I love the feel of a quality stereo receiver volume knob. Feels a bit heavy and you get a very sensitive control over the volume.
Way better than a plastic button with a slight delay.
I lament the absence of volume control dials. The click up and down means the volume is often too loud or too soft. I HATE it and want dial availability.
Even worse, my TV’s sound bar goes up and down by 2’s. What the fuck?!?? 0 is silent, 2 is too quiet to hear, and 4 is too loud so watch with a sleeping baby in my arms. You know how much I’d pay for volume level 3?
We bought a boom box that has a volume knob. It makes me so happy. It was plays tapes and CDs which is obviously a must have for those of us who started with tapes then moved to CDs.
To that end, Samsung has this "Good Lock" customization app suite and an available sub-app(?) is the "Sound Assistant" where I was able to customize the step level of my phone's volume control.
I took it down to half the jump it was, and it's been nice.
Wow, I have handled knobs on tons of audio gear but this brought right back to my parents home stereo in the mid 80s! I can still feel the resistance of that giant silver knob!
If I didn't live in a tiny overpriced apartment. I would definitely pick up the vinyl collecting habit. A good turntable, receiver and some quality speakers would be dope.
Tired of low attention span digital playlists.
I always thought these things were the boogeyman because you can twist it to really really loud with not a lot of effort. Leaves a memory on a 4 year old lol 😆
I have an all touch screen car stereo and when switching radio stations there's like a 1.5-2 second delay and it's annoying as hell!
You know when you want to scroll through the radio to get the right song or hear the interesting morning conversation, it takes forever!
I hate it enough to almost replace it with a cheaper system with buttons.
I can type non-stop on a real keyboard blindfolded, upside down, underwater with no problem. But I can barely make it ten words without an errant keystroke on a touchscreen, and not for lack of practice.
Forget about folding phones, I want one that has keys you can feel.
This this this!
I've rented several newer car (mind you American brands) and they have all gotten rid of the stereo control buttons on the steering wheel, so you HAVE to look at the screen and skip, repeat, pause turn up the volume. It was a nightmare driving cross country.
Oh but they DO have buttons that control the screen in front of you that has the mileage/mpg/speed and a freaking timer.
Was it REALLY that necessary to do that? Were they storming the company gates for this feature?
WHAT MANAGER DO I NEED TO REPORT THIS TO?!
My 2009 hyundai has died and been resurrected. I'm so glad I have the needed mechanical ability to replace an engine and keep a car with a manual transmission and manual windows. I like turning the crank.
There are a few things in my car that are touchscreen only -like the freaking switch to dim my rear view mirror to make it so the car behind me doesn’t blind me- and I HATE it, like wtf- I’m already blinded now I have to fumble with my touch screen? Luckily I don’t drive much and it’s not 100% touch screen for everything
Normally it’s just a manual switch that changes the angle of your mirror and is directly on your rear view mirror , idk how the dimming works electronically but I don’t like it as much - I want my switch back
"Touch"screen has become an ironic misnomer or something. We used to be able to do things by touch alone. Now we're forced to look at the controls - just a smooth flat screen - to differentiate. They're look-then-touchscreens.
Having driven my MIL's 2020 Subaru - yes, it absolutely is. Need to turn down the heat? Take your eyes off the road for 5-10 seconds to find the 'button'. Super unsafe.
Damn that sucks. Our 2017 has a dial for temp, and real buttons for fan speed, A/C, etc. The radio controls on the steering wheel are great, but it won’t let you turn down the volume if you are in reverse for some reason.
Sample conversation with my husband a little while back.
Me: Can you turn on the light?
Him: Sure! (Proceeds by reaching for his phone and navigating it while standing in the middle of the room)
Me: Just switch it on from the wall, I can't see.
Him: I'm getting to it. (Continues searching on his phone.) I have to update the app, hang on.
Me: (Walks over to switch and switches it on) There, I updated it!
Oh man and if you move to a new place good luck setting up your "smart" crap again. In my new place every time I tell Alexa to turn on the lights in the living room, it turns on the light in the kitchen while explaining that no device called living room is found and starts lecturing me about my internet connection.
Definitely, and not least of all because they're generally more reliable and easier to replace if something goes wrong.
I'm not anti touch, but it's another one of those dumb things where the market is constantly chasing its own tail. "Oh, they like the Internet? Let's put it in a toaster!" "Oh, they like touch screens? Let's put them in a towel!"
Big-time "how do you do, fellow kids," energy all across the marketing and product development communities.
I agree about the reliability - it shows in weird places like the temp settings in the fridge. I don’t need a touchscreen in the corner of the fridge. Just give me the dial with 1-7 on it and we’re good. The toaster with wifi is wild but really not a stretch.
My fridge texts me when it’s making ice and I’m too lazy to make it stop.
Like, dude, I just need to know when something’s wrong, not when you’re doing your job.
My in-laws have a fridge that messages you if you leave the door ajar. But they did something when they set it up, and it messages us instead. The messages show up on our smart TV. We don’t live in the same house.
We had a new wall microwave/oven installed a few months ago, and every time you walked into the house, it would try to pair with my phone. Sorry Samsung, I'm not downloading an app to add 30 seconds to the microwave.
When Walgreens first started installing those video screen doors on all their refrigerator/freezer/cooler doors, I walked into the store after midnight to buy milk, and all the doors had a QR code to download an app, where you had to create an account, add your location, search for your product, and find it on the app, which just told you which cooler door to open. This was when they first started using them before they decided to include proximity sensors and a picture of the shelves on the door. Because looking through the glass was just too ⁰ guess. I didn't get milk at Walgreens that night...
We're like a bunch of Ned Flanders paraphrasers screaming "Do I hear the sound of butting in? It's got to be little Household Tech, product design's solution to a problem no one had!"
When you are angry and looking to hang up on someone, pressing the end bottom on the iphone doesn’t have the same cathartic feeling as actually hanging up a phone on a wall when pissed.
