Non-user replaceable batteries in any tech in general, yeah I know IPC water resistance but not giving people the option to sacrifice this for a user replaceable battery isn't great.

Entry level gear should be feature limited, not time limited.

[mr moose]

5 minutes ago, QuantumSingularity said:

 I don't even mind the ever increasing cloud services of apps. Yes, it basically gets rid of privacy, but is making things so much more convenient. 

 

 

I find them often less convenient,  I have two phones that I tried to backup to my desktop, the software that the maker recommended insisted that I create an account with them and then it would not work unless I had the internet connected.  Like fuck,  why do I need the internet connected or an account with a corporation to transfer settings and data from MY phone to MY desktop? There is absolutely nothing that requires cloud services to do that.

 

All I want is for products to be supported the way they used to be.  No more snooping and data hoarding.

[QuantumSingularity]

22 minutes ago, mr moose said:

I find them often less convenient,  I have two phones that I tried to backup to my desktop, the software that the maker recommended insisted that I create an account with them and then it would not work unless I had the internet connected.  Like fuck,  why do I need the internet connected or an account with a corporation to transfer settings and data from MY phone to MY desktop? There is absolutely nothing that requires cloud services to do that.

 

All I want is for products to be supported the way they used to be.  No more snooping and data hoarding.

I just backup my phone locally on a flashdrive with the included Type-C to USB A adapter. But everything else is sooooooo conviniet. Like in the summer when leaving from work i can check what's the temperature in my apartment and increase the AC if needed, while at the same time check the temp of the beer in the fridge. When my cat opens the said fridge i get a notification. The oven sends me notification when the desired temp is reached and after that again when the program i selected is finished. Same with the washer and tumble drier. The robot can clean basically all by himself, but if needed i can always send it to do a fast sweep before i get home. I can monitor my water heater and know if there is enough water for a long shower or do i need to crank it up a bit more. From my router i can basically control my whole apartment remotely. Thanks to google maps i find dates of addresses i visited 2-3-6 months ago and my boss has lost the documentation for them. Cloud synced/archived conversations from viber another very useful thing when the bosses forgot or don't admit something we previously talked about. The PROs are certainly way more than the CONS.

[mr moose]

11 minutes ago, QuantumSingularity said:

I just backup my phone locally on a flashdrive with the included Type-C to USB A adapter.

What software do you use, I want to back up my messages, call history, contacts and phone settings.

But being forced to create an account to do so is the opposite of convenient.

 

11 minutes ago, QuantumSingularity said:

But everything else is sooooooo conviniet. Like in the summer when leaving from work i can check what's the temperature in my apartment and increase the AC if needed, while at the same time check the temp of the beer in the fridge. When my cat opens the said fridge i get a notification. The oven sends me notification when the desired temp is reached and after that again when the program i selected is finished. Same with the washer and tumble drier. The robot can clean basically all by himself, but if needed i can always send it to do a fast sweep before i get home. I can monitor my water heater and know if there is enough water for a long shower or do i need to crank it up a bit more. From my router i can basically control my whole apartment remotely. Thanks to google maps i find dates of addresses i visited 2-3-6 months ago an my boss has lost the documentation for them. Cloud synced/archived conversations from viber another very useful thing when the bosses forgot or don't admit something we previously talked about. The PROs are certainly way more than the CONS.

 

I don't need any of that, I am organized and I know how long the oven takes to warm up.  I certainly don't need to hand all my data over to google because someone else can't remember what they said in a txt or email which you can find quite quickly by using the search function. 

[Rex Hite]

Products and services engineered to preserve personal data.The obsession with possession.

 Not of physical items because that's not specifically consumer tech, but of the ethereal and the nebulous. We are obsessed with keeping our ones and zeros in the correct sequence and preparing for some inevitable corruption of that sequence. So we must copy and algorize our way to some mythical state of Nirv-data (data Nirvana) where there exists our perfectly resolved sequence. This digital soul is the preserved, checked, hashed and backed-up sequence that confirms our virtue. We spend a lot of time and effort on that. It reminds me of a medieval religion.

 

 

[jaslion]

6 hours ago, wseaton said:

No, a retirement home doesn't need an ESXi host with 6 VMs and two domain controllers.

I mean like virtualize it but keep it simple. Keeps it easy to resume after a catastrophic hardware failiure. Other than that yea it's crazy how far it's being pushed like.

 

Have a DC that is also your nas that is also your print server because its plenty capable of being all of that :p.

[QuantumSingularity]

16 minutes ago, mr moose said:

What software do you use, I want to back up my messages, call history, contacts and phone settings.

But being forced to create an account to do so is the opposite of convenient.

 

 

I don't need any of that, I am organized and I know how long the oven takes to warm up.  I certainly don't need to hand all my data over to google because someone else can't remember what they said in a txt or email which you can find quite quickly by using the search function. 

I just go into Settings > System & Updates > Backup and Restore > Data Backup > External Storage > USB storage. 

No additional software needed. And since it does it in Airplane mode, i'm pretty sure no cloud account is needed.

 

As for the rest of the features - i know some people don't like them. I also used to think of them as an overkill, but once you get used to them, they are vital. No more burned food, no more "oh f*ck we had a power cut and the AC didn't turn on, so now it's hot as hell in here" or "oh, i'm sorry i forgot to turn on the water heater when i got out" so you just sit there waiting for the water to heat after a long day at work. I'm even currently trying to figure a way to retrofit a remote start to my car from my phone. I mean it has as a feature from the key remote, but it will be even more awesome if i don't have to walk basically right to it to use it.

[jaslion]

5 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

diminishing returns, and there's still a point even farther where you reach a point that it just doesn't make sense anymore.

The point where their student focused put it in your backpack like a notepad ipad pro bent by being put in a backpack because it was made too thin and not reinforced enough as it followed the old ipad way of assembly.

 

Or the phone that bent years before it for the exact same reason in the exact same place :p.

 

Or their need to have such a thin device that if they just added 1-2mm the battery would dramatically increase size but they just dont.