Pixel 3A. Constant bugs, camera would stop working or had a long delay starting up, system would randomly stop responding, constant crashes, lock screen would bug out preventing you from unlocking the phone. Dialer would bug out preventing you from answering the phone. Random reboots. Screen scratched really easily.
Phone crapped out about a month before warranty expired, wouldn’t boot any more. Luckily, it was still in warranty and they returned the full price.
The worst most unreliable phone I ever owned.
A Xiaomi smartwatch. I never found any good use for its “smart” features and I had to charge the fucking thing all the time. So I ended up dropping it after a year in favor of a regular digital watch.
FM radio receivers for the car.
Never could find a radio station that would work. When you did, it only worked for about 1/4 mile down the road and then had to find another station.
If your car is old enough to have a tape deck, they have cassettes that connect via Bluetooth. Just about perfect sound quality since there is no interference.
Yeah those worked way better than the fm transmitters. Only problem was my car introduced a humming sound into the signal that got worse with speed lol.
I remember when those things first came out and used a headphone jack so you could plug in your CD player. (those were the days…)
I was actually kinda pissed when I had to switch to a car with a CD player and couldn’t use it anymore.
I changed cars in January and the car I previously drove, an 05, Jetta had a tape deck. I bought this to connect my phone. Surprised that it handled calls as well.
Where do you live? I don’t listen to the radio anymore but when I did, I could get my favorite station 50 miles away no problem.
It’s not the radio that didn’t work. These were fm transmitter/receivers you used to play mp3 players/cd players back in the day when vehicles didn’t use aux cables. It sent the signal over short range fm signal to your radio.
The alternative was the cassette adapter, but some vehicles had swapped to cd
You were supposed to have an antenna.
Nintendo virtual boy.
Really? Despite how much of a flop it was, if I owned one I feel like I’d find it fun?
Though now that I think about it…did it even have many games?
It wasn’t really fun, and I could never see properly in it.
Hmm, good point. I have an astigmatism and slightly different vision in both eyes so now I’m questioning if it would even work for me.
Yeah I have the world’s smallest astigmatism in my left eye and even that was annoying for me as a kid using it.
I was fun for a moment and then the headaches and nausea would kick in. And yeah, very few games. At the time it was pretty innovative as Nintendo always is. Still a terrible experience however.
It’s hard to top the inkjet printers I’ve owned. I still can’t believe 30 years later home printer tech is not only unimproved but worse between lower quality production and squeezing people on ink costs.
And they’re making things worse as we use less and less paper at the same time… Geniuses
Gotta protect those profit margins!
I bought an old business monochrome laser printer ten years ago. Still hasn’t needed a new toner cartridge.
I bought my parents a laser printer after years of them being incredibly frustrated by inkjets. I got them the same model as me, as well as a spare toner cartridge.
I’m still on my original toner cartridge, and I’ve had it for probably six years or so.
My parents are in their late 40’s and early 50’s. I think I might have accidentally gotten them a lifetime supply of printing.
I got my parents a laser as well and evidently I picked a shitty one because they are planning to go back to the other side 😞
Considering the volume businesses need weekly vs a peivate household I wonder why the very same cartridge lasts for >5 years
I got one of those Epson ink tank printers for $250au. I think it’s the first time inkjet printers have become legit affordable and high capacity.
Laser still wins on reliability though, and being an Epson means it’s a Tamagochi so needs to be used monthly at least so it doesn’t die.
I should really get a laser printer but my need for 11x17 capacity kind of limits options. To be fair though, my brother small business type inkjet printer does pretty well! Ink costs suck but I don’t want to commit seppuku after using it.
If you’ve owned more than 2, those are on you! 🤣
But yea, consumer printers suck.
Hey, my Brother laser printer can see my screen, you know! Apologise now!
Laser printers are way way better than the other types
Everything is better with lasers. Prove me wrong…
Sharks with laser beams on their heads?
Fricken, better.
My Lexmark laser, from 1996, just quit last summer.
Though I think I can fix it - seems a paper jam sensor is stuck.
I’ve never owned a better inkjet than the one I’ve had in the late 90s on all measures; build-quality, print quality, speed, operating noise, ink consumption, ink price, overall price, usability. Everything has got worse.
