What are the worst tech purchases you or your family have ever made?
I watched a video recently and wanted to know what other have bought over the years.
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Easily 1000% my Samsung TV.
Each update somehow makes it slower, it always loads up whatever the Samsung TV app thing is before it will do anything with a menu so you can get out of it, I believe it requires a Samsung account before it will allows you to do anything, and every now and then it locks up so hard that I have to factory reset it to get it to work again.
I refuse to buy anything from Samsung ever again.
Ah, there’s the problem — you connected it to the internet. I’ve had decent experiences with Samsung TVs, but I just plug them into an apple tv and let the box do the work. I’ve had to see their UI on a couple occasions though and yeah it’s trash.
Every consumer TV is subsidized by the advertisements they (plan to) put on it and your data they’ll sell. I bought a mid-range Samsung TV last year, used it for TV, movies, gaming, and I love it. But I haven’t connected it to the internet, I use a separate device I can easily discard if need be. Not blaming you because it’s counter-intuitive, but you can’t update consumer TVs. They know it will live in your… living… room for several years and want to make money off displaying ads. Do you really think they’ll update it to be less intrusive and show fewer ads so they make less money!?? Obviously, I just guessed right; I’m not a genius, nor do I have precognition. I’ve even heard stories about TVs connecting themselves to open networks, but I’m not sure sure I believe them…
If you haven’t already done this: wipe all the apps and run the cache-cleaning or whatever it is in the system menu. That should get it back down to where the memory and storage aren’t at 100% and fixes most of the problems. I’ve kept my 2017 Samsung usable that way. Also, if you have a pi-hole you can set it to use that as the DNS and block the advertising domains, retaining most of the smart functionality without all the crap.
Not a shill, but I honestly love my Samsung TV. I took it out of the box, plugged in an HDMI cable to connect it to my PC, and use it as a monitor. I’ve never connected it to my wifi, so it has no internet access. I’ve never had to enter my Samsung account info to use it.
Similar experience here. Good panel, solid colours, good angles and handles sunny rooms well. However, TV OS’s are one of the most asinine things to exist though. Never connect that thing to the internet if you can help it and it’ll work great.
Same, no account, no internet connects to my steamdeck and works perfectly
I love my Sony. Iirc, it wanted Internet for initial setup, but I unplugged the Ethernet cable soon after. It just works and displays what I want without issue.
My girlfriend brought a tcl roku special when she moved in. That blinked a very bright white LED unless it was connected to the internet. And now whenever I turn it on, it screams and displayed a fucked up picture from my media device until I go and use the “restart tv” option.
Fucking POS.
Why oh why is your Samsung TV still connected to the WiFi? I kicked mine off WiFi within three months of getting the device and I’ve used it for four years now and it works like a charm!
This is standard Samsung TV behaviour.
I had one and never again. Friend only just got one a few months ago and already loathes it.
I heard turning off Samsung live tv and removing the app helps the performance tremendously, I have yet to try it as my wife for some reason is willing to tolerate a menu that takes over a minute to navigate one click at a time so she can keep the live tv feature, it is unusable to me
I got a Google TV box and disconnected my Samsung TV from the internet. A week later I got an email about how connecting them helps me because it sends the data and my preferences back to Samsung.
… It sends thousands of information pings each day.
We have one of the Samsung frame TVs, it’s a nice TV, it fits a specific need for us in a bit of a weird spot in a bedroom where a regular TV would look out of place.
But man is the software trash. It’s laggy, a lot of the apps seem really poorly-optimized, and half the settings are just randomly unavailable for no apparent reason.
And since I had to install a box in the wall to hide the one connect box behind it, I kind of don’t want to use it with another streaming device, something about putting too much stuff in that box kind of rubs me the wrong way.
That’s a software issue and user error. Don’t use the “smart” features is rule one for a consumer television.
I bought a Samsung for the display not the interface. I’m not sure if I’ve ever really even seen the built in interface, maybe when I initially set it up.
I bought an HD DVD player as a youth. I don’t think I need to explain further
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Wow I never knew about the AACS encryption key stuff.
I’ve always wondered how much piracy really hurts companies or individuals. I mean, it seems to me even with piracy happening these corpos are making bank.
This kills the Digg
Same. Young and stupid, and I already had the Xbox…
This is incredibly funny to me because I remember coming home for a holiday and seeing a new Blu-ray player under my brother’s PS3. My dad was so excited about it.
