I switched to the Ultra 2 about a year and a half ago and the battery life is excellent - I don't have to charge daily, I can run or hike for several hours while listening to music or podcasts being streamed from the watch. It actually allows me to carry my phone much less, since the watch can make/take phone calls too & let me pay for things. The battery life on the apple watch I had before this one, was really abysmal though.
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro headset. Microphone quality is just worse than it should be for the $320 I paid, and the battery doesn’t last as long as I hoped. This was after reading many reviews.
ModRetro Chromatic, great handheld game system but didn't know I helped fund a military arms dealer that will maim and kill innocents with autonomous systems. :(
Quest 2, I still think it's great but I got unlucky and bought it at the time of the increased price, a few months before it went back down and then even more down a year or two after. Admittedly my own fault but still regretful due to the fact I could've saved over a hundred $ had I waited.
Beeline EQR series nuc. On paper it’s got a blazing cpu and gpu, in practice it can’t even maintain any legit clock rate without sounding like a jumbo jet is taking off.
Any home tech gadgets. Robot vacuums, smart lights, smart thermostats, internet connected TVs and appliances, most kitchen gadgets especially if they require power. None of it lives up to the hype and it's all e-waste in a couple of years if not sooner.
Same here. I tried a few smart home gadgets and the excitement faded fast. Apps broke, updates stopped, and they became more hassle than help. Simple non-smart devices have lasted way longer for me.
I agree except as to smart light switches, locks, and blinds. For me those have been set-it-and-forget-it devices that are really handy. I have various lights that come on from dusk until bedtime, doors that lock at night, lights that go off after 5 minutes (closets) or a couple of hours (kitchen). The blinds are blackout shades that go down at the kids’ nap times during the weekend. I also have a task light over a work bench that is controlled via my phone, since there is no wired switch there.
I set all this up over the course of several years, as needed, and haven’t thought much about it since. It’s nice.
Ecobee allows local control via Apple Home without using their app. It can also be integrated into Home Assistant with the help of the Homekit bridge addon.
OMG, what a blast from the past. I loved my Rio Karmas - I had several, because they kept breaking and Best Buy (extended warranty) kept replacing for me, until they could no longer replace with a Karma and let me switch to an equivalent iPod (but no further replacements after).
I remember that there was a technique where you could smack it at a certain angle and it would "fix" some of the hard drive issues for people.
By far the most disappointing for me has been the Roomba x2. I love the concept and when the first one didn't live up to the hype I somehow convinced myself the newer version surely had the bugs worked out. Neither lasted working in my house for longer than a few weeks. Not because they were broken but I spent more time dealing with them than I did just vacuuming. Haven't tried another robot cleaning device since.
Roomba i9. Its predecessor (can't remember the model) lasted for 12 years and its random cleaning algorithm was great. I only bought the i9 because the old ones battery stopped charging and there were no more replacements. It was not smart and worked perfectly via infrared remote. The i9 tho, let me tell you: you can't place it farther than 2m from the router because otherwise it loses WiFi permanently. 2nd battery within 5 years. IRobot demands an account login for every use of the app. I ask you, why would I login to an app? This is a robot, I press button and machine goes brrr - anything more and I get irritated. When it's done, it beeps. Sometimes directly after, sometimes 2 hours after, sometimes in the middle of the night. The cleaning is nowhere near as complete as the old, random algorithm. I will never buy IRobot again.
Not sure I'm at the regret stage, but the 3D printer has been sitting mostly unused, and I'm not sure that'll change. There have been a few things that were good to print, but mostly used to print fidget toys for the kids and their mates.
I’m probably risking a lot of downvotes with this one, but for me it was a Home Assistant setup. Not really a purchase because it’s an open project, but I invested a lot of time into reading the docs and setting it all up only to realize I didn’t actually like it better than using the smart home products directly. It seems like a great option for people who like to tinker and get a thrill out of getting some cheap Aliexpress gadget or ESP32 project to work with their home, but I just wanted something simple that worked for my house without extra complexity.
Mysa thermostats - don't integrate well with Home Assistant and can't even reliably follow schedule.
Every Samsung phone I've ever owned - great hardware, but the software is a mess, especially with all of the Samsung apps that duplicate the Google apps.
Sony smart TV - was excited about running Android TV apps, but the onboard hardware is so bad that everything lags, and I actually ran out of space after installing 10-20 apps (it only has 4GB of flash storage). Also, its Ethernet adapter has a hardware bug that occasionally freezes up my entire network by spamming it with flow control frames.
The MacBook Pro with Mini-LED has this terrible vignette effect. I do not understand how no one mentions it, it’s completely unacceptable at this price point. Also any backlit keyboard that isn’t shine through. Also linear switches but maybe that’s a preference thing.
Kinesis Advantage360 SmartSet. If you need an ergonomic keyboard for any reason, do not use Kinesis. RSI is preferable to interacting with the arrogant twits who work there.
