Stupid product designs.

[feralkid]

wow what company thought that would be a good idea? so what did they move to the center of the steering wheel?

British auto companies (among others) did this.

It wasn't a design choice per se. In the 70's, when U.S. safety laws required steering wheels that wouldn't "Sheesh KeBab" the driver in a collision, many foreign companies had to quickly re-engineer cars for the American market.

Pretty clever work-around actually.

And what did they move to the center of the steering wheel?

Why, a big, dorky looking pad, of course. Much like today's cars, where they put the airbag.



Actually this doesn't really qualify as "stupid".

Prior to this, most cars had the horn button located at the very center of the steering wheel hub, so that one needed to take one hand off the wheel to honk the horn. This accidentally solved that issue.

 

[Fallingwater]

Or any number of "music phones," feature phones with MP3 capabilities that often don't even have a 3.5mm jack. Many have a 2.5mm that requires an adapter.

What really bugs me is phones that are advertised as "music phones", but fail pathetically when they're used for more than light-duty playback.
Say, my Nokia 5230 (which will be someone else's Nokia 5230 soon, with any luck). The player actually has a fairly decent interface, and doesn't necessarily require uploading through special software. However, it chokes on large music libraries. Casual listeners putting a few dozen songs in a 2GB microSD, sure. But people like me, who fill a 16GB card with transcoded low-bitrate AACs to pack as much music as possible in it, get screwed, because the player hangs every time it scans the library.
This has pissed me off more than just a little bit, as I was really counting on using the phone as my main music player so as to free up some pocket space. It's also why I'm going to sell the 5230 soon and get something with a proper operating system - ie Android.

Somebody mentioned this in one of the hardware forums and was dead-on: USB plugs.

What's wrong about USB plugs? For light-duty applications they seem perfectly fine to me. They are also very standardized and offer a fairly solid connection - which barrel plugs don't. My only gripe with USB is that there isn't some sort of corresponding standard for higher-power connectors, forcing us people who work with laptops to have a collection of different-sized barrel plugs.

Though personally, I'd just use JSTs for everything...

 

[CZroe]

What really bugs me is phones that are advertised as "music phones", but fail pathetically when they're used for more than light-duty playback.
Say, my Nokia 5230 (which will be someone else's Nokia 5230 soon, with any luck). The player actually has a fairly decent interface, and doesn't necessarily require uploading through special software. However, it chokes on large music libraries. Casual listeners putting a few dozen songs in a 2GB microSD, sure. But people like me, who fill a 16GB card with transcoded low-bitrate AACs to pack as much music as possible in it, get screwed, because the player hangs every time it scans the library.
This has pissed me off more than just a little bit, as I was really counting on using the phone as my main music player so as to free up some pocket space. It's also why I'm going to sell the 5230 soon and get something with a proper operating system - ie Android.


What's wrong about USB plugs? For light-duty applications they seem perfectly fine to me. They are also very standardized and offer a fairly solid connection - which barrel plugs don't. My only gripe with USB is that there isn't some sort of corresponding standard for higher-power connectors, forcing us people who work with laptops to have a collection of different-sized barrel plugs.

Though personally, I'd just use JSTs for everything...

Compare it to, say, an N64 controller plug. Even with the shortest of glances, you know EXACTLY how to plug it in by feel. You could do it blindly if you were familiar with it. USB requires staring into the connector, knowing the arrangement on the back of the PC you can't see, feeling around as it slides into RJ45 sockets and other areas but somehow resists sliding into t properly oriented USB port, etc. What planet have you been living on for the past 13 years? Yeah, an N64 controller connector plug is bulky, but it doesn't need to be bulky to follow the same logic.

 

[dullard]

Compare it to, say, an N64 controller plug. Even with the shortest of glances, you know EXACTLY how to plug it in by feel. You could do it blindly if you were familiar with it. USB requires staring into the connector, knowing the arrangement on the back of the PC you can't see, feeling around as it slides into RJ45 sockets and other areas but somehow resists sliding into t properly oriented USB port, etc. What planet have you been living on for the past 13 years? Yeah, an N64 controller connector plug is bulky, but it doesn't need to be bulky to follow the same logic.

USB was quite good for its time. Compare it to similar multi-wire plugs in 1996. You had the phone jack / ethernet plugs that either (a) required a latch that always broke or (b) fell out on its own. Or you had massive plugs like the N64 (which incidently came out in the same year) or plugs like the ones on parallel ports which often required screws to keep it in. Also the force required to put it in is minimal, which makes it even easier to put in USB plugs by feel. For its size and its time, the USB plug was quite fantastic compared to similar plugs.

The problem wasn't the plug, but with the implemetation of the plug.

For example, the offical USB specification says the embossed logo must be on top. This logo is easilly visible if you are plugging in from the front (To help you out, the instrument is supposed to print the USB logo in an orientation that matches the plug) or the embossing is feelable if you are plugging behind an item. Thus, you could either see or feel exactly how the USB cable is supposed to go in. The problem comes when instrument manufacturers either put the plug in upside down or sideways (like most computers that I've seen with their ports on the back). Where the heck is the top when it is sideways?

It isn't the plug's fault, it is the manufacturers who blatently disregard the design standard that ruined USB's ease of use.

