Yet another alarm clock rant....
http://without-warning.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-rich-people-are-miserable.html
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Lone voice no more
Glad to see that I am not the only one who has an issue with the generally poor state of electronics design.
Check out this excellent blog by Jeremy Wagstaff:
http://www.loosewireblog.com/2007/09/design-its-all-.html
Check out this excellent blog by Jeremy Wagstaff:
http://www.loosewireblog.com/2007/09/design-its-all-.html
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Sony Ericsson K800i snappy eater
After having my phone/camera for over a year now, I was playing around with it and decided to try out the BestPic function for the camera. It captures a series of images every time you take a photo so that you can choose the best one. I was a bit dubious at first thinking that I did not really want to have to go through all the choices everytime I take a photo but found that if you press the camera trigger after the shot it would then be ready for the next photo. That meant that I didn't have to do anything more that without that function. Great I thought! But I foolishly assumed that when I pressed the trigger it saved the default choice.
Foolish indeed! But luckily I happened to go to the picture folder before taking using the BestPic functionality in anger because as it turns out, if you just press the camera trigger and not the save button the photo IS NOT SAVED at all! Way to go Sony Ericsson! I wouldn't have wanted all those less-than-professional shots of family memories anyway.
Another gripe is the proprietary interface designed not for our benefit, but so that SE can monopolise the accessories market. Have you ever tried listening to music on an aeroplane through the shitty SE headphones? In must be such an inconvience to SE to have users like me who want to use noise cancelling or other expensive specialised headphones on all their music making devices.
Other than that though I must say I have been quite happy with this phone compared to others I have owned and am looking forward to upgrading to similar models that will hopefully sport even better cameras. Add GPS (with integrated maps - not that subscription based bullshit) and I will be in heaven!
Foolish indeed! But luckily I happened to go to the picture folder before taking using the BestPic functionality in anger because as it turns out, if you just press the camera trigger and not the save button the photo IS NOT SAVED at all! Way to go Sony Ericsson! I wouldn't have wanted all those less-than-professional shots of family memories anyway.
Another gripe is the proprietary interface designed not for our benefit, but so that SE can monopolise the accessories market. Have you ever tried listening to music on an aeroplane through the shitty SE headphones? In must be such an inconvience to SE to have users like me who want to use noise cancelling or other expensive specialised headphones on all their music making devices.
Other than that though I must say I have been quite happy with this phone compared to others I have owned and am looking forward to upgrading to similar models that will hopefully sport even better cameras. Add GPS (with integrated maps - not that subscription based bullshit) and I will be in heaven!
Alarm clocks that kill
As my friends are sick of me ranting about the design deficiencies of certain products, naturally I have decided to blog it as an alternative outlet.
My all time favourite bitch is about the apparently mandatory poorly conceived designs for electronic alarm clocks. I mean how hard can it be to design a decent alarm clock?! These things have been around for decades and the functionality required hasn't changed much but I am yet to find one that satisfies. I am sure the design job for new models must be given to intern electronic engineers - you know the type, like the geniuses that gave us the user interface for the early HP calculators where you had to push the enter key after every key press (i.e. 1,enter,+,enter,1,enter,=,enter -> 2).
Ok, I admit as someone who is definitely NOT a morning person I am a little biased against these little buggers but on the other hand I have a strong interest in getting one that is easier to live with - and would pay good $$ for one that was better.
Following is a list of infractions I have found regarding alarm clock design:
My all time favourite bitch is about the apparently mandatory poorly conceived designs for electronic alarm clocks. I mean how hard can it be to design a decent alarm clock?! These things have been around for decades and the functionality required hasn't changed much but I am yet to find one that satisfies. I am sure the design job for new models must be given to intern electronic engineers - you know the type, like the geniuses that gave us the user interface for the early HP calculators where you had to push the enter key after every key press (i.e. 1,enter,+,enter,1,enter,=,enter -> 2).
Ok, I admit as someone who is definitely NOT a morning person I am a little biased against these little buggers but on the other hand I have a strong interest in getting one that is easier to live with - and would pay good $$ for one that was better.
Following is a list of infractions I have found regarding alarm clock design:
- my favourite -> the snooze key next to the alarm off key (obviously a morning person came up with that one!)
- blindingly bright displays that cannot be dimmed
- an unintuitive series of toggle switches that have to be set in exactly the right combination for the alarm to work (could only figure out through trial and error)
- a CD alarm that goes back to the beginning of the CD every time you press snooze making a chronic multiple snooze pusher like me feel like i'm in the movie Groundhog Day.
- either completely crap sound (i.e. made with $1 speakers) or the rediculously expensive Bose or similar quality but precious little in-between
- there appears to be little research into the physiology of waking up when designing these things - e.g. would it be so hard to have volume that ramps up rather than being blasted (I need a fairly high volume to be woken but being shocked usually results in immediate pushing of the snooze button and lapsing back into sleep)
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