36 points

Any Apple product, mostly the iPhones. If you live in Latin America, those things are more a burden than something useful. They are too expensive, too fragile, and too Eye-catching for burglars.

They eats up your phone plan in hours just by existing, you can’t borrow a charger because everyone around you has Android. The simplest things to do on Android are an ordeal on Iphone.

The only way it can be worth it is if you have all Apple products (iMac, AppleTV, iPad, etc). But for that, you better be prepared to pawn your soul.

permalink
report
reply
11 points

The first paragraph, I can get along with and understand where you’re coming from.

The second paragraph, could you elaborate what you mean by “eat up your phone plan just by existing”? I personally use an iPhone and have had very normal data usage rates that is accurately tracked through both the phone and my carrier’s app.

Also regarding borrowing a charger, they just moved to USB-C so that will be a non-issue a few years down the road when lightning is phased out.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Well, it is necessary to clarify that I speak not so much from my own experience but from those close to me (family and friends who have or have had iPhones, I have only had iPods). With regard to the phone plan, the people I know who have had iPhones always tend to have no data to browse, because the data on their phone runs out surprisingly faster than on Android phones. I don’t know what the technical details would be, I suspect it has to do with processes running in the background that require internet.

With the chargers, on the one hand the thing is that most iPhone phones circulating in Latin America are older, so none have the Type-C port that is now Standard. And for the iPhones that do have it, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think those iPhones have a particularity that only cables manufactured by Apple can effectively charge the iPhone, while any other cable either can not charge it as quickly or can even damage it. I think something similar happens with the Nintendo Switch, that its port is Type-C but only cables made by Nintendo work, but I insist in saying that I could be wrong.

To conclude, I must say that this is just my opinion according to a specific context. I am sure that in more developed countries like the United States, Japan or European countries, the experience of having an iPhone is as normal as with any other phone, or even better.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Gotcha. It could be entirely possible that the anecdotal experiences regarding phone data that you’ve heard could be simply because they’re heavier users or that they purchased a smaller quota. From personal experience, I really have not noticed any background processes that suck up data.

Regarding the type-C cable though, I have actually experienced that problem where cheaper cables do not work for charging. This part is PURE SPECULATION on my end, but I suspect Apple stops cheaper cables from charging on the off chance that it increase the risk of a fire (cheap cables = thinner wires = more resistance = more heat) because when stuff like that makes the news, the headline is typically “iPhone caught fire while charging” and not “Cheap cable caused a fire.” I spent a lil more on a third party USB-C cable that was higher quality and rated to charge up to 65W and have had no problems with it. I’m not sure what the economic situation is in Latin America, but where I am (Malaysia), I spent about RM60 (which is roughly equivalent to $13) on the cable that worked compared to RM20 for the cable that didn’t, just to give you a point of reference.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-2 points

Plus how can you hold “borrowing a charger” against a phone company? If you don’t have a charger on hand that’s your fault.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

Because they insisted on using the inferior lightning connector instead of using USB C like everyone else.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

Should probably point out thatbthey were forced to move to USB-C

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points
*

Sure, but whether they were forced to move over or did it out of the (non-existent) goodwill of their hearts wasn’t the point of contention in the discussion and results in a similar outcome. The initial commenter pointed out that they couldn’t share a charger and I just mentioned that this should be a non-issue once lightning is phased out.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

The simplest things to do on Android are an ordeal on Iphone.

Can you give us any examples?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
  • sigh *

Ok, let me see. Again, this is my experience and my opinion, so some things may not be a problem for you at all, for example:

Testing self-developed games or apps. I develop games. To test them on android I just need to create the APK, pass it to the phone, install and done. I may be wrong, but on Apple it’s not that simple.

File management. Many times I use my phone as a Pendrive, others I want to save my music to listen offline. Of the latter I remember that on my old iPod it was a headache to transfer music from my non-Apple PC to the device, transferring other files was just impossible, and it seems to me that that has not changed in Iphone, but I don’t know for sure, since I don’t handle an iPhone.

Going back. All modern Android phones have three on-screen buttons, the order varies, but in general they are: one to see all open apps and close the ones you don’t need or all of them, one to exit the app completely, and one to go back to the previous tab in an app. The iPhones I have been allowed to handle do not have any of the three buttons, the back button is the one I miss the most.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

Any computer mouse, frankly.

The sad thing is when I bought my first gaming mouse in the mid 2000s it was a Razer and that thing ran great for almost 10 years. I only replaced it because after handling it for that many years it was worn and kinda gross.

