Forum menu
Most horribly user ...
 

[Closed] Most horribly user unfriendly bits of consumer tech?

Posts: 23596
Full Member
 

but each set of password criteria are different so you can’t use the same one

Sounds idiot proof 🙂


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:28 pm
Posts: 23344
Full Member
 

GU10 light fittings. Hateful.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:36 pm
Posts: 21645
Full Member
 

Sounds idiot proof 🙂

Just means everyone has a post-it note on the side of their screen with all the passwords on it - which all need changing after differing amounts of time.

One of our managers had his car broken into recently and his laptop back was stolen. It was recovered about 3 cars down once they'd looked inside and saw the pos laptop that was in their.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:40 pm
Posts: 1109
Free Member
 

The interior of any Saab, especially those made in the 2000s. All the buttons and controls in the wrong place and behaving in the wrong way makes for a hideously counter-intuitive experience.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:44 pm
Posts: 33973
Full Member
 

I had one of those wd my cloud things. It went in the bin.
It utterly refused to ‘actually’ work.
It would say it had achieved its job, but when you checked, it hadn’t.

Please, can I join the ‘WD MyCloud are shit’ group? It seemed to be ok, but then I noticed it hadn’t been backing up via Time Machine. Had it and my Mac Mini checked over, nothing apparently wrong, and then my Mac’s HDD failed. Turned out the MyCloud hadn’t been backing up, and I lost 100Gb of music I’d ripped. 🤬
Fortunately, I’m one of those odd creatures who keeps CD’s, instead of flogging them all for a fiver, so I’ve been gradually re-ripping all the old stuff, and bought two small toughened 2Tb portable drives that I can daisy-chain and set up a software RAID. I’m going to get another portable drive, backup everything onto that first, I have to reformat the other drives to run in RAID.
I wish I had an air rifle, so I could shoot the WD drive full of holes. What a hopeless piece of shit.
Amazon smart speaker jobbie - friends have got one, let’s just say it’s not an encouraging advert for their efficiency...


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:51 pm
Posts: 11646
Full Member
 

Touch screens in cars, what ****ing idiot thought that was good idea?.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:52 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Mac user here.
Printers. Just work
GoPro. Just works
Garmin. Just works
Android phone. Just doesn’t work easily enough.

PC user here
Printers just work. Never understand why people struggle with them.
win 10 just works. Has worked perfectly since I started using it at work and home.
iPhone. Just works, has done for 10 years (or ever since I started using my iPhone 3).


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:54 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Sony OLED TV, brilliant picture, crap everything else, so flaky it makes the old Samsung look good.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:58 pm
Posts: 9394
Full Member
 

Software not hardware but…Zwift.

I'm relatively tech savvy. Got smart tech thoughout my house, worked as IT project manager for years. Can work my way around Android, iOS and Windows quite happily. Used to ride Sufferfest on a dumb trainer and it was, obviously, straight forward. I got a smart trainer a couple of years and the tech just sapped my will to live. The softward, apps, profiles, accounts and interdependencies just broke me. I know it is user error but I never actually was able to work out how to train on it in any sort of session or race. I even asked on here. I now use my smart trainer in dumb mode and ride Sufferfest sessions again. I could have easily saved myself a few £££ by keeping my old dumb trainer


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 6:59 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Oh and agree about the WD My cloud as well


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:01 pm
Posts: 23596
Full Member
 

Just means everyone has a post-it note on the side of their screen with all the passwords on it –

That works absolutely fine. Hackers can't see the post it note.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:24 pm
Posts: 11605
Free Member
 

iPads.

I'd like to connect to computer please. Now let me drag and drop files. No? iTunes? Yes, **** you very much.

Don’t get me started on WD crap. I bought a 1TB external hard drive a few years ago

Just dismantle it, the drive will just be a standard SATA unit that you can plug into any computer.

PC user here
Printers just work. Never understand why people struggle with them.

Single user or networked? My HP works fine for one computer. Refuses to work for the app or any other computers (luckily this can be worked around by emailing docs to it). By the look of it I'm not alone either. Older networked printers were fine, it's the bells and whistles that bugger everything up.

That works absolutely fine.

I'd say that is dependant on the data those passwords are supposed to be protecting.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:24 pm
Posts: 23596
Full Member
 

Touch screens in cars, what **** idiot thought that was good idea?.

Actually.... pretty much all car stereos - but particularly aftermarket ones. I've never understood why they invest so much space on the facia for a screen- which you can't really look at when you're driving - and so little space to the buttons - which you typically operate without looking at them. Lets not have any space between the buttons and lets make them the same colour as the facia.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:29 pm
Posts: 12088
Full Member
 

The printer I have works fine most of the time, when connected to a PC. It doesn't like my daughters' Macs, though.

Cheap WiFi plugs probably get my vote: getting them to pair to your phone is an exercise in frustration.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:37 pm
 5lab
Posts: 7926
Free Member
 

Usb a is simply always the logo on top, no?