“Sony MDRXB55AP Wired Extra Bass Earbud Headphones/Headset with Mic for Phone Call, Black”
Biggest pieces of shit I have ever disgraced my ears with. I’m not even an audiophile or a gear snob or anything. These were just so ridiculously bad that it was offensive. I’ve owned earbuds from the dollar store that sounded better than these.
Probably won’t help, but I find that headsets sound much worse when they’re connected as a headset. My (completely different headphones/headset) sounds a lot better in headphone mode.
Yeah, there are different bluetooth audio profiles, one for high quality audio intended for media consumption, and one for bi-directional audio intended for telephony (and some others, but these are the relevant ones here). The “gotcha” is that in general, any attempt to consume the mic feed from a bluetooth headset will switch it to the telephony mode, so if you have them paired to a PC and an application is listening to the mic for any purpose you get stuck with much lower quality 64kbps PCM audio.
Good to know, thanks!
Or worse: it’s in telephone mode now, so obviously you only want the sound from the “call” because there’s no other reasons the microphone could be on.
Thank you for explaining that far better than I could!
The worst piece of tech I currently own is a small server that must have hard drive issues cause it forgets everything when it restarts and I have to set it up again.
The worst piece of tech that I have ever owned in my life is a CD Cleaner I bought from GameStop back in the day. That shit was straight up a sacrificial altar. It never cleaned. Only consumed.
Was it a cleaner or one of those “Resurfacing” things with the crank that just scratched the hell out of your discs in a circular pattern?
You needed to use the lubricant that came with it. I used mine hundreds of times with incredible results.
Being a teenager I tried it, but it burned.
Oh I followed all the instructions, used the fluid & all that. Still had to track down a new copy of Street Fighter EX…
The worst piece of tech that I have ever owned in my life is a CD Cleaner I bought from GameStop back in the day. That shit was straight up a sacrificial altar. It never cleaned. Only consumed.
Oh shit, I remember those. They “cleaned” by using an abrasive spray to “polish” the CDs. Those things were straight-up evil.
Yes! RIP Dinocrisis. My Gauntlet: Dark Legacy survived the process though. Thing still runs today with a fucking trench etched across the bottom, it doesn’t make sense really.
GameStop
That explains it.
Funny thing is, out of all the disc “cleaners” we sold while I was at Gamestop, we got very few complaints about it. Make the discs look like they went through hell but the product worked.
– forgets everything
Many mother boards have a battery on them that is used in retaining state. May need to be replaced.
I checked the CMOS and ended up replacing it. I thought that was it too. Same issue.
I paid 100 bucks for this server 5 years ago, came with 4TBs. Only thing I ever did with it was run private game servers on it for my friends. Maybe I’ll try replacing it again just for laughs and poop.
I bought a dehumidifier off amazon that was “rated” for 800 sq ft.
Not only did it not live up to that promise, but it also served as the worlds shittiest ice maker. Ice formed on the radiator inside and stoped it from dehumidifying the air.
Thats right, you too can have a ice maker that makes ice in the shape of a radiator while ineffectively dehumidifying your home!
Best part was they reached out after I left a one star review and what they could do to change my rating.
I said “Nothing. Make a better product”
I wonder if we had the same dehumidifier. Same 800 sq ft claim, except it didn’t produce ice because it couldn’t pull enough moisture out of the air to do so despite it being ~80% humidity in my apartment.
After a night of running at full blast, I woke up and poured out a whopping 10 mL of water from the basin
From my understanding, a lot of the products on amazon are resellers that buy stuff from alibaba and then resell it at a markup so it would not surprise me if that wad the case.
They all looked the same when i was last on there searching for one.
100%.
I’m constantly seeing the same items with different branding all at a similar price point - it’s all AliExpress garbage. And if the AliExpress version suits your needs you’re better off ordering from AE directly as it’s significantly cheaper. AE shipping speeds have improved over the years too, I’ve gotten items within 1 week several times now
A self mowing lawnmower, it moved so randomly and was so specific for its operation parameters that I ended up just going back to manually mowing.