Use it for ripping.
That thing is long gone
You have clearly not been to the library.
Is… The library bookstore full of HD DVDs people have donated? O.o
Well, true, maybe not HD, haha, but I was just referring to how to continue breathing life into a DVD player. But yeah, I didn’t even know HD DVDs existed, given Blu-Ray…
Haha yeah, I think HD-DVDs were a bit more budget friendly compared to Blurays, but they were the extremely short-lived “team red” in the format war, and ultimately they weren’t a huge improvement to upgrade to, unlike Blu-rays when everybody was jumping to 1080p.
But yeah! Absolutely! Hit up the library and enjoy those DVDs (and Blu-rays)!
I was just having a discussion with a coworker who was wondering why one would keep a DVD player around, and I basically explained how not owning your media gets it ripped away from you sooner or later.
Libraries sometimes even get DVD versions of streamed TV shows and movies that don’t get a retail disc release.
I don’t know about HD DVDs specifically but I do know they have plenty of movies usually in physical formats, depending on your specific location and whatnot.
Oh yeah! Totally! Big fan and advocate of the library. Mine’s even got Blurays and videogames now!
Haha yeah you probably won’t find HD-DVDs in the collection as it lost the format wars to Blurays , but maybe in the library book stores sold from donations. XD
Let’s see… One that comes to mind that I guess is “tech” would be Substance Painter and Designer, back when it was independently owned and had an indie license.
“This will really take my Blender work to the next level. I’m going to LEARN this. Let’s freaking go.” I said, and “invested” like $150 into it.
I’m NORMALLY a FOSS nut, but this software was changing the game! Paint directly on 3d models with smart materials and layers and dynamics‽ AWESOME! Maybe it’s worth paying a chunk of my meager part time income for quality software…
Then comes the email:
Subject: “Substance is joining the Adobe family!”
Then the follow-up to all the pissed off customers:
“Don’t worry, it won’t be subscription only.”
Maybe a month later it’s part of the “cloud” and made subscription only.
I don’t care what’s “iNdUsTry sTaNdArD.” I refuse to engage with Adobe for any reason, and I’d rather put my hard earned money into supporting open source community tools than to ever get rug pulled by some shameless sellout ever again.
I’m not sure if they count is a “tech purchase”, but I bought all new Samsung appliances in my previous home (washer, dryer, refrigerator, and dishwasher). The washer and dryer failed catastrophically within 6 months, the dryer drum cracked and shredded a whole load of clothing into confetti and the washing flooded my kitchen and ruined my cabinets (it was a weird house layout). The refrigerator just had random parts dying over and over (water dispenser, lights, sensors, ice maker) until it finally died at the year mark. The dishwasher made it nearly to year two before the control panel died and the replacement part was more expensive than an entire new unit. Never again Samsung!
I came in here expecting Samsung hate, and I am not disappointed. They’re like 13% of South Korea’s GDP, they should make shit that lasts longer than a year!!
You don’t get rich by selling something people only buy once…
That being said I have a Samsung oven that’s about 12 years old now and still works perfect aside from one element doesn’t trigger the “burner on” light, but the “hot surface” light still works, so I’m not overly concerned.
Samsung used to be awesome up until, say, 10-15 years ago? Then they just got so big and quality just went off a cliff
I have a Samsung flat screen from 15 years ago, the thing is a tank and won’t die. A new Samsung flat screen is lucky to make it 5 years tops
We just moved into a new house and it has all Samsung appliances. So far so good but I’m concerned.
If you’ve ever made a cell phone or a TV I will NEVER buy your appliance.
Got “burned” by a Samsung induction stove. Never again.
A plex lifetime pass. Was okay until the company went crazy. Now I use Jellyfin and I’m happy.
On the flip side, it was one of my best purchases. The sync feature has historically been great and I’ve had over a decade of use out of it for that single payment. I hate every update they make, but Jellyfin clients still don’t have as good of a sync feature and that’s what I use a ton of for traveling.
Yeah, there’s also the big issue with Jellyfin remote access. The TL;DR is that Jellyfin has a few critical “anyone can stream your media without a login” vulnerabilities that mean it should basically never be accessible outside of your LAN. Jellyfin’s devs have openly stated that they have no intentions of ever fixing these, because it would require completely divesting from the Emby fork that the entire project is built upon. And that makes sharing with friends/family really difficult.