Wd cloud is really easy once you enable Windows file sharing, and just map a network drive to your laptop or whatever. I cant remember how I did this, but I suspect its enabled by default


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:38 pm
 Rio
Posts: 1618
Full Member
 

Sony OLED TV

This. I have low expectations of anything running Android but the Sony TV implementation takes things to a whole new level of incomprehensibility. For example, if you want to watch Freeview you have a choice of two guides, each of which has a different set of features, neither of which is complete, so you have to choose the least worst option. The Home Screen has more random unremovable crap than things you actually want and new things appearing randomly whereas stuff you actually might want (like Nowtv, AppleTV+) is carefully obscured. Bluetooth headphone connection is a lottery. Do people not try these things before they sell them? All that and the uncomfortable knowledge that Google is spying on your TV watching habits.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:42 pm
 Earl
Posts: 1902
Free Member
 

iPhone.
Wife has had one for 3 years. She said she still hadn't worked out how to copy a mp3 from our win7 computer onto her iPhone and play it.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 7:54 pm
Posts: 5149
Full Member
 

The heating controls in my car. How about a knob for fan speed and a knob for temp? Nope, you have to select the control and then turn the knob. TBH there’s a lot wrong with the audio/Satnav/phone stuff too. I’m not sure my brain works in the same ways as Germans when it comes to ergonomics. See Vailant boiler controls and anything SAP for confirmation.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 8:10 pm
Posts: 326
Full Member
 

iTunes. Apple’s insistence on not just killing it with fire is akin to being forced to run your Porsche on Ling Long tyres. Just awful. The iOS Podcasts app gets an honourable mention too.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 8:32 pm
Posts: 584
Free Member
 

Having read through this thread it seems obvious to me that we are in the Windows 95 era equivalent of 'smart' home appliances and software.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 8:52 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Having read through this thread it seems obvious to me that we are in the Windows 95 era equivalent of ‘smart’ home appliances and software.

When I was trying to set up my WD NAS I compared it to the very early home networking systems where you needed to set up routing tables on everything in order for it to work. Just not something you'd expect "normal" non-tech users to be able to do.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 8:58 pm
Posts: 1316
Full Member
 

Apple TV touch remote. The old one was fine, the one with the little touch pad must have been signed off without any user testing.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 9:39 pm
Posts: 399
Free Member
 

Wahoo RFLKT. Properly awful, half baked piece of crap.

My daughter's iPhone and iPad. Never realised a device could actually be smug.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 10:27 pm
Posts: 4417
Full Member
 

Agree about zwift. I've been using other apps with a wide variety of sensors/trainers for years but I have never managed to get through a month of 'I'll give zwift another go' before giving up. All the setting up stuff takes ages, it's cold in my garage and I'm not emotionally equipped to deal with it when the wee man on my screen stops pedalling at random for the 90th time.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 11:05 pm
Posts: 2061
Full Member
 

Usb a is simply always the logo on top, no?

unless the slot is on its side - then what? Or you can’t see the logo.

Wd cloud is really easy

Seems you’re outnumbered in this opinion.


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 11:44 pm
 5lab
Posts: 7926
Free Member
 

Look at the logo on the usb cable before putting it somewhere you cant dee? Sure if its in its side its tricker (there might be a standard?) And dual sided is obviously better, but its not bad for a design thats 24 years old. Remember how bad ps2 was?


 
Posted : 26/12/2020 11:58 pm
Posts: 107
Free Member
 

Or it's one of the annoying cables where the manufacturer has ignored recommendations and put their logo on the top instead of the usb logo. PITA.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 12:10 am
Posts: 7040
Full Member
 

I have my cloud too but I don't use the software and it works fine. Use Pcloud instead. Marvelous.
iPad keyboard on the other hand is dismal.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 12:12 am
Posts: 23596
Full Member
 

iTunes. Apple’s insistence on not just killing it with fire.....

Itunes was replaced in 2019 🙂


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 12:25 am
Posts: 91169
Free Member
 

Modern cars I’d say.

Nah. You just need the tool to deal with it, then they're great. Something goes wrong, a light comes on, you plug in and it tells you what's wrong. Half the time you just replace the bit then you're off. It doesn't require arcane ancient lore of rules passed down from father to son for decades.

I’m thinking back to maybe 20 years ago, lots of cars from then are still around now and running as well as the day they were bought.

Disagree there. My Passat is now 14 years old and they were incredibly common when I got it in 2009, but surprisingly few now. Because I notice these things. Look out for cars with pre-2000 old style number plates on. There are hardly any.

My old VW Polo was a 93, the one that looked like a little estate car. Simple mechanical engine and reliable. I almost never see those on the road now. This has been the case for many years, and they were a popular car at the time. Thinking back to the cars of my youth 20-25 years ago, they are all rare as hell now despite being ubiquitous at the time.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 12:27 am
 Earl
Posts: 1902
Free Member
 

The program I just wrote as a sub contractor.

I told the BA it was a terrible design. He/they didn't care. Write it verbatim they told me. So I did.

Full of useless needless complicated features controlled by a zillion inputs.

Management think 'more features, close tight integration' = 'adding value'. Grrrr.....


