My last ever Nokia phone, a half way house between old Nokias and smartphones circa 2008.
No touch screen, but could play music, videos, had a calendar etc.
Absolute piece of garbage. Got super hot at times doing who-knows what, and had a software bug where the audio would completely stop working until you rebooted it… which meant that multiple times my morning alarm went off completely silently and I was late for work.
Bought an iPhone 3GS as soon as my 1 year contract was up, Nokia were never relevant again after that era.
N95?
No, I was still being cheaper with phones at that stage.
I remember my friend getting an N95 and how that was a big deal back then haha.
After looking through an extremely long list of Nokia phones on Wikipedia, it might have been a 6120 classic.
A Xiaomi smartwatch. I never found any good use for its “smart” features and I had to charge the fucking thing all the time. So I ended up dropping it after a year in favor of a regular digital watch.
Pixel 3A. Constant bugs, camera would stop working or had a long delay starting up, system would randomly stop responding, constant crashes, lock screen would bug out preventing you from unlocking the phone. Dialer would bug out preventing you from answering the phone. Random reboots. Screen scratched really easily.
Phone crapped out about a month before warranty expired, wouldn’t boot any more. Luckily, it was still in warranty and they returned the full price.
The worst most unreliable phone I ever owned.
If you count cars: A Skoda Octavia PHEV.
I love Skoda. I love the Octavia. It was my fourth Octavia and I already ordered two more for my staff. PHEV would have been ideal for our use case.
Well,things didn’t go as planned.
The whole car was bugged with software and hardware problems from day one - controll units randomly crapping out, when my dealer wanted to replace them he often had to get 5 units because four would be DOA and the one that worked kicked the bucket before I left his premises. Highlights:
- A steering wheel coming loose (only slightly,but still)
- The main display that shows your speed,etc. randomly shutting down. (Especially nice as I live close to Switzerland with their exorbitant speeding tickets)
- Randomly playing a screeching sound at full volume (especially nice at 3am or when on a highway)
- Randomly shutting of AC, some motor controls , etc.
It took 12 months for VW to take that steaming pile back, and only we sued them (Shortly before the hearing).
Second place goes to LG which sold me a OLED TV for 2k that randomly showed faulty pixel lines exactly 3 years and 3 days after I bought it (so it’s out of the extended warranty programs as well). And when asked for a quote for the repair they had the audacity to ask for almost the new price for the TV back then, aka 150% of the current market value - without even looking at it first. Good way to make sure that I never buy LG anymore.
The main display that shows your speed,etc. randomly shutting down
I know two people who had this exact issue with their new-gen Golf. First cause was the French language would crash the whole dash if you cycled the dashboard views (to my knowledge they never fixed the issue and the workaround is to set the car to English). Second cause was a malformed JPEG from a radio station would cause the dash to bootloop until you drove far enough from said radio station, which would allow the car to work long enough to disable that feature (IIRC).
So yeah, QA is down the fucking drain with VW on their latest gen. They had a new CEO, and now a new one again I think? But the reputational damage has been done. Too bad, I really liked my '18 Polo.
VW really dropped the ball on software, no wonder they’re buying now into other car manufacturers like Rivian, in hopes to use someone else’s more developed software.
VW really dropped the ball on software
Why bother with software, then? Late-80s and 90s Type III Jettas can be absolutely bulletproof if you find them in not-bagged and well cared for condition.
Yeah. Both hardware and software, sadly. Their QA is going down the drain.
Happy Hyundai customer now.
Is there actually any car manufacturer that has decent hardware and software? I have never driven a really “modern” car but from all that I’ve seen so far the interfaces are typically horrible to interact with and laggy to the point where I prefer my car as dumb as possible
Really can’t complain about Hyundai/Kia and Volvo (Android) so far.
If you buy new and sell before 100k miles, Hyundai/Kia are great. Otherwise, you better be okay with oil consumption and potential engine work, the new engines are kinda prone to failure.
Tbh, with a BEV I am not that concerned with oil consumption and engine work.
The iPhone
I had an ouya.
That was pretty terrible.