 

[CZroe]

USB was quite good for its time. Compare it to similar multi-wire plugs in 1996. You had the phone jack / ethernet plugs that either (a) required a latch that always broke or (b) fell out on its own. Or you had massive plugs like the N64 (which incidently came out in the same year) or plugs like the ones on parallel ports which often required screws to keep it in. Also the force required to put it in is minimal, which makes it even easier to put in USB plugs by feel. For its size and its time, the USB plug was quite fantastic compared to similar plugs.

The problem wasn't the plug, but with the implemetation of the plug.

For example, the offical USB specification says the embossed logo must be on top. This logo is easilly visible if you are plugging in from the front (To help you out, the instrument is supposed to print the USB logo in an orientation that matches the plug) or the embossing is feelable if you are plugging behind an item. Thus, you could either see or feel exactly how the USB cable is supposed to go in. The problem comes when instrument manufacturers either put the plug in upside down or sideways (like most computers that I've seen with their ports on the back). Where the heck is the top when it is sideways?

It isn't the plug's fault, it is the manufacturers who blatently disregard the design standard that ruined USB's ease of use.

If you know the ATX spec, you know the orientation of the ports because you know which way the motherboard would be in a desktop ATX system.

That said, look at the SNES and NES before the N64. The problems with USB were not because connectors in general weren't refined in the mid '90s. In fact, the N64 went the extra mile of having the plug end the same color as the controller so that you could tell which enumeration belonged with which controller without following the cord... even if they were completely tangled. A logo on the USB cable isn't enough. Many devices do not have cables at all (directly plug in and a logo would detract from the design).

Haven't you ever encountered one of those frustrating ports where the USB device/cable does not slide right in? They are common enough... especially the front-mounted ports on older Dell systems that face down and are recessed in plastic so there is no way you will ever be able to see them if the system is on the floor under a desk.

Anyway, I just used the large N64 connector as one example but it is totally possible to make a much smaller connector with the same principles. A rounded end would not have been as easy to manufacture, but it would have been a lot more consumer-friendly.

 

[CZroe]

OK, I just got my Motoboss Communicator Bluetooth helmet from the Cycle Gear Black Friday special (rebranded O'Neal FastTrack Element with a "Blinc Bluetooth Communicator" built-in). I see that this one supposedly supports BT2.0 when the O'Neal one was BT1.1. Anyway, there are multiple design and documentation flaws.

First thing it says to do is to insert the battery. The slot is in a place underneath padding and right underneath the edge of the helmet shell so you can't slide the battery straight down or even look down to see the orientation that the battery goes in. No matter what, you will have to stress an unprotected Lithium-Ion cell to get it in while you stretch back padding that feels like it was never supposed to stretch that far, but it gets much worse.

The manual does not tell you what orientation to use when inserting the battery... or even where to find the slot for that matter. All it says is to leave it charging until the indicator goes off for the initial charge. Actually, that's not all they say in the manual. They say that it is "very important" not to interrupt the initial charge, but they also say to turn it off before it and then they do not tell you how the unit turns on and off (I still don't know). So, I looked at the orientation of the Bluetooth module and saw that it had a tab that you could presumably pull it out with. I pulled it out using pliers and saw that it's just a row of jumper-style pins that plug in when I slide it in, and I saw that the battery contacts must be part of the plastic enclosure that they both slot into because they are not part of the module that rests in there with it. I was hoping to find protruding contacts on the module, but I didn't (they're in the enclosure for both), so I still don't know how the battery is supposed to be oriented.

Because the tab was on one side of the module and the battery had a similar tab, the only logical arrangement I could choose was to orient the tabs the same way. I plugged in the cable and figured that I wouldn't get an indicator light like the manual talked about if the battery were installed backward. I plugged it in and got a light on the side of the helmet (the manual did not say where it would be and did not label any indicator lights). I could BARELY see the light through the smoke-colored controls on the side (there is no "window"). I had to look through the cracks in the device to see it and, even then, I literally had to turn the lights out in the room.

There I was, holding the helmet, ready to set it down and leave it when I realize: The cable plugs in to the bottom of the helmet and it sticks out too far to simply set the helmet down. It would either damage the plug/jack and make the helmet unstable enough to fall off the surface you set it on. If you know anything about motorcycle helmets, you know that you aren't supposed to use a helmet that has been dropped. The rest of a helmet is round, so you can't set it upside-down without it rolling off. Even if I had a way to keep it from rolling off, it's a brand new helmet and I wouldn't want to scuff the shiny shell on a hard surface before I've even worn it. Luckily, I was charging it next to a chest of drawers with clothing in it so I pulled a drawer out and placed it inside upside-down with my clothes. I can't imagine how else they expect you to do this. Some kind of hammock?!

So, the manual was pretty adamant that I not unplug or use it until I give it at least 4 hours for the initial charge. I don't even know how to turn it on so, AFAIK, it could boot as soon as I unplug it (you can't remove the battery/module door without unplugging it), so I just had to assume that I was right and that I really wouldn't have an indicator unless the battery was oriented right. I let it "charge" over-night only to find that the light was still solid in the morning. I unplugged it and tried to figure out how to turn it on and couldn't (it's not that I just "don't know," it's literally not in the manual). Sure enough, I rotated the battery to the other orientation and plugged it all back in and the light comes on just the same, meaning it did not indicate that it was charging like the manual expressly stated.

It looks like that was no way for 50% of their customers to avoid wasting at least 4 hours of their life. Actually, that's assuming that I'm the only one who would notice and use the "tab logic." Also, they only said that it usually take about 4 hours for the initial charge... the instruction were still to "wait" as long as it takes.

I'll probably have more to complain about later when I actually USE the thing.