Short-lived bling, dumb smart things, and more: The worst in show from CES 2025 The Consumer Electronics Show is back to showcase not just the cutting edge of innovation but also the worst of what's possible when modern tech collides with today's culture of capitalist excess. As they have for the past several years, a group of repairability, sustainability, and privacy advocates have come together to …
- basic needs fulfilled. Low hanging fruit harvested. But the number of long tail needs and customizations is unlimited, but not scalable or profitable. Even software engineers would not bother writing and supporting an app with a small target population.
Another stubborn category is affordable housing, recycling, and cost of energy.
...is basically the motto of the 21st century at this point.
I might be a grumpy old man... well, no, I most definitely am a grumpy old man... but looking back at the life I lived as a young adult in 2000 these last 25 years don't really seem to have improved anything. I guess having google maps in my pocket is pretty nice, but I'm coming up really short when I look for other major wins. Things that actually genuinely make my life easier on a daily basis. All this technology, and how is it actually doing anything that makes my - or for that matter anyone else's life - better?
But away from a cell tower or charging a paper map is better, and has contour lines. Map software only seems really good for research on a 24″ 4K screen.
The eink ereaders are good, but that peaked nearly 10 years ago. Colour eink is pointless compared to a 14.25″ Nxtpaper tablet.
Good screens are better (phone, TV, tablet, eink, monitor) than 25 years ago, but plenty are not much better.
USB is still a mess.
My laptop at 1920 x 1080 is better than my 23 years ago 1600 x 1200, but the extra RAM needed by OS and the 256 G SSD + 2T SATA faster than 120 G byte IDE. It's cheaper too.
TV & Satellite reception better, but less to actually watch.
Viber is better than IM was 25 years ago. Linux is now better than XP, and Windows is now worse than XP.
I do like having a 3:2 aspect 14.25" paper-like tablet (Nxtpaper 3.0) and a 8″ 300 dpi eink ereader with space for 18,000 novels. Back 25 years ago I had to read Project Gutenberg downloads on the laptop. Now they are managed by Calibre and read on dedicated eink. But that's 10 years old tech now (the 2005 Sony was much much poorer, as was the 2007 Kindle, worse than 2007 Sony).
Mine's the one with a Nxtpaper phone and an eink ereader in the pockets, but Google Maps never used on phone or tablet.
OK, I'll give you e-books. I actually do use one of those all the time - but only as a convenience. I still buy everything in dead-tree form, I just leave them on the bookshelf when I'm not at home because I don't want to damage them, so if I had to give that up I don't think I'd mind.
I checked our Kobo account, it now stands at over 500 titles; we don't have enough space in the house for the extra bookshelves that would be required.
Fortunately there are certain Calibre plugins that enable one to ensure there's a local copy available, should anything untoward happen to the Other Entity's Servers that provide the convenience...
Some map software on phones/tablets is excellent, away from Google.
OSMand+ is amazing (over a decade ago I bought both the software and its contour plugin in a sale for about £12.
It shows you contours and/or hillshading; you can plan routes (with on-device path-finding) just by tapping points along the way, then export GPX files to a smart watch, or use them on the phone.
About 10 years ago I climbed Ben Nevis and found it invaluable; even though it was June, there was snow at the top, and then low cloud meant that visibility was maybe 15m, so the last section to the summit was phone out, making sure I didn't stray from the (invisible) path.
And last year, building up to my first 100km cycle ride, it was incredibly useful to be able to plot a series of steadily lengthening cycle routes, send them to my watch, and have the Garmin software on the phone call out directions from the bottom of the handlebar bag.
I general I agree, but there are some useful things, like the pacemaker keeping me alive as my heart no longer beats on its own. It has a battery life of 9 years which is probably more than my dicky ticker has left in it anyway. The pacemaker is crammed with sensors and talks to a box of tricks at the side of my bed and automatically sends a vast amount of data to my local hospital. I am summoned for checks if anything untoward is detected. At a larger scale, the Mrs has a light weight mobility scooter powered by a Lithium battery with a range of 20 miles and it disassembles / assembles in less than a minute and fits in the boot of my car.
I was just thinking about the old days. Back in the '80s I basically did the same thing on my computer that I do today; browsing, downloading, some games, a little math & science. This on a 286 over a phone line with a big clunky crt display. All DOS. Now I do basically the same things on an i9-14900k with 129 Gb memory, gigabit ethernet and 3 48" 4K displays. Much faster and visually appealing, but not more enjoyable. What changed and degraded the experience the most over all those years? ADVERTIZING!
