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0:00
Okay, let's run through worst of the year
0:04
And why don't we just go in reverse order, Griffin? What's just something that you just really
0:10
you really just hated this year, just really got your blood boiling. So this is the opposite of one of my picks earlier this year that we did on
0:18
I think on under review. I talked about the Cooks UX40, like all in one travel charger
0:24
And so they, like, my one complaint about it. I mean, I don't buy the things that people send me to review, obviously
0:32
But, you know, I was looking at the price and I was like, man, I really like this product. But I don't know if I would pay like $180 for it or something like that
0:39
Not $180, just like regular $80. You know, it's kind of expensive. So I was really excited when they came out with the Cooks UX-55, which is a slightly cheaper model
0:49
And I thought, hey, you know, send me one of those. I'll take a look at it
0:55
I was hoping, well, you know, this is probably just, you know, the same thing
0:59
I've made out of like plastic instead of metal, you know, to bring the price down an extra 20 or 30 bucks
1:04
No, it's absolute garbage. I don't know what they've done to this thing. But like, first of all, it's like three times, it's like three times as thick as the other one
1:14
It's like creaky. It doesn't like sometimes when you're adjusting like the different levels, like it's one of these chargers that unfolds
1:24
Like you can literally hear the plastic like creaking as you're undoing it or wiggling it around
1:28
the Apple Watch Charter that's built into it is like just garbage it's like you know just sort of
1:33
flips off like no good action on that it's it's terrible I don't really like it I think this is
1:39
kind of a kind of crap a regression in every sense yeah yeah oh and here's the dumbest thing
1:45
the the the cable that comes out of it comes out the side not the back yeah which is just
1:52
what what are you thinking for maximum annoyance yeah yeah they've been
1:58
built the entire product just to annoy a Griffin and it succeeded. You can't fold it up right
2:02
Like it's still, you fold it down and then it still has like this wiggle on it. It has a weird spring tension built into it or something
2:09
Yeah, yeah. It's the hinges aren't like a single action hinge. Like there's there's like a separate hinge piece between each layer of it
2:18
So it has this bizarre folding mechanism. Like it's possible to fold it where you can't actually put your phone on the magsafe thing
2:25
Because if you unfold it such that, like the hinge is going behind the bottom layer
2:30
then you can't attach your phone to it because the hinge is in the way. It's a stupid piece of design
2:36
We need to do, we need to do segments like this more often when we talk about the products that we don't like
2:40
I tend to shy away from doing that because I'm like, I don't want to roast the company
2:44
because sometimes the company just has a miss, right? They'll have like a whole line of great products
2:48
and then they'll have one that's not good. And when you roast it, it damages
2:53
it could damage the reputation, but sometimes the products deserve it. You know what I mean
2:57
they're just so bad. It's like, what were you thinking releasing this product
3:01
Maybe you weren't thinking. I'm going to help you think more clearly next time. It's kind of a fun thing
3:06
All right Lewis we going to reverse I got it in reverse I punched it What do you have I would say the worst thing that I dealt with this year is
3:16
and we were talking about this for the show, predictive text in iOS 17
3:21
Utter garbage, been garbage for years worse than ever now. Can't get the punctuation correct
3:27
Can't get common names. Like if I say Lewis, what might possibly be the next word that I would say
3:34
Typically it might be Wallace. Never on the auto complete. For some reason, it started putting the word darts in parentheses every time I say it
3:44
I even, I just tell you, I even went in and pressed delete the existing vocabulary
3:49
and it still put the word darts in parentheses. I put in, I try to say SEO, you know, SEO optimization
3:57
What does it say? S-C-O optimization. Why? Why? Is that a word
4:02
Why does it say that? Why does it say it over and over when I say SEO? I could rant all day about this
4:07
I think it's, you know, hands down, the worst thing about my iPhone
4:12
And if Apple can't fix that, I don't know. The fact that it just keeps getting worse is shocking to me
4:20
And I can't believe that the person who runs that department at Apple
4:24
I'd love them to call me personally because I'd like to hear an explanation. And it's been terrible for such a long time
4:30
They just can't seem to fix it. It's pathetic. And, you know, don't get me started on the other stuff
4:35
you know, we were also discussing with the show, right? Like, now, Siri is so much smarter
4:39
building to everything, and, you know, you got the little universal search. You start typing in the name of your app
4:44
which, frankly, I mean, it's a great feature that I use. Like, you type in the first two letters
4:51
and it pops up the app you're looking for. But, as we're saying
4:56
so many times these days, you're getting ready to tap the app you want
5:01
that it correctly identified, and it moves a different app in there
5:05
Split second. And you, yeah, always the splits. It's like it's got a proximity sensor
5:10
It knows, ah, the finger's going to be there in 0.2 seconds. Quick. Put the different app icon in there so they open the wrong app
5:16
I mean, those things are not helpful. And if Apple really thinks they're, you know, winning the AI game by making this stuff smarter, they are not
5:26
It is annoying and it makes my iPhone harder to use rather than easier
5:32
There's definitely a lot of room for improvement. Much, much, much, much, room
5:37
I want to give a quick shout out to Adrian Rods. I'm going to try and see this
5:43
Roudaskel. Rodoskel. Love the show, guys. Been a loyal listener since episode four, Lewis
5:51
With the five pounds. Thank you for the five quid there, Adrian
5:56
Episode four. That is, I mean, you're an honorary member of the Gov Club
6:02
