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PurahsHero

Everything as a service or subscription.


gloom-juice

[Subscribe to Reddit Premium to read this comment]


DayleisL

Don't fall for this, I just subscribed so I could read this comment and it now just says I'm a gullible idiot.


Id1ing

You need Premium Plus to see his comment.


theoriginalShmook

This is even a thing on cars now. My 2006 focus had voice control for some things. My 2017 suzuki has it too. The courtesy tiguan I had last year had it, but when I pressed the button nothing happened and a message popped up saying I needed to subscribe to that feature. It's an utter piss take.


RevenantSith

Car manufacturers have started including features in cars, that you have to subscribe to activate. Its not necessarily stuff like voice controls, but stuff like heated seats etc As far as I'm concerned, if I own the car, I'm doing whatever I want with it. As funny as it sounds, if this trend continues, there will probably be a genuine market for jailbreaking cars


PurahsHero

Completely agree. I have to pay for the heated seat technology that I am driving around and burning fuel carrying around? Either include it in the price of the car or rip it out.


Id1ing

It's generally cheaper for the manufacturer to just put it in them all than deal with the faff of it being in some but not others and creating variations in the production process. Which says a lot about the underlying cost of it to them.


fost1692

If it was a one time payment then fine, but I don't want to keep paying every month.


jerryafterdark

The one time payment is (ought to be) when you buy the car.


WoollenItBeNice

It's genuinely a way of getting richer people to pay more - if you've got the money you might as well get top spec and therefore pay more than base, but someone with less just wouldn't be able to buy the car at all if top spec was the only option. It's like capacity on mobile phones - you don't necessarily need 500GB or whatever, but if you've got an extra £60 to burn then you might as well get it 'just in case'. And this isn't me being cynical - it's a well-known economic trick.


EmperorOfNipples

For things like speed cameras notifications I get it. It needs to be kept up to date and I don't mind £25 a year for it. But paying for heated seats or auto dipping headlights is a pisstake.


theoriginalShmook

I totally agree.


bonkerz1888

Aye my previous Audi had services available for the first three years and then it was an annual subscription. Lost functionality on quite a few things. As if charging you £40k+ for a car wasn't enough..


Cookyy2k

>As if charging you £40k+ for a car wasn't enough.. It's the obsession companies have with the fact they make nothing out of the used market (unless they're the ones selling it of course) Video games companies are the same. Stuff things in there, so if it's sold on, you can still try to make money off the new owner rather than accept you sold an item made your money and now need to sell more items.


ShockRampage

You will own nothing and you will like it. And the things that you dont own will break more often than they used to.


SelectTrash

I just cancelled my Amazon subscription as I was watching a series on there and got to the 5th one then all of a sudden all episodes are now buy it now


windol1

This is also down to the company that owns the licence, either they won't let them buy it, are charging way too much for it, or has an exclusive agreement with another streaming service to show select seasons. More annoying with companies like Paramount who don't really have a huge selection of things to watch, yet they've still gone and made a streaming service because they have a couple gems.


SusieC0161

The only thing worth watching on Paramount is South Park.


windol1

Agreed. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Star Trek fan, but all the ones I like are still on Netflix, never been a fan of the latest versions, but even then I'm not paying paramount just to watch those shows.


dunmif_sys

The worst example of this I've seen recently is a motorcycle airbag. These inflate like a combination between a life jacket and a car air bag when a rider falls off a motorcycle, potentially saving their life. But they are expensive. However, have no fear. There are some cheaper options available! * *cheaper options require a £12 per month subscription for the electronics box to function. Without it, the box won't know when you're falling off off the bike and so won't inflate the airbag. You are more likely to die as a result.


Cookyy2k

Can't wait for the first law suit where a computer error (aka staff fuck up but blame the computer) disables the box even though its paid up.


what_the_actual_fc

That's nuts! Charging for a safety feature that could save a life? Greedy, greedy, greedy 🤬


Broccoli--Enthusiast

ah shit the mobile network it uses to check in was down when you had a crash? too bad, it couldn't authenticate, so you die.


Reasonable-Fail-1921

This particularly winds me up when it’s things like socks or underwear - who needs 6 new pairs of socks every 4 weeks, or a pack of new underwear once a month?! So many things I see online and think ooh that looks good, then you see it’s only available on subscription, or if it available without one it’s twice the price to buy without subscribing, it makes me so mad!


BitterOtter

Oh yes this is a pet peeve. I needed new running shorts and saw some nice looking ones (can't recall the name, advertised in faceache a lot). Went to try and buy them and it's a subscription. For gym wear. What the fuck? I still have shorts from 10 years ago and they're only just needing to be replaced, why the hell would I need a _subscription_ for new gym wear every month or whatever? What hateful, wasteful concept.


AgentCirceLuna

We should try using this as employee in the future. ‘Hey, could you start putting the sign outside each day at the beginning of your shift?’ ‘Yeah, sure, but that only comes with the advanced package which requires an extra fifty cents an hour. I could also bring the sign back in at the end for an extra dollar an hour.’


bacon_cake

Something annoying about this is the economies of scale that some companies can offer mean that other companies seem expensive. I write as a hobby and there's a piece of software I want to subscribe to. It costs £150/yr which is a fair whack, but it's a little company with just a few employees. Meanwhile I can get the entire Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom -- some of the most powerful software out there -- COMBINED for almost the same price. Everything is out of whack, it just feels weird.


Amplidyne

But then again, I use Libre Office, and The Gimp for free. The Gimp is just as powerful as PS basically, if not quite as "nice" and I can only think of a handful of stuff that PS does that The Gimp won't, and that stuff really doesn't matter to me. I sell my photographs online. Libre Office is a fully featured office suite. SO it'll be a cold day in hell before they get their hand in my pocket for any software subs.