Sure, you can use Tailscale (or whatever your preferred VPN is) for personal use. Maybe you’ll even get your immediate family on board. But good luck trying to get your tech-illiterate grandma (who lives 4 hours away) logged in over the phone. And unless she has a router that supports VPN connections, (not likely) she probably won’t be able to get her smart TV on your VPN. Which means she can’t securely access your server from her primary method of viewing media.
With Plex, you simply make the account, sign in, and get access. I even have a burner account that has access to a few of my libraries, so I can log it into my server at friends’ houses without them needing to make their own account.
Luckily, Plex and Jellyfin happily run side-by-side. If you prefer Jellyfin’s UI, then that’s great. You can continue to use it. But please don’t think that it’s secure just because you put it behind a reverse proxy.
Same. Jellyfin just isn’t there yet unfortunately. Maybe if a comparable plex4kodi existed. The jellyfin one isn’t aa good unfortunately.
Plex lifetime pass (if you already have it) is still worth it for secure remote access, 2FA login, ease of sharing, and (most important) PlexAmp.
My brother and I saved up money for a few months and bought the Nintendo Virtual Boy… We were not too happy with it so we thought we just needed to buy better games. That was not a viable solution for that POS.
The virtual boy is a good contender here. My friend got one at launch and it was laughably bad. I myself couldn’t use it for more than ten minutes without getting a headache.
Mine was the Powerglove. I begged for it for my birthday and the price was high enough that was the only present that year.
I got a cheap dash cam off Temu a few years ago. I’m sure I don’t have to explain beyond that.
Yes. I’m an idiot. I know. I’ve always known.
So just out of curiosity, did the dash cam not work for dash cam purposes?
As in, did you end up getting into an accident and have no usable footage?
Or was it just a piece of shit that didn’t work?
My guess is the quality is so bad they can’t see shit or it overheats from the sun very easily and shuts down
I got an ouya.
The controllers keys stuck.
You had to give them your credit card in order to get an account.
The games were ok if you could get over the 1/2 second of lag between button press and game.
One of my gaming buddies is in Thailand, but plays on the American server with us. His ping is regularly 2000-3000ms. When he hits a button, he doesn’t actually “do the thing” for 2-3 seconds. But dude is a fucking genius, and he’s mastered the timing. He regularly outperforms folks with a 28ms ping (It’s me, I’m “folks”).
I’m one of the few.people.that really liked tbe Ouya. At the time it was the best living room retro gaming system out there. I bought 3 of them. And I had no problem with the controllers.
Same, I thought it was awesome. The game library sucked though, and it just never took off. After awhile I used it for Kodi 99% of the time.
I played the duck tales remastered on it though and that was fantastic
Oh yeah I forgot I also had a Plex client for it
I supported them on kickstarter unfortunately
So did I. What a fucking waste. I played it twice and into the attic it went.
I bought a couple Ouya controllers for cheap on eBay a few years ago. Mine work fine. I’ll just connect my phone to the TV if I want to play Android games on a big screen, though.
Convinced my mum to splash out on an Amstrad Emailer. It looked really cool and could store your phonation, and had emails.
3 months later, my Dad is checking the landline phone bill which is expensive for some reason. Turns out the Amstrad phones a premium rate phone lime every night. Managed to switch it off but then the whole thing stopped working saying it needs to do that to work.
Nowhere did they mention this, or at least it was not clear to both of us. Absolutely dodgy fuckers.
Maybe they shouldn’t have put Lord Sugar in charge.
The Lord Sugar truck that Dave Gorman drove around was gold. So there’s that.
There’s also the fact they started showing adverts on the screen when it wasn’t in use, and the adverts were usually for sex phone services - often showing nudity and with a quick-access button for the premium rate number, no less - right there in your hallway where everyone saw it.
Any Razer product ever. Shit company, laptop battery fucked itself, keyboard doesn’t work, mouse falling apart
I never had a Razer mouse last longer than 6 months since they moved over to optical/laser mice (yeah, I’m old). Their products are flimsy crap for the most part.
The last Razer mouse I used, the button parts you clicked were part of the same piece of plastic as the rest of the shell, and they just…broke off one day. Both of them. Now I’m using another Razer mouse where the buttons are separate pieces. My bf keeps buying these things when they’re on clearance, or I wouldn’t use them.
Razer, in my (very dated by now tbh) experience has really bad quality control but if you get a good one it’ll last for a long time. My mouse is 15 years old now and still working. Conversely my keyboard from them stopped working a little after the one year mark.
