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.
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 would try denying it network permissions (if you’re on android) or just simply putting it on airplane mode and disconnecting all network to it.
We live in fucked up times. I don’t have the patience to read through privacy policies, so I basically have to avoid buying anything that has any kind of sensor on it.
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.
I bought a Steam Deck so I can play games while on the go. I just kind of forgot I’m never actually on the go, so 90% of the time it’s just gathering dust on my nightstand, because I’d rather play on my proper gaming PC when I’m at home.
I had the opposite happen. I thought a steam deck may help me be more on the go as well, however it just helped me be even lazier in bed…
I just got one and deciding to get one is very situational. I’ll sit outside with my dog for hours and I can’t bring my desktop outside. For me it’s been great. I wouldn’t recommend one to someone unless they know when they’ll use it.
I thought I’d use it commuting too, but I don’t. It’s just a little too awkward to bring on my commute.
I got a switch to play games in bed but it pisses off my girlfriend.
I use my steam deck because I want to play on the couch or in bed or something and I can just instantly start playing when I pick it up. I’ll leave it suspended in a game, so I hit the power button and 2 seconds later I’m back to playing.
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.
I brought a drain snake for 3x the price of liquid drain unblocker and it got stuck in the drain and won’t come out.
You need to get a drain snake snake
a drainaconda
Oh that’s unfortunate. Something made to get things unstuck in the pipes gets itself stuck there…
Classic porn plot
Something wrong mitt deine kable?
You can guess what happens next
I kinda regret buying my 3d printer. Not because it sucks, it’s more because it reminds me I don’t have any free time to do something this time consuming.
Another one is the cast iron wok. I love my cast iron pans, but the wok is just to damn heavy and it you can’t really use it like one would use a normal lightweight wok.
A cellphone in like 1995. Had if for a few days before realizing I didn’t have anyone to call. Returned it not long after.
Same time plus minus one for me. Not only did nobody have a reason to call me (at school). Literally nobody else had a mobile phone.
My Amazon Kindle books. I figured out way later that I didn’t actually own them! How absurd.
You can pirate books. Use Calibre and build your library. I have over 2000 books. Doesn’t take much storage either.
That’s what I do. Wanna share some? Maybe we could do a swap of our favorite 10 or something.
And you can still read them on your Kindle, too. You just convert the epubs to the kindle format (using Calibre), then plug your Kindle into your computer. So easy, why would I ever buy a book again?
Or even better setup your kindle e-mail address in Calibre and e-mail the books to the personal document cloud. That way the books will sync to all your kindle devices and the kindle app.
Wow, I didn’t know this was possible!
You can just send epubs to your kindle.
Cast Iron Pan - I don’t cook enough to justify it. Girlfriend at the time thought it was a good idea, and she used it a bunch, but now it’s just in the cabinet probably rusting up.
Humidifier - It gets really dry in here and it was recommended as a solution to my dry eyes. But it’s a pain to clean and refill, so it mostly just sits there.
Robo vacuum - It wasn’t great at navigating the apartment, so I didn’t use its auto schedule thing. Then the cat hair overwhelmed it. It is languishing in the closet. I got some use out of it, at least, driving it around like an RC Car, but I ended up buying a more robust manual vacuum cleaner
Damn I’d ask if you are me but I absolutely love my cast iron skillet cause it’s the most nonstick pan in my house and I cook plenty. I have 2.
Humidifier, I found it easier to have one of those old school plastic water pitchers next to my humidifier that I can use to fill it up or keep a refill immediately nearby if I know I’m gonna use it all day and a little splash of bleach every now and again actually does a lot for cleaning it out on its own. But it sits empty a lot still.
Shark robo vacuum and Anker’s Eufy lines can die by fire. Both suck for completely different reasons and I have wasted so much money and I so wish I hadn’t accidentally lit on fire the like 3rd gen iRobot my grandmother gifted me because it was so “dumb” it was the only one that worked.
My cast iron pan is a best buy I use every day. Dropped all other pans.
Oh, I mean, I still love stainless steel and it’s all my other cookware because it’s the only other perfect answer.
Non stick. Can be scrubbed clean, can be thrown in an oven at insane temps if you don’t have any plastic or other materials on it. Silicone can still be at like 450.
Seriously, the plain boring non fancy stuff is the stuff that lasts forever and does the same result every time.
About the bleach, wouldn’t it just evaporates into the air and be toxic/bad for your health?
I’m also sick of cleaning my humidifier.
I’m planning to buy an evaporative humidifier, dump a kilo of sea salt in it so nothing can grow. As the water vaporize, all the salt will be remain for the next refill (as salt doesn’t evaporate with the water). I wonder if it would work as I can’t find anything on Google.
About the bleach, wouldn’t it just evaporates into the air
Nope, bleach is Sodium hypochlorite, if left to dry only the water it’s diluted in will evaporate leaving behind bleach crystals. Over time it will decompose into table salt. That doesn’t sound the best for the humidifier, but it won’t be a danger to the air.
Well if you have ever been to a pool you are breathing in a pretty heavy dose of chloramine and depending on where you live there is likely chlorine in your tap water. I’ve even had to wash my veggies and fruits in bleach water because of parasites. It’s not exactly healthy for you but it’s not exactly harmful as long as you don’t do anything stupid. It’s a cleaning agent.
I’m using about a teaspoon for a gallon of water and actually settled on using a pre-diluted mixture in a spray bottle and just spray some in when I see it getting moldy again. Which is to say I also only do it like once a month to 2 weeks and try to do it before leaving the room or house for a bit to let it run without me immediately breathing in.