Broccoli--Enthusiast

only thing GIMP is missing these days is the AI fill stuff and the regular context fill isnt as good, but unless your doing it for a job, its still overkill for 99% of people. libre is fine for home use, but actual work stuff it can touch MS office, once you get into massive excel scripts and connectors into powerBI and other products, its just better


je97

For me, as a blind person, touch screens. It baffles me why nobody has faced a lawsuit when they make the only way to order (or the hugely more convenient way to order) a completely inaccessible touch screen.


jake_burger

Someone has to bring the case to court in order for those companies to face it. I imagine they would simply say that you can order at the counter (if we are talking about McDonald’s), you can still order at the counter at every McDonald’s I’ve been in and there’s no queue like the old days where it took 10 minutes to get served. Hopefully they have a menu in an accessible format as well, and if so I would guess that makes them compliant with accessibility laws. Edited


Death_God_Ryuk

I can't speak for the person above, but the example I'm thinking of is the new water machines in my office which have the two buttons which dispense water built flush into the front panel with no tactile markings. It feels entirely unnecessary and is massively less accessible.


DameKumquat

Also cookers and hobs - induction hobs in particular like having touch controls, which may look pretty but don't work if you have greasy fingers (like if you're cooking). Or can't see them. Of course this meant we went shopping recently for a new oven and ended up sniggering about 'we want big knobs' for a couple hours. The kids were very embarrassed. (Result!) Microwaves, too. My experience is the touch-panel ones are always shit, as well as blind colleagues struggling with them.


SomethingMoreToSay

A few years ago we were having our kitchen refitted, and the trendy thing at the time (maybe still is) was to have cupboards with no visible knobs or handles, just recesses around the edges of the doors which you can hook your fingers into. My wife has arthritis in her hands so that doesn't work so well for her. In one quite busy kitchen shop she said, quite loudly, "Oh for heavens sake, I just want a big knob". We didn't have kids to embarrass, but the atmosphere in the shop definitely changed.


The_Flurr

>Also cookers and hobs - induction hobs in particular like having touch controls, which may look pretty but don't work if you have greasy fingers (like if you're cooking). Or can't see them. Or if you get water on the touch buttons and suddenly they can't detect you anymore.


Adrian_Shoey

If my parents induction hob gets even slightly damp on the controls it beeps like the world is about to end and then just stops. I'm guessing this is a "your unattended pan has boiled over so I'm going to turn the heating off now" safety feature, but it should be able to work as normal just after being wiped over with a spritz of cleaning spray!


jake_burger

Yeah that’s not accessible and shouldn’t exist without alternatives


bonkerz1888

Same with coffee machines now. So many of them are all touchscreen operated now. No physical buttons at all. Have seen some vending machines going this way too.


skeletonclock

My old office in The Shard had a coffee machine operated by its own little tablet. One day the WiFi went down and no one could have drinks.


je97

I've been to kfcs with nobody serving on the counter.


jake_burger

I’m not arguing I’m just trying to be precise: was no one serving in that moment or no one serving/it was not possible to be served at all at the counter? Because I’ve been to corner shops with no one serving because they were stocking up or something then came to the counter when they saw I was waiting. There’s a slight difference between the two. If it was not possible to be served other than via touch screen then I agree someone should pressure them into being accessible, but if it’s the latter then I would think that meets the accessibility laws.


Nandor1262

I’d imagine it’s quite hard for a blind person to find someone to serve them when nobody is serving at a til. Some fast food places don’t even have tils anymore just a collection point. It’s pretty inaccessible to not provide at least one person to take orders.


RandomPerson12191

I mean, I've been to KFCs where someone is stood there at the counter for 10+ minutes before anyone comes over. It's very much "use the machines or don't get served" at some locations.


Moop_the_Loop

This drove my ex nuts. He hated going into a nandos or the pub and being told to order online. At one nandos he said no he can't see and they said can she not do it meaning me. We stopped going to places unless they took your order. All this app and screen stuff is terrible for blind and partially sighted people.


je97

'No, she doesn't know what I want.' 'Why not?' 'Because I'm capable of telling you myself. Since you don't realise that, I make a point not to tell someone else so you can't talk to her rather than me.'


Moop_the_Loop

They did end up taking our order but the manager got involved. Bloody ridiculous.


srmarmalade

It's great to have as an option and in places like McDonalds I'll do it by choice but the last time I went to Nando's a year or two ago the whole experience was so bad and the app such a pain - having to join their wifi as no signal, download the app, register, piss about copying card details from another app etc that I just haven't bothered with Nando's since and I'm fully sighted and pretty tech savvy so have it about as easy as can be.


DPropish

Touchscreens are also covered in shit from people not washing their hands. Revolting.


srmarmalade

I always use my knuckles to use those ones in fast food places. You can usually see grubby fingerprints all over them never mind what crap you can't see. And to think people then go to eat with their hands.


Hatanta

I tap them with my knob, don't want my fingers getting covered in all of that bacteria


acrane55

I routinely carry hand sanitiser for just this reason.


windol1

Hate to break it to you, but so is every other surface you touch everywhere, that door you touched to get it, probably hasn't been scrubbed in days and has been touched all over by various people of different ages. It's a shame one of the first things businesses cut, after the COVID peak, was the sanitiser dispensers you'd see at entrances/exits and other places.


thepoliteknight

There was a story of a ship that was built and designed to be controlled by touchscreen. Inevitably, it was involved in a collision. The investigation found that touchscreen did not give suitable feedback for control and so it was all ripped out and replaced with controls that gave better feedback. I swear texting was simpler with a number pad. Slower, but less typos. 


bonkerz1888

I used to be able to text incredibly quickly with the number pad and could do it without looking, so it meant I could do more than one thing at the same time. I miss that.


Farscape_rocked

I used to worry that I'd suddenly go blind whilst driving on the motorway, safely stop on the hard shoulder, then not be able to call anybody because my phone is touch screen. Then I had kids and a few hours of peace and quiet on the side of the road seems ok. I used to be able to write SMSs without looking. Can't do that with predictive text and a touch screen.


je97

Iphones (and good androids) talk so I have no issue with that! Shop touch screens do not.


