Does anyone else no longer recognise the tech community?

Soldato
Joined
10 May 2012
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Leeds
What do you do when the battery eventually degrades? Buy a new pair?

I just change the cable for £10.

What type of headphones are you comparing them to?

I'd expect to get 5-10 years out of my Sennheiser HD 6XX, if a pair of wired in ear headphones lasts a year they've done well.
 
Soldato
Joined
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Midlands
Why change stuff if it ain't broke. Nothing can be as simple as plugging in a 3.5mm jack and it just works.

With my bluetooth headphones I HAVE to use a 3.5mm for the inline microphone to work so it just makes sense for simplicity to use a cable all the time.

It's the same with software development to a certain extent, people are opting to use "cool new technologies" when the tried and tested stuff works just fine for the business needs; it's battle tested, everyone knows it, how to support it, test it etc. Some bright spark decides to throw a spanner in the works, changes too much stuff too quick, "because it's the way the industry is going", and the whole project ends up in analysis paralysis and fails. Seen it happen so many times.

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
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11,831
I wouldn't entertain a phone that didn't have a 3.5mm jack.
I have some nice quality cans and earbuds and I have no intention of buying a 3rd set. Not ever. It's not progress it's just marketing trying to get people to buy new stuff.

In fact I'll be in the market for a new phone in 2 months, the main criteria are:

Waterproof
3.5mm jack
Big battery 3000mah+
Screen must be at least 720p
Camera must be reasonable for snap shots
 
Soldato
Joined
12 May 2014
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5,235
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but audio quality of BT headphones goes down the sink while trying to use them as microphones as well as for audio.

Was using them on discord and I started final fantasy 15. The menu music sounded like garbled static.
The rubbish audio quality is less noticeable on phone calls though, but i wonder if that's because the cellphone infastructure for phone calls is crap.

Does anoyne know if we moved to 'HD' phone calls in the end?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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40,009
What type of headphones are you comparing them to?

I'd expect to get 5-10 years out of my Sennheiser HD 6XX, if a pair of wired in ear headphones lasts a year they've done well.

My 2 pairs of HD580's are now 23 years old and still going strong.
Shure Se530's are 10 years old now (I think) and still great.
 
Soldato
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unstated.assortment.union
The issue with Bluetooth headphones I think is there is no fallback. If you could connect them to your phone via usb-c to charge or simply to drive them straight from the phone that would be much more reliable.

I bought my daughter some cheapish (£25ish, She's 3 so not getting expensive ones) BT over-ear headphones for long trips in the car so she can watch peppa bloody pig whilst I drive. Surprisingly they came with a 3.5mm cable so they can still be used when flat by just jacking them into the device.

TBH I don't like current wireless in-ear headphones, personally I think people look like top-hats (rhyming slang) whilst wearing them if I'm honest.
 
Soldato
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I slowed down caring about upgrades when I noticed most upgrades hardly do anything more. Companies upgrading for the least reason.

This is especially true with software.
 
Associate
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Take Apple Macbooks as an example. 2015 MBP was the last one to have full set of USB ports, network port, SD card reader and HDMI in addition to old style thunderbolt. And mag safe charging connector. Yes, for the next 5 years all MBPs were faster and had new features, but a simple fact that today you have to find a dongle in bag, unplug charger, plug in a dingle, and a card reader to the USB-C port, read SD card from your camera, copy the card to your desktop, remove dongle, find another dongle, put another dongle in, connect USB-microB-superspeed cable between dongle and drive, copy files from your desktop to USB drive, hand it over to your staff and plug the charger back - for something that was plug in/plug out jobbie just 5 years ago - means we haven't advanced. We took a stupid step sideways. Loosing mag safe connector to USB-C was a crime enough.

I get the idea behind replacing all the different ports with 1 that can, technically, do everything, but I also agree with your point. I have a Blade Stealth, a laptop similar in size, thickness, performance etc to the 2018 era MacBook Pro 13", and it manages to fit in 1 Thunderbolt, 2 USB-A 3.0, 3.5mm and a full size HDMI out. The MBP has either 2 or 4 Thunderbolt ports and a 3.5mm only, right?

On a similar note, I can absolutely see the benefits of USB-C/Thunderbolt for these ultrabooks. being able to 'dock' the laptop to a full home setup with a single cable is a big deal, but when so many perhiperals still use USB-A then it surely needs some support.
 
Soldato
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South Wales
I don't like the obsession with making things 1mm smaller by losing useful functionality, to me that's going backwards. I also agree having one port for all is good but you should at least have a few other ports as an option incase you forgot your dongle and then can't use a power cable and a mouse at the same time.
 