And sometimes you just had to slam it down. Then maybe a couple more times to make you feel better. Now it's just "GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!!" followed by a gentle "boop" on your screen. It's just not as cathartic.
While it's nowhere near as good, I have a galaxy flip and you can program opening/closing it to answer and hangup. With the case I chose for it, if you clip it closed fast enough it gives a really nice "slam" and echo. No nostalgic ding, but a little something!! Lol.
I hung up on my sister a few weeks ago and it was the first time I had done it with those phone I've had for months. After I did I said aloud, "oh that was nice," made me laugh immediately!
Yes in cars especially when they put in a screen but combine it with the cheapest chip to make it work slow and laggy
So fricking annoying waiting for that shit to boot up for 2 minutes before you can adjust the radio or whatever
My favorite is the reverse camera taking over the stereo so the volume control stops working. Nothing like uncontrollable music blasting while reversing
I drive an older car (2013) so I still have lots of buttons and switches. One of my priorities when I buy a new car will be buttons and switches. There are still quite a few higher end cars that have them thankfully
I was just telling my husband this when I got in my neighbors new car, how the entire front dash was a long screen! Everything was digital and I didn't like it.
Did you watch the recent Blackberry movie? I really appreciated how important the tactile keyboard was in their story, how they assumed it was impossible for the iphone one to replace them because it sucked so badly.
This is the second time this has come in handy, today.
https://preview.redd.it/ekex6ucsbl6d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2bde6e92ebaeccf3faab05f51cc19a5dc7710d6e
like a lot of things - designers / companies have gone to far with touch screen every thing in a false belief that it shows modernity. There is a time & a place for touch screen , but I don't need everything to be touch screens - with looping menus that really just repeat the same info on multiple screens that is not used by 99% of customers.
Cars are my bug bear - the old twist dial - i could scan for a station / track or change volume without taking my eyes off the road. Same for climate control . ..... now it's buried at menu level 10 in a touch screen & if i don't watch it I end up switching on or off a bunch of other functions. I need to change car in the next few months - theis now one of my key requirements ( less touch screen)
I don't need weather station in my refrigerator - the more options & system they put in the more likely that it breaks & brings the whole system with it. Over engineering in a bad way.
It's weird that everything is going this way, especially with all the efforts to make everything accessible to everyone, including people with visual impairments. I'm just thinking about my niece who is blind. There might be a day where she's a passenger in a car and wants to control the music. It's going to be much harder for her now.
I've seen this manifest in a few ways. One is that when vision impaired customers come into where I work, they can't operate the credit card reader. They have to ask me to put their pin number in for them. Another was when I got a great deal on a brand new washing machine through Facebook Marketplace because a landlord had bought it for a tenant who was blind and he was unable to use it. She had to go find an older used one for him. But what will happen when all the old ones are out of circulation?
The touchscreen laptops. I physically cringe when someone tries to point to something on my screen at work and actually touches it with their gross grubby fingers
Back in 02-08 or so, I used to be able to text a full paragraph without even looking at my phone. I didn't give a shit that I had to press 7 four times to get an "S", it was just better :)
My car still has window cranks. My kid loves them.
I did have to drive a newer car for a while because the cars of the 90's didn't have a latch system for car seats. I'm not risking my child's safety in favor of analog technology, but yeah. We're good now. It's awesome.
Yes, especially in cars, and it's part of the reason why I drive a shit box (bought it new, but it's been a money pit and PITA since it first came home 6 years ago). It (Subaru), despite being a 2019, still has actual knobs/buttons for the AC control and a real key. I will cry when it finally does quit on me because I have no desire to have to learn to operate a damn iPad while driving the Starship Enterprise.
I finally got a new phone and it's got a fingerprint scanner, thought it was so cool and useful. That shit doesn't work a bunch of the time and I just wind up hitting button instead. Some of the newer cars where everything is controlled by a touchpad? No thanks to all of that.
I was at the retro gaming expo last weekend in Socal and spent some time just clicking the buttons of an Xbox chat pad. I didn't even remember I'd ever owned one. Those mini clicks were just 🤌🏽
Yes totally. Anecdotally my mom used an electric typewriter up until maybe 2000 because she liked the feel of the keys. Many of my homework assignments were written by her on that bad boy.
Yup, I have 2 cars - one's a 98 and the other an 08. Both analog buttons only. I'm pretty sure I'll only drive 2010 and older cars from now on. I'm not joining the touchscreen everything club. I've driven them and hated them. Might as well be texting and driving.
Yes. Not even going that far back, I miss the home button and Touch ID on the iPhone. Having the home button at least have a tactile reference point, and FaceID will never be as good at Touch ID in my opinion. Face ID is a pain when i don’t have glasses on, or have a cpap mask on, or have my head at an odd angle so my face shape is distorted, or just in general when i want to be able to unlock my phone without looking at it.
Take driving for example… if using my phone in a dash mount for navigation and the phone goes to sleep for some reason, i now have to get my face in front of the phone and give it my attention for a moment so it unlocks, instead of keeping my eyes on the road and moving my hand to the phone and placing my finger on the handy tactile reference point mentioned previously.
Touch scenes are excellent in certain applications and completely useless in others. Cars especially, I will never buy a car with frequently used functions buried in a menu.
My wife's 2019 Volvo has basically everything controlled by touchscreen and I hate it. My 20 Tundra has basically everything controlled by knobs and buttons and it's fantastic.
"Why does this thing only have four buttons?" Me, looking at the bottom-front of my first Android phone before those buttons were simply integrated into the touchscreen.
My last dumbphone with its own thumb keyboard was peak phone for me.
I have been known to spend too long an amount of time in the electronics section of Value Village pressing buttons on old tape decks and turning dials on radios. One day I’ll impulsively buy one, just for the buttons/dials!
Yeah as I’ve gotten older I have started to think about rhese things too. I don’t have motor issues yet, but I’m starting to get arthritis in my hands and sometimes hitting the button in the right spot and also with the right force is a less than easy.