The games were actually really fun…but the console was basically a really slow phone. And the controllers had sticky buttons. But worst of all, all games lagged badly. Like half a second or more on some games.
You’re not the only one. If anything it created what is one of my all-time favorite videos. https://youtu.be/QY5yG2KyQfM?si=IvJWVTm__Tc7RTqM
Ive never seen this, thanks! This made my day.
I tried making it work for a month! I even tried to hack it to put retro stuff on it. My tiny gaming pc at the time had better capabilities and was easier to work with…so I gave up on that too. Tried to use the controllers (they were Bluetooth, they could technically work with other machines) but they lagged and felt terrible.
Maytag dishwasher and gas dryer. Maytag had always purported themselves to be a top brand. However, both of these products would not last more than 4 years. I should have bought the Bosch dishwasher like consumer reports told me.
Gotta have one from 30 years ago. My dad’s secondhand Maytag dryer survived 4 moves, and 35 years. We had it serviced twice in that time. First time was at 30 years. It stopped running because it filled up with pocket change. Some of the coins were polished almost completely flat. Second time, the heat quit working. Bought a new dryer after that. It’s going strong, but it’s got a long way to go just to be half as good.
Yeah, it’s a common fallacy in appliance brand discussions: “my grandma has a <brand> and it still works! You should buy one, too!”. First of all it’s survivorship bias and almost always the quality has degraded a lot in the past decades (greed and consumers that don’t want to pay the price for reliable appliances).
Also, it’s not even the same corporation or factories behind them. It’s just a brand name at this point, and the product has nothing in common with the old, good one. For example, Maytag bought Amana, and then Whirlpool bought Maytag. (It’s enlightening to read the list of Whirlpool-owned brands.)
It’s probably a bit of both here. We didn’t have the “disposable” lifestyle 50 years ago that we have now, and a stronger push for efficiency and features has had trade-offs in complexity and reliability.
Example: My current dryer (and my dad’s new dryer) both have a lot more plastic in them. The motors are smaller, and quieter, while making the same power (or more). They are loaded with temp, humidity, weight and wobble sensors, and my dryer has 4 dials, 5 different temperatures, and 2 different modes. The old one, had a dial to control the heat, and a timer.
As for disposable, I think older generations had an expectancy that you would buy an appliance once or twice in your life. I’ve got a 1000 dollar poket shit-posting device that I’m going to get rid of because it is pushing 4 years old. We just accept that these devices are uneconomical to repair, and we toss them out. I think the only things American’s bother to fix anymore are cars, and that’s going away because every year, they get harder and more expensive to repair.
If you want truly bulletproof clothing appliances and live in America, look up Speed Queen. They’re built to commercial standards and are trivially repairable. Many last for decades with only minor maintenance and upkeep.
Unfortunately, Speed Queen not available outside of America. 😭 Or, at least, absolutely not available in Western Canada.
I went with LG, as Bosch didn’t have the capacity I was looking for. Pretty happy with LG for both washer and dryer, four years and counting without a single issue. Would be nice if the front-loading washer came with an automatic dehumidifier, tho, as we have to leave the door open to avoid funky smells developing.
I have two Bosch dishwashers and have been very happy with them so far. Avoid Samsung appliances at all costs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
These things were trash and the concept was even worse.
Fun fact. The guy that made this was the “forensic expert” that claimed he could detect bamboo fibers in ballots in Georgia and Arizona. The GOP tried to put him in charge of their investigation.
My current Amazfit smartwatch. The only good thing about it is the long battery life.
It’s a piece of crap otherwise. Requires the data harvesting app to always be running in the background or it loses connection to my phone. It’s slow, has ugly watch faces and the custom ones are awkward to install. I can’t get it to work with Gadgetbridge. The always on display is so dim that it’s useless. Pinging my phone doesn’t work.
I don’t know why I let the Internet convince me that spending £120 on this thing was a good idea. I’m going Casio or something next time around.
Google Home. Bought them for $40 CAD and back then they were great. Responsive, did quick google searches, played my music all over the house.