Soldato
Joined
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3,567
Location
unstated.assortment.union
Take Apple Macbooks as an example. 2015 MBP was the last one to have full set of USB ports, network port, SD card reader and HDMI in addition to old style thunderbolt. And mag safe charging connector. Yes, for the next 5 years all MBPs were faster and had new features, but a simple fact that today you have to find a dongle in bag, unplug charger, plug in a dingle, and a card reader to the USB-C port, read SD card from your camera, copy the card to your desktop, remove dongle, find another dongle, put another dongle in, connect USB-microB-superspeed cable between dongle and drive, copy files from your desktop to USB drive, hand it over to your staff and plug the charger back - for something that was plug in/plug out jobbie just 5 years ago - means we haven't advanced. We took a stupid step sideways. Loosing mag safe connector to USB-C was a crime enough.

There's a reason for that and it's not functionality or asthetics.

As you say you need several adapters, based on a 2019 MBP*:

VGA adapter £75
TB3 to TB2 £49
SD Card reader £39
USB-A port £19
Digital AV £75

Ports that were previously included now cost the user an extra £257 on top of a minimum purchase cost of the MBP around £1300.

I'm sorry but if you claim to be a tech enthusiast and then go out and buy into the Apple BS then you're really not into your tech else you'd see through it.

*Prices direct from Apple's own website.
 
Soldato
Joined
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Nottingham
Apple fixed the vast majority of Bluetooth headphone issues with the AirPods, they cloud pair to all your devices, you can switch devices quickly, they turn on and connect automatically and disconnect and charge just by dropping them in the case, you easily get all day battery life and no cables getting in the way or caught on things.

Yes they are expensive but the convenience is worth it.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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40,009
I don't like the obsession with making things 1mm smaller by losing useful functionality, to me that's going backwards. I also agree having one port for all is good but you should at least have a few other ports as an option incase you forgot your dongle and then can't use a power cable and a mouse at the same time.

For me, the camera bumps on phones are seriously irritating...
Why not make the entire phone that thick and add more battery capacity?! Maybe a 3.5mm socket?
 
Soldato
Joined
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Deep North
I’ve always felt like the tech community thrived on new technology, eagerly adopting new technologies.

Yet in recent times it feels like things have changed. The so-called tech community seem to now want things to stop changing or improving, and in some cases for progress to be reversed. Some areas I’ve seen this are the roll-back of USBC to USBA, roll back to 3.5mm headphone jacks, roll-back to micro-SD cards, roll-back to fingerprint sensors rather than Face ID type authentication.

Why is it that some people have stopped embracing new technologies? I’ve not changed as I continue to still thrive on and embrace new technology.

What has changed do you think?

M.

Because if it ain't broke why fix it. Plus 3.5mm jacks and USB are universal and available to everyone. Why should we have to buy all new accessories because one manufacturer has decided to come up with it's own propriety port, etc.

Also the whole AI thing doesn't appeal to me, it feels a bit like Skynet, I'm not saying we are all going to end up in a bloody war with machines taking over. What I mean is the more AI in use the less physical jobs exist for real humans which equals less money to spend. Companies then have to automate even more to cut costs and so on.
 
Soldato
Joined
26 May 2009
Posts
22,101
What has changed do you think?
It's not really that the tech industry has slowed down the adoption of new technologies, it's that as the tech industry has matured it has slowed down adopting new technologies simply for the sake of it. Or more poignantly, it's got better at not getting rid of older yet still fully viable technologies for no good reason.


For instance, removing the 3.5 socket was simply getting rid of a redundant port that’s no longer used because a tech enthusiast would have gone Bluetooth a long time ago.
I think you're confusing tech enthusiasts and hipsters :p

Tech enthusiasts generally don't use bluetooth headsets because we're the type to favour performance over practicality. It's similar to how high end motherboards still have a PS/2 port so we can connect our mechanical keyboards (proper ones, not the poser USB ones with no NKRO).


The issue here is the OP thinks he is a tech enthusiast. He isn’t, he’s a tech snob. Tech for tech sake even when it’s inferior.
/thread
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Nov 2004
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5,997
Location
Telford
What type of headphones are you comparing them to?

I'd expect to get 5-10 years out of my Sennheiser HD 6XX, if a pair of wired in ear headphones lasts a year they've done well.

I use cans, Audio Technica m50x's. I've had them over 5 years now & the only reason I replaced the cable was because I got it trapped in a car door.
 
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