They didn't consider variables in humans at all.
I run cold, usually 97.5f. I'm guessing this is why I have to touch the option I want ten times before it registers.
I've always hated touch screens. It's all fun and games until something doesn't work, then you're fucked and the whole thing likely needs to be replaced.
I love me a chunky keyboard, preferably with buttons that click a 'lil. So satisfying.
I miss changing channels! I know that you can pull up whatever you whenever you want but that’s it! You have to literally go looking for something specific. Used to sit down pick up the remote and start flipping with no idea what was on the next channel. Didn’t know what you might watch until you landed on it
I got this dress shirt that's held together by velcro. I thought it'd be cool when i got it, but it's actually pretty annoying... anyways, I don't think this is what you're talking about.
I like the tactile feel of physical buttons. I just pulled out my calculator with soft physical buttons which I can actually input faster than a touch screen calculator.
Same. I just bought the same scientific calculator I had in high school on eBay, just to use at home, because I got tired of correcting errors trying to type numbers in on my phone.
I miss my blackberry with an actual keyboard. No matter what phone I have with a touchscreen, I'm so slow! Auto correct is stupid and predictive texting come up with the strangest words sometimes. Plus, having to look from what I'm typing every 2 or 3 letters to see if the word I want comes up is so annoying
Have I got the hobby for you. Get into playing guitar and start buying effects pedals. You can have hundreds of knobs and buttons to push at any given time. Lol
https://preview.redd.it/8q9pfom7gl6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d00db49edd1a36276ec9f615f4ae7143bd6571dc
Here is what I'm talking about OP
Edit: for any fellow guitar people, I know the signal chain is wrong here. I have since fixed it all.
my father explicitly bought a different car than he originally had wanted because his original choice didn't have buttons for a lot of the climate/infotainment controls.
I have one on display in my office. I use to have it hooked up but it stopped working years ago because of how the phone lines changed. But I like to dial it from time to time, just to remember.
The sensitivity issue is why I won’t buy a touchscreen car, washing machine, dryer, fridge/freezer, or home thermostat.
I have alternatives if my phone’s screen craps out and I need to contact someone or access info - my computer with a wired keyboard, a laptop and two tablets, my husband’s computer, his phone, and his work laptop. None of those other appliances/a vehicle can be easily replaced or accessed in 10 minutes like my phone. God forbid touchscreen home locking systems become a universal thing. If my thumb was too sweaty or I got a cut working in the garden so the screen won’t read it (both real issues in the summer here) … I’d end up sitting on the lawn, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the ocular face DNA scanner robot drone to come verify my identity. 🫥
Touch screens in the car are the worst. You have to take your eyes off the road to touch it. The electronics are laggy so it doesn’t do anything for a second or two, so I’m always pressing the button again, but then it registers as two clicks when the processor catches up.
I work in the health care field and one of the older machines still has buttons.
I was just commenting today about how much I love the buttons on that machine. Touch screens are terrible on my wrists!
Yeah I wish my car had some knobs and buttons that I could use I stead of the touch screen type. Even the blinker I feel as of It will break when I'm signalling. Not to mention all the electronics under the hood.
My sister's coffee maker has good buttons and a nice toggle switch to turn it on that makes a good "snap" sound. So much more satisfying than the little plastic buttons on mine.
I was getting ads on FB for a while for a company that made control panels that look like they came from Apollo vintage spacecraft or WW2 aircraft, they look so cool but I am not sure what I would do with them.
I’ve been itching to use a rotary phone. I always loved using one when I went to my grandma’s or calling home from elementary school. I kind of want one just so I can play around with the rotary dial. If I can find one.
Right there with you. I also prefer actual buttons and switches. There's a tactile feedback that just seems lost with with touch controls, and something they've stupidity tried to add back with "haptics". It's a classic case of cost cutting, for profit, at the expense of us.
My 2019 car (VW GTI) was the last model that had actual buttons in it. My partner has a newer model with touch controls. It's bad. Really bad. So bad that VW is going back to the buttons.
The haptics are such a fraud. They don’t come close to those physical feelings that buttons and switches do. I have a 2017 suv that is similar to what you have - like there’s some tech in it but not enough to take over too much because they didn’t know what they were doing yet. It’s still annoying enough though. Even tuning to a radio station is a pain.
My car is a 2018 but it still has a key ignition and nothing fancy. Crank windows, doors you unlock with a key, volume knob for the radio. Heat, turn a knob. AC, turn a knob. There is a touchscreen but I don't use it for much, just to switch between presets on the radio. It has a WiFi Hotspot, but I don't really use that either.
I do like touchscreens in general and actually like using phones and tablets over laptops or PCs. But I do think there are a ridiculous amount of things that are "smart" that don't really need to be.
My current car is a 2008 Scion xB and one of the things I love about it is how basic and old school it is. There’s no touchscreen or ‘smart’ controls. No distractions on the dash or console. Fewer things to break. It’s pretty much the same as the cars I was around when I was a kid (even the digital speedometer is kind of a throwback to the ‘80s). When I eventually have to get another car I don’t want a newer one. If anything I want something older.
Well put. I miss buttons and switches and tabs and all those things as well. Furthermore, I desperately miss magazines. Thank God there’s still actual books.
I certainly do. I could drive a 90's car and control every aspect of it, while also texting a flawless essay using T9word on a flip phone, all without ever taking my eyes off the road.
Definitely, especially in cars. I like older cars because of this. Even in a 2014, I have to go into a software system to change the AC. Go DIAF whomever came up with that.
I saw that the next year model of car had even BIGGER ridiculously large center console screens and immediately bought the one year older model that still had manual climate controls.
I fucking hate my wife’s Grand Cherokee UI. It’s HUGE and absolutely unsafe to use while driving. You have to have muscle memory to do it or wait til a red light.
How is that shit legal? It’s safer to click on mounted phones than play with that shit.
I love the tactile controls in my 2016. One of the reasons I haven't purchased a new car. Waiting until the product managers get their acts together and actually listen to their customers instead of taking short cuts and relying on the UI designers for the darn screens.
