What Are The Frustrating Technological Innovations?

Technology is constantly evolving, and it’s given us incredible inventions such as Google, Facebook, smartphones, computers and more.

However, it also gives us products which can make us really frustrated, for example…

Extremely Slippery Phones

Companies like Apple and Samsung devote large sums of money to making their new phones as thin as possible, with better resolution screens. However, for some reason their phones also get more and more slippery. Now I have to buy bulky cases and use a screen protector to ensure my phone stays safe…:joy:

Cheap Drones

They just fall out of the sky for no reason, and then you have to spend a few hundred bucks to repair it, and next time you take it out the same thing happens again… Don’t ask me how I found this out….:joy:

Have you found any frustrating technological innovations?:grin:

Share them below!

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Good topic!

Step backwards with phones:

  • non-removable batteries so you have to crack open the phone to make it “as new” with battery life after 2 years.
  • no SD slot so you have to buy a more expensive phone each time rather than move your SD card over.
  • progressively complex apps like Facebook which hog resources so I have to use the browser to keep them under control
  • Ads (commercials) so much I have to unlock bootloader, root and use Adaway, Magisk, and Xposed Minminguard to keep ads to a reasonable level

2017 frustrations:

  • USB-PD has been a huge disappointment. The goal has yet to materialise you can use any charger and the negotiation will be to the highest common denominator
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The main thing that’s become frustrating for me in 2017 is everyone fighting over AI technology and the Home Assistant market.

I love my Amazon Echo, but I use Siri on a daily basis. I’m knee-deep in the Google ecosystem and I just wish that they would all work together!

If only these companies can agree to share their data and allow each device to use whichever assistant the user chose, the world would be a happier place!!

Using an Echo together with a Google Home and being able to use the same commands on each of them would be a perfect scenario. Being able to use Siri on your iPhone to then trigger an Alexa command on the dot. Moving seamlessly from one room to another and having each device working together in harmony…

We can dream eh?

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It seems like you have a lot of dissatisfaction.:laughing:

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Slippery phones isn’t one of them, I always keep in cases anyway to help with drops. I get a case which is rough. The need is all the greater with the trend to bigger phones so less grip as you rest on fingers to get thumb to all part of the screen.

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My frustration comes from releasing tech before proper testing. I have gone through 3 expensive programmable thermostats in the past year from a very reputable manufacturer.

The problem is as the temperature gets well below freezing and the climate becomes dry, static shocks become common thing in my home. Someone forgets to discharge their finger before touching the touch screen on the thermostat and zap the cct gets fried.

They were all covered the manufacturers original warranty but not having a thermostat for a couple days and having to re-install my manual one to keep from freezing is a pain. When the warranty is over I will have to buy a new (different) one.

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Lol. Defend from electrocutions from humans!

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My biggest frustration with technology is when upgrading then having to buy new accessories. And with today’s technology, it seems that we have become somewhat of a wasteful society. Things are built to last any longer. Therefore, we are forced to upgrade or replace. :frowning:

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This. I wanted to join the USB-C PD party this year but after some research, I’m staying on the sidelines with minimal exposure to QuickCharge and USB-C PD. It’s currently a bit of a minefield where compatibility/negotiations remain an issue. I only purchased Anker’s 30W 1-port PD wall charger this year to test the waters and it is promising, although I’ve read somewhere that Anker’s PD chargers have secretly offered 45W over 30W… :neutral_face:

Also I find that with the potential of PD, currently comes with limitations. You can’t fit more than 1 USB-C PD port like you can with 3-4 multiple standard/QuickCharge USB-A ports without exceeding the reasonable dimensions for portability and travel. I hope that one day, Anker’s 30W wall charger size can accommodate 2 USB PD ports for a total of 60W.

The next thing I’m scratching my head is in the portable SSD world. It’s been 4 years since SATA 3.2 (16Gb/s) was released yet current portable SSD speeds are still limited to SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) and underutilizing USB 3.1 gen 2 cables (10Gb/s).

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I’m a little upset by the uprise in the subscription model, specially when there’s no purchase option. I get that some people need to have the latest version of a software, but not everyone. I also get that companies need a steady cash flow to promote innovation. But I believe there’s a balance to be found somewhere in the middle.

It also saddens me that most technological innovation happens to “solve problems we never had before”… There’s so much intellect and creativity in the world, I believe some real issues are being put aside in the name of profits. Plastics, for instance. We know for a while plastics are bad for the environment. Why don’t we got a no-harmful substitute yet? I remember when I was a kid that the ozone layer depletion was a big problem. The scientific community got together, identified the problem, worked on a solution, and now the problem is gone - really, go look for it, humanity actually solved one of the problems it caused on the environment! I’m sure that, if time and resources were applied to the plastics problem - or even to the petroleum derivates in general - we would have already solved that problem as well.

Let’s improve life for everyone!

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Agree 100% , really miss the ability to buy low end storage model and increase with my own SD card, not to mention the convenience of being able to change my own battery (which is normally the main failure point) without having to un-glue / prise apart…

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Agreed! It always seems that the battery is the first to go on an aging phone.

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THIS!

where is the good old days when humanity believed in eachother not to abuse the buy it and own it system.

I also hate the fact that games have stamina now LOL.

These little things are what I can think of atm.

But business is business :frowning:

My frustration comes from how fast technology is evolving, I remember at one point what was once new was yesterday’s news. And by the time we could afford this new technology it was already dated. Take cell phones, they rarely stay the same and are the most updated or refreshed item.

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Car alarms.

When entering 2017 I’d thought I’d end it with a USB-PD phone and a USB-PD tablet and a USB-PD laptop and a USB-PD Powercore and a USB-PD Powerport 2-3 port and just USB-C cables.

What it ended up with is Anker still making MicroB new products like Soundbuds so I have to carry a MicroB cable, and I ended up buying a USB-C but only 2A 5V 10W input tablet as that makes everything else more compact using Powerport5.

Let’s see if 2018 ends with me with a USB-PD laptop and Anker pull their finger out with 2-3 port USB-PD 60W-100W size 4/5 port total.

This is real, I fly a lot and pack to fit everything under the seat. I have 9 flights in the next 2 months some of them regional small aircraft with no large over-head bins. So I pack very multipurpose compact objects.

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Well this is a good topic!
I’m totally with you on Drones, I absolutely hate them. They seem to be buzzing around all over the place. :triumph:

The blame culture that has spawned from dashcams. And that if you don’t have a dash cam then what you said happend is not true. I have one, but I also hate the fact I have one…

Daylight running lights on cars without automatic headlights. The number of cars I see driving around in the dark with only their DRL on is ever increasing, and is dangerous.

Patent wars…

I could name more but… Well I’d be here all night :joy:

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Have you not seen M.2 PCIe SSD’s?

Samsung’s 960 Pro is pretty damn fast

Rather that than have technology advance extremely slowly.

I’d like it to keep being fast. Moore’s Law still exists

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