Tech Purchase Errors: what was I thinking?!

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Geektastic

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#306575 4-Aug-2023 18:46

If you’re anything like me, you probably have one or more (maybe many more!) tech items you thought would be brilliant and useful but which turned out to be nothing of the sort.

Here, you may confess!

Mine would definitely be the iPad. So cool and yet so completely pointless in my life.

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#3111868 4-Aug-2023 18:49

A cheap smartwatch I bought from Amazon that turned out to be unreadable in sunlight and had an app that killed my phone's battery. And of course containing a tiny amount of lithium so not feasible to return

xpd

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#3111870 4-Aug-2023 19:02

DJI Osmo Mobile 3 (2nd hand) - got it at good price but not used it in a way that its designed for :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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MikeB4

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#3111871 4-Aug-2023 19:05

Smart watches, individually and collectively.

Kyanar

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#3111873 4-Aug-2023 19:09

I bought a DJI drone - which I literally only use to check if I have bird**** on my solar panels.

michaelmurfy

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#3111875 4-Aug-2023 19:21

Years ago I backed the Indiegogo for the Volterman Smart Wallet - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/volterman-the-world-s-most-powerful-wallet#/

It turned out to be an outright scam. I did eventually end up getting one but it was horrible in every way and didn't even work as designed. I tore it down, ripped out its guts and reverse engineered it just to show how much of a scam it really was: https://murfy.nz/2021/03/12/volterman-lumzag-scam/

Going back I am wondering what I was thinking when I backed it in the first place? Since then I have done my due diligence before backing anything and now refuse to back anything on Indiegogo.

Edit: I see they finally shut down their app, domain and didn't deliver the majority of the wallets. Guess I only got one because they screwed up sending another customers thread to me.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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mrgsm021

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#3111886 4-Aug-2023 20:29

Where do I begin?....Nuf said

Handle9

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#3111994 5-Aug-2023 02:47

Kyanar:
I bought a DJI drone - which I literally only use to check if I have bird**** on my solar panels.

I bought one which I got banned from using a year later. Still grouchy.

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paulgr

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#3112003 5-Aug-2023 07:25

Computer parts I really, really had to have 6 months ago.
New quieter SSF PSU, 2 x M.2 1tb drives, 2 x SSD 1tb drives for an upgrade to my Lian-Li A4h2o case.
Still in boxes.
Meh.
Why do we do it?

Enthusiasm (and a credit card) costs money I guess.

johno1234

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#3112004 5-Aug-2023 07:36

Handle9:
Kyanar:
I bought a DJI drone - which I literally only use to check if I have bird**** on my solar panels.

I bought one which I got banned from using a year later. Still grouchy.

I sense an amusing story behind this. Care to share?

Bet you flew it too close to significant other’s prize petunias. Or similar?

johno1234

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#3112005 5-Aug-2023 07:39

A box of expensive lawn sprinklers solenoid valves and an automated controller for a house we sold 5 years ago. Seemed like a good idea at the time but I hand watered the new lawn until we sold up.

Also some Shelley switches.

ashtonaut

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#3112006 5-Aug-2023 07:41

A cheap ‘8 core’ Android tablet from Aliexpress. From day 1 it was incredibly sluggish and slow, never got any software updates, and sat in a cupboard till we threw it out.

everettpsycho

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#3112008 5-Aug-2023 07:58

I picked up a Phillips soundbar for our bedroom TV, the selling point was Google assistant/cast built in for a reasonable priced soundbar. The things bloody awful, it doesn't lock up the tv sound unless you either restart it or smcycle through all of the inputs. Turning it off take a kit 3 minutes to restart and ylmou loose the Google functionality.

All around it's just bad and was an impulse buy, I wish I'd stumped up the extra for a better sound bar.

eracode

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#3112009 5-Aug-2023 08:16

A ceiling-mounted radary-thing that tells you when you’re in the correct fore-and-aft position when parking in the garage. Still in the box. Later installed small rubber bumper tyre-stops for each car on the floor - much better.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Bung

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#3112010 5-Aug-2023 08:27

WD TV bought for CRT TV and never used.

Stu

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#3112011 5-Aug-2023 08:47

paulgr:
Computer parts I really, really had to have 6 months ago.
New quieter SSF PSU, 2 x M.2 1tb drives, 2 x SSD 1tb drives for an upgrade to my Lian-Li A4h2o case.
Still in boxes.
Meh.
Why do we do it?

Enthusiasm (and a credit card) costs money I guess.

It's called GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). It's real, and it's expensive!

I have GAS (and no the doctor couldn't help, there is no pill for that).

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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