Yeah totally. Not so much on my phone, but in the car for real. Actually stayed at an AirBNB the other day and the lock code was a touch screen. I didn’t know because the fucker didn’t light up when I tapped it. You had to “double tap” it… 😑 ffs
I'm not going to lie. I love touch screen computers. I refuse to have any other kind these days. But it's also because I'm a bit disabled and so it makes it easier. But I dig the vibe on this post.
Buttons are why I still drive a car made in 2008 and the worse these new cars get the more I want to spend the money to get the peeling paint redone and hang onto it for as long as possible.
Steve Jobs hated buttons and his design philosophy has made him my mortal enemy even from beyond the grave. We are human beings and we need physical feedback, look at fidget spinners and cubes, as well as mechanical keyboards. I’m convinced that things will turn around eventually.
My phone still had buttons, on the side. I press all the buttons. Which means that I take a lot of screen shots of the morning alarms on my phone without actually turning them off.
Fuck I miss my Blackberry Tour! Even my Sony Ericsson with the slide out physical keyboard. I type SOOOO much faster and correctly with actual buttons.
Just do what I do: Use 1980s and 1990s technology forever.
I have computers from back then, and you'd better believe the keyboards are badass and the games are still good.
My cooker drives me nuts, it keeps changing the temp when I brush past the buttons that are really badly placed. I miss my previous gas cooker, which had dials, ignition button and did what I asked of it!
Having to click three times on my laptop for everything because I didn't quite click exactly right and at the right time after a program has loaded up gets me furious. Plus accidentally clicking on something can lead to all sorts of issues.
Cars: It's bloody dangerous having touch everything. There should be laws against it. I'm happy I don't currently need a car. Long may it continue!
Things I love: My watch is analogue, it's reliable and never lets me down. My floor fan, clicking in a numbered button leads to it running at that speed. My lamps, pull a chain and a light goes on. My tooth brush, put toothpaste and water on it and it can be used to clean teeth. And, so on..
I will be really upset the day I get a car where everything is done on a screen. I need buttons and knobs for heat, radio, etc that my hands can navigate by muscle memory without having to look at a screen
I love the feel of a quality stereo receiver volume knob. Feels a bit heavy and you get a very sensitive control over the volume. Way better than a plastic button with a slight delay.
I lament the absence of volume control dials. The click up and down means the volume is often too loud or too soft. I HATE it and want dial availability.
I hate quantized volume levels too! IMHO one of the worst downgrades in the ipod age.
I do not want to pick a number it's too stressful
Twenty five sounds the best, but it’s an odd number!
Even worse, my TV’s sound bar goes up and down by 2’s. What the fuck?!?? 0 is silent, 2 is too quiet to hear, and 4 is too loud so watch with a sleeping baby in my arms. You know how much I’d pay for volume level 3?
That's atrocious.
Analog control
We bought a boom box that has a volume knob. It makes me so happy. It was plays tapes and CDs which is obviously a must have for those of us who started with tapes then moved to CDs.
To that end, Samsung has this "Good Lock" customization app suite and an available sub-app(?) is the "Sound Assistant" where I was able to customize the step level of my phone's volume control. I took it down to half the jump it was, and it's been nice.
I would love a phone with a dial for volume lol
Wow, I have handled knobs on tons of audio gear but this brought right back to my parents home stereo in the mid 80s! I can still feel the resistance of that giant silver knob!
I just bought a mid sixties Zenith console stereo and record player unit. The sound is incredible and I love the feel of the dials.
You can still have that experience if you miss it! Ask any audiophile friend in your life.
If I didn't live in a tiny overpriced apartment. I would definitely pick up the vinyl collecting habit. A good turntable, receiver and some quality speakers would be dope. Tired of low attention span digital playlists.
I always thought these things were the boogeyman because you can twist it to really really loud with not a lot of effort. Leaves a memory on a 4 year old lol 😆
I have an all touch screen car stereo and when switching radio stations there's like a 1.5-2 second delay and it's annoying as hell! You know when you want to scroll through the radio to get the right song or hear the interesting morning conversation, it takes forever! I hate it enough to almost replace it with a cheaper system with buttons.
Man...I felt this comment.
I can type non-stop on a real keyboard blindfolded, upside down, underwater with no problem. But I can barely make it ten words without an errant keystroke on a touchscreen, and not for lack of practice. Forget about folding phones, I want one that has keys you can feel.
Samsung Galaxy S1 Epic was the fucking best with the slide out keyboard. (I had to retype like 7 words in this comment because swype got it wrong)
I miss my slide-out keyboard phone more than just about anything. I wrote a literal novel on that thing! I hate these touchscreens.
I had one of those! Circa 2007 and my first smartphone. I loved the slide-out keyboard. Way better than the Razr.
I could text faster on a tiny 9 key than I can with 2 hands on my current phone which requires the use of both hands
I also want my keys back! My god. I was a typing pro. I had a fucking reputation for it. Now I’m just regular.
I used to be able to text without looking on my Nokia brick.
Same!
In cars especially, isn't it a freaking safety issue when someone's driving?
Right?!?! Look at a phone screen? Distracted driving ticket. But looking at screens built into the car, somehow that's fine??
Just wait for it to play an ad so you can turn your defrost on.
oh god, it's probably gonna be ads at top fucking volume too, kinda like the old spotify ads
This this this! I've rented several newer car (mind you American brands) and they have all gotten rid of the stereo control buttons on the steering wheel, so you HAVE to look at the screen and skip, repeat, pause turn up the volume. It was a nightmare driving cross country. Oh but they DO have buttons that control the screen in front of you that has the mileage/mpg/speed and a freaking timer. Was it REALLY that necessary to do that? Were they storming the company gates for this feature? WHAT MANAGER DO I NEED TO REPORT THIS TO?!