Now, to their credit: The keyboard itself is of a reasonable build quality, aside from the fact that it will just occasionally completely die on me until I unplug it for a few minutes and try again.
On the other hand, their customer service was not only unhelpful but actively antagonistic and rude towards me. I gave basic feedback once or twice, and asked for an updated technical manual on the keyboard I purchased and I was treated like I shit on their cat.
---
"Hello, I can only find (this) and (that) manual regarding the 360 SmartSet. One document appears to be an outdated version of the other, and the more up-to-date version is no longer accurate. Do you have an up-to-date manual I can work off of? I was able to parse out some other functions like XYZ by looking at manuals for (devices that are no longer for sale) but I think I'm still missing some crucial information."
"It's on the site, but since you can't find it yourself, here you go." (It's the more outdated manual that I already referenced by name and included already.)
---
"Hello, I noticed it occasionally has issues when I use it with my KVM. Is this a known problem, or should I perform an RMA?"
"Well, that's why we say don't use a KVM!" (Take a wild guess at what information was not listed on any page of their website in regards to the 360 SmartSet.)
---
"Hi, some of the marketing material on your site on (this page) is inaccurate. It would be good to update it to reflect how this thing work now. I've provided a few points to consider updating. (Two or so changes)"
"Too many people have complained about this! This issue is closed now!!" (The entire page is subsequently deleted, making it even less clear how things are intended to work, what future customers will be paying for, giving even less information about their products.)
---
To be clear, I know that some times people will overstate things and make it sound much worse than it actually are, but I really am just trying to tell things as they were. If anything, I've probably understated how rude some of their responses have been. I have never had a positive experience interacting with any person at that company.
Moral of the story is: Never buy from Kinesis, even if it causes you physical pain.
56 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 61.6 ms ] threadNot necessarily regret but the Apple Watches have such crap battery.
Slighly laggy remote control for my phone, with widgets a little too small for my finger to reliably hit.
When I do proper long walks, the battery reliably dies on me during the walk.
Disc games are cheaper on sales + has actual resale value.
Microphone/audio input sucks over BT. So many glazing reviews. I don't get it.
I set all this up over the course of several years, as needed, and haven’t thought much about it since. It’s nice.
They dropped access to the API for new developers.
Their air quality sensor is horribly inaccurate.
Their UI is actually very confusing.
The app is merely a way to shove ads in your face.
I wish I just got a new Honeywell.
It was a cheap piece of shit though and all the plastic pieces rapidly came apart. The rubber coating on the handle disintegrated too.
In contrast my iPod survived 10+ years in a glove box and was still immaculate.
I remember that there was a technique where you could smack it at a certain angle and it would "fix" some of the hard drive issues for people.
Every Samsung phone I've ever owned - great hardware, but the software is a mess, especially with all of the Samsung apps that duplicate the Google apps.
Sony smart TV - was excited about running Android TV apps, but the onboard hardware is so bad that everything lags, and I actually ran out of space after installing 10-20 apps (it only has 4GB of flash storage). Also, its Ethernet adapter has a hardware bug that occasionally freezes up my entire network by spamming it with flow control frames.
Now, to their credit: The keyboard itself is of a reasonable build quality, aside from the fact that it will just occasionally completely die on me until I unplug it for a few minutes and try again.
On the other hand, their customer service was not only unhelpful but actively antagonistic and rude towards me. I gave basic feedback once or twice, and asked for an updated technical manual on the keyboard I purchased and I was treated like I shit on their cat.
---
"Hello, I can only find (this) and (that) manual regarding the 360 SmartSet. One document appears to be an outdated version of the other, and the more up-to-date version is no longer accurate. Do you have an up-to-date manual I can work off of? I was able to parse out some other functions like XYZ by looking at manuals for (devices that are no longer for sale) but I think I'm still missing some crucial information."
"It's on the site, but since you can't find it yourself, here you go." (It's the more outdated manual that I already referenced by name and included already.)
---
"Hello, I noticed it occasionally has issues when I use it with my KVM. Is this a known problem, or should I perform an RMA?"
"Well, that's why we say don't use a KVM!" (Take a wild guess at what information was not listed on any page of their website in regards to the 360 SmartSet.)
---
"Hi, some of the marketing material on your site on (this page) is inaccurate. It would be good to update it to reflect how this thing work now. I've provided a few points to consider updating. (Two or so changes)"
"Too many people have complained about this! This issue is closed now!!" (The entire page is subsequently deleted, making it even less clear how things are intended to work, what future customers will be paying for, giving even less information about their products.)
---
To be clear, I know that some times people will overstate things and make it sound much worse than it actually are, but I really am just trying to tell things as they were. If anything, I've probably understated how rude some of their responses have been. I have never had a positive experience interacting with any person at that company.
Moral of the story is: Never buy from Kinesis, even if it causes you physical pain.