How long will it be before the 'deluxe' top of the range and most expensive items will be the ones _without_ the current flavour of complications? Cars without all the automation; fridges without display screens, ovens without phones?
(The oven I inherited when I bought this house has only a 4-digit LED display (three of the segments have died!) but it turns out that you cannot set the time on it without first unplugging the damn thing. There is no UI way to do this activity, so twice a year I get to climb on top of the kitchen furniture to pull the plug out, count to ten, and then plug it in again. Stunning quality German design.)
Can't you speak RS485 with those? And using a modbus tool, possibly from Victron themselfs? Well I have Growatt MIC and use RS485 there to be independent of the cloud (in my case doing it with PowerShell), and the "shinebus" tool is available to do other things I am too lazy for with powershell. A good RS485-USB Adapter is around 20 to 25 bucks ($ or € not much difference).
From my point of view: An webserver (possibly on an esp*) which needs constant updates to prevent being hacked? And an existing LAN or WLAN? Na, stick with RS485, 'cause that is the norm for that solar stuff for over 10, possibly way over 20 years now. (Could be even over 50 years, how should I know - I am old, but not THAT old yet....)
Don't even need RS485. A plug from inside of mouse or smaller sound card plug. A TTL to RS232 (or USB or both). Apparently compatible with 3.3V data or 5V data. The 4th pin is +5V as the recommended IF uses opto-isolator.
The slightly more expensive versions have a BT interface that seems to do the same data as the TTL serial port. Cheaper price difference than standalone BT adaptor.
You can't set the the time. The Manual and FAQ and forums all agree. Power on at midnight to set the clock. Then it uses dawn / dusk to increment the day. They didn't explain on forum, manual or FAQ how that works in Arctic or Antarctic.
Also you can't connect a mains PSU to turn it into a Solar assisted UPS, though they do have UPS versions. Obviously the MPPT algorithm would potentially overload any fixed voltage source. An illuminated Solar panel looks a little like a current source, hence MPPT algorithm to find best loading option. But if you have a 100W transformer, voltage doubler rectifier (rubbish regulation) and a series baretter (not made now, but a car headlamp is about 1:10 resistance), then it looks a bit like a Solar panel. Add blocking diodes so full sun on panel doesn't destroy the PSU capacitors, and parallel to the panels that are a higher voltage in daylight. Then at night the battery continues to charge, if needed, from grid or a bigger remote solar system. A 25V 2560 Wh LiFePO battery to a Victron 1.5kW mains inverter feeding the freezers. Four 430 W nominal Bifacial panels in series & parallel
A cheap solar assisted UPS. Except now the Victron has no day and night! But unless you are obsessed with stats, it doesn't matter. I have a smaller Victron with a 14V 24 Ah LiFePO5 in a carry case with multiple Power Pole o/ps and 2 x 3A 12V to USB-C. It's charged by a pair of 100W panels small enough for the car boot, or sit at garden wall. That can power a two way radio, a Pi4 and a 2.5 K /QHD screen. Obviously time on that Victron is a lost cause. It's TTL only, needed once to tell it to charge LiFePO4 and not default Lead Acid. The bigger one can be set by TTL, BT or a rotary switch.
Great kit apart from the strange time keeping concepts. The main Solar UPS has integrated UPS, 8 panels and about 6000 Wh of batteries. It mysteriously sets the time & date from the BT app, or WiFi or something, yet does little with it.
We had an 11 hour power cut the other week. Batteries got low :( but lasted.
Victron has been doing Solar electronics for 40 years.
> The Manual and FAQ and forums all agree. Power on at midnight to set the clock.
Is it still that way with current Victron solutions? That throws me a bit off. Victron is on my radar after upgrading to moar solar panels: Currently four east-west (two string parallel) is not enough for Germany and my usage, so I go to 12 on my Growatt MIC (still two strings parallel east-west). Later swap the inverter to a battery variant. Since the market is currently going wild on such solutions I stall the battery upgrade a bit until one solution comes along which is cheaper than the Growatt hybrids, but with RS485/232/WLAN/LAN to get the data without needing internet.
Mdbus works fine over a network.
The problem we've got these days is that 'network' has come to mean 'HTTP9s) over TCP', usually from a central server. It carries huge processing, network and security overheads. Keeps a lot of people in a job who would otherwise be pounding the pavement, I suppose.