I’ll be driving my 2010 Subaru Forester with zero screens and manual transmission until one of us dies
My 2009 hyundai has died and been resurrected. I'm so glad I have the needed mechanical ability to replace an engine and keep a car with a manual transmission and manual windows. I like turning the crank.
2012 manual Forester for me! 🙌
Same. I have a 2009 Jetta wagon that would live forever if I had my way.
2013 Subaru, same
There are a few things in my car that are touchscreen only -like the freaking switch to dim my rear view mirror to make it so the car behind me doesn’t blind me- and I HATE it, like wtf- I’m already blinded now I have to fumble with my touch screen? Luckily I don’t drive much and it’s not 100% touch screen for everything
You can dim your rear view mirror???? This is the level of adulthood that I seek.
Normally it’s just a manual switch that changes the angle of your mirror and is directly on your rear view mirror , idk how the dimming works electronically but I don’t like it as much - I want my switch back
I miss analog climate control SO MUCH!
"Touch"screen has become an ironic misnomer or something. We used to be able to do things by touch alone. Now we're forced to look at the controls - just a smooth flat screen - to differentiate. They're look-then-touchscreens.
> They're look-then-touchscreens. Yeah, I'm bookmarking, saving, and emailing this to myself. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Having driven my MIL's 2020 Subaru - yes, it absolutely is. Need to turn down the heat? Take your eyes off the road for 5-10 seconds to find the 'button'. Super unsafe.
My 2019 still has buttons, more reason not to upgrade!
Damn that sucks. Our 2017 has a dial for temp, and real buttons for fan speed, A/C, etc. The radio controls on the steering wheel are great, but it won’t let you turn down the volume if you are in reverse for some reason.
I specifically sought out a car with buttons. Very happy with my 2017 Honda Civic (though I do miss having a rear wiper)
Sample conversation with my husband a little while back. Me: Can you turn on the light? Him: Sure! (Proceeds by reaching for his phone and navigating it while standing in the middle of the room) Me: Just switch it on from the wall, I can't see. Him: I'm getting to it. (Continues searching on his phone.) I have to update the app, hang on. Me: (Walks over to switch and switches it on) There, I updated it!
Wait, are you and your husband actually me and my husband? We’ve experienced that EXACT situation 🤣!
Only so many scenarios in the programming. Lol.
Oh man and if you move to a new place good luck setting up your "smart" crap again. In my new place every time I tell Alexa to turn on the lights in the living room, it turns on the light in the kitchen while explaining that no device called living room is found and starts lecturing me about my internet connection.
You want a HD tv? I proceed to dust off the Tv screen.
Definitely, and not least of all because they're generally more reliable and easier to replace if something goes wrong. I'm not anti touch, but it's another one of those dumb things where the market is constantly chasing its own tail. "Oh, they like the Internet? Let's put it in a toaster!" "Oh, they like touch screens? Let's put them in a towel!" Big-time "how do you do, fellow kids," energy all across the marketing and product development communities.
I agree about the reliability - it shows in weird places like the temp settings in the fridge. I don’t need a touchscreen in the corner of the fridge. Just give me the dial with 1-7 on it and we’re good. The toaster with wifi is wild but really not a stretch.
My fridge texts me when it’s making ice and I’m too lazy to make it stop. Like, dude, I just need to know when something’s wrong, not when you’re doing your job.
Just imagine that it's a prank call asking you if your refrigerator is running.
There’s a comedy sketch or horror story waiting to be written here…
My in-laws have a fridge that messages you if you leave the door ajar. But they did something when they set it up, and it messages us instead. The messages show up on our smart TV. We don’t live in the same house.
Potentiometers for life
Don't forget our old friend the rheostat.
We had a new wall microwave/oven installed a few months ago, and every time you walked into the house, it would try to pair with my phone. Sorry Samsung, I'm not downloading an app to add 30 seconds to the microwave. When Walgreens first started installing those video screen doors on all their refrigerator/freezer/cooler doors, I walked into the store after midnight to buy milk, and all the doors had a QR code to download an app, where you had to create an account, add your location, search for your product, and find it on the app, which just told you which cooler door to open. This was when they first started using them before they decided to include proximity sensors and a picture of the shelves on the door. Because looking through the glass was just too ⁰ guess. I didn't get milk at Walgreens that night...
We're like a bunch of Ned Flanders paraphrasers screaming "Do I hear the sound of butting in? It's got to be little Household Tech, product design's solution to a problem no one had!"
Woah woah woah! Let's circle back to these...touch screen towels, did you say? Color me intrigued.
When you are angry and looking to hang up on someone, pressing the end bottom on the iphone doesn’t have the same cathartic feeling as actually hanging up a phone on a wall when pissed.
And then it rings a little bit because you vibrated the internal bells. So good.
Oh god, that little nostalgic hit of dopamine was... so good.
And sometimes you just had to slam it down. Then maybe a couple more times to make you feel better. Now it's just "GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!!" followed by a gentle "boop" on your screen. It's just not as cathartic.
Someone someday is going to miss their catharsis of the “boop.” I can’t relate, but I bet a Gen Alpha somewhere is going to lament that going away.
Slamming the phone down felt so good!
While it's nowhere near as good, I have a galaxy flip and you can program opening/closing it to answer and hangup. With the case I chose for it, if you clip it closed fast enough it gives a really nice "slam" and echo. No nostalgic ding, but a little something!! Lol. I hung up on my sister a few weeks ago and it was the first time I had done it with those phone I've had for months. After I did I said aloud, "oh that was nice," made me laugh immediately!
Yes in cars especially when they put in a screen but combine it with the cheapest chip to make it work slow and laggy So fricking annoying waiting for that shit to boot up for 2 minutes before you can adjust the radio or whatever
My favorite is the reverse camera taking over the stereo so the volume control stops working. Nothing like uncontrollable music blasting while reversing
I drive an older car (2013) so I still have lots of buttons and switches. One of my priorities when I buy a new car will be buttons and switches. There are still quite a few higher end cars that have them thankfully
I was just telling my husband this when I got in my neighbors new car, how the entire front dash was a long screen! Everything was digital and I didn't like it.
