What's your worst pointless gadget feature

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I guess I could nominate the Bosch moisture sensor in our tumble drier (which thankfully is not wifi equipped). Anything hunting of synthetic is assumed to be dry regardless of the water dripping out of it.


We all have useless gadgets (at what point do people realise that electric carving knives are more effort than a manual one) but pointless features take extra effort to get wrong like an on off switch on a battery bank (which invariably gets switched puff in you're pocket) when most do quite well without them.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I have just thought of another one. The Sony DVD player which backlights the touch controls so that when off the on switch is a black symbol on a black player.

esuhl

that wrote: »

1gb windows 10, with 32GB storage - hp stream 7

Heavy, poor resolution, 1GB and 32GB storage, slow, tiny writing and keyboard, but because it is 800 pixels high they keyboard takes up a fair amount of the screen. Low battery life and slow cpu. Used it intermittently over 3 days, then put it back in the box

Sounds like it needs GNU/Linux to turn it into something useable!

esuhl

A mate was convinced to buy am expensive kettle with a built-in thermometer and digital display. It had different heat settings for tea, coffee, and full boil.



He smugly pointed out that you should never put boiling water on tea/coffee. :-/ Is it that hard to wait a few seconds before pouring hot (not boiling) water on your tea/coffee...?

that

esuhl wrote: »

Sounds like it needs GNU/Linux to turn it into something useable!

Was my first tablet, and probably my last one. My laptop power supply jack plug cable broke the evening before as I has to go to into hospital for a few days, so got this up and working at the last minute. Really missed the mouse and keyboard. Lack performance wise and ease of use... just layers of disappointment and sore arms - it was configured as a media player and the headphones would not work on it, mobile earbuds were intermittent and had to partially unplug them. At the time was brand new from HP.

To be fair I do like linux. Was very impressed when you got that mouse button to work the way you wanted it to in it

esuhl

that wrote: »

To be fair I do like linux. Was very impressed when you got that mouse button to work the way you wanted it to in it

Hehe -- it's perfect now. To get the same functionality in Windows I have to run a third-party executable on startup (which keeps nagging me to update it).

es5595

The Alexa enabled smart kettle - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M35A5SW
So you can boil it without getting out of bed... But you have to fill it beforehand. And then make the tea/coffee once it’s boiled... Maybe just get a regular one that’s a fraction of the price!

that

esuhl wrote: »

Hehe -- it's perfect now. To get the same functionality in Windows I have to run a third-party executable on startup (which keeps nagging me to update it).

x-mouse button still? Mine does no nag me.

Takmon

esuhl wrote: »

A mate was convinced to buy am expensive kettle with a built-in thermometer and digital display. It had different heat settings for tea, coffee, and full boil.

He smugly pointed out that you should never put boiling water on tea/coffee. :-/ Is it that hard to wait a few seconds before pouring hot (not boiling) water on your tea/coffee...?

Different teas have different temperatures so if you like to drink Green Teas or other specialty teas the ideal temperature can be anywhere from 65 degrees Celsius, so having a temperature gauge is quite useful in that case. Just like you wouldn't use one temperature to cook anything you put in your oven.

es5595 wrote: »

The Alexa enabled smart kettle - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M35A5SW
So you can boil it without getting out of bed... But you have to fill it beforehand. And then make the tea/coffee once it’s boiled... Maybe just get a regular one that’s a fraction of the price!

I've actually got one of these :rotfl:

Yes it's expensive but it does actually save you time because you can have the water at the correct temperature ready for when you get to the kitchen. You then make the tea/coffee and refill the kettle so your saving yourself at least 2 minutes of boiling time each use.

If you boil the kettle twice a day that's 24 Hours & 20 Minutes of time saved each year!. Which really isn't bad at all.

rmg1

esuhl wrote: »

A mate was convinced to buy am expensive kettle with a built-in thermometer and digital display. It had different heat settings for tea, coffee, and full boil.



He smugly pointed out that you should never put boiling water on tea/coffee. :-/ Is it that hard to wait a few seconds before pouring hot (not boiling) water on your tea/coffee...?

Getting a little bit off-topic but.......
A guy I know was convinced that you could hack someone's computer, even when switched off, because of the small battery on the motherboard.
He was convinced it had enough power to run the HDD.
Yes, I'm talking about the CMOS battery.