What unpopular or unliked tech do you actually love?

[Klutch9]

If you read enough reviews, it’s usually easy to see what tech products the internet collectively loves and hates. There’s usually some merit to these opinions, but some are just propped up by people jumping on the hate bandwagon that haven’t actually used the product. I, for one, am sometimes pragmatic to a fault, so I view a some things differently than others. I happen to own a couple tech products that are panned to some extent, but that I actually enjoy. Both happen to be Apple products. Im not an Apple fanboy, I just happen to like these two products and don’t understand the vitriol toward them.

1) Apple Magic Mouse (rechargeable): this mouse notoriously has the charge port on the BOTTOM of the mouse, meaning that you cannot charge and use it at the same time. On the surface this sounds stupid, as Apple surely could’ve put the charge port on the front and increased the functionality drastically. In reality though, this simply isn’t true in my opinion. Adding a port to the front would impact the aesthetics and design language of the product. Second, the battery life on these is so long, that surely one can charge during their lunch break, overnight, etc every week or two, and it’ll never be an issue. I use mine in a home office setting and charge maybe once every 6-8 weeks or more.

2) Apple TV Siri Remote 1st gen. This is the all black remote with the touchpad, available with the 1st gen Apple TV 4K. I love this remote. Makes scrubbing through videos super easy, and can also be used to move slowly through content by tapping the sides of the touchpad. It does take awhile to get a hang of, but once I did I can’t imagine not using it. Apple soon replaced this remote with the new touch “click wheel” version, but I really can’t understand why.

What tech do you like that most others don’t?

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

Home button on iphone. It allows me to operate the phone with one hand when I need to.

 

[wavinwayne]

Turn signals on my BMW..

 

[DemoFly]

Optical media for cold storage. Blu-ray, specifically.

 

[Pew]

MS vista

 

[Klutch9]

MS vista

Please elaborate. No judgement, just can’t see how it’s better than 7. Some of the UI is unique in Vista, I’ll admit.

 

[eljefino]

A traditional stereo with actual speakers. They're not phenomenal-- they're Sears branded, but the woofers are around a foot across and they hit the bass naturally. (I got them for free on a FB Marketplace curb alert.) Sure I feed them with "junk" sources like Youtube. Audiophiles could point out other deficiencies, but you know, they're snobs.

There's a philosophy that music reproduction should either

-- Accurately reproduce sounds verbatim
-- Reproduce music the way we think we remember it sounding or
-- Make the listener happy. I'm in this camp.

Kids these days use sound bars and Bose wave systems that are made of plastic and use those bass tube tricks. How about no?

 

[Pew]

Please elaborate. No judgement, just can’t see how it’s better than 7. Some of the UI is unique in Vista, I’ll admit.

Vista came before 7 but I liked both vista and 7. I didn't go into Vista until 2009ish - pretty much when 7 came out was when I tried vista and never really came across any of the issues that many complained about with Vista. Win7 was nice because it retained the easier UI to work with

Coming from Win2k, I really hated the XP user interface (imo XP had too much solid, stand-out colors and Vista had nicer, more muted and translucent colors.)

 

[Blinker]

Home button on iphone. It allows me to operate the phone with one hand when I need to.

I love the home button too as do many others. Only reason Apple removed it was to make the screens bigger

 

[Skippy722]

Apple Airport routers, more specifically the last AirPort Extreme. I think their problem was they worked too well and people simply forgot they existed.

I know I did, as I no longer have it…

 

[captainbeandip]

A key start ignition.

 

[alarmguy]

Finger print reader on phones

 

[Carmudgeon]

If you read enough reviews, it’s usually easy to see what tech products the internet collectively loves and hates. There’s usually some merit to these opinions, but some are just propped up by people jumping on the hate bandwagon that haven’t actually used the product. I, for one, am sometimes pragmatic to a fault, so I view a some things differently than others. I happen to own a couple tech products that are panned to some extent, but that I actually enjoy. Both happen to be Apple products. Im not an Apple fanboy, I just happen to like these two products and don’t understand the vitriol toward them.

1) Apple Magic Mouse (rechargeable): this mouse notoriously has the charge port on the BOTTOM of the mouse, meaning that you cannot charge and use it at the same time. On the surface this sounds stupid, as Apple surely could’ve put the charge port on the front and increased the functionality drastically. In reality though, this simply isn’t true in my opinion. Adding a port to the front would impact the aesthetics and design language of the product. Second, the battery life on these is so long, that surely one can charge during their lunch break, overnight, etc every week or two, and it’ll never be an issue. I use mine in a home office setting and charge maybe once every 6-8 weeks or more.