You haven't been here since episode one, but you only miss three. And the first three probably weren't that great
6:07
In fact, I'd say maybe the first 300 maybe. But that means he's been listening to the show for, I don't know how long we've been here
6:16
A real long time. 13 years 13 years My oh my Yeah Thank you for that five quid And more than that thank you for just letting us know That pretty cool I always love hearing from the members of the Gov Club because I don know how many we have
6:32
but I do know that there's people out there who've been listening for the entire history of the show
6:36
which is wild to think that we've been doing it for this long. So thanks for letting us know
6:41
Was there anything else on that, Lewis, that... Oh, you'll be a more? Actually, no
6:45
I retract that question. Oh, man, I could do, like you guys, my list of things that annoyed me terribly is long and deep
6:58
There's so many things I could pick from. But the thing that I actually didn't even think about until this very moment comes from level remix from the chat
7:09
AirFon is home pods on the list this year. And I would say after being with the Gen 2 home pods for how long have they been out now
7:20
eight months, I would probably say, I think so. Now, I will immediately temper that comment by saying the HomePod 2s are not terrible
7:32
but they're not special. And that's the part that really is tragic
7:37
Apple took a really magnificent product, the HomePod, which has, had this epervescent, sparkling, beautiful golden audio
7:48
My two beautiful angels. And instead of improving on them and making them easy to fix after they bricked themselves
7:55
they took out two of the speakers and they just made them more generic
8:02
They sound like good speakers now and not like transcendent speakers anymore
8:08
And I think that's terribly sad. And I get why Apple did it. They're probably trying to create some cost savings and still keep the speakers on the market
8:17
But they just don't sound nearly as good as the original home pods do
8:23
They have lost that in magic. And I don't even know how they did that because they still sound good
8:29
But I don't think the Dolby Atmos sounds as good. I don't think the music reproduction sounds as good
8:35
And yeah, they're cheaper. But what you lost, is worth more than the money that you get discounted on those products
8:45
Like for now I would, I would legitimately consider going with a different solution
8:51
Like from Sonos or something, especially considering that Sonos is going to be creating their own
8:56
streaming set-top box to compete with Apple TV Plus and their speakers will work with it
9:03
I mean, the unbeatable feature with the HomePod still now is the fact that you can connect them to your Apple TV
9:10
and use them. as your TV speakers, that's not something that you can do with any of the speakers
9:16
And that's pretty valuable in my opinion because you could use them for music, but then you can also use them as your sound bar essentially
9:22
And they sound terrific, but they don't sound magical. And that is sad
9:27
I really hate what they did with the home pods I also hate that they didn make the home pod originals repairable And a lot of people are having problems with them including me
9:39
And I've never had a piece of technology that I can recall, be perfectly usable
9:44
And then all of a sudden just brick itself. Like, I don't think that's ever happened to me
9:49
And the fact that Apple isn't able to fix that is so frustrating and so baffling
9:55
It's like, how did you not create a way to log into this product without using Wi-Fi
10:03
If the Wi-Fi goes, stops working as happens with devices, you can't plug it in and actually like work on it
10:10
How is that even possible? So it's like they designed it. There's such a huge design flaw built in
10:16
That's the other disappointment. There's other Apple products I've been disappointed with this year
10:22
that I will probably save for next episode. But yeah, I think that that's
10:28
fair to say is like what a disappointment man i just i don't even recommend the home pods to people
10:34
anymore i still think that they're good products but there are other good products out there that
10:39
i think are worth trying especially from sonos the sonos era 100 or the 300s i would be really
10:45
interested in using and the 300s i think you can use as speakers for your tv although i don't think
10:52
it's a seamless as they should have made me product manager for the home pods man there's so many
10:57
things that they could have done. We talked about them on this show. HomePod subwifer
11:03
HomePod satellite mode so you could buy two more home pods, put them behind you and have
11:09
true surround sound and not just emulated surround sound. And that would have given them more value
11:14
in the marketplace so that you could justify the price point and still had that beautiful
11:19
pristine audio. I mean, there's so many things they could have done. And instead, they just
11:23
pulled them back and made them worse and then lowered the price. and that sucks
11:30
I still haven't heard the second-gen version. Well, don't go buy them
11:38
Yeah, well, I'm not going to. I mean, I already have two that haven't yet committed suicide
11:44
Yeah, RIP to the Home Pod. Maybe that's taking it too far
11:47
They're not bad. They're just not great. They were the best. They were the best
11:54
And now it's just another smart speaker that sounds good. I still think they sound better
11:59
than the Amazon Echo Studio. But in the pantheon of quote unquote high-end
12:07
smart speakers, they were the best. Nothing came close, man. Nothing came close
12:12
And now they're close. And they may even exceed it. Okay, I think that's it
12:17
Any famous last words before we move on? Yeah, you should try a rolling guitar amp
12:24
Two of those next to my TV. but but even together they're still just blasting mono
12:30
there's no stereo there it's just one monoblast all my plants will be dead
12:35
my hair will be slicked back long luscious beautiful I'm going to give it a shot
12:40
I just have to go visit Al and see if Al can hook me up with any more speakers
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