Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

I think sara meant USB-C/Lightning to 3.5mm. They're handy.

A step back for sure, even if a pretty cheap one can sound better than most any phone that ever had a built in jack. Not as if that's relevant for most users/uses.

I so rarely see anyone with wired headphones on transit anymore. It’s like seeing someone with a discman.

I use buds that are wired to each other. My wife and daughter like airpods but I they're constantly getting lost or separated and you have to know where the case is all the time.

I know if I tried those I would constantly be looking for one of the four components - and if any one component is missing, the entire assemblage is useless.

I think sara meant USB-C/Lightning to 3.5mm. They're handy.

― maf you one two (maffew12), Sunday, May 14, 2023 5:07 AM (fifty-two minutes ago)

yes, exactly!

I’ve been using wired Etymotic er4sr’s for years. No interest in bluetooth although i’m sure it’s convenient at times.

I know if I tried those I would constantly be looking for one of the four components - and if any one component is missing, the entire assemblage is useless.

― coolgnoscenti (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, May 14, 2023 5:29 AM (thirty-two minutes ago)

this is my co-worker ... i swear, this guy has spent more on airpods in the past year (either losing a piece or something breaking) than I have spent on cell phones in my life ...

Approximately 73% of my life has been spent trying to get pieces of audio equipment to talk to each other. Let's review, shall we?

My stepsister had an 8-track player that required series of elaborate Radio Shack adapters to successfully play Olivia Newton-John in a car.

My first computer was a TRS-80 using magnetic tape as a storage medium.

Once on a long cross-country drive my uncle became obsessed with CBer lingo, like "got your ears on?" It took hours to badly get an antenna magnetically mounted to his station wagon and the project was abandoned.

To get an Atari 2600 console to work correctly required a spaghetti of cables and being on channel 2.

From there we go to dual-cassette boomboxes, helping my mother delete objectionable language from pop songs so that they could be played in the Catholic school where she worked, without messing up the beat.

From there we move on to using a Y-adapter to get two guitars to share a Roland Cube amp.

Later I had a boombox with the wrong tape speed, so that songs recorded on it could only be played back on that specific machine.

My first solo record was recorded on a 4-track cassette Portastudio and then, perversely, transferred to computer using the "mic in" jack and a 1/8" mono adapter.

Nowadays the equipment and interfaces are better - but I can still, even more perversely, be left dead in the water by not having a particular dongle or adapter or stupid watch battery or charging cable.

I was doing a recording session recently that required not one but three trips back home or to a convenience store before all the things would speak to the other things.

I have spent more hours untangling cables than I care to think about.

Still prefer all that to airpods

I have spent more hours untangling cables than I care to think about.

i probably have spent more hours untangling cables than you ... but yes. not that long ago really ... maybe 10 years ago, i still had an entirely analog "media system" ... i had a CRT TV (it was free; i didn't pay for this item) connected to a RCA-Coax converter, which connected to the output of a RCA switcher, the audio outputs of which were connected to some early 1990s home stereo receiver + speakers, and plugged into the switcher were a DVD player, a VCR, and a triple 1/8" cable that could connect to a video camera or laptop (via adapter)

lulz sarahell ok you win

i mean ... i used to get paid to untangle cables ... i had days where i spent 4+ hours untangling cables

You both win.

I could add how I used to "steal" music at work by downloading mp3's from Napster, playing them on whatever winamp was in the year 2000, with a YMP's 1/8" line going from my work computer's keyboard headphone jack to the mic jack on my Sony dual-cassette recorder sitting on the floor, where I probably unknowingly produced the final mixtapes I would ever make in my lifetime.

my work computer's keyboard headphone jack

that is dedication!

much of my system is still hardwired— stanton mixer running to two kali speakers, with ins from a cd player, vestax dj battle turntable, dual cassette deck, and one 1/8” aux connected to a little dongle so i can listen to music from my phone on occasion.

my computer in my office, tho, is bluetooth-bound to a soundbar/subwoofer combo.

i will never use bluetooth headphones.

Got a new laptop from work, connected to a dock in my office. I took it home for the first time and realized that it has 0 standard usb ports, so I couldn't connect a mouse or keyboard to it all weekend. So annoying (mostly the mouse, though being much more comfortable with a mouse over the trackpad is another sign of being old I'm sure).

I'm not switching to Bluetooth headphones. Have borrowed my kids' before now and they may have promised utility but, for myriad reasons, delivered a royal pain in my arse. Wired it is.

I hate wires. I tend to play with them and get distracted by them if their placement is situated oddly.

Though originally I moved to Bluetooth as I had a Samsung which no longer had headphone jacks. But my OnePlus does have a jack for wired earphones, surprisingly.

