I see posts talking about good BIFL items but I don’t hear much about the other side of products that are bad or products you bought but don’t even use.
My apple watch. So much on that watch either doesn’t work as it should or I was straight lied to by an apple employee of how it worked. Will never buy one again.
Yea, I had a series 3, hated it coming from a galaxy watch. Daily charging, dies on 24h shifts tons of useless features that I never use, looks weird for a watch, no always on display (granted not a problem for newer ones I gather). And the goddamn screen got scratched so fast, even more so when I started bouldering.
I was a actually kinda glad I busted the screen and could justify getting a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. I was a bit apprehensive about how it would play with an Iphone, but it is pretty damn good.
Best watch I have owned, even the galaxy watch pales in comparison. I can actually track sleep because the battery lasts 2 weeks with nightly pulseox (should be 3 without), potentially a lot longer but the sun is a foreign concept this time of year. It gives me what I need and nothing more (although it is a bit off the mark on a few things. The fitness tracking is great, it is actually a lot better for bouldering. No annoying touch stuff, actual physical buttons, that while take a bit of adjusting to, are perfectly adequate for reaching all the functions quickly. Seems sturdy as hell too.
The only feature I miss a little is answering calls on it. Was useful 3 times a year or so when I used it while I was busy but could have a conversation on loudspeaker. Besides this I cant get it to track additional sleep episodes properly (say on my 24h shifts when I get multiple short bursts of sleep or just general naps). The sleep tracking is semi auto - you set a sleep time, the watch only tracks sleep in sleep mode. Theres no automatic workout tracking (I guess there is a weird half tracking thing), although I hated auto tracking on the galaxy watch, I was fine with apple but never used it. Now granted all of the above is a mild annoyance at best, for me.
I’ve bought every single generation of an Apple Watch, and I returned it every time.
I wanted to love it so much, but I couldn’t.
It’s just a glorified notification system.
Anytime I got a notification on it, or wanted to use it for something, it was faster and far more convenient to just pull out my phone and do whatever I needed to.
The only thing I found it good for was controlling music from a distance, but that’s not an important use case for me and definitely not worth the price tag, plus the recurring data plan. It’s a money and attention hog, just like any other smartphone.
Mine is five years old and I haven’t missed wearing it for a day. There are so many little features that I like (controlling my HomeKit home, finding my phone, playing my music with AirPods on a run, heart rate alerts, taking calls) and I’ll replace it when it’s gone, but I have a hard time recommending to anyone at that price point. I can’t get over that I need to buy a third party app to see my step count and it doesn’t even sync regularly.
Built-in step count is in the activity app! Just keep scrolling, it’s after the stand hours. Noticed it the other day, I think it’s easy to overlook.
Thank you for the response, but that’s the thing, I don’t want to scroll. Steps are a basic function and they should be available on the watch face.
I also, am interested in your expectations of its functionality, as I have been pondering one for some time.
this is for you and @dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de since you both asked the same question.
this is a long comment so bear with me.
When I bought the watch I specifically asked how the step counter works. Not just a cover/generic question. I asked does it count if you are just moving your arms or how does it now if you are actually walking/taking steps? I explained that at my job I stand all day and my arms are moving a lot but I’m not actually walking and I wanted to know if the counter was even close to accurate.
What they told me (at an Apple Store) was that it uses a GPS to figure out if you are moving. (that is a Lie, no it doesn’t). As my hands and arms are going back and forth across the desk. It is counting steps. If i move my hands from right to left (for example) from one pile of papers to another on my left, it might count that as a step. It might count it as a step as my hands go from right to left AND then from left to right(might be counted as a step). It might count the round trip as 1 step, or 2 steps or maybe 5 steps.
It should not be counting it at all.
I can have thousands of extra steps counted. If the step counter is wrong, then the calorie counter is wrong. That also means the apple movement app is worthless. Think of all the health things it can monitor but are tied to the movement/calorie counter/step counter… they are all worthless because the base section isn’t working as I need it to.
I assumed what would happen if you got on a treadmill was you would have to hit something on the watch because it would need to know that you are walking in place, or maybe it counted the bounce/movement of your body as you were actually walking.
Apple music is another thing that doesn’t work as it really should. Now this could be a design choice by the maker or maybe it just doesn’t work as intended… I’m not sure.
I will have my iphone connected via bluetooth to a speaker. My watch is connected to my phone. If I grab my phone and start a playlist everything looks and sounds like it should. The phone will show the song playing and the watch will show the song playing. I can skip to the next song by tapping my watch and hitting skip… so far so good.
Here’s where things go side ways. If I use my watch to go back to the playlists and try to choose a different playlist, the watch will say I’m sorry but your watch isn’t connected to anything(the speaker). to which I say… bull shit. yes it is. The watch is connected to the phone and the phone is connected to the speaker. Everything is connected. I was told the watch would act as a remote control for the phone. So why is it saying the watch isn’t connected to a speaker? It should access the playlists on the phone and let me choose a new playlist and start playing a new playlist. (this is just logical that it would work that way.) I shouldn’t have to walk over to my phone and choose a new playlist.
If I don’t use the phone to start a playlist and just tap the watch and try to start a playlist that won’t work because it will tell me the watch isn’t connected to any devices. Umm yes it is. It’s connected to the phone.
When I purchased the phone I specifically said i think I have a sleeping problem and I need a device that will help to monitor (or at least give me an idea if there is an issue).
