Tired of my tvs no longer updating to the latest software, tired of my phone no longer connecting to my car, tired of my few years old tech being considered legacy and no longer supported. Can anyone suggest non-android, non-apple, non-AI, non-connected, non-smart ‘dumb’ tech you’ve bought that makes a difference in your life? Should be hardy enough to last maybe 20 years (my even older plasma tv is still going on strong with a beautiful tv and forward firing speakers, while my newer Samsung lcd stopped receiving updates) and just do it’s job. I can live without mu ai enabled washer telling me how to wash my clothes.

    • @weeeeum
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      419 days ago

      No effin way that thing is 23 years old! Its got to be at least 60’s!

      • @jordanlund
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        219 days ago

        It’s a modern repro of a 1958 Philco Predicta. The tube and electronics are all Phillips. I spent a little extra to get Component and S-Video inputs on it. It’s a full color television. :)

        My plan had been to buy an original and fix it up, but the originals are FULL of paper capacitors and each one has to be replaced. :( It was actually cheaper ($2,500 counting freight) to buy the repro in 2001.

    • @ChowJeeBaiOP
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      420 days ago

      Same. Ps1-ps5, media box, PC. Well done! I don’t get this era of disposable tech and planned obsolescence. I get new tech, but don’t understand why I need to upgrade my phone every 2-3 years so I can WhatsApp faster.

      • @ChowJeeBaiOP
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        119 days ago

        Actually, forget planned. It’s forced obsolescence - the hardware is perfectly fine, only they want you to update your netflix client so go and buy a new tv.

  • Lexam
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    1919 days ago

    Do a factory reset on your TV. Then do not let it ever connect to the internet again. Get a cheap laptop and play all your media on it through the TV.

  • @[email protected]
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    1820 days ago

    I only use computer monitors for TVs.

    That’s my big one.

    I don’t want to wait anything, I don’t want specialized menus, I don’t want suggestions of any kind on my display, I simply want a larger display.

    I can see no reason for getting a smart TV versus a monitor and an HDMI cable.

    • @Suck_on_my_Presence
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      420 days ago

      Just curious, but are the monitors more expensive? And do you mount them or have them sit in something?

      I just feel like a 32" monitor would be a lot more expensive than a 32" tv, dumb or smart.

      • @[email protected]
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        420 days ago

        I did get dumb TVs also, but everything was free.

        There are tons of free dumb TVs and monitors being given away online.

        i guess people don’t want to go to the trouble of driving to recycling centers.

        I similarly look for a table, desk or cabinet being given away for free online, and plop the monitor on that.

        at one point, I had one monitor in the bedroom, one monitor in the living room and two monitors hooked up in a game room, all free.

        3 hooked up to used office laptops that were $30 or less for streaming and old emulated games, and the living room TV hooked up to my main computer for streaming/modern games.

        • I Cast Fist
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          218 days ago

          I wish people would just give away good stuff like that where I live

          • @[email protected]
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            118 days ago

            The suburbs of cities are where I always go. nobody in the city likes to drive for 30 minutes to a neighborhood theyre unfamiliar with, and everyone coming from outside is just trying to get into the city, so there’s always good stuff around the rim.

            I will say I got lucky one time jogging and I turned back on the final block before my house and there was a pretty big flat screen just sitting on the sidewalk with a sign taped to it that said free.

            so i picked that up and hauled it the last block.

            lucked out on that one.

  • @solrize
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    1420 days ago

    There is basically no such thing as a working dumb mobile phone any more. All the old 2G and 3G ones are now bricked because the networks all cut over to 4G/5G. Otherwise what can I say, just avoid stuff with connectivity when you can help it. Also buy corded tools and appliances unless the convenience advantage of cordless is too great to do without. Otherwise you stuck trying to replace overpriced and sometimes hard to find batteries.

    If something is completely FOSS then the software angle is less of a pain in my opinion. I’m still using a beat-up Thinkpad X220 that was made in 2011, but running Debian Bullseye on it. I’ll update it to Bookworm or Trixie when I get around to it. Point is that I can do that, while any phone from 2011 is a hopeless dinosaur.

    • PonyOfWar
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      20 days ago

      There are totally still working dumb phones that use 4g. Just be prepared for giant buttons, as the target group is mostly elderly people.

      • @solrize
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        320 days ago

        Got a link? I don’t know of any with no internet.

        • PonyOfWar
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          20 days ago

          This one for example. Don’t know whether it technically has internet, but the smartest function it seems to have is FM radio.

          • @solrize
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            20 days ago

            That looks interetsting but they won’t ship it to the US and it’s unclear if it works with US carriers. I see some similar ones on amazon.com that might be worth looking into, though they are on the expensive side and most have unrecognizeable brands that make me a bit queasy. No-name 2G GSM phones were often below $20, and some were tiny.

            Anyway thanks, that was valid answer. I had mostly looked at Nokia and similar models that had Facebook and stuff like that.

              • @solrize
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                220 days ago

                Thanks, but that is literally an Android phone:). I guess my use case for a dumb phone has decreased though. It’s now just disappointing that even “dumb” outs are bigger, more expensive, and power hungrier than old 2g phones were. It seems like a technological regression. :(

                • @[email protected]
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                  120 days ago

                  What do you mean by dumb then? You can’t get any other apps on it, and the smartest thing in it is a browser. I wouldn’t really know though, I wasn’t old enough to have a phone when flip phone were popular.

    • @MTK
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      620 days ago

      Also dumb phones are more spyware then you would think, there have been documented cases of dumb phones using sms for background communication to spy or scam

    • @LovableSidekick
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      119 days ago

      Yeah there are some dumbed down minimal function “grandma” phones that just make calls and maybe have a panic button that calls 911. I think one is called a “Cricket” or something similarly cute. But they have operating systems and I doubt that one would work for 20 years.