I replaced it with a Razer that went sure enough went faulty after a year. I then tried other brands (name and no-name). I’ve never had a mouse last me 18 months before it started to go faulty. It really feels like they all colluded a planned obsolescence. Even my current mouse, a Zowie FK3-C, has begun to drop the mouse input when i click and hold the left button. I bought this in June 2023!!

I still like the Zowie a lot, it has great features like a button to toggle the refresh rate without the need for installing dumb software to set it. But it’s been 10 years of this shit, for me, so I will never recommend a computer mouse to anyone. Just use the one that you get from your office job, I guess.

permalink
report
reply
1 point

Always been happy with Logitech. But I switched the software to SteerMouse since Logitech jumped on the AI train.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

The only ones that seem to last for me have been Logitech, and even then its not even close to the 10 years. Maybe around 3 years, a couple more replacing the switches

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

I see plenty of Logitech fans here…but the cheap budget version of the wireless keyboard and mouse had the mouse zonk out on me just a couple of years later.

I went for a more expensive professional for work version. Will need to see how that works out.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

Been using a cheapass dell mouse we got free with our servers for about a decade now and it’s great.

I’ve had Razrs, expensive assed MS nostalgia grabs, Kensingtons of every configuration, Logitech of both gaming and office models and nothing has been as accurate and problem free as this cheap assed dell server mouse.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Well that’s cause one is made to look fancy and make money, the other is meant to do its job

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I’d argue that it’s more of a ‘If we don’t send them something to get bootstrapped, the customers will complain, so throw in a cheap kbd and mouse and stick our logo on it’, but they JUST happened to be SLIGHTLY less cheap than everyone who makes ‘gaming’ mice.

I’m under no illusions, it’s a really cheap mouse, just its one that has a good sensor.

Mainly I have it because it was free and we had a closet filled with a few hundred of them.

I used to have an old MS Pro mouse that was literally my favorite pointing device EVER made but it was SD resolution so useless in modern machines, and the cash grab piece of crap that MS just re-released a few years ago to get a piece of that sweet nostalgia pie was worse than any razr I’ve ever used.

I just want to click on heads and it’s crazy that gaming mice are so poorly made nowadays that free server mice are objectively better.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Middle mouse click is indispensable but it seems to be first to fail on my mice

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

I’ve been using logitech for years and they’ve all been holding up well for me. The only issue I had was an older trackball mouse design. I owned two and one had some issues but the other lasted almost a decade.

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

Man, Logitech all the way. I’ve only had to replace one or maybe two with 8-hr/day, 5 days a week constant usage

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

For me it was the Microsoft intellimouse, the led one. It had 5 buttons, one on each side so it was also ambidextrous. Now I have a mouse graveyard box.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I got a Kensington trackball. I’ll never use a mouse again.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

It’s about never recommending, not never buying. You can buy something unrecommended ;)

permalink
report
parent
reply
46 points
*

Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung phones

  • main reason: anti user freedom, and locking you in to their system, it’s extremely hard to wipe out your phone in order to sell it if you have a Samsung account linked to your phone, and they make it hard to flash a custom ROM, imagine buying a phone with your own money and you still need the manufacturer consent to do what you want with it…
  • confusing and slow UI
  • Ads everywhere on the UI
  • bloated with games and useless apps
  • they don’t take security seriously at all ( slow updates )
  • short update period
  • they lie in their marketing by giving big numbers ( battery capacity and camera quality for example )

And last but not least, they kill your apps

permalink
report
reply
0 points
*

S24:

UI not confusing at all imo, just your typical Samsung Android. And obviously not slow since it’s a flagship phone

No ads

Not really bloated (comes with Samsung’s own apps + Google’s apps but you can uninstall most of them)

Decently fast updates

7 years software support (not only security updates but also 7 years of new Android updates)

Wouldn’t say 4000 mAh 50 MP sounds that fancy, but it works very well (lots of optimisation for the battery and good software for the camera)

Downside: expensive (~600€ new currently)

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

also Huawei laptops. Jfc what a trashy counterfeit of a MacBook and if you get an AMD one, better also get a good cooling stand. The keyboard is terrible and costs a fuckton to replace and generally the repairability is like with macs, the USB ports are built in a way that just begs for either them or your peripherals to be broken, they might overheat while charging, they ship bloatware and the speakers are ridiculously quiet. My friend’s mom bought her one contrary to my advice to get a second-hand thinkpad or just any other business-line laptop and it she had to return the first shipment because the screen got bent during shipment.

MIUI… don’t even get me fucking started on this garbage. It literally removes numerous features from vanilla android, presumably to relocate some performance budget to the bloat they add.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Yep I’ve seen Huawei and Xiaomi MacBook copies and you only need to take one look at the keyboard to know they’re trashy.