2) Apple TV Siri Remote 1st gen. This is the all black remote with the touchpad, available with the 1st gen Apple TV 4K. I love this remote. Makes scrubbing through videos super easy, and can also be used to move slowly through content by tapping the sides of the touchpad. It does take awhile to get a hang of, but once I did I can’t imagine not using it. Apple soon replaced this remote with the new touch “click wheel” version, but I really can’t understand why.

What tech do you like that most others don’t?

Apple took the easy route and basically converted the original MM, which used AA cells, into a rechargeable model by reconfiguring the bottom shell to have a charge port, instead of the battery compartment/opening. Anything more would have required redesigning the whole mouse, and finding a place elsewhere to situate a port, that wouldn't disrupt the low profile shape.

I've become accustomed to the Siri remote, but the touch surface area is still too small to work effectively with certain gestures, like those requiring precision.

Apple Airport routers, more specifically the last AirPort Extreme. I think their problem was they worked too well and people simply forgot they existed.

I know I did, as I no longer have it…

For all the success it has had, Apple's mostly blind eye to the home space has been a disappointment.

HomeKit could have been a much bigger success had Apple developed and sold its own reference-grade hardware for it, that worked in the same smooth fashion, and with privacy-consciousness, as its users have come to expect.

Instead, it relied on other third parties to develop the hardware for HK, which left it an afterthought, second-class solution, and ceded the market to Google, Amazon, and others, with their questionable policies, and data mining practices, if not flat out security failures and denials, like Eufy.

The "HomePod with a screen" they're rumored to be developing doesn't such much more ambitious, or promising, than the "hobby" ATV and HomePod, hamstrung by a dumb Siri, which like HK also had an early, promising start, but failed to keep pace.

A true Apple "hub" or home base, that could serve as a networking gateway and IoT suite hub? Not even a wild idea, but if executed well, could have served as an attractive alternative to the hardware from the advertising company, and other data miners who happen to make IoT hardware. Heck, it could work hand in hand with the services push, and help sell more iCloud subscriptions.

The "father of the iPad" developed the Nest thermostat after leaving Apple, and that company was later acquired by Google. Some interesting what-ifs if the company had had the same type of vision that produced the i-devices.

 

[greenjp]

A traditional stereo with actual speakers. They're not phenomenal-- they're Sears branded, but the woofers are around a foot across and they hit the bass naturally. (I got them for free on a FB Marketplace curb alert.) Sure I feed them with "junk" sources like Youtube. Audiophiles could point out other deficiencies, but you know, they're snobs.

There's a philosophy that music reproduction should either

-- Accurately reproduce sounds verbatim
-- Reproduce music the way we think we remember it sounding or
-- Make the listener happy. I'm in this camp.

Kids these days use sound bars and Bose wave systems that are made of plastic and use those bass tube tricks. How about no?

I have a very modest (in my estimation) stereo setup in my basement, the basic Onkyo surround receiver from Costco, a left/center/right set of Boston Acoustics speakers I scored off Facebook Marketplace for $325, and an SVS PB-2000 subwoofer I splurged on, total cost of about $1,400. People who are only used to built in TV speakers and soundbars come over and are blown away.

 

[MVAR]

I have a very modest (in my estimation) stereo setup in my basement, the basic Onkyo surround receiver from Costco, a left/center/right set of Boston Acoustics speakers I scored off Facebook Marketplace for $325, and an SVS PB-2000 subwoofer I splurged on, total cost of about $1,400. People who are only used to built in TV speakers and soundbars come over and are blown away.

I don't have much more than that in my living room setup. 7ch in-wall speakers (Dayton carbon series) from Parts-Express, wires/cables from Parts-Express, "broken" Oppo blueray player that I had Oppo rebuild for their flat rate (around $100), my trust old M&K subwoofer from 1993 & a BNIB Yamaha AVR from OfferUp that I think was $400 (doesn't hold a candle to my old B&K AVR507 that was 20yrs old when the preamp crapped the bed) plus an apple-tv 4k. For TV & movies with the family it works great.

Have 3 2ch setups that exceed this outlay greatly but that's another story we won't talk about here or with my wife