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 1:22 am
Posts: 3621
Free Member
 

Disagree there. My Passat is now 14 years old and they were incredibly common when I got it in 2009, but surprisingly few now. Because I notice these things. Look out for cars with pre-2000 old style number plates on. There are hardly any.

That's mostly down to depreciation and the low perceived value of old cars in the UK.

I've known people scrap old cars at a big bill. By big bill I mean tyres, brakes and other consumables.
Car is worth £not a lot, new tyres and brakes etc will cost more.
Completey ignoring the fact that the replacement will cost more and still need, probably even more expensive tyres and brakes etc.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 3:38 am
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

The trick with WD NAS drives is to forget the app and just map the drive as a network drive. It then always just like any other hard drive. Forget Twonky or anything else like that.

As for my vote - macOS. Just hateful. iOS I actually like but the Apple’s desktop OS just doesn’t make any sense to me. For something that is supposed to ‘Just Work’ it’s shit.

And for a niche entry, any astrophotography set up. Requires hours of fiddling, usually in the freezing cold and dark 🙂


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 9:48 am
Posts: 2874
Free Member
 

Or you can’t see the logo.

Put a dob of tippex on the logo for easy identification


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 9:49 am
Posts: 12996
Free Member
 

Not consumer but...

Autodesk products.

New features everyear. Recurring problems you find first mentioned in 2008 forum posts remain unfixed with helpful "workarounds" suggested by staff on the forum like its not worth fixing.

Crashy and buggy. "Oh and by the way this year we've changed the file type and its no longer backwards compatible. Also while we're at it no more shared licenses for anyone its standalone only"


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 10:00 am
Posts: 4136
Full Member
 

Red Bull TV app.

(I know, it's free and the content is generally exceptional.)

I don't think I navigated to a live event once in 2020 without using industrial language and shouting at the telly.

It's unfathomable.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 10:02 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Steam. I just want to play Descenders FFS, but no, I have to start ****ing Steam up and you want to update it Every Bastarding Time I start a game up which takes bastarding ages. **** that. ****ers.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 10:11 am
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

Amazon apps. Not the main shipping one, that’s pretty slick. However Prime Video and Prime Music, particularly from a company that is meant to be good at this stuff, have the most awful UI’s I’ve seen in a long time.

Nothing where you expect it and no obvious way to carry out what should be pretty basic actions. Even just searching for stuff on Music when compared to Qobuz or Tidal is just a hateful experience.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 10:19 am
Posts: 76
Free Member
 

Another vote for the western my cloud thing. I bought one after a psa on here a few years ago. The latest software for it on windows has no shutdown option but if you hunt the web for an older version there is. As it's so rubbish, I only power it on about twice a year. Wonder how many people just pull the power cable out which isn't a good idea on a mechanical drive.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 11:27 am
Posts: 851
Full Member
 

Red Bull TV app.

Yes! I always go to Pinkbike for the event links, never direct to RBTV.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 11:41 am
Posts: 4390
Full Member
 

iPad.

Always end up using my phone (Samsung) or my computer (Apple) so nothing against Apple but I hate not being able to just plug in an external device and drag a file over. Everything about it is either "log in" or "sync".


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 1:05 pm
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

Blaupunkt VW Factory Fit Sat Nav in T6 Transporter.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 1:15 pm
Posts: 41849
Free Member
Topic starter
 

Modern cars I’d say. When something goes wrong you basically have bo chance of being able to fix it yourself as everything needs a sensor now and needs programmed

Sure, but they don’t stop on the side of the road if you drive through a puddle. Jesus, try driving some old 70s cars.

As the owner of one of each. A modern-ish French car and a 70s British one. Both are reliable as long as you pay them some TLC. The modern one throws up orange lights of doom every so often, 90% of which can be ignored. The British one (which is based on even older bits from the 40's) occasionally makes some noise or other indication it's about to stop and needs some TLC. Deal with that and it'll not stop unexpectedly. Last time it let me down was a sheared half shaft, not exactly something you can pre-empt (well, you can, but the upgraded ones are £1k+ for a set, easier to replace once in a blue moon).


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 6:21 pm
Posts: 66112
Full Member
 

The "Netflix" button on tv remotes. Don't know why but both my parents' last 2 tvs have it. No matter what you're doing, what you're watching, pressing the big red Netflix button instantly kicks you out and starts up Netflix, which takes about 20 non-skippable seconds, to get through to the menu that says "Oh, you don't have Netflix?" but you still have to go through several screens/options to get out. And then when you exit, it takes you back to the tv start menu as if you'd just turned it on, not to the thing you actually wanted to do.

I doubt even regular netflix users really need a big red Netflix button, but there it is anyway.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 6:27 pm
Posts: 13356
Free Member
 

@squirrelking

Don’t get me started on WD crap. I bought a 1TB external hard drive a few years ago

Just dismantle it, the drive will just be a standard SATA unit that you can plug into any computer.

Can I send it to you to do then? I'll pay.


 
Posted : 27/12/2020 7:35 pm
Page 2 / 3