I got a second hand ThinkPad and it’s fast and robust. Designed to last like a proper MacBook.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points

I’m still waiting for a viable competitor to the Galaxy Tab S line. Literally no one makes a flagship tablet that can compete with Samsung’s build quality on those, they’re pretty much the only ~11in OLED game in town too.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points
*

Mi pad-s exist, which are near flagship, but of course mi unlock and no oled.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I can’t wait for LineageOS to be available for my Samsung phone.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Yes, I find that is the only way to use these phones, AOSP makes them usable again, but like I said they’re constantly implementing and improving their digital locks to keep you from running away to a different OS… It’s so anti user freedom

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Idk if it’ll ever be for mine (Samsung Galaxy A51). Hopefully one day, if such a phone exists, i’ll have a phone that is more open and also supported by something like LineageOS.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points

Well, I have lineageos on my XM phones (rmx4x and mi11lite5g) and they’re great except for the reliability of the 11 lite. And before you ask about it, yes the mi unlock is terrible, but after you sell your soul to Xiaomi, you can unlock it and have a good enough phone.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points
*

Anything from any company large enough that the obvious business decision is the screw over the end user to generate additional profit. That excludes basically everything, so instead it’s easier to give recommendations for what I would buy/use instead:

  • Open hardware products
    • Framework laptop with RISC-V hardware
      • not released yet
    • Purism
      • Maybe not fully open, but at least they have schematics
    • Pine64
      • Caveat emptor, software controlled charging circuits, be wary of bomb
    • RaptorCS
    • Wikipedia has an okay list
  • Open source software
    • Operating systems
      • *BSD
      • Some Linux distributions
      • Plan9, Haiku, Illumos, etc
    • Web browsers
      • qtwebkit based
        • qutebrowser
      • gtkwebkit based
        • luakit
      • Textmode/Terminal browsers
        • w3m
        • lynx
        • links
      • Other graphical browsers
        • netsurf
        • links graphical mode
        • ladybird
          • Apparently the developer is an asshole
    • Other userspace software
      • Video
        • ffmpeg
      • Graphics
        • Krita
        • Blender
        • GraphicsMagick/ImageMagick
        • ffmpeg
      • Audio
        • LMMS
        • ffmpeg
      • PDF
        • xpdf
        • mupdf
      • IRC
        • Hexchat
          • Feature Complete ( dead :'( )
        • EPIC5
      • This list could go on forever, consult your repository instead of me

Everything sucks, avoid car brands that sell your driving data (AKA buy an old car or figure out how to permanently disconnect your car from the internet), and avoid smart home and llm garbage.

permalink
report
reply
1 point

are you aware that the vast majority of people can’t relate at all with the way you assign value? Or that they cannot afford the cognitive and temporal cost to adopt the technologies you mentioned? This kind of reasoning is what killed FOSS.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

are you aware that the vast majority of people can’t relate at all with the way you assign value?

Clarify?

Or that they cannot afford the cognitive and temporal cost to adopt the technologies you mentioned?

People can learn entire, sometimes multiple languages, but learning some FOSS tools that are much more limited in scope is too difficult I guess. Relevant reading.

This kind of reasoning is what killed FOSS.

FOSS is dead? (and we killed it?)

FOSS is more popular than ever.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Clarify?

The vast majority of people do not care at all for technological autonomy, either because they don’t know about the implications or because they know and don’t care because it has very intangible effects over their life. Therefore they don’t make decisions taking into account technological autonomy or privacy.

People can learn entire, sometimes multiple languages, but learning some FOSS tools that are much more limited in scope is too difficult I guess. People who learn new languages during adulthood while working are a small minority. I speak as an immigrant who after 7 years barely speak the local language, like pretty much all my peers who didn’t take a whole year off to study. People with a job, social life, healthy relationships have very little time to focus on learning and very little incentive to do so.

FOSS is dead? (and we killed it?)

FOSS, on a political level, as a movement, it is dead. What we observe is the corpse, being a resource for value extraction processes by corporate and military organizations. The space of conflict over technology today is somewhere else: tech unionization, the post-FOSS movement, tech cooperativism, direct sabotage, public regulation. FOSS has been subsumed by the system.

https://www.boringcactus.com/2020/08/13/post-open-source.html

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

Kids

permalink
report
reply

Asklemmy

!asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Create post

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it’s welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Icon by @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de

Community stats

  • 7.4K

    Monthly active users

  • 5.6K

    Posts

  • 308K

    Comments