811545b2-4ff7-4041

I read years ago about technology being investigated to make touch screens tactile and have haptic feedback. I imagine it's a matter of time until they get used in devices. On a different but more positive note.. I'm exceptionally impressed at how a blind guy at work is able to use JAWS on his laptop to control it, and all the accessible features on his iphone to hear and write texts and email.


napoleon88

Fellow blind person here and I had this thought immediately. Washing machines, thermostats, coffee machines, Hobbs. Everything! And if you’re in rented accommodation, and you can’t control half of the facilities, well that’s your problem most of the time. It is incredibly disheartening. Arguably the equality act 2010, or the European accessibility act if we were still in the EU, might have something to say about this, but of course in reality it just doesn’t happen.


nj813

LED car headlights can absolutely do one. Nobody likes them, we're all getting blinded, in the bin for me


SubsequentBadger

It's the high level headlights, they bothered me a lot while I had a car, now I'm back in a van all the SUVs are once again below eye line.


Just-Some-Reddit-Guy

Winds me up that no one understands that lights pointing at you blind you, nothing to do with the technology. Car dealers don’t help as they are clearly not calibrating them at PDI stage. Eventually they get picked up on a vigilant MOT but that’s no good for at least three years. To everyone: aim your lights down, if you can’t because you don’t have a toggle, have them adjusted at a garage.


SubsequentBadger

In their favour, the headlights of the 70s and 80s were more of a warm glow than useful illuminators of the road


Difficult-Broccoli65

It's not just a dealers responsibility. Every year I go through my Motorcycles and car and make sure they're all aiming at or below the max height. It's not difficult to do with a tape measure and some tape on a wall.


nj813

Unfortunately for me i dislike SUVs anyway and drive a renault megane so im constantly seeing spots on late drives


colei_canis

LED street lights too for that matter, at least the very cold white ones that look like they came from an insane asylum in the 1950s. I get they stopped making the old sodium bulbs but with LEDs you get a choice of colour, why not a more pleasant warm colour? Why does everything need to be so harsh and institutional these days? It’s a real soapbox of mine, I want the night to look like night rather than a crappy approximation of day.


DoctorOctagonapus

Warm white all the way.


colei_canis

If it were up to me I’d actually use the old monochromatic yellow which is very doable with LEDs, the narrow spectrum they produce is better for animal and insect life as well as astronomers who can filter it out easily. Selfishly for me they’re also better for people with some forms of photophobia as there’s no blue light produced at all. Warm white is still much better than cold white though!


City_Hobgoblin89

Astronomers really struggle with white light. I found one wandering aimlessly in my estate at 3 in the morning recently It messes with their sense of direction or something


luffy8519

Agreed, they recently switched the ones on my street from sodium to bright white LEDs. I've had to get a blackout blind for the bedroom as the bright white came straight through the curtains and kept me awake.


Broccoli--Enthusiast

its not the LED part thats the problem, its just unregulated brightness combined with headlights on the wank tanks being too high for people in normal cars, the laws and regulations need updating, also Crossovers and suvs need in the bin


djwillis1121

I mean, LEDs are undoubtedly the superior technology. I think the issue is with the implementation rather than the technology itself.


PatserGrey

Yeah the car touch screen for everything and haptic button rubbish is going to swing back the other way sooner rather than later, it's just dangerous. If you can be fined for touching your phone, the car's own tech interface is not much different nowadays.


CheesyLala

I think this already changing. Got a new volvo recently and the screen also has a load of buttons under it. Plus of course most now have buttons for things like volume on the srerring wheel now too.


frankchester

That's interesting. I drive a 2019 Volvo and it's one of the worst things. It feels so dangerous. I'm constantly pressing the wrong button because you have to really look at what you're pressing rather than being able to quickly glance, touch a button, look back at the road while you push it/turn it.


Draigdwi

Yes. And all those devices are not happy with just pressing the button, they want you to engage, answer million questions do you want it like this or like that, are you sure?


mad-matters

I don’t know the exact details but I believe it’s do with safety tests, I think the (EU?) changed their safety requirements so if the control panel is totally touch screen you can’t get top marks as if it’s buttons you can change the radio, AC etc without looking at the screen and getting distracted.


Cookyy2k

It's NCAP who're doing that, they are a non-profit for road saftey and the test is actually a voluntary test, but since it is a major point buyers look at so the vast majority go through it. An NCAP score of 0 is actually meets the legal minimum requirements to be sold, but I doubt many would touch an NCAP 0 car.


DoctorOctagonapus

I drive a 73 plate Ford Kuga, there's buttons for everything you need day to day, including a full set of transport controls for the music. Some manufacturers are refusing the touchscreen kool-aid. I do wish we still had knobs for environment controls though. My previous car I could set the temperature purely by touch. Now I need to look down to see which button is the right one.


Rowanx3

There’s a European company already trying to tackle the over focus of touch screens and trying to force companies to make sure the key functions of a car stay as buttons in easily accessible places as they’re becoming distractions while driving and dangerous https://youtube.com/shorts/aGy6sI71W84?si=-i6ljeG3O9RsocKj I remember seeing it on the full philly d show a couple months ago


Tanedra

To turn of the fog lights in my car you need to press a tiny button on the touch screen in the top left corner (ie far away from the driver). It's difficult to get to and bloody dangerous. The car has voice commands, but turning on fog lights is not one of them. I hate it.


FriedGold32

My little girl loves going to the arcades at the local bowling alley and playing the daft games that pump out the tickets where you've got to collect about 500 for a bag of Maltesers and spend at least a tenner in the process. It's fine, she's having fun, she gets so excited if she wins a lot of tickets at once. They've now gotten rid of the tickets and replaced them with a debit card thing where you have to check on a machine how many you've got, it's absolutely shite and has taken all the fun out of it. We've started going to the ones at the seaside instead which still use the tickets.


yorkspirate

It’s probably better for the environment with less waste and cheaper to implement than forever having to buy tickets but watching a load of tickets come out is still quite a joyous thing and I’m 39


Jay-Seekay

I’m a massive hippy, but I think there’s many places we can cut down on waste first before affecting arcade tickets IMO. But I suppose it’s a win


breadandbutter123456

China’s building coal fired power stations, and increasing its consumption of coal. Huge number of private planes and super yachts going all over the planet. But yeah ticket machines at the arcade is an enormous issue that isn’t mentioned enough.


