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Happy Friday, Everyone!

 

Today I ask. What was your most disappointing piece of tech?

We all know tech is supposed to improve our lives, jobs, etc, but what about when it’s over promised, and under delivered?

 

For me, two things stick in my mind.

 

From a gaming angle, the most disappointing tech I ever witnessed was the Steam controller, the prototype looked amazing and revolutionary, a controller with a built in, full colour screen that could be controlled by the games. Then they scaled back their vision the closer it got to release, ending up a generic controller mainly, with a couple of Haptic Touch circles that were supposed to allow for more adaptive control, but then nothing supported it, now it gathers dust on my shelf!

 

From a more high-tech angle, it’s got to be 3D X-Point, but you probably know it as Intel Optane, even though it was a joint venture between Intel & Micron.

Again, a vision was sold that this was it, we’d be swiftly bridging the gap between storage and volatile RAM, with non-volatile RAM! Power outages wouldn’t impact integrity due to its persistence, instead last month Intel shut down its Optane memory business, having seen the ambition and push continuously walked back from.

 

Who knows, maybe someone will try this again this decade? We’re good at iterating until we get it right.

 

What about you?

Hyper-V, Storage Spaces, SCOM …….you’ll see a pattern emerging ;)

I have no doubt that the worst technology product release was Intel Optane!

The bad part was all marketing that Intel comes around this gadget.

Intel promised that computers become faster with that with simple steps installing this hardware. However, the steps were never so easy, and the necessity of SO reinstallation drove me crazy.

There’s not a problem for all this stuff, although Intel made a lot of noise of this product that never brought a satisfactory performance.

Hyper-V, Storage Spaces, SCOM …….you’ll see a pattern emerging ;)

Same here. 🤣

For me, it was the Google Nest Hub. The expectations of what I thought it could do and what it can actually do was highly mismatched. 

I guess it may also be due to the fact that it is not as well supported by third party app as the Amazon hub

In the past, I had a Microsoft Band.  It was Microsoft’s attempt at a Smart Watch.  Worked okay, but eventually broke, and Microsoft abandoned the line so I was just dead in the water.  Now I use a Fossil 4th Gen (Carlyle) which has it’s own issues, but mine has been fairly trouble free so far.  Eventually I’ll need to upgrade though, and will probably end up in the Samsung realm now that they’re finally using Google’s Wear OS.

 

Current disappointment?  The Ford F150 Lightning (EV truck).  I’ve had a reservation in for nearly 2 years, seen no sign of ordering anytime soon (which is okay, I can wait).  The major promise is that the lower capacity/range Pro series was a truck starting at 40k (before Federal tax credits even).  Since the Pro is the lower end, less profitable truck, Ford is artificially limiting the number of Pro’s to be built.  They did the reservation to order conversion in waves, and the Pro’s “ran out” in something like Wave 3 for the 2022 model year.  They just closed out out the Pro (and XLT) for the 2023 model year.  Oh….and due to supply chain issues, the Pro no longer starts out at 40k….now it’s 47k, the tax credit is being replaced with a new tax credit under which most of the current EV’s on the road won’t qualify (including the Lightning).  It’s REALLY hard to not feel like there was a bait and switch.  I’m a big Ford fan and once swore off GM, but I’m starting to really look at the Silverado EV and just Equinox EV pretty closely.

Hyper-V, Storage Spaces, SCOM …….you’ll see a pattern emerging ;)

 

Hyper-V is still not impressive to me, but it has grown a LOT.  For anyone who has used Hyper-V 2008 R2, it felt soooo hacked together, and while it still has a bit of that feeling in 2016/2019 (and I assume 2022), it’s nothing like it was.

For me, it was the Google Nest Hub. The expectations of what I thought it could do and what it can actually do was highly mismatched. 

I guess it may also be due to the fact that it is not as well supported by third party app as the Amazon hub

 

I’m hit and miss on Google devices.  I have 5 nest/homes, and a Next Hub (non-Max), and a Nest Hello (doorbell).  The system is….okay?  Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it doesn’t work that well, sometimes you get REALLY weird results.  I also have it paired with several Feit smart light bulbs, generic smart outlets, a couple of generic garage door opener interfaces.  Those work great for the most part, but there’s still some quirks.

On the same end of the spectrum, I have 8 Wyze camera’s, 4 V2, and 4 V3, and I love the camera’s, but they’re not the most realiable.  But I also can’t complain too loudly since they cost me something like $25 - $40 each which really is incredibly cheap.  But while they’re supposed to interface with the Google ecosystem, they really don’t work that great, and Wyze as a company has really gotten diluted as to what they develop and sell.  It seems like their business model has changed a lot in the past couple years as they seem to be developing less, and moving more to finding some hardware built in China, rebranding it and adding compatibility to the app.

Oh hands down it has to be the doyou Thync Headband!!!

https://www.doyou.com/wearable-thync-provides-instant-relaxation-using-electric-shocks-to-the-brain/

Advertised to put you in a good mood, did not work for me, my Irish temper bad mood had no effect on the Thync! Whats worse I forgot to take it off when I went to take a shower and I was almost electrocuted!!

For me, all backup solution competitors...

For me, all backup solution competitors...

 

+1 if you’ve ever had to call Symantec/Veritas Netbackup support after-hours.  

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