Over the years they’ve lost functionality. Mine no longer accurately respond to voice queries and no longer complete google searches. I can still play music on them manually from my phone but when I ask it something, it responds back in French or does something completely different than what I had originally asked.
Worst part is that I ask it something, it does something different, and then when I say “hey Google stop” it just keeps going and going. Have to manually pull the plug for it to stop.
Have you tried “arrete?”
Used to love it, had too many weird promptless experiences, unplugged it and now it’s gathering dust on a shelf.
Though it was nice to say “Hey google, tell me today’s news” and get a few different news updates while making coffee.
Edit: Out of sheer curiosity, have you tried factory resetting it?
I’ve factory reset every Google home of mine multiple times over the years. Never had any effect.
I have the ring doorbell and a home blob which I only use to play the doorbell tune in the house. It is 50/50 luck if the tune plays when someone presses the doorbell button.
Košs KPH30i headphones. Those fuckers are an actual health hazard. They will make your ears suffer for the crime of putting them on.
Really sad cause Porta Pros are incredible. And I usually see people suggest getting the KPH30i instead. Don’t do that.
Anything KOSS or PYLE is straight dog shit. Been that way for at least 25 years. I bought many of their products as a broke teenager.
Not sure if it is was the worst but I had a Ngage Q. You know the taco shaped gaming phone? Only that it was the less taco shaped version. And it was in 2009, several years after those things failed. It was a decent phone actually and it had tony hawk pro skater, very playable.
But yeah ugly as fuck and hard to hold as a phone plus lack of colours on the screen unless it was a game.
In ear earbuds. I blimmin’ hate them but my Audio Technica over ears are too bulky for the gym.
Bit off topic, though if anyone could recommend cheap but decent wireless headphones, for the gym, that are not in ear I would appreciate it a lot (I’m in the UK).
I know you’re looking for on or over ear, but for the gym, it might make more sense to get the non TWS earbuds like the LG Tone or similar. They’re light in your ear as all the battery weight stays on your neck.
Not cheap and i already said it in another comment. I absolutely love my aftershokz open fit. My ear hurt like hell when i use in ears and they never seem to fit. These i wear sometimes 10 hours a day. I went to the shower multiple times because i forgot i was wearing them. They sound really good imo, battery life especially with the charging case is fantastic. It’s perfect to cycle or in areas where you still need basic awareness. Like i can talk to people at work while i have some music in my ears.
Also a huge fan of mine (OpenRun Pro). Worth mentioning that they’re pretty lousy in noisy settings, like airplanes or mowing the lawn, but I love being able to listen to things without separating myself from the outside world
Do they hurt the backs of your ears? I’ve had some cheap in-ear headphones that also had curved plastic to fit around the shell of your ear for stability. I’d have to take them off after an hour or two in pain, but not because of the in-ear component.
Not the one you replied to, and I have a slightly different model (OpenRun Pro) but in my experience, not at all.
They work a little differently with bone conduction. This requires a tiny bit of pressure just below your temple. It doesn’t hurt, but if I wear it all day long (way more than a couple hours) I find myself a little bit… Annoyed with them? Just a little. I still happily put them on again the next day. Zero pain.
Oh, and bass comes out a little differently and kinda tickles a little bit. If you listen to stuff with a lot of bass frequently it may not be your best option. Sound quality is generally like a pair of Sound Blaster speakers from the 90s: it gets the job done just fine, but it’s not for audiophiles.
I also stan aftershokz. For gym use I use ear plugs to block out machine sounds and I can still hear my book/music/video just fine. The battery life is great - I charge them nightly to be certain they won’t die, but haven’t had any problems running them two days at a time for 8+ hours on the occasion that I forget.
A Canon printer. Not just a simple one, but a big (wide) one with real ink tanks, about 20 years ago.
Under Linux, I could only access basic printing services with that, and this only by using a default driver not made by Canon that happened to work. So I contacted Canon to get a proper user manual to create a proper device driver for this (something I could have done without problems), and basically got the answer that they would not support this, as “open source is theft of intellectual property”. They also had some very choice words about Linux in general.