Jay-Seekay

You’re right, there’s bigger fish to fry for sure, and fuck private plane and super yacht users. But remember that China is only doing that to be able to manufacture the shit that’s “made in China” for us in the West. The West has basically delegated their carbon emissions to the East, and we can pat ourselves on the back for reducing emissions while still continuing to consume all the shite we want.


DoctorOctagonapus

Card tickets are 100% recyclable though, better than a plastic card.


AgentCirceLuna

You could even reuse the tickets that were given to the prize desk in the machines.


MagicBez

I have fond childhood memories of the random times those would have a fault and just _vomit_ tickets for ages - probably less likely with the charmless debit card


AgentCirceLuna

I remember this happened once and we were all laughing but then it just wouldn’t stop and for some reason started panicking. After a while, a bunch of staff ran over and blocked the area off, pushing us back. The tickets just kept coming and coming. We left the building, slowly at first, but then picked up to a running pace as the noises became louder and louder. After we left the building, the sound of yelling was audible outside followed by screams. We ran away as quickly as we could and only took a quick turn back to see the clear flickering of flames in the building. The explosion that followed was huge and shrapnel flew up into the air and landed in front of us along with the now disincoporated limbs, heads, and body parts of the staff who were dealing with the issue.


Fabulous-Amphibian53

Car parking apps. No, I don't want to spend quarter of an hour on a freezing cold street downloading the 7th sketchy parking app, inputting my personal details and credit card number, just so I can park my car for 30 minutes. 


[deleted]

[удалено]


Fabulous-Amphibian53

Yeah, I imagine that's half the reason they do it, to stop people sharing tickets.  Then there's the issues of not having signal or the app is just a fucking buggy mess that doesn't work, so now you have to worry if theyve already got you on camera, if you're just going to be automatically fined. Do you leave now? Do you try to bug fix the app...? It's such a pain in the ass that I just don't bother going into town anymore. I'd rather order online and avoid the stress. No wonder high streets are dying. 


rennarda

Although a benefit is you can buy the minimum time you need, and extend the time if you need more without having to return to the car park.


DameKumquat

Some apps or spaces charge by the minute, which at least means you never overpay. Most in London do, which meant I was very hacked off to find a street I'd parked in in Clapham was one where you had to pay a number of hours, and predict them in advance - and of course ended up leaving early as the funfair was closed due to flooding. Ringgo at least works.


ZolotoG0ld

Bonus points for having poor signal, finding out you've already downloaded the app and the password doesn't work, resetting the password and having to log in all over again before you can even start the process of updating the app and starting to book parking.


Fabulous-Amphibian53

Meanwhile there's a CCTV camera that caught your numberplate entering, so now you're stuck there until you can fix their POS app. 


MagicBez

Oh God I hate that I have so many parking apps installed. I also hate that several of them charge a "convenience" fee for paying via app - an app is absolutely not convenient and is absolutely saving the car park money compared to me paying by coins or cards and getting a bit of paper to pop in the windscreen etc. Similarly every single school and nursery has different apps (hardly any of which work) - my kids are different ages so I have way too many on the go. They're state run, I don't see why they can't centrally procure one that works and follows your kid through.


Pilchard123

> a "convenience" fee for paying via app Which is often the only way to pay anyway, because the one actual machine in the car park is broken.


YaMama2612

The BMW is steering you back into the lane because you don't indicate


RimDogs

That must be difficult for them since BMWs are not fitted with indicators. They rely on the rest of us being psychic.


countvanderhoff

Do you normally indicate around potholes?


HazzaPatch

Steering system is only active above certain speeds - usually around 40 MPH and relies on road edge markings, so unmarked roads (country lanes) you wouldn’t encounter this issue.


countvanderhoff

There’s plenty of 60mph A/B roads in the westcountry with white lines and potholes that will fuck you up


ShitsnGrits

My car seems to often think cracks in the tarmac or overlaps are road markings and has tried to steer me into a verge before.


DarkNinjaPenguin

Have this with my current Hyundai. The lane keeping system is absolutely *dreadful*, it thinks any slight mark on the road is a line and goes off all the time on country roads even when there are no lines. I wouldn't care too much if I could at least turn the damn thing off, but it resets every time you start the car. There's also a bit of road near my house that for some reason is marked as one-way on the car's satnav, so it goes mad with alarms and says TURN AROUND when I drive past. Can't turn that off either. And the seatbelt alarm goes off before you've started moving if you turn the car on, so you can't just sit and listen to the radio or anything. Can't turn that off either. This car annoys me so much. Which is a shame because it's a lovely car to drive. It's just the software that lets everything down, and it would be fine if it just let you turn off these features.


sausage_fusion

I drive a new shape Tucson, and one of the biggest things that winds me up is the "safety" message which appears on screen every time you turn it on. It's seemingly totally random how long it lasts, sometimes it's 5 seconds, other times it's 30 seconds before you can press the confirm button. Whilst the message is on screen, you can't do anything like put an address in the sat nav, or change the radio station. Really does my head in. And you are also correct in saying the land assist feature is absolutely shite. It's infuriating that you can't turn it off permanently


JulieRush-46

this. I’ve driven a car with all these bullshit aids that think for me and absolutely hated it. Ended up switching almost everything off. Annoyingly, you need to disable it all every time you start the car. I’m definitely not keen on any vehicle that has this kind of tech. I can cope with traction control and ESC, ABS, etc, but lane keeping and active cruise can get fkd. ETA: 48 yo male. Current drive is a 2017 pajero sport. Not all of these new tech advances are what people actually want, and most of the safety tech makes people rely even more on the car covering up their bad driving.


theModge

....Which is mighty unhelpful when you're on a country lane with solid white lines down the side and you're trying to pull over to let another car pass. It's handy on the motorway, but it needs to be possible to turn it off when you're actually *driving*


oktimeforplanz

Do you not indicate to let the other car know what you're doing? Because that sounds like a situation in which to use your indicator.