I was v sceptical towards wireless, but then several years ago was talked into trying Bose QuietControl 30 with this kind of halter around the back of my neck connecting the two buds physically. It was a revelation; I loved it; I've worn out (and/or mortally mistreated) several, and Bose have always been extremely good at replacing/servicing... except now they no longer have any models with physical connection/harness between the buds, only those loose ones which I am guaranteed to lose. Do Not Want. Am scouring second-hand market for cheapish QC30s and have scored two since my previous one died irreparably. Kinda yay but also feel like long-term losing battle. Any recommendations for current bluetooth in-ear non-droppable devices?

part of the issue with bluetooth headphones is they're much more complicated system-wise like anything digital and are produced on silicon valley's planned obsolescence timeframe. i don't want to learn new technology every 6 months to a year just to use headphones. definitely on team 'i will never use bluetooth headphones'. i used to hate wires too but now i'm like you can pry them from my cold dead hands lol.

idk all the bluetooth headphones I’ve had in the last couple years (yes I have a headphones hoarding problem) just work and half of them work in wired mode too

> being much more comfortable with a mouse over the trackpad is another sign of being old I'm sure

an arm injury makes a mouse difficult at the mo so I'm using trackpad for the first time. i swear there is no way to release a drag without the cursor moving half an inch.

also, and this might just be netbeans, but two finger swiping to scroll and then hitting ctrl-tab to switch panels, if you get that slightly wrong you end up zooming in / out instead and your code is suddenly 600pt or 6pt. i do this about 20 times a day.

Many xps removing the headphone jack was a shitty move but I’ve got to say, having been forced to go wireless I wouldn’t want to go back, as someone who was constantly catching the wire on something while doing whatever activity. I don’t use true wireless as they would inevitably end up with the many broken buds I see on the ground everywhere, but Bluetooth ones with a short wire that hangs around my neck are pretty much perfect EXCEPT for the mf pointless low battery alert thing

I did a search to see if there was a brand that didn’t do this & found this from the 1st world problems subreddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems/comments/ae6sdu/bluetooth_earbuds_chanting_low_battery_please/

Really seems like every affordable brand (& some expensive ones) have this issue & everyone hates it

the armband phone holder has been perfected afaict. i just wrap the extra length of cord around the holder, no muss no fuss. i look like a fitness mom ca 2005 but it's reliable, it just works all the time, no need to remember 3 additional things in advance to enjoy music whenever i want to move around, and on the plus side it keeps my phone put away so i'm not tempted to look at it.

Beeping preferable to the voice version, at least.

i look like a fitness mom ca 2005

in a few years, this will be the hot look that young people will pay to have

The only problem I've had with true wireless Bluetooth buds is that someone nearly opened their car door on me and I was so shocked one of the buds fell out, then the driver reversed over it

wrt buds with a wire between.. you can get any 2-pin or MMCX set of IEMs or buds and a corresponding bluetooth adapter to go between. I'm using a TRN BT3 in the gym. Few years old.

well that’s that cleared up then

https://www.headphonesty.com/2022/04/review-trn-bt30/

they've just separated the bluetooth from the actual earpiece part (iem - in ear monitor) so you can use your existing ear pieces with that (as long as your ear pieces have the right connections, either 2-pin or the mmcx coax-like connectors in the to photo there, which are the two competing standards)

and this looks like what was mentioned above - an adapter to plug your wired earphones into so you can use them with a bluetooth phone (although where do you put that receiver? you now got two unconnected things to carry, which seems a bit odd)

https://www.onbuy.com/gb/bluetooth-50-universal-headset-wireless-adapter~c16193~p29442989/?

my issue isn't with the headphone cord at all, it's with the iphone: the headphone jack won't stay in the phone if you so much as sneeze at it. this was never a problem with my ipod, but my ipod can't stream things so

well that’s that cleared up then

Anytime.

I thought the tethered buds were a thing of the past too.. but seems Sony is still making some. Like the WIC200.

xxp Well it looks like the back is a big clip. It's another way to go. But yeah still charging two batteries.

as someone who will absolutely lose one of their wireless earbuds within a day, I feel the progress towards their universal adoption as a gathering storm directed personally at me

and this looks like what was mentioned above - an adapter to plug your wired earphones into so you can use them with a bluetooth phone (although where do you put that receiver? you now got two unconnected things to carry, which seems a bit odd)

That's what I do

In the early 1990s I used to install TV/media displays at big tech conventions like Comdex and Digital World and the turn this thread has taken has given me bad PTSD flashbacks of working with video distribution amplifiers.

comdex!!! i remember loading equipment trucks for comdex lol

can't login to / register with hmrc without a passport, and renewing mine would be £80 or so and two weeks, easily. other possible forms of id are driving licence. i don't have one of those either but it might be cheaper and easier... only applying for a driving licence requires a passport...

(it might be different if i do it in person)

(also, why is firefox highlighting licence as a spelling error when it's set to GB english)

apps for parking

omfg yes

I mean paying for parking in the UK is a fucking disgrace full stop, but I'm kind of stuffed without the apps. I just never have cash.

some people don't have smartphones (e.g. my parents), what are they meant to do? pretty sure they'd be baffled by the automated telephone payments line too. keep cash payments for people who don't want to or can't pay otherwise, have a contactless thingummy for everyone else. fuck an app (or phone payments).

Oh God parking apps are the WORST

The ones near us replaced actual machines that took cash and card, and one of them near my friends cat cafe requires you to create a whole fucking account before you can even see how much it is to park. After doing all that one night it boasted that it was $15 to park and I peaced

Also having to enter your space number and license plate number and lord help you if you miskey either and get a ticket anyway

I'm not exaggerating when I say that the literal worst feeling in the world is arriving on time to a destination where you have previously downloaded the parking app and set up an account, only to discover that the old parking app has been acquired by a different parking app company so you're right back to square zero.

why are we not tagging these qr codes? maybe just even fill in a couple of the white squares.

The justpark phone number will no longer accept my bank card because a payment once failed to go through, and no idea how to fix it, I will not download their app, guess I just can't park.