There was a time I would acquire the latest HTC smartphone, not even released in India yet, and excitedly root it, install custom ROM, Tasker and the works guided by XDA Forums. New tech doesn’t get me as geeked out any more though, and on things like VR I find myself being just more jaded and concerned than enthusiastic.
And over time I’ve developed a number of major and minor peeves around tech. These peeves are usually quibbles we all just live with. They become a part of our engagement with technology, their annoyances and nuisance simply not big enough to get called out. For example, after its latest software upgrade, my OnePlus Nord has started displaying the news in Hindi! It’s for me to now scrounge through settings to find that toggle to switch it back to English. Aaargh!
I maintain here a list of such peeves big and small…
buttons on mobile screens have gotten smaller, have you noticed? The detection zones for tiny ’+’ and ’-’ buttons, or small confirmation ticks and others more often than not require precise touch or multiple attempts. Perhaps related to this is how I’ve found mobile keyboard typing hasn’t really become a breeze, after the early promise of swipe to type etc. Maybe this is just me, and kids today would swear by a different account.
updates, updates and updates! at any given time, at least one app on your phone is ready for update. It’s ridiculous. I get that bug fixes can be pushed anytime, and that the nature of software allows for much more iterations and leaping changes. But I keep auto-updates shut off, and usually it’s just a Zomato/Ola type of app that insists on an update once in a year or so due to breaking changes.
when Google Music launched it wasn’t a streaming service. It was simply a cloud storage for my mp3s. Today, Google makes it so tedious to download the stuff one once uploaded! I have to go to my core Google admin, and select to download specific file types or all media. This yields a 30 or 40 GB download package where I can’t simply select the 2 items I want and download them! Nonsense.
Sep 2023, new forced update to Whatsapp app on Android. The buttons to select between emojis, GIFs and stickers were previously at bottom of the keypad. Post-update they are now on the top of the keypad! What kind of idiotic decision-making goes into completely inverting the UI your userbase is accustomed to?
Dec 2024, the same shit is now pulled by Figma. Whole overhaul of their UI such that same settings, configurations, toggles are all now in different places. Changes as radical as moving a main UI component from top left of screen to bottom center. Why even the fuck?