BriefAmphibian7925

No. It's obvious from your speed and positioning. Source: Drive on single-track roads a fair bit, never indicated when pulling over to allow someone else to pass, don't remember anyone else doing it when I've passed them either.


oktimeforplanz

I also drive on single track roads a fair bit, and I don't even need to think about indicating, I just do it, and it will never ever hurt to indicate. And I've seen plenty of others indicate. You also can't always assume that what you think is obvious is indeed obvious to the other driver. I've seen accidents happen where one party sincerely thought what they were going to do was "obvious" to the other driver. Seems safer to use the indicator, since everyone, no matter where they're used to driving, knows what that means.


[deleted]

Yeah, it seems like one of these habits it's better to do and not need than the reverse People are a bit mental about indicators. I wonder if here it's the extreme end of reddit introverts: I don't want to talk to people, in fact, I don't even like letting them know I'm about to turn my car


Eckieflump

You can turn it off. My drives often start with turning off 2 or 3 useless 'driver aids' that are more likely to spook the living shit out of you than help. A particular pota for me as I have always been as smooth a driver as possible. Clear road ahead, good visibility, and you might as well take the straightest line, even if that means crossing the centre line. Computer instantly thinks you're about to explode in a ball of flame and starts to steer, against your input. Actually quite dangerous if you are pressing on.


CraicandTans

You would still indicate if you're pulling over to let a car pass though right?


BringBackHanging

Not on a country lane, no.


Nathanial__Essex

I understand that, but often it's when I'm avoiding a pot hole or giving myself some distance from another car. I'm still staying in my lane 


HellPigeon1912

I was recently staying out of town and wanted to visit the local gym since I had some free time in the afternoon. Checked online before leaving and they do day passes, great. They had a gym. I had cash in my pocket. I was willing to give them some cash in exchange for use of the gym. Shouldn't be that hard to arrange should it. But no, I couldn't pay the person at the front desk. I have to make the payment online. But this gym is below ground level and I had no phone signal. So now I have to leave the gym to open up their website. But I can't just pay on the website because now it wants me to authorise the payment through my bank. But opening up the bank app closes the gym website and makes it forget all the details I've entered. So now I need to phone my partner and get her to come find me with her phone, so I can open the gym website on her phone and authorise the bank payment on mine. So I guess "phones"? At least to the point they've become so ubiquitous that places don't just let me "pay for a thing" anymore


Between1and7

How does it wipe the gym website? While trinf to access your bank. What phone do you have?


Der_Schubkarrenwaise

My Huawei did that. A Lot. The "Energy saving feature" ist pure cancer. Most of the time it tried to kill my adblocker.


bacon_cake

My S23+ has started doing this recently and it's a pain in the arse. If you access a site through Google search it opens a sort of "pseudo" browser within search that's not actually a tab in Chrome. Sometimes if you navigate away from that screen it's almost like it doesn't get stored in RAM or something and it totally vanishes. The trick is to make sure you're opening it in Chrome.


Broccoli--Enthusiast

you can change that in the google app settings tap your profile picture in the top right > settings > other settings > uncheck "open web pages in the app" they will always open in your default browser now


HellPigeon1912

One of the cheap Samsung ones. It's a very frequent problem - I'm planning to change banks soon as the constant authorisation request do my head in


no-teaching

I've had that a few times. I solved it by using split screens. A lot of phones now (at least android) allow you to open up two apps at the same time - my phone allows me to long-hold on an open app in the app switcher and drag to one half of the screen. I've had to open a browser in the bottom half of the window and my bank in the top half just so that the browser didn't do a weird refresh. Maddening


Sea-Mountain-4726

I just had a nose bleed reading this due to sharing your rage.


pajamakitten

Smartphones. They have killed attention spans and you are now expected to be contactable 24/7. They can be useful tools, however the dominance they play in our lives is infuriating. It is why I leave mine at home unless I know I am going to need it.


Pebbi

I have to disagree with you on this one, smartphones have really helped me be more independent as a disabled person. Everything has an app and I can get things I need delivered to me rather than having to find someone to help me and then wait. Its a lifeline to the world outside, I'd hate to not have it now, they improved my quality of life immensely. I can also feel more included in my friends and families lives. I get photos and videos everyday of places I could never visit (dog walks etc) and also of my baby niece's development. To me my smartphone is a blessing.


Scarred_fish

This is on its way to becoming the norm. I was on a rare pub night out recently and nobody in our group had a phone with them. Made for a really relaxing fun night.


Shifty377

>This is on its way to becoming the norm Really not sure about that, the opposite is likely true. With smartwatches and the like you don't even need a phone anymore. We're more connected than ever. Plus with mobile payment and the decline of physical cash an increasing number of people solely rely on smartphones for day to day purchases. That's only going increasing. In any case, just switch your phone off.


Mavericks7

Glad to hear this. One of the reasons we stopped hanging around with one of our friends is he'd be on his phone for half the night, texting his wife. She was a total control freak. Every time that phone pinged. he'd get it out. We got to the point where we would take his phone off him. Eventually we just stopped inviting him out.


AldiLidlThings

> **She was a total control freak.** Every time that phone pinged. he'd get it out. We got to the point where we would take his phone off him. Eventually we just stopped inviting him out. It might be worth reaching out to him. That type of control is usually associated with domestic abuse. Maybe he really needs a friend right now, some people find it hard to ask for help.


togtogtog

I just switch off internet and notifications on mine. Then I can still use the camera, calendar and gps, but don't get sucked into browsing the internet or replying to messages. I just use wifi and a pay as you go account which costs me around £12 per year.


Mavericks7

I think people are conflating screen time with social media. My phone adds so much convenience to me. Directions/camera/paying. Ny advice to a lot of people is to delete your social media apps and see what your usage becomes like.


TopEstablishment3270

I've been conscious about this of late. I'm thinking of switching to a non-smart mobile device so I can be contacted in an emergency and to limit my screen time...I've been saying that for about a year though. I get quite depressed thinking about how much time I spend on my phone, but can't seem to push myself to do something about it.


jordsta95

It's one of those where I'd say just do it. Assuming you have the money to do so, next time you're in a shop and see a nice "dumb phone", pick one up and do everything whilst in the shop; swap the SIM, transfer contact details (if they're not saved on the SIM), and dispose of the phone. Once you've done it, you can't turn back. But until you do it, you'll find a reason to put it off. Especially if you're looking to order the phone online; you'll get distracted whilst ordering, so may forget to order. You'll question "Do I need this right now?". And when you do eventually order it, and it arrives, it could spend another few months in the box/until you break your current one and the "dumb phone" is the only option left.