Naaa, modbus is not limited to tcp networking, and existed for serial first. There is a reason why I wrote Growatt RS485 examples and CRC16 modbus for powershell. And posted them on github 'cause there were no actually working powershell examples.
I can see that happening.
My dad has a freezer in his garage. It's older than me. It has two lights on it, and precisely zero controls. You turn it on, and the red and orange lights come on. When it's cold, the red light goes out, and the orange light stays on to inform you that it's on power. That's it. It does one thing: Keep things frozen. It does the job so perfectly it's been out there for the last 21 years doing it with no maintenance or alteration - and for the 24 years before that it was in the kitchen doing the same thing. The only reason it's not still in the kitchen is that mum wanted to redecorate and it was too big to fit once everything had been moved around.
What could this thing possibly be served by having "AI"? It doesn't even need a temperature dial in it, because as soon as you turn it on it heads down to to -18 C which was considered by it's manufacturer 50 years ago to be the temperature that a freezer should be. That's still the temperature freezers should be. Why set it to something else? There is literally no way to improve this thing by making it more complicated.
My old freezer in the garage also had lights on it, you could see them from the other end of the garage, so when it decided an event had happened, the lack of green light, or presence of amber or red drew attention.
After 15 years, It failed and has been replaced by a new freezer, which also has a simp”e green, amber and red light on it… only problem the lights are only visible when you open the door… door closed and you have no idea as to what state the freezer might be in….
Mine is similar - a recent replacement for one which could simultaneously grow ice on a single spot on the back wall while maintaining an internal temperature of 14C - and reports fridge and freezer temperatures but only visible (along with the controls) when the fridge door is open...
But it was at least selected in preference to the one claiming it had 'AI'.
"There is literally no way to improve this thing by making it more complicated."
Have it tell you, through an application on your mobile 'phone, when the last bag of curry made from the left-over turkey is being used? Or when you're running out of space for the bodies? Or when the mains is off and the ice cream is under threat of melting?
Have it cool to -18 in one part for the meats, -25 in another for the ice cream and -80 in the centre for the solid CO2? With, of course, an application on your mobile 'phone to show you a thermal map?
Have it have the ability to convert from C to degrees C to Farenheit to Kelvin using ....'phone?
There's *loads* of ways a "smart£ freezer could amply improve your life and reward you for the investment.
Right now you're probably better off getting a cheap fridge or stove, the cheapest ones are still made pretty much as they were decades ago, meaning that if something breaks it can usually be easily replaced. A lot of the fancy expensive appliances have parts like control boards that they stop making soon after the model goes out of production. So when your multi-thousand dollar cook top fails it may be garbage.
> “the cheapest ones are still made pretty much as they were decades ago,”
Ie. Still rubbish.
With respect to heaters: Not seen anything in the same league as the Belling Champion for decades - that was a heater, that could be used for melting marshmmellows etc. and was difficult to knock over
As for burning yourself on it, only possible if you ignored the air temperature surrounding it, or from the friction of feeding coins into the meter to keep it running…
I see they can be picked up on eBay etc. although I would definitely replace the flex.
It's already happened with TVs. The revenue from pre-installing certain apps, putting customised buttons on the remote control and the sale of all that lovely data on your viewing habits is an essential part of the apparently-competitive sticker price. If you don't want that stuff, it's going to cost you extra.
Well.... no. Louis Rossmann (yeah,... look, I don't agree with everything, and some things are poorly researched, and... ) made a video about how his smart TV, the most expensive one in the store, is a privacy nightmare.
So: no, you have no way of paying for the privilege to tell the manufacturer to (go love themselves) and wish them a (happy friendship day).
I totall agree that having less "modern disruptive" technology is actually better for us, our kids, society in general, but there are (as somebody mentioned above) some things that make our lifes easier and actually better.
My favourite with cookers was when one of the heating elements failed. I bought a replacement, worked out how to support the thing when pulled out from its cabinet, put it back together and nothing worked. Eventually I was told that I had to set the clock before the oven would work. Unfortunately, no one has ever told me why.
Because that's a failsafe - after a power cut it won't turn on until someone has done something on it, in case it's in a house that was evacuated in a power cut and nobody thought to turn the oven off when it was without power.
It doesn't resume by adjusting the thermostat because that bit isn't hooked up to the logic board*
Yes, there are other ways they could have implemented this but it's fortunately a rare enough occurrence that they don't bother.