If your yard was just a perfectly level, medium sun, no rain, obstacle free, rectangle you wouldn’t have any problems.
I don’t know, we put in a lot of effort to make our living room clear for our robot vac. We lifted the sofa we got shelves with a space at the bottom but roomboi still just gets stuck on it’s own in the middle of a hardwood floor
You need that RTK EPOS tech bruh
Right now? I’d say first alert smoke alarms. The batch we bought all has failed in an “alarm always, and don’t stop” kind of way. They are only two years old, and I’m frustrated.
Failing to an alarm on state is preferred to an alarm off state. So at least no fire can sneak up on you. I think they sell ones now that are 10-year sealed battery with a 10-year warranty.
My building has these and 2 of them failed in the first year. Can’t replace the battery so had to replace the whole thing.
I agree. If it fails by alarming constantly you replace it. If it fails by not alarming at all you never know, because who actually tests their alarms?
First Alert, ask questions later
https://www.amazon.com/Scrubbing-Bubbles-Automatic-Cleaner-Starter/dp/B001QJAHIY/
Maybe not this exact model, but 20 years ago when I was a young gun in college for the first time, I got one of these because I hated cleaning the fucking shower and tub.
It worked about as badly as you’d expect. I don’t know if modern versions are any better, but holy shit they’re a lot more expensive than they used to be. I remember spending like $40 at the time.
I quickly learned to just wipe down the shower after use and clean it more often. Thing was fucking worthless.
Oh, yeah, those are crap. I went with scrub brush attachments for the battery-powered drill I already own. It cost like $20 for half a dozen heads of different sizes that chuck up like any normal drill bit. It’s not as automated, but it’s way easier and more thorough than scrubbing by hand.
That’s dope, I’ve got one of those, I’ll look into that. Thanks so much for the suggestion!
No problem. Pretty sure I got the idea from someone here on Lemmy. Look at that, it’s already been more useful to me than reddit.
$176 for an automatic shower cleaner lmaooooooo
I’d have you say the Pixel 6 Pro that I handled like a baby, but the screen died in the second month.
Oh man, my buddy’s P6P has a weird issue where it feels like the DAC is coming loose too (if the audio goes out he can press on a part of his to make it come back). Guess I got lucky as I’m still on mine.
I’m still using the 3a, but I’ve broken the screen at least 4 times. I’m clumsy, but I don’t think it’s just my fault? That screen is ridiculously delicate.
However, once cracked, the hauntings begin. There are touch controls attached to the display that go haywire, and it would cycle through clicking buttons like Russian Roulette: it called the emergency line twice while cracked, and would just power itself back on when I turned it off. I finally bought a screen protector and haven’t had an issue since.
Reminds me of the two Nexus 4’s I got. First one dead in the box, second overheated after two weeks and mysteriously lost its IMEI and never had cell signal again. Worked fine otherwise, but stupid.
Still rockin’ my 6pro. I literally dropped it onto concrete today. It does have an otter box on it. But two years strong.
Power Glove
It’s so bad.
Having issues hacking time?
Ya but it looked cool as hell imo and I still want one.
So did I, until I tried to use it a few times.
smart doorbell that takes 25+ seconds to fire up a video feed, and errors out most of the time. (Original Ring doorbell, received when they bought out my kickstarter Doorbot and bricked it)
or the Lockitron smart door lock from Kickstarter which took like 6 AA batteries and couldn’t muster the strength to unlock the door more than like 3 times.
but least they worked together in failure.
At first I thought your doorbell was a eufy. The failure sounds similar.
i tried the eufy afterwards and it wasn’t better. when the eufy crashed daily, it doesn’t restart itself. but when it worked it was super fast.
My ring used to do that shit. I stopped using it for like a year. Then I was bitching about it and someone said they just got one and it worked great. So I tried it again out of spite to show what a piece of shit it was and now it works within a couple of seconds. shrug
I can’t speak for ring but I know as long as my Google nest is connected to WiFi it will update software automatically.
My son picked up a refurbished Ipad mini that we were going to use as a screen for our quadcopters. Well, you can’t load any software on it so it’s just a worthless piece of shit. Way to go apple.