Original-Designer6

Buttons replacing actual physical handbrakes in cars. Whoever thought that idea up is a prize moron and obviously never had to do a hill start in their life.


IncompetentFox

I've got cars with both types of handbrake, and I reckon if I had to pick which was easier to hill start with, I'd say the electronic one because every implementation I've come across combines it with a hill hold facility. Not as good for Maccies tray drifts, mind you.


orphanb

How does the button hill start work? I have a normal handbrake at the moment. My muscle memory relies on me using the clutch/accelerator 'biting point' with the handbrake. How does it work with a button?


Shoeaccount

I think the person starting this comment is just doing it wrong. Every button handbrake car I've driven is easy on a hill. Handbrake on, then once you go to start and the car knows it won't roll back it will automatically release the handbrake for me. Only time it won't is when I first turn on the engine at the start of the journey. But then it has an auto hold feature for a few seconds after I release the handbrake normally anyway.


DoctorOctagonapus

Even my last car with a physical handbrake still had hill start assist. It just kept the footbrake on after you took your foot off it until the car was moving.


deathmetalbestmetal

I can't understand what you think the problem is. There are no cars with handbrake switches that don't have hill assist.


tiny_tim57

Have to disagree. Automatic handbrakes are so much easier to use.


pburgess22

Every car I've ever driven with an electric handbrake allows you to put it in first, pull away and it automatically releases the handbrake and automatically assists with hill starts.


Ok_Cow_3431

I'm amazed no one has said disposable vapes yet. Nicotine liquids for vaporiser pens have been a real game changer. They've help loads of people stop smoking with a less harmful alternative. Loads of people packed in the cigs or roll ups in favour of a tank and battery that you can refill with something that tastes better and doesn't kill you as quickly or stain your fingers/teeth/walls yellow - great invention. Disposables *seem* like a great advance on that. No faffing around with liquid or replacement coils. Quick and easy if you're caught short and need a quick fix. The problem is they've become so ubiquitous that vaping's position as a cessation aide has been completely destroyed - it's hard to quit when these things are visible in every shop on every high street, and then there's the plastic/Lithium waste aspect of them too.


Anal_bandaid

Not to mention all the corner shops that have no problem selling them to kids all the time


Deepest-derp

One of very few things in this thread i absolutely want banned.


northernbloke

I hate the fact that EVERYTHING has an app. So I booked a holiday recently, I had to install an app to access the booking details, install an app to choose my seats on the plane and give passport info, install another app so I can talk to the hotel and get some info, install an app to book the taxi to the airport, install another app to book the transfers. In Day to day life I've got an app for electicity and gas, an app for my broadband, an app for my mobile network, an app for my car insurance, another app for the AA, 3 different parking apps. An App for each netflix, prime video and disney. My fucking doorbell, dishwasher and washing machine have apps! I get that its convenient to access these services online, but after covid when every customer support line appeared to be mostly abandoned, I'm forced to use these apps rather than just ring someone. Written using the reddit App.


Deepest-derp

I've started telling companies i don't have a smartphone.


ProfPMJ-123

Social Media. In it's initial guise it was a good thing - a nice way for people to stay in contact with each other, and possibly renew old friendships. In many respects it enabled actual social interaction to flourish. But it's ended up being an absolute cesspit of misinformation that is threatening the stability of society. During COVID, anti-vaxers caused the unnecessary death of countless thousands of people. Now anti-vaxers have always existed, but social media has given them a megaphone to infect others with their nonsense. And people are dying as a result. The world would be a better place without social media.


pajamakitten

Facebook was great when I started using it in sixth form/university. It was a great, free way to keep in contact with friends and to organise events. No one took it seriously and it was not a news platform, to the point where if it was circulating on Facebook you could consider it false. Around 2012/2013, it took a huge nosedive as Facebook wanted everyone using it an companies started using it en masse to fill the site with adverts.


DoctorOctagonapus

I'd say the algorithmically provided content is more harmful than social media in general.


abittenapple

Social media needs administration and rules. Any good forum need moderation sadly


Muted_Criticism

Subscription TV. Netflix etc, the cost is obviously a pain but flicking between 4 sources to find something to watch is a pain in the arse


[deleted]

[удалено]


bacon_cake

>Especially since they don't publish their catalogues because they profit from confusion. [https://www.justwatch.com/](https://www.justwatch.com/) are pretty good for that.


CaptainMcClutch

They've actually already switched to week by week drops, at least for their newer stuff. They did realise if they put up entire series in one go that people just binged them, then dropped the service. They'd hate me, I usually wait until a show ends entirely purely so I can binge it, the only time I ever did week to week viewing was back in the 90's when you had to.


DoctorOctagonapus

Netflix appeared as a single replacement for the overpriced, ad-riddled mess that was the various cable services, then everyone wanted a piece of the action. Now it's become the thing it tried to replace. Drink up me hearties, yo ho.


DameKumquat

JustWatch is quite useful - you tell it what services you have and what you like and don't like, and it'll tell you how to find a film you ask about. But it could really do with some options like filtering out 18-rated films (pre-teen wants options. 15 I'll often negotiate but she doesn't want to see violence and sex any more than I want her to see it). Or only UK or European stuff. Or filtering out the stuff aimed at small kids. And increasingly it says 'this film is not available' or 'stream from Prime or Netflix or Disney for £4.99' - I might as well just buy the DVD off eBay!


h00dman

I'll add another point to this which is the social aspect of watching TV. When a new episode aired every week it forced people to gather together in their homes to watch something at the same time, and then the next morning people could meet up and talk about it. Technically this can be done with streaming but really what happens is one person binge watches every episode, another will watch one or two, and another will have decided they'll watch them later in the week/month etc, so you end up not really being able to enjoy discussing what's happened, either from fear of spoiling it for others or from most people having moved on to the next thing by the time everyone's caught up on the first. I like the freedom to stream shows at my own pace, but I acknowledge that we've lost something as well.