* OK, it might be, but this policy was designed in times when that wasn't assured.
Why bother setting the time? I am sure you have plenty of other reliable sources for your time information.
Ah, well.. Fridges. Back in the days of old, one could spend <£10 on a clock with magnets that would stick on the fridge door. Now, fridge doors can be plastic, hence the need for fridges to have a TFT display, NTP server and Internet connection. Plus barcode or QR code scanner so you can check stuff into your fridge after self-scanning it at the shop. Coming soon, appliance makers will probably work out deals with shops so your purchases are automatically registered with your fridge. Then it'll become like hotel minibars and they'lll charge you a restocking fee if you even breath on an item.
Also.. I saw a washing machine with a scanner on it. Scan your clothes lable, and it'll tell you you're using the wrong wash! Or, after you've washed something a few times, the lable won't scan and it'll refuse to start due to unexpected items in the washing area, and you're supposed to throw clothes away after about 5 washes anyway.
>How long will it be before the 'deluxe' top of the range and most expensive items will be the ones _without_ the current flavour of complications?
This is already kind of happening with TV sets - you can't get a "dumb" TV without internet anymore. The one I have still works without an internet connection, though it did require activation (which is already mind-boggling: why would I need to register with Samsung to use the device I paid for?). I expect that sooner or later TV sets will stop working altogether if they can't connect to the mothership to tattle on you.
An alternative I found is getting a commercial monitor; those still don't require internet. However, getting one at the size and quality I want would be about three or four times more expensive than the equivalent TV.
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"nice food you got in here, wouldn't want it to spoil prematurely, would you? Now, I've got some ads I'd like you to watch right now, there will be a quick quiz to see if you paid attention. Otherwise there might be a tragic interruption in cooling" - some "smart" fridge of the near future, probably.
that does phone calls? what manner of new devilery is this?
Come on who sits by their washing machine waiting for a phone call? after watching your socks go round for the 3rd time you're bored and fed up and just want to get away from the stupid thing (and thats just Mrs Roach) lets alone the likes of you or me.
And if I did want to make a phone call and I'm near the washing machine, its pull out the mobile and move away from the washer as you know full well that when it gets to a bit of the call you need to listen to, the washer goes to 1400 rpm spin cycle and you cant hear a thing.
What next? a tumble dryer that also an AI powered hoover that surfs Amazon.com for you? maybe an Iron that orders take aways by analysing how many curry stains have been missed by the washer, or a sex toy that ... no lets not go there.....
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C'mon - it's just programmed to call the hyper-expensive licensed repair service on a premium rate line automatically, when it detects that the rest of the cheaply constructed badly engineered pile of springs and cogs just self-destructed the day after the warranty expired. Artificially Incapacitated. You can sit there, watch and sob, as it shreds your favourite trolleys. It might play a pleasant tune meantime.
But, the smart washing machine can delay the spin cycle so you can talk comfortably while sitting beside the device.
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone's patented that - that's the sort of dubious idea that my cow-orkers might file to meet their one patent per year assessment.
I have a very basic, menial model Samsung washing machine that vomits soapy water all over the kitchen floor through the detergent tray if you ever-so-slightly overdose the detergent. The dose required is very much dependent on what you are washing and how many items you load. Two bathmats will result in a bubble fountain if more than ⅓ scoop of powder detergent is used. A week's worth of undies, socks, jeans, etc. can handle up to ¾ scoop without incident. The liquid detergent seems less bubble-prone.
What's the IT angle? ========>
It seems like the washing machine has mood sensing capabilities like those of the $2200 ring thing. It also has access to my calendar. It combines these to flood my kitchen when either (a) I'm least in the mood to deal with the mess, or (b) do not have time to clean up.
We have a small LG machine that does the same thing. Note that it is nearly always with bathroom kit - mats, towels, flannels. These things, particularly if you have children, are likely full of whatever soap you use in the bathroom, so the bubbles are partly from that. One way around it is to put the machine on to a cycle which does a pre-wash, and do not put any detergent in the pre-wash drawer. This (or a separate rinse-and-spin) will wring most of the soap out of the offending articles and - bonus - probably allow the washing powder to do a better job on the main part of the cycle.
M.
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Seems to be aimed at exactly the sort of person who would need to phone their Mum to ask them which programme to select. Once they'd figured out they actually needed to do washing and not just keep buying the latest fast fashion trend. Eventually Mum will just forward such calls to her AI assistant to deal with.