Idk seems that way for a lot of companies nowadays. Cheap out on QC and parts, hope people don’t bother contacting your support and if they do it’s cheaper to just replace some stuff and use a cheap 3rd party support center vs actually making sure the product is not a lemon.
Tbh I’ve had great experiences with Razer mice, although that’s the only product I’ve ever purchased from them
Even the Razer Skibidi?
fuck samsung!
Their appliances are garage. They aren’t even overpriced, they shouldn’t exist because of how big of pieces of shit they are.
They should be parked on the street for how garage they are!
you park your garage on the street?
I street my garage in a park.
Interesting! Our washing machine is turning 10 this year, hasn’t skipped a beat, yet.
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I bought the Poco F1, which i think was the first with a internal heatpipe back then? Well, geared at gamers. Still was fairly powerful 7 years later when it broke. So, there’s that at least.
What app are you using to log the requests?
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And it’s on F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.celzero.bravedns/
Awesome, thank you!
What happened about the bootloader? Afaik there’s “only” a 7 days waiting time but that is to be done only once, if the serial number is tied to the Xiaomi account that makes the request, the next bootloader unlock has no waiting time.
And devices that run a ROM for the Chinese market only accept a bootloader unlock request from a Chinese IP address
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Wow good to know, that means Xiaomi is dead for me now.
2000 devices globally is a ridiculously low number
I used to go for Xiaomi phones but I stopped because I had too many issues with the OS. The amount of times it would close an app almost as soon as it leaves the screen was too much, tried every setting ever to fix until I just starting doing 2FA with a floating/split screen.
8 years ago the OS was one of the best, 3 years ago it was one of the worst, not sure how it is now.
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A Sony Minidisc recorder / player in the early 2000s. So much DRM. So many bugs. I’ll never buy Sony again.
I am still very fond of MiniDisc and have all my old discs and equipment, which still works and plays just fine. But yeah, the 2000s were the decade of DRM and Sony’s tech side was constantly at odds with its media side. Limitations on optical recording & dubbing from MD to MD, using their horrible SonicStage software for NetMD, and horrible marketing overseas handicapped them constantly.
They finally got it right with their very last flagship NetMD portable (apart from its OLED screens dying after a few years) but by then Apple had made the iPod the default portable listening experience and Sony had very obviously lost.
They did make some excellent MP3 players, but once again: proprietary data connectors, restrictive media transfers, poor CODEC support, and freaking SonicStage made using those a nightmare as well. They never did learn.
MiniDisc as a format seemed to make huge sense at the time - mp3’s were a thing, but writable CDs were clunky and iPods hadn’t arrived yet. But yes - it was unusable - literally - I don’t remember actually being able to listen to anything I really wanted to listen to on it.
Your mention of NetMD awoke memories of absolute rage for me! Just trying to install it was flakey. Then trying to get MP3’s onto disc - it was never clear where the bugs stopped and where the DRM started. It simply didn’t work. I was left feeling Sony were actively hostile to their customers. Never again!
Ha ha then allow me to remind you of Sony’s pre-NetMD USB adapter that kinda turned a USB signal into either TOSLink optical or analogue stereo so you could play your files on a computer and record to MD in real time!
Yeah, their software was trash, probably written solely to support ad copy in an attempt to lure MP3 people to MD.
As someone who made mix tapes and wanted all of an album’s B-sides in one place, MD was amazing and I embraced it as a replacement for cassettes. No cassette wobble, hiss, or getting eaten, no LP warp, surface noise, or skipping. It was digital purity in the palm of my hand, and for a while it sounded far better than MP3s.
But LAME got better and better, we started getting more storage and FLAC files and hard drive MP3 jukeboxes like the Rio Karma and Creative Nomad…MDs could not compete no matter how desperate Sony got.
I still love my MD equipment and have hundreds of discs that all still play beautifully. But the format is a historic footnote that (sadly) really did lean into its own obsolescence.
Raycons. Got suckered by the YouTubers. They were garbage right out of the box. They could barely maintain a connection with each other, and the sound quality was awful.
Yeah, general rule of thumb is to avoid anything being peddled by YouTubers. It’s a good sign that the company is putting a ton of money into trendy marketing instead of R&D or product quality.
Samsung washer and dryer. The bane of my existence. I just moved and left them behind, so happy!
I have heard similar stories from all other Samsung appliances.