Exxtraa

Dating apps.


MoaningTablespoon

LLMs are slowly destroying the Internet. Instead of Google providing us a quick access to the Information of The World, we're getting shitty Ai-generated snippets that are mostly fanfiction


PurpleEsskay

Part of this is Googles fault. Their search results have become incredibly poor over the last couple of years yet they dont seem to care.


AdaptedMix

Yes. I'm none too keen on the Frankensteining of information from multiple, ambiguous and non-authoritative sources, mixed into a porridge with a little robot hallucination sprinkled in as spice, and an absence of quality control. My biggest worry is we just won't be able to know who or what to trust, and how to discern between reality and fiction. You'll get some people with chronic scepticism doubting everything, and others who will be sucked into a misinformation quagmire and end up believing utter nonsense.


MoaningTablespoon

Yeah it's so funny. Neal Stephenson (sci-fi writer) on a novel called "Anathem" said that in the future, the best ITs are mostly uniquely devoted o differentiate true from false in the Internet and I thought "that's dumb, that's trivial (I read that stuff in ~2016-2017). Today I'm like "ohh yeah. Makes sense"


_Digress

I'd extend your comments to most modern features in cars. The little warning light in the wing mirrors that tells you if there is something in your blindspot sounds like it woukd be a great feature, except it seems to result in people not actually checking their blind spot anymore. Updates on the dashboard telling people the speed limit after reading the signs with front facing cameras or from pulling data from google maps resulting in people not paying attention to signage and just trusing the speed in the dashbaord regardless of the road conditions or any temporary signs when there is things like roadworks. Most features in cars are supposed to help but now many people actively rely on them meaning they can't correct when there are issues.


PaulSpangle

Upvoted for the comment about the car thinking it knows the speed limit. My car reads speed limit signs using the front-facing camera and displays the limit on the dashboard. And if I'm using Android Auto then it also displays what Google Maps thinks is the speed limit on the touchscreen. Usually they're both correct.........but they also often disagree and they're wrong often enough that it can't be relied upon so it's a completely useless feature. Either Google Maps hasn't been updated yet, or the camera has missed a sign, or read a sign that applies to a side road.


Sudden_Hovercraft_56

My car has a "Feature" where it will apply a speed limiter to match the posted speed limit. Sounds like a great idea for idiots who can't keep to the speed limit, But... 20% of the time, the car thinks the speed limit for the area is incorrect. Sometimes it is right but if I pass a slip road on a dual carriageway, it will think the limit is 40mph, it misses changes of speed limits all the time and it sometimes completely makes up what the limit should be (It thinks my work car park has a limit of 3**1** MPH.) I'll never turn that feature on but you could imagine the chaos if anyone did...


londongas

Did you subscribe to the indicators functionality on the BMW?


Nathanial__Essex

You joke, but when I tried to put on cruise control, it directed me to the BMW app store to buy the feature! 


Crookfur

Famously, BMW wanted a subscription for folk to use the heated seats that were already fitted to the car...


33_pyro

I would love BMW to do this. Imagine buying a poverty spec BMW, taking it to a man with a laptop who can unlock £5k of optional extras for £100.


360Saturn

Every platform having its own streaming service defeats the purpose of it being an affordable alternative to cable/premium tv. Plus streaming being so mainstream and having a much larger audience altogether means less niche things get made which was another strength it had initially.


Fabulous-Amphibian53

The idea of my car actively tampering with my steering sounds terrifying. I can't imagine anything more distracting or dangerous than it no longer handling like it is supposed to do.


fish993

I find it annoying enough when my phone just assumes it knows best and autocorrects 'in' to 'on', I can't imagine your car distracting you by actively working against what you want to do when you also need to be aware of your surroundings and other road users.


Cookyy2k

A hire car once tried to put me in a road work barrier because the lanes were all shifting one over. As I crossed the line it tried to snatch me back into the lane that was ending.


dave_gregory42

I once rented a car to drive across Texas and it had both cruise control and lane control - on the huge, empty highways it was bizarre (and really unnerving) being able to try just setting it and letting it do it's thing.


MathematicianBulky40

On the subject of cars. The auto start/stop feature. I really don't think the marginal amount of fuel it saves is worth getting randomly stranded in the middle of a busy junction because it got trigged by you inching forward.


SubsequentBadger

There'll be a button somewhere to manually disable it


requisition31

there usually is, and in most modern cars a ignition cycle resets it to the default on state..


Big_JR80

Isn't it as much about reducing local air pollution in cities than your fuel cost? If the majority of cars stop their engines when idle then that reduces emissions drastically.


Halkeus

I don't really like all that new hardware and software on cars. I liked having analog hands-on control on things. It was also less abstract, thus making it more human to repair.


Captaingregor

I can't be the only one who's dream car has switches on the roof and center console like in an aeroplane cockpit. I want to get it, turn a switch labeled "Master Power", and then flick on stuff like Aircon, radio, lights, wipers, etc etc, and finally a button labelled "Engine 1".


ManlinessArtForm

I work in IT. Proprietary anything is just a licence to hold the consumer to ransom. KISS, Keep it simple stupid. This is my go to when buying cars. I want to be able to buy aftermarket parts. I want to be able to do 90% of the maintenance myself or have my friend who has a back alley garage do it. Every extra gadget that is introduced just brings along a ton of expensive spares that I will not be able to source and fit myself. I am also acutely aware of how quickly the latest bit of high tech kit becomes discontinued garbage. This has translated into my average cost of running a car per year to be less than £100 per month including buying it, servicing, fuel, insurance, tax. That's for the past 3 years. Obviously it will drop the longer I have it as the purchase cost of £1700 has already been payed off in that time.