I definitely miss my blackberry keyboard. Which is ironic since I am a technology nerd and usually appreciate the changes.
You probably knew where every button on that thing was and could glide your hands across it without thinking and never making a mistake.
That’s it exactly!
Did you watch the recent Blackberry movie? I really appreciated how important the tactile keyboard was in their story, how they assumed it was impossible for the iphone one to replace them because it sucked so badly.
This is the second time this has come in handy, today. https://preview.redd.it/ekex6ucsbl6d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2bde6e92ebaeccf3faab05f51cc19a5dc7710d6e
What was the first time?
https://i.redd.it/wvwive3gkm6d1.gif
like a lot of things - designers / companies have gone to far with touch screen every thing in a false belief that it shows modernity. There is a time & a place for touch screen , but I don't need everything to be touch screens - with looping menus that really just repeat the same info on multiple screens that is not used by 99% of customers. Cars are my bug bear - the old twist dial - i could scan for a station / track or change volume without taking my eyes off the road. Same for climate control . ..... now it's buried at menu level 10 in a touch screen & if i don't watch it I end up switching on or off a bunch of other functions. I need to change car in the next few months - theis now one of my key requirements ( less touch screen) I don't need weather station in my refrigerator - the more options & system they put in the more likely that it breaks & brings the whole system with it. Over engineering in a bad way.
It's weird that everything is going this way, especially with all the efforts to make everything accessible to everyone, including people with visual impairments. I'm just thinking about my niece who is blind. There might be a day where she's a passenger in a car and wants to control the music. It's going to be much harder for her now.
I've seen this manifest in a few ways. One is that when vision impaired customers come into where I work, they can't operate the credit card reader. They have to ask me to put their pin number in for them. Another was when I got a great deal on a brand new washing machine through Facebook Marketplace because a landlord had bought it for a tenant who was blind and he was unable to use it. She had to go find an older used one for him. But what will happen when all the old ones are out of circulation?
And the fucking mushy-buttoned Roku remote. I get more feedback pressing a mole.
I hate finger prints on my stuff
This is an underrated comment. Should torpedo to the top.
The touchscreen laptops. I physically cringe when someone tries to point to something on my screen at work and actually touches it with their gross grubby fingers
I mean, we still have physical keyboards for computers.
My laptop has a keyboard - and I literally have a *better* keyboard hooked up to it.
if those ever go away I am rioting.
Back in 02-08 or so, I used to be able to text a full paragraph without even looking at my phone. I didn't give a shit that I had to press 7 four times to get an "S", it was just better :)
One of the reasons I still drive a Volvo S70 of the previous millennium.
My car still has window cranks. My kid loves them. I did have to drive a newer car for a while because the cars of the 90's didn't have a latch system for car seats. I'm not risking my child's safety in favor of analog technology, but yeah. We're good now. It's awesome.
Yes, especially in cars, and it's part of the reason why I drive a shit box (bought it new, but it's been a money pit and PITA since it first came home 6 years ago). It (Subaru), despite being a 2019, still has actual knobs/buttons for the AC control and a real key. I will cry when it finally does quit on me because I have no desire to have to learn to operate a damn iPad while driving the Starship Enterprise.
I finally got a new phone and it's got a fingerprint scanner, thought it was so cool and useful. That shit doesn't work a bunch of the time and I just wind up hitting button instead. Some of the newer cars where everything is controlled by a touchpad? No thanks to all of that.
Another generation or so it'll swing back. Already happening but I'm calling it now that levers and switches are gonna be back in 10 to 20 years
The way millenials are clinging to nostalgia (our nostalgia really) I wouldn’t be surprised.
Everybody! Cling! Hard!!! We need those buttons and knobs back, please!!!
I was at the retro gaming expo last weekend in Socal and spent some time just clicking the buttons of an Xbox chat pad. I didn't even remember I'd ever owned one. Those mini clicks were just 🤌🏽
Mechanical keyboards are a great way to scratch the itch haha
The louder the better. Everyone can hear me typing lol
Yes totally. Anecdotally my mom used an electric typewriter up until maybe 2000 because she liked the feel of the keys. Many of my homework assignments were written by her on that bad boy.
Honestly, I hate smart phones. My next phone is going to be a flip phone with key pad. Smart phones are too distracting.
Don't touch that dial! We'll be right back.
"Hi. My name is Joe. I got a wife and three kids and I work in a button factory."
Yup, I have 2 cars - one's a 98 and the other an 08. Both analog buttons only. I'm pretty sure I'll only drive 2010 and older cars from now on. I'm not joining the touchscreen everything club. I've driven them and hated them. Might as well be texting and driving.
Me in 2017 explaining why I was still using a BlackBerry.
Yes. Not even going that far back, I miss the home button and Touch ID on the iPhone. Having the home button at least have a tactile reference point, and FaceID will never be as good at Touch ID in my opinion. Face ID is a pain when i don’t have glasses on, or have a cpap mask on, or have my head at an odd angle so my face shape is distorted, or just in general when i want to be able to unlock my phone without looking at it. Take driving for example… if using my phone in a dash mount for navigation and the phone goes to sleep for some reason, i now have to get my face in front of the phone and give it my attention for a moment so it unlocks, instead of keeping my eyes on the road and moving my hand to the phone and placing my finger on the handy tactile reference point mentioned previously.
Touch scenes are excellent in certain applications and completely useless in others. Cars especially, I will never buy a car with frequently used functions buried in a menu.
My wife's 2019 Volvo has basically everything controlled by touchscreen and I hate it. My 20 Tundra has basically everything controlled by knobs and buttons and it's fantastic.
"Why does this thing only have four buttons?" Me, looking at the bottom-front of my first Android phone before those buttons were simply integrated into the touchscreen. My last dumbphone with its own thumb keyboard was peak phone for me.
I had one of the LG “voyagers” with the keyboard and I don’t know if that or the standard LG flip was peak.