Because China does = bad. Not the people, most in China are pleasant apart from the nationalist. But the CCP is bad. World War 2 happened a long time ago now, yet the CCP still teach their kids (its taught in schools) that the Japanese are bad and to hate them. Just look up the Uyghurs people and see the concentration camps they've been put in. Any Chinese company HAS to report to the CCP. So yes, its very well possible tp-link have been compromised specifically for the CCP.
Lets take Twitter for example (yes its shit but before the great cock called Elon owned it). Its been banned in China forever, does the US government shout "China, stop causing trouble. Unban Twitter" no. Because despite the CCP being cunts, its their right to ban it. But, when TikTok is threaten with a ban, TikTok that the CCP say they have no involvement with, the CCP oddly went mental over this. Could this possibly be because they use it as their syop app? Yes, it clearly is, considering the data it slurps. What better way to spy on other nations. Making a popular app that seems like any other social media app. Use that app to cause disinformation and infighting. That's the way you destroy a country, let them fight each other. Its currently working in America, the fact a large amount of idiots voted in a rapist and felon back into the Whitehouse.
While you drive home, that needs an AI does it?
We prefer to stick with a good old-fashioned Take Away if we'll be too knackered to do any better by the time we get home, and curiously enough all that requires is to keep handy a few phone numbers for the best places (to be honest, usually just go for the chippie in the next village along, still cooks with proper fat for a cracking good bit of batter).
Of course, I do use voice commands for this if I'm driving: "We're fifteen minutes out, Love, get on the blower, there's a dear".
Hey google, where is the nearest "takeout of choice" ?
once that displays, pick one and then hey google call this takeout .
If I'm driving the last thing I want to be doing is picking things off a touchscreen menu and being distracted.
There are already enough idiots on their mobiles on the road and I do not see the car manufacturers move to touch screens reducing that.
There are already enough idiots on their mobiles on the road and I do not see the car manufacturers move to touch screens reducing that.
I wonder how many people have been killed by drivers distracted by touchscreens compared to if they'd had the usual switches and knobs in their car?
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> I want to try that chippie
You'll have to hurry; their landlord is shutting them down very soon :-(
> When I was contracting in Bristol ...
And that brings back memories of the chippie at the bottom of Christmas Steps, before they had a fire. Very convenient while waiting at the bus-stop to go up to Bradley Stoke (the one up there was definitely using low-temperature veg oil, shudder).
A life well-lived is measured out by chip shops.
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Maybe the RoundHoundMoundPoundSound thing should be built into a stove with telephony capabilities. The stove / oven monitors the state of your food and then a Clippy-style conversation starts: "I see you ruined your dinner. I've compiled a list of takeout restaurants that are still open and are willing to deliver in your area. I will ready the telephone for when you are ready with your selection. I already spoke to the refrigerator: men in hazmat suits will be around tomorrow to collect the leftover pizza."
My underwear before washing ======>
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"We believe that speaking is the most natural way to interact with devices and services and our goal is to empower consumers with the power of voice."
I "like" to interact with inanimate devices by speaking -- when they absolutely do not work. I do not think that the devices, much less their overlords, want to hear that kind of speaking.
My local electricity provider has a particularly annoying telephone system. Any buttons pressed: "Oh! [ giggle ] You don't have to press any buttons with me!" I have raised questions of accessibility with the company: ignored. I guess that other people like to listen to recorded giggles as they are being prevented from accessing a secret list menu.
The one thing that I actually like about Spectrum is that you can escape to the actual menu with number pad controls at any time: *99.
where our TV in the back room in the house I grew up in broke. Family friends husband came over. Put the TV on the floor, opened its back. Inside the cover was the schematic printed on the case! He traced the fault, repaired it, TV continued to work for years. Now, they don't last as long and are made purposely difficult to repair or refusing to allow access to schematics. So that you bin it and buy their new latest one.
Sadly, companies have gotten away with this due to customers. If we all, collectively, said "Fuck off" and stopped buying, it wouldn't of happened.
Apple tried it with the Apple 2. Wozniak wanted it upgradable, Steve Jobs didn't. Wozniak won the arguement and lucky for Jobs he did. Apple kept afloat due to the Apple 2 sales because it was upgradable. Almost all of Steve Jobs personal ideas failed.
Now, because people who aren't tech savy just accept the shit and carrying on buying, companies know they can get away with it.
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