Middle of the night it will check one of my vitals (that’s good) but it will vibrate and wake me up. WTF?! Who would design a device that would wake a person up in the middle of the night after checking one of the vitals? The watch should be able to figure out via blood pressure and oxygen levels that “huh this guy is probably asleep” so it shouldn’t vibrate. It should look at what I have set as my normal sleep schedule combine that with my vitals and figure out I am asleep and not vibrate after checking a vital. This is either a broken system or just plain bad design.
Sometimes it will go for days and not check anything. Again what is the point?
I was straight lied to by an apple employee
If you live in an area with good consumer rights, this is usually a valid reason to return a product. Statements made by an employee are treated the same as statements made in an ad, and it’s not legal for either to misrepresent a product.
The USA does not have good consumer rights.
My 50" TV. I use it everyday, but I could have invested the money in a berrer place. Like mutual funds, or buying new hardware for my homeserver.
A switch. There are a handful of good games but I prefer to play on my computer
I’ve got a Switch and I do love it as a machine but those first party titles are so expensive. I’m the kind of person who will never buy games at launch and always wait for them to be reduced. I got it for Christmas and when I went to look at Zelda BotW it’s still £60, and so is Mario Odyssey.
Buy second hand.
In my country first party titles go for $60 and all the way to $90
Second hand prices for these are often between $30 and $40.
And you can always sell those used games, and not really lose much (if any) money in the process.
Ps. Prices will fall even more when Switch 2 comes out next year. Hopefully it will be a repeat of the post-Wii days, where most Wii games were dirt cheap.
Man, I use my switch all the time. But I love little metroidvania and smaller indie and single player games. Any time I see something interesting on steam, I’ll buy it on the switch if available.
I’ve also been using it to replay older stuff. The first red dead, the Arkham trilogy, currently going through Nier: Automata again.
I feel like even in your case it would make more sense to buy it on steam and use a steam deck.
But i get it and i want to be as enthusiastic about it as you seem to be. But my switch is also just catching dust. So is my ps5 tbf.
If i could redo my buys, i would 100% go for a steamdeck over the switch and a xbox s over the ps5. Not because it is better or has more games… just because the money saved would flow into the gamepass and i could use that on my PC too and still have a console to play with my wife once every 2 years. Also games for xbox are generally cheaper for w/e reason.
I bought a steam deck a year ago after realizing that most of my gaming was done on my Switch over my PS4, and I had a backlog of PC games thanks to Humble Bundle purchases over the years.
The amount of times a game I wanted to play was on sale on steam but full price on switch was a big influence as well. I play a lot of rouge likes, metroidvanias, and other indie weirdness, so it’s a perfect fit for me.
I fly a lot and the Switch saves my sanity. But I never use it for anything else.
Bose Quiet Comfort II true wireless headphones.
I’d been toying with the idea forever. My earbuds are old, a little bulky, have some connectivity issues when one disconnects and it takes a lot of fussing to get them reconnected. So I decided to spend the money.
I get them from B&H. I get home, put them in, one of them has some sound issues—but other than that, the sound and fit were perfect. Like, they were my glass slipper. They fit perfectly, the seal was perfect, they wouldn’t ever hurt my ears after extended use…I was shocked.
But.
Having issues with one, I started messing with them, seeing if could get support or troubleshoot. Of course the first thing in the box is a QR for their app. Now, I never fuck with physical products apps. If I need an app, chances are I won’t use your shit. But I really wanted these to work, so I go to the app, and dig through the privacy policy.
Two addenda later, they’re trying to get me to sign the most obscene privacy policy ever. Listen to/record everything I play, collect a profile on me, listen to any ambient noise around the microphone, and weirdly, “map my head shape and movements?”
I deleted that app as quickly as I could. So I go to their support page on their site. Get into a chat with their customer service bot. It says, “replying to this message is agreement to our privacy policy.” So I open the link, read it…it kinda seems reasonable. Just talking about using my chat responses for training, standard. But then THREE layers of addenda deep I find here trying to get me to sign THE EXACT SAME FUCKIN POLICY.
I ran those fuckers back to the store. But not before trying to get someone on the phone about the legal matters. Yeah, nah. They wouldn’t connect me to someone in their legal dept. In fact, the very request seemed to puzzle them to no end.
FUCK BOSE. READ YOUR PRIVACY POLICIES.
Is it possible to accept to those terms but disconnect the app from internet access completely so that prevents any calling back to the server? I believe you should be able to run it without internet.
Still a shame that there exists such an invasive privacy policy. I use IEMs when I’m on the go and wired akg k371 when I’m at home.
Well, that’s actually what I was trying to find out. I tried getting their legal dept on the phone because I wanted to be 100% sure I could use those earbuds without ever agreeing to the policy. When they wouldn’t or couldn’t give me an answer, I said fuck them.
They were great headphones. But I didn’t even want to chance that kind of invasion. And I doubt there’d be any way I could be sure of a company clearly willing to violate my privacy so hard would not be collecting that data without my consent. Using their fuckin site was a minefield in itself because they were trying really fuckin hard to get me to sign that policy—not even sign it, just tacitly agree to it by responding to one message in order to get help. Too dicey for my liking.
I tried getting their legal dept on the phone
I don’t know if any company would comply with this request, unless you’re calling a law firm of course. Lawyers’ time is expensive and they don’t spend it speaking to end-users. You could try emailing their legal department - they may have a customer service rep that understands the legal side of things.
I have some QC25 headphones I bought in 2015 and they’re still working well, other than having to replace the cushions a few times. No “smart” features, just a regular cable to plug them in. Noise canceling works well and I use it whenever I’m flying somewhere. They take AA batteries which is way more convenient than a built-in battery. I use Eneloops, and once the batteries don’t hold a charge well any more, I can just get new ones.