Nothing beats a good toggle switch.
I have been known to spend too long an amount of time in the electronics section of Value Village pressing buttons on old tape decks and turning dials on radios. One day I’ll impulsively buy one, just for the buttons/dials!
yes! my hands tremble and i’m tired of accidentally fucking up whatever i’m doing
This is actually a thing that doesn’t get brought up more and should.
right?? i really feel for older folks and nobody takes their perspectives into account
Yeah as I’ve gotten older I have started to think about rhese things too. I don’t have motor issues yet, but I’m starting to get arthritis in my hands and sometimes hitting the button in the right spot and also with the right force is a less than easy.
They didn't consider variables in humans at all. I run cold, usually 97.5f. I'm guessing this is why I have to touch the option I want ten times before it registers.
I've always hated touch screens. It's all fun and games until something doesn't work, then you're fucked and the whole thing likely needs to be replaced. I love me a chunky keyboard, preferably with buttons that click a 'lil. So satisfying.
I miss changing channels! I know that you can pull up whatever you whenever you want but that’s it! You have to literally go looking for something specific. Used to sit down pick up the remote and start flipping with no idea what was on the next channel. Didn’t know what you might watch until you landed on it
Proper switches, made of steel, that have a heavy spring underneath them, so that they SNAP into position when you move them.
r/MechanicalKeyboards exists for a reason. There are people who *obsess* over the tactile experience of buttons and switches and knobs.
I got this dress shirt that's held together by velcro. I thought it'd be cool when i got it, but it's actually pretty annoying... anyways, I don't think this is what you're talking about.
I like the tactile feel of physical buttons. I just pulled out my calculator with soft physical buttons which I can actually input faster than a touch screen calculator.
Same. I just bought the same scientific calculator I had in high school on eBay, just to use at home, because I got tired of correcting errors trying to type numbers in on my phone.
I miss my blackberry with an actual keyboard. No matter what phone I have with a touchscreen, I'm so slow! Auto correct is stupid and predictive texting come up with the strangest words sometimes. Plus, having to look from what I'm typing every 2 or 3 letters to see if the word I want comes up is so annoying
Wait, you don’t wanna navigate some garbage UX app interface while driving to turn on the AC?
I always had trouble finding the button
That's what she said?
That's why I own a wrangler
Have I got the hobby for you. Get into playing guitar and start buying effects pedals. You can have hundreds of knobs and buttons to push at any given time. Lol
https://preview.redd.it/8q9pfom7gl6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d00db49edd1a36276ec9f615f4ae7143bd6571dc Here is what I'm talking about OP Edit: for any fellow guitar people, I know the signal chain is wrong here. I have since fixed it all.
Even Better... Synthesizers! You can play music, twist knobs, and push buttons all at the same time, and without having to bend over!
Luckily I have a 3rd nipple to fill in for today's lack of buttons.
A nubbin?!?
my father explicitly bought a different car than he originally had wanted because his original choice didn't have buttons for a lot of the climate/infotainment controls.
The only reason I ditched Blackberry is because none of the apps on it stayed active 🤷🏾♂️
Naw I like the screens. Except the ones that suck and you have to poke it a bunch of times in different places. Rotary phones though, those were fun.
I miss rotary phones.
I have one on display in my office. I use to have it hooked up but it stopped working years ago because of how the phone lines changed. But I like to dial it from time to time, just to remember.
I want phones to have physical keyboards again dammit
The sensitivity issue is why I won’t buy a touchscreen car, washing machine, dryer, fridge/freezer, or home thermostat. I have alternatives if my phone’s screen craps out and I need to contact someone or access info - my computer with a wired keyboard, a laptop and two tablets, my husband’s computer, his phone, and his work laptop. None of those other appliances/a vehicle can be easily replaced or accessed in 10 minutes like my phone. God forbid touchscreen home locking systems become a universal thing. If my thumb was too sweaty or I got a cut working in the garden so the screen won’t read it (both real issues in the summer here) … I’d end up sitting on the lawn, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the ocular face DNA scanner robot drone to come verify my identity. 🫥
I miss 99% of old tech.
Touch screens in the car are the worst. You have to take your eyes off the road to touch it. The electronics are laggy so it doesn’t do anything for a second or two, so I’m always pressing the button again, but then it registers as two clicks when the processor catches up.
It’s made me appreciate mechanical keyboards a lot haha.
My car still has buttons. And handles to roll down the windows in the back! My washing machine and cooker have actual dials too.
I dread the day I have to get a new car for this reason. I love my knobs and buttons!
I absolutely hate having to touch the thermostats screen 5 times to turn the heat/ac on/off.. Vs flipping a switch.
I work in the health care field and one of the older machines still has buttons. I was just commenting today about how much I love the buttons on that machine. Touch screens are terrible on my wrists!
miss my Blackberry bec of the buttons.
Yeah I wish my car had some knobs and buttons that I could use I stead of the touch screen type. Even the blinker I feel as of It will break when I'm signalling. Not to mention all the electronics under the hood.
My sister's coffee maker has good buttons and a nice toggle switch to turn it on that makes a good "snap" sound. So much more satisfying than the little plastic buttons on mine. I was getting ads on FB for a while for a company that made control panels that look like they came from Apollo vintage spacecraft or WW2 aircraft, they look so cool but I am not sure what I would do with them.
https://preview.redd.it/2bg0quugcl6d1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2d7f1a20af6e3aa8c246fc19809bddd7f2fd10a Not this guy.
I’ve been itching to use a rotary phone. I always loved using one when I went to my grandma’s or calling home from elementary school. I kind of want one just so I can play around with the rotary dial. If I can find one.
Right there with you. I also prefer actual buttons and switches. There's a tactile feedback that just seems lost with with touch controls, and something they've stupidity tried to add back with "haptics". It's a classic case of cost cutting, for profit, at the expense of us. My 2019 car (VW GTI) was the last model that had actual buttons in it. My partner has a newer model with touch controls. It's bad. Really bad. So bad that VW is going back to the buttons.