The other recommendation would be hydrogen peroxide since it breaks down a lot faster into just water anyways but it’s slightly less effective and less easy to just have on hand.
Salt seems like a terrible idea. I have super duper soft water with nothing in it but some basic calcium… Calcium powder is always settled all around my humidifier. And nearby glass surfaces. It will carry some salt with it, guaranteed. Plus I see it clogging important mechanisms or pores.
Confirmed here too. I HATE my shark vac bot. So many reasons and I have two of them unfortunately, each with different problems.
It’s insane how full of problems they are and yet how insistent they are that problems are somehow rare.
Salt and Pepper grinder from a well recommended brand. Was like 80 bucks for the set and it’s not better than the ones I get from Sam’s Club. Infact it’s worse. Disappointing.
Infact
Not a word.
Not with that attitude
Who would downvote this? It’s true. It’s helpful. It’s free advice.
It’s untrue. ‘Infact’ is infact a word by the virtue of it being both used and understood. Language is defined by those who use it.
haters who complain about new words have no rizz
You are right in principle. New words can pop up. Them being accepted however is not just a matter of a few people using them and saying that it is so.
It’s about usage and being accepted in larger groups or areas. Language is defined by what’s surviving a generation or two. Everything else is slang.
Drone. A few years ago it’s one of the craze that hit the world, lot of people playing with one, lot of youtuber using and talking about it, so i told myself, why not? I bought a cheap one, it can fly pretty okay, has limited range, tried it for a few time in front of my house to get the feel of it, and took it to an open field just to play with it. Turns out, flying it around is such an intense experience, too intense for me due to the fear of crashing it or hurting someone, or both. So the thing is now a dust gatherer.
Perhaps you just need one that’s less “intense”? I’ve got a dji and the thing will just hover in place if I stop paying attention. Most of them these days have obstacle detection too.
That said, once the novelty wears off it is going to collect dust unless you have a particular use for it.
I think i have the latter issue, i have no idea what to do with drone nor i have the luxury of time to explore lol. Other than the few time i want a bird eyed view of the surrounding, there’s nothing much i can do with it.
I picked up my friends switch used for 200 buckaroos. I got really into DS emulation and I went really hard on pokemon especially. I was looking forward to BDSP.
The new pokemon games were really anemic. I got some fun out of Mario Galaxy. But it just sits there now. I miss the first party piracy experience. I think also if i had had the ability to easily bring my old school mons (which i still have saved on my pc).
A lot of my wasted money also went toward games for different consoles. Played once or twice and then just sat there.
That’s also why I started buying physical copies whenever possible. Sell when not interested anymore.
I bought a Wii U. Nintendo only made like ten games for it.
Honestly, I got so much fun out of Homebrewing my WiiU. Getting free games, modding them
Interesting, I have one sitting collecting dust, what is this homebrew? What does it do?
If it’s an actual question and not sarcasm: Programs developed at home by hobby developers. Not strictly necessary though.
Something like Minecraft and Portal ported to 3DS etc or actually original games created for the platform of choice.
My Steam library
Bought myself a wireless charger but I never use it because I just plug in my phone anyways cause it’s faster.
I use one every night. It keeps my phone in a predictable spot, and it always charges fully overnight anyways. It’s also less wear and tear on the port.
I also got one and don’t use it - used to use one with my previous phone and I’m pretty sure it ruined the battery over time (it causes the phone to heat up which affects the battery). Got another one, this time with a build in fan, but the high pitch noise the fan makes annoys so I don’t use this one either.
You can get magnetic plugs now, you just stick a little magnetic dongle in the port and leave it there and then the cord just magnetically attaches to the phone. That way you have the benefit of charging it fast. Plus not wearing out the port
Those things are great because they also act as USB condoms meaning that no data lines are connected when you plug into a public USB port. Quite a benefit when out and about.
You do lose out on fast charging though.
These are what I use. Plus I can use the same cables for all kinds of different connecter types. Also, keeping that little plug doohickey in the charger port all the time acts as a kind of dust plug and keeps pocket lint and stuff from getting in there.
I got myself a magnetic wireless charger for the nightstand. It’s great.
For the wireless charger I got one of those Anker ones that hold it at angle like stand, so I put my phone on it while I’m at my desk. I can look at it and check any notifications that come in without having to pick it up. Saves me from having another cord on my desk.
I didn’t use mine for years until I got a wireless charger stand to use with my phone in landscape mode. I love it for my office desk. Combined with work focus, I only see a clock or large relevant notifications. I can answer work calls without messing with a cord. And when I leave at the end of the day, it’s charged. The old flat charger is still sitting in a drawer though.
Slower is usually better for the battery, use it if you charge at night. It also decreases the wear on the usb port.
How is plugging in faster than simply putting phone on a charger?
I meant faster to fill up. It doesn’t even take that long to plug it in either.
A bread machine. Had good reviews. I used it like 3 or 4 times. The mixing things are too small to mix the dough properly, and having to fish them out of the bread after it was done was a huge hassle. The bread was not great… Shell was too hard, and the top side didn’t cook properly. Then I realized, I could basically do the same with a planetary mixer that can mix the dough and the normal oven, and the end result was far better.
Honestly it’s easier to do small batch of bread by hand than machine, you’ll have to clean a lot more thing afterward with machine mixing. These day there’s autolyse to help cut out the kneading.
That’s a shame. When I wasn’t sure whether we’d actually make use of a bread machine, I picked up an entry level one for like $100 (Canadian).
Since then, we’ve made probably 100+ loaves, saving money and reducing both food waste and plastic. It’s been one of our best kitchen purchases.
I’d suggest trying a different recipe. It can make a huge difference to the end result.