Technology quality

[Suff]

In the last six months I've been buying stuff, making the best of the fact I don't have to pay exorbitant costs to get them delivered in Europe (European costs are higher than the UK to buy them in the first place), so I've been getting quite a lot of stuff new.

So far My new tablet has failed, my USB3.0 hub/charging station has failed (partially) and my Microsoft Band2 (gift from my daughter), has failed. Although the band might be a design fault which caused me to break it but, still.

I'm wondering what else is going to fail and I'm also wondering about the level of quality we're getting these days. The problems with my bikes is much more conventional and I can sort them out and neither of them is less than 15 years old anyway; but the problem I'm seeing with technology is not a good trend.

I might feel like a technology hazard zone if it were not for the fact that I know some of this stuff should not be failing. I guess if I were buying less I might not see it quite so clearly.

[Workingman]

Early digital watches. I could destroy them in days. Put one on my wrist and it would be junk in no time. Is that a pun?

Printers! I buy, I connect, I print and then... New cartridges, after no time! Software upgrades, err no! Firmware upgrades, why bother? Bung everything on a pen drive and take it to the library. Fantastic results from the colour laser at 5p a reverse page, job done.

Phones. Do not even get me started. I have a drawer full of them, 2G, 3G, 4G. What is the point of these things? I want to talk to people, maybe text them. I want to ring them up and say "Hello". They want to do the same to me, why is it so damned difficult? No signal, batteries dead or low, 'This phone... after the beep please leave..."

Thankfully my home is an area of calm. My laptop works, my WiFi router works, my USB hub works. I can make a drink, prepare a sarnie and watch TV on a screen in the corner of the comp screen.

But I do get what you are saying, Suff. A lot of tech seems to be going down the same route of household appliances of old. They had a fixed life, once it was over they were replaced, not repaired. Tech lifespan seems to be getting shorter as time goes on.

[Suff]

The problem, as I see it, is that if you design for a fixed, short life, then you find the poor quality one's off the line (quality varies), tend to fail within days/weeks/immediately.

I have a printer, the heads are blocked. But I try very hard not to use it and thus have to fx it. I try to do almost everything via PDF and mail. However this then means I needs secure storage which never fails or deletes... Another issue.

I must admit I'm just getting a tad irritated about the sheer rate of failure on hardware nowadays. Well either that or I need to adjust my expectations on buying cheap Chinese hardware.... My £4.99 bluetooth mouse is working just fine beside me now. Well so long as I put it on the £2.99 mouse mat I bought from PC world. It is exceptionally fussy about which surface it works on..