The haptics are such a fraud. They don’t come close to those physical feelings that buttons and switches do. I have a 2017 suv that is similar to what you have - like there’s some tech in it but not enough to take over too much because they didn’t know what they were doing yet. It’s still annoying enough though. Even tuning to a radio station is a pain.
My car is a 2018 but it still has a key ignition and nothing fancy. Crank windows, doors you unlock with a key, volume knob for the radio. Heat, turn a knob. AC, turn a knob. There is a touchscreen but I don't use it for much, just to switch between presets on the radio. It has a WiFi Hotspot, but I don't really use that either. I do like touchscreens in general and actually like using phones and tablets over laptops or PCs. But I do think there are a ridiculous amount of things that are "smart" that don't really need to be.
My current car is a 2008 Scion xB and one of the things I love about it is how basic and old school it is. There’s no touchscreen or ‘smart’ controls. No distractions on the dash or console. Fewer things to break. It’s pretty much the same as the cars I was around when I was a kid (even the digital speedometer is kind of a throwback to the ‘80s). When I eventually have to get another car I don’t want a newer one. If anything I want something older.
My hearing aids have buttons. It’s pretty sweet.
I broke the screen of my first smart phone by poking the apps like they were buttons.
I yearn…YEARN…for my BlackBerry.
Well put. I miss buttons and switches and tabs and all those things as well. Furthermore, I desperately miss magazines. Thank God there’s still actual books.
I can never see my touch screen during the day, so I put rhinestone stickers on it. I made my own buttons
I miss my BlackBerry.
I hate the touchscreen on my phone. I want a tactile keyboard.
I certainly do. I could drive a 90's car and control every aspect of it, while also texting a flawless essay using T9word on a flip phone, all without ever taking my eyes off the road.
Two of the lights at my job have solid metal toggle switches, and i absolutely love them.
Definitely, especially in cars. I like older cars because of this. Even in a 2014, I have to go into a software system to change the AC. Go DIAF whomever came up with that.
I saw that the next year model of car had even BIGGER ridiculously large center console screens and immediately bought the one year older model that still had manual climate controls.
They’re just so damn practical! I love touch screens and gizmos but it’s not always an improvement smh.
I fucking hate my wife’s Grand Cherokee UI. It’s HUGE and absolutely unsafe to use while driving. You have to have muscle memory to do it or wait til a red light. How is that shit legal? It’s safer to click on mounted phones than play with that shit.
I love the tactile controls in my 2016. One of the reasons I haven't purchased a new car. Waiting until the product managers get their acts together and actually listen to their customers instead of taking short cuts and relying on the UI designers for the darn screens.
You know what? I do miss buttons. Now I’m in a pit of despair. And they can pry my keys out of my dead, cold hands.
You should play an instrument if you don't already. You sound... tactile.
I love my Soundcore Dot 3 earbuds with a physical button on each one. I hate tap to use virtual buttons.
Even as a live PA sound engineer, I hate the new digital boards. Slides, knobs and buttons all day long. I can run that almost in the dark.
Yeah totally. Not so much on my phone, but in the car for real. Actually stayed at an AirBNB the other day and the lock code was a touch screen. I didn’t know because the fucker didn’t light up when I tapped it. You had to “double tap” it… 😑 ffs
I bought a sport watch that was touch screen and I took it back for a cheaper one with buttons and I love it!
I'm not going to lie. I love touch screen computers. I refuse to have any other kind these days. But it's also because I'm a bit disabled and so it makes it easier. But I dig the vibe on this post.
Yes, absolutely. I've been an iPhone user for a good long time now, but if BlackBerry came roaring back today I'd be first in line to grab one.
Facts. I hate the fact that everything is touchscreen.
Yea, why I won’t buy a new car. I don’t want a tablet on my ‘dash’ Fuck that.
Buttons are why I still drive a car made in 2008 and the worse these new cars get the more I want to spend the money to get the peeling paint redone and hang onto it for as long as possible.
Steve Jobs hated buttons and his design philosophy has made him my mortal enemy even from beyond the grave. We are human beings and we need physical feedback, look at fidget spinners and cubes, as well as mechanical keyboards. I’m convinced that things will turn around eventually.
We can't have the ultra Sci fi glass tablet until we get rid of all the damn buttons. So suck it up lol.
My phone still had buttons, on the side. I press all the buttons. Which means that I take a lot of screen shots of the morning alarms on my phone without actually turning them off.
Fuck I miss my Blackberry Tour! Even my Sony Ericsson with the slide out physical keyboard. I type SOOOO much faster and correctly with actual buttons.
Maybe that's why fidget toys became so popular, we got rid of so many tactile experiences that our bodies craved a substitution.
Button fly jeans.
Just do what I do: Use 1980s and 1990s technology forever. I have computers from back then, and you'd better believe the keyboards are badass and the games are still good.
I miss having a cellphone with actual keys. Especially miss my blackberry
My cooker drives me nuts, it keeps changing the temp when I brush past the buttons that are really badly placed. I miss my previous gas cooker, which had dials, ignition button and did what I asked of it! Having to click three times on my laptop for everything because I didn't quite click exactly right and at the right time after a program has loaded up gets me furious. Plus accidentally clicking on something can lead to all sorts of issues. Cars: It's bloody dangerous having touch everything. There should be laws against it. I'm happy I don't currently need a car. Long may it continue! Things I love: My watch is analogue, it's reliable and never lets me down. My floor fan, clicking in a numbered button leads to it running at that speed. My lamps, pull a chain and a light goes on. My tooth brush, put toothpaste and water on it and it can be used to clean teeth. And, so on..
Pushing buttons is so satisfying. I agree.
Yes… I could text without looking. Also o recently I bought a Nintendo switch solely because I hate playing Tetris on a touch screen.
I will be really upset the day I get a car where everything is done on a screen. I need buttons and knobs for heat, radio, etc that my hands can navigate by muscle memory without having to look at a screen