I assumed I just got an asshole on the phone, so when I attended Cebit a short time later (back then the biggest trade fair in Europe for things like that), I went to the Canon booth, explained my issue, and basically got the same reply. So I sold the Canon printer and bought an HP one. At least HP supported Linux and supplied working drivers. Sadly, they have really gone down the drain since that, so the next printer will be a different brand again…
I got an HP printer and it’s prints reliably when connected via USB but that’s about it.
Try brother. They’re usually quite good, though I’ve only had their laser printers.
I have a brother color laser + scanner. Love it.
I’ve had it for 8 years now, and so far it’s only on its second set of toners etc.
The only warning I give to brother printer owners is don’t leave them on. The capacitors in them aren’t the best and your printer will either not turn on without a long power off, or like mine it will turn on and off randomly all day and night.
So now I only turn it on at the wall when I need it, and unplug it after
It will probably be either a Brother Inkbenefit or an Epson Ecotank model.
My last Epson is a model from 2009 and still somehow works perfectly. Every Canon I’ve owned was garbage.
Well, the question for me back then was printing wide, so the selection was quite limited from the start. And laser was completely out of the equation, as anything printing wider than 21cm was industrial (size of a bus and price of a house) back then.
Ink stinks, but I’ll condone the toner. Inkjets are so unreliable compared to lasers. Good luck, but I worry you’re stacking the deck against yourself a bit with the ink and would hate to see you lose here.
Don’t worry, I consider lasers, too.
Buy an industrial laserprinter. Anything consumer will fail you intentionally
I grabbed an HP 3055 that my work was throwing out almost 10 years ago, along with two spare laser cartridges.
We don’t print much, but I’m still on the initial cartridge it came with.
It also has been set up in an often dusty, sometimes smokey garage, and hasn’t had an issue yet.
3055 was good.
1012 and ilk were also good, from the same era. I still have one of those running.
My LJ4+ lasted 21 years, the first part in an office setting and the latter a retirement in my home (and about 12 house moves). For its 19th I got its RAM filled. Woo! But we decided “as a household” that we didn’t need a reliable energy pig printer for a few pages a month. It made the lights flicker and the UPSes report a brownout. But it was a good printer.
Now we have an m404n and it’s everything today it needs to be.
August wifi smart lock. Originally wanted the zigbee version for my home but apparently they stopped making those in favor of wifi, however wifi needs more energy to communicate and would go through they special batteries in a week’s time. Even replacing the unit with another one didn’t solve the issue, so I just returned it and deleted my account.
I have the same lock. I didn’t want it but it was the only lock I could find that would work on my sliding door. The key is to buy rechargeable batteries. Mine last maybe a month before they need to be replaced.
That is fucking dumb that you have to replace the battery every month.
We have low power mcu that can go down to a few uA and make battery last for years, but this company decided that it was beneath them.
Bad engineering overall.
Honestly the most any smart door lock las lasted us before the low battery has been 1-2 months. I ended up just going to a old fashion lock and key
No wonder. The hassle of changing the batteries so often is not worth it.
I think it is more about the power required to run the lock motor.
I have several z-wave door locks as well. They all need battery replacement within a few months. Unless I don’t open/close them very often. They can go much longer.
But it really isn’t to big of a deal. Home Assistant tells me when they are getting low and I just swap the batteries in a few minutes.
The motor runs only for a second or two each time. In the moment, it takes more current, but otherwise isn’t that active.
If I had to change the batteries once or twice a year, I could probably live with that. But every month or so? Bad engineering
To this day I don’t know what problem smart locks are supposed to solve that hasn’t already been solved by the good old lock and key combo. Requires no electricity, no internet, just works.
Letting people in without giving them a key (or if they forgot their key) is the use case. Also if you have smart home stuff like home assistant, you can program it to lock on its own based on conditions (like night time or your phone leaves the house).
Re the first part: nobody enters my house if they don’t have a key and I’m not present. Re the second part, I don’t trust any software-based technology near enough to rely on that kind of stuff without double-checking. . Turn the key, done.