      • @solrize
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        19 days ago

        They are generally locked down to specific carriers too.

        A 20 year cell phone isn’t happening though. The networks change out too often. I still have perfectly solid 1g, 2g, and 3g phones that are useless because the networks they used are gone. 4g still works but for how long? 5g will be around for a while, but 20 years? Dubious.

  • @felixwhynot
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    920 days ago

    For a phone with a minimal UI, there is Light Phone. I almost bought the Nokia “banana phone” because it was used in The Matrix and I love that film. If you want something that will last a long time, maybe Fairphone (tho it is Android)

    • @be_gt
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      820 days ago

      Yes Fairphone is great. My parent is still using my old v3 and is still gets updates as well has having spare parts for fixes.

      • @weeeeum
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        319 days ago

        Been personally skeptical of fairphone after they removed the headphone jack, and started selling wireless earbuds for like 200$. That has ruined my trust with their good intentions. They are at least a step in the right direction, but just a step.

    • NebLem
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      420 days ago

      Fairphones due to having pretty long lasting hardware are common early targets for LineageOS and PostmaketOS devs, so yeah definitely a good choice for longevity.

      Google pixels are the best mainstream longevity alternative due to developer adoption in the non-Google Android communities and mobile linux communities. Pixel 1s are still getting updates to latest Lineage Android, though I’m sure it has to be super slow. Graphene only runs on Pixels.

      Librem 5 or the PinePhone would probably be your best bets if you want an out of the box mobile gnu/linux.

      • NebLem
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        20 days ago

        The Light Phone looks pretty neat and I like the idea of a more minimalistic device (especially with e-paper), but it’s pretty unique hardware and a custom Android that needs jailbreaking to update if the company stops supporting it.

        It also looks like the third iteration won’t have an e-paper display, so I’m not sure the beneft of that version will be against a ultra power-saving mode / locked down Android or a mobile Linux on much cheaper hardware.

  • @Donjuanme
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    820 days ago

    For your car het yourself a cassette player dock and a Sony walkman. Don’t worry about the skipping, scratched CDs, limited data storage, shaky connection, inability to change the library at will, it’s much easier and more convenient than keeping a Bluetooth connection from your phone to your player working.

    • slazer2au
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      1020 days ago

      Alternative, get one with a USB port and load a USB stick with MP3.

    • @[email protected]
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      720 days ago

      I just keep my radio off and instead listen to the worrying noises from the engine and suspension.

    • @ChowJeeBaiOP
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      120 days ago

      I used to have one of those cassette adapters to use with mp3 players. They’d work great with headphone jacks. Pity few phones still have those these days.

      • @[email protected]
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        320 days ago

        I use a Sony NWZ A15 which is an older player so can probably be had for not much money. Headphone jack and micro SD card.

        If your car is newer with one of those integrated head units then you can get a 3.5mm Bluetooth sender for hardly any money.

      • NebLem
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        20 days ago

        Yeah you’d probably have to rig something with a usbc to 3.5mm to cassette adapter if you want corded, though someone with better skills than me could slice and solder the two adapters together to make one adapter.

    • @ace_garp
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      120 days ago

      I rebought my old Walkman for nostalgia WM-FX415, which, according to current reviews, was a decent model.

      A little more techy, I’m currently looking at this portable CD player that has Bluetooth and FM transmit. It’s showing as sold out though.

      Monodeal CD707.

  • @rsuri
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    719 days ago

    Wired headphones. I like that they just plug into whatever without syncing, are cheap, light, and last basically forever. Of course I need a dongle for the vast majority of modern phones, but I a have a sturdy solid dongle and other than the annoyance of having to carry it with me (and using the word “dongle” to describe it) it works quite nicely. A wire clip is also a necessity.

    • mechoman444
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      318 days ago

      Wired headphones are superior to Bluetooth in every way. I still lament the day major phone manufacturers got rid of the 3.5 Jack.

        • mechoman444
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          118 days ago

          Omg! Look everyone apple did a thing we should do the same because we’re all money grubbing greedy bastards at heart.

  • @[email protected]
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    620 days ago

    Why does TV need software updates? Mine has software from 2013 and I have never even connected it to the internet. It showed me tv-shows then and it shows me tv-shows now.

    • @ChowJeeBaiOP
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      420 days ago

      My mum’s Samsung lost Netflix access because the app was too old, and Samsung considers it legacy and therefore won’t support it any more. There was also an article where the author lamented his phone no longer connecting to his older Android auto version. Essentially, we are being forced to replace perfectly functional hardware due to software, essentially the consumer electronics version of ‘you are out of cyan, replace the entire printer cartridge please’.

    • Sabata
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      020 days ago

      They update when someone come up with a new way to spy on you, or fix an non functioning one.

  • @GraniteM
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    619 days ago

    Bluetooth speaker? No! Homemade PVC pipe passive amp? Yes!

  • @ChowJeeBaiOP
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    420 days ago

    Let’s start this off. I looked at some business displays as a replacement for a tv. They do the job, but generally don’t have great sound, so I need to buy soundbars as well. My old Panasonic 50’ is great, and I don’t mind the power draw. Will miss it when it’s gone.

  • CRUMBGRABBER
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    420 days ago

    The cardboard paper towel megaphone should be anyones first choice for both announcements and updates.

  • @[email protected]
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    419 days ago

    My Panasonic Lumix S5 camera, it has been a huge upgrade from my old GX80.

    A proper digital camera has had a huge impact on my life, they have made me go and see places just because I wanted a photo.

    They have really improved my quallity of life.