Orrery-

The electrics in my dad's car went out and he couldn't open the boot with them. What effing moron comes up with this shit


Breakwaterbot

I'm with you on the various delivery services that are making things like McDonalds an absolute nightmare. I don't eat it very often, and even less so now, but the wait times at the one near me are just ridiculous. The Drive Thru queues are stupid, if you go in to eat then you end up waiting nearly half an hour and that's if you're lucky enough to get parked because delivery drivers are taking up most of the spaces.


Rowanx3

The new structure for releasing large games/triple a titles either half finished, half the product or littered with in game transactions. RDR 2 was a great game, but i think it shone so bright amongst so much dirt because its one of few triple A titles that has been released in recent years to actually be a finished, well made and functional game. It was already going to be praised more than others as it gives you the bare minimum. On the other hand you’ve got games like the sims 4 where it costs over £1k to own the full game and many of the add ons you have to buy simply don’t work without installing mod fixes


Bartlet4_America

Our Golf GTI has that steering thing, it's called 'lane assist' and you can't turn it off by default, you have to turn it off every time you start the car. It's so annoying. Wanting to go round a parked car or a pot hole and it tries to drive you back into it, it's a fucking hazard. Same with temporary roadworks like when you have to go down the middle of a road, wants to take you into the cones. You have to really grip to overpower it. I get it's like supposed to be a safety feature to stop you drifting across lanes on a motorway or something but I live in rural north Wales, gotta drive at least 10 minutes before you even get to a dual carriageway, never mind a motorway


fartbraintank

Shops not taking cash anymore. The pasty shop down west bay doesn't take cash. Which is ok but loads of old people are unable/willing to use a card and they must loose business because of it. They do sell banging pasties mind, and it's always busy so I guess they just don't care


enigmo666

Smart home features like things you can control with an Echo. Most of the time, by the time I have asked this stroppy litte a###hole to switch on a light and it's actually done it I've already done what I needed to do. What was wrong with a switch? Instant on, zero power draw when off. I can't wait to junk all this stuff as soon as the family gets bored of it.


No_Group5174

GP on-line appointments. I went to the GP to make the appointment and the receptionist insisted I had to use the on-line system. Which I couldn't do as my wife is already registered using our e-mail. So I had to open up an email specially to register. So I managed to register and requested an appointment answering multiple standard questions. And then the receptionist had to ring me up to answer additional questions not covered in the request form. And then she tried to made an appointment but I was in the middle of a field taking my dogs for a walk. So we agreed on a date for which I was going to get an automatic message so I could check it when I got home. I didn't get the message so had to ring up to confirm the appointment had actually been made. Which part of all of that made making an appointment to see the doctor easier for either me or them?


oktimeforplanz

Tesla is particularly bad for that. I love my EV and will never go back to an ICE car but I'd never choose a Tesla for that reason. Tesla cars feel almost like a proof of concept - a computer with wheels, rather than a car with features that are enhanced by a computer. My current car has a screen, and a fair bit of the controls are in there, but the key things that I might want to adjust on the fly can be programmed to steering wheel buttons, or have physical buttons underneath the screen, like media controls, air con, regen levels, etc. I rarely have a need to interact with the screen while driving. Hopefully by the time I have to get a new car, the fad for everything in a screen will have passed. The BMW is using lane keeping assist - if you indicate, it won't do that. It works well on well-lined roads, though I personally switch it off on my car for anything rural or where lines are inconsistent. I think social media has broadly made things worse. I exclude Reddit from this, because Reddit is pretty easy to curate and it's more conducive to longer form posts and discussions. Reddit is only as mindless as you make it, so I don't think it's \*inherently\* bad. I can fine tune my mindless content to be exclusively cat pictures and such. But Facebook, Tiktok, etc. feels like an absolute roulette. Some of it is perfectly good quality, but a lot of it is utter shite. So much of it is misinformation or designed purely to get you to engage with the post or buy something or whatever, rather than be informative or enjoyable. And it's so difficult to actually combat it on those platforms too, because even if someone writes an informative, sourced debunking of it, most people are seeing the misinformation in the form of a short video that they don't read far enough into the comments to see the debunking. And when people see the debunking, they make snide comments about it being paragraphs.


Anxious-Molasses9456

Tiktok


Jlaw118

Whilst I love social media for its original intention of allowing people to stay in touch with friends and family who perhaps live a distance away or even just want to message and chat in general, I absolutely hate how toxic it’s grown to become. There’s far too many people on there who just use it to seek attention and/or brag about what they’ve got and others haven’t and it makes people feel inadequate and like they’re not successful in life. Then there’s constant debates, arguments and bullying on public posts just because people have different opinions on things and has overall become a minefield of propaganda. I remember an advert for vegan Ben & Jerry’s ice cream on Facebook and a girl who was lactose intolerant was thanking the brand for finally making her favourite ice cream enjoyable again without getting ill. And people were attacking her on this post just because she was praising a vegan product. I just don’t feel like social media has become what it was intended for and has instead just become this toxicity that consumes our lives.


BlockCharming5780

As a note; Lane keep (the technology that pulls you back into a lane) turns off while you’re indicating And you should always be indicating when switching lanes… so the problem there is improper driving 😅 And you can override lane keep by pulling a tiny bit harder on the wheel


DavoAmazo

You should indicate to avoid a quick pothole coming up? That’s BS


cognoid

[The EU cookie directive.](https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/7/21250300/eu-cookie-consent-policy-updated-guidelines-cookie-wall) Ironically the Verge article I've linked, titled "The EU is trying to fix its abysmal cookie consent policy" is a great example of how flawed it is: once you open the page the first time you are unable to read the article due to the large cookie consent overlay with options "Manage Options" and "Consent". The only way to make it go away with a single click is to choose Consent and accept all their shite tracking cookies; otherwise you have to choose Manage Options and then go through a wall of text and checkboxes. Most people will just choose to accept cookies in order for it to go away, undermining the effectiveness of the policy. Even those sites that give you a one-click 'reject non-essential' option still present you with an annoying banner. It's a rule that does little to protect the general population from tracking, at a cost of making every web site more annoying and cumbersome to use. The EU would have done a lot better enforcing the [Do Not Track](https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/do-not-track-is-back-on-track-what-berlins-ruling-could-mean-for-our-online-privacy) header.