r/TechNook

Found an old alarm clock at a car boot sale last year, paid two quid for it. big red led display, two buttons, that's basically it. can read the thing from across the room in the dark without squinting at it

been trying to find a decent modern one for the spare room ever since. everything is either some generic little plastic thing or a 40 dollar smart clock that wants wifi and has alexa built in

literally just want a clock. somehow the 1984 version got that right and we still haven't improved on it

Installing a game from six floppy disks felt like a serious commitment.

You'd sit there swapping disks one by one and praying that none of them had a bad sector.

And somehow we thought that was normal.

Did anyone else have a game that took forever to install?

I used to think buy those cheap charging cables thinking I'm saving money, I've gone through so many cheap ones that either stopped working after a few weeks, or it charged slow, it got bent to destruction lol. I learned my lesson now and bought a decent cable, which ended up being cheaper than always replacing low quality ones over and over.

What's yours?

what's a piece of technology that feels 10 years ahead of everything else?

According to me robot vacuums are a good example

they map your home, remember different rooms, avoid obstacles, return to their charging station, and some can even empty themselves and clean their own mop

the weird part is watching one quietly figure out your house while you're doing absolutely nothing

it's not perfect, but the idea of a machine maintaining your home without being told what to do every time still feels futuristic

what piece of tech has given you that "10 years ahead" feeling?

Hi! If this isn’t the right spot to ask this, just remove, so sorry!
I’m trying to charge this and I’m not sure what charger it takes.

Not the usual USB cable for this. I have plenty of those, doesn’t fit. I’m stumped.
- it’s for my boss.

what's a product category that's quietly having a comeback?

compact digital cameras

for years, it seemed like smartphones had completely killed them but now there's renewed interest in small cameras that are easy to carry, have a distinct look, and don't turn every photo into another thing sitting on your phone

people aren't necessarily looking for more megapixels they're looking for a different experience.

sometimes a technology doesn't come back because it's better it comes back because people missed what made it different.

what other product category do you think is making a comeback?

The Touch Bar was flawed of course, third party app support wasn't consistent and it wasn't without flaws, but jettisoning the idea entirely, rather than making it better feels like a lazy decision. Typically Apple will double-down and tinker with stuff over several generations, but this is one of the rare times they gave up and went back to something worse.

These are fine I guess but they're a downgrade of what can be done with function keys. All gone because enough people complained on Twitter, context aware controls, custom shortcuts, media scrubbing.

For me it’s having more built-in ports, I know laptops have become thinner over the years for mobility, but I lowkey miss it when I can plug almost everything into it.

Especially those CD/DVD players built into it, everything is digital nowadays which is very convenient but I miss it when I can burn a CD lol. I just can’t help but feel like we’re paying thousands for dollars for a laptop that does less.

I had one of those sony ericsson phones when I was younger and the size of it still feels crazy compared to phones now.

Everything had a proper button. The camera button actually moved when you pressed it, the keypad had that nice click, even the little joystick felt like it was made properly

My current phone cost way more and does basically everything, but it doesn't really feel like an object. It's just a giant piece of glass I spend half my time trying not to drop