Consumer Techie Devices And Stuff
Discussion
May be it's just me.
I have a satnav from a leading brand. In preparation for a motorcycle trip across Europe this weekend I have been programming my satnav to put the route in. The tour company send the route as part of the package, and one "just" down loads the route on to the device via the official software.
The job is actually quite easy, but this depends on being able to fathom out how the software works. As usual there is a nice getting started type thing that says things like "start your adventure now!" and you can go onto youtube to see some cheery techie explaining a load of stuff you don't want at great speed using terms and phrases that have no place in a piece of consumer electronics.
About 18 months ago I purchased a sports watch as my old one was falling to bits. The new one is too clever for it's own good and doesn't seem to get the basics right. Again, there's a "getting started" part when you pug it into the PC and it finally starts to talk to it before I smashed the POS with a hammer. Again you can go on to youtube to see another cheery techie telling you what it does at light speed with a load of lingo.
With the new smart phone there was even less information for a device that does lots more.
The one thing that is missing from these pieces of consumer electronics is a decent, paper manual that one can look at and refer back to at you leisure. I don' want to down load it, I want it in the box when I open it. When I read it, it must explain the basics of what it is I have just bought can do and then go on in more depth. It must assume I know nothing and explain all of the jargon without assuming that the person that bought it has a job in IT.
There's plenty of changes of work which sees me operating the combine harvester this year. This is a big, expensive, complex piece of machinery that is driven by professionals. I am an experienced operator of machines and have driven these type of machine before, but not much in the last 20 years. I have been having a look at the manual. It is over 1000 pages thick. Everything and I mean, everything is covered in there. There's no cheeky chappie on youtube, but there is a manual hidden in the control screen which is free from "getting started" b
ks, just clear information.
You even get a manual with a kettle, all it does is boil water, so why not with "devices" that actually do a lot of stuff? Perhaps I am a Luddite, which is quite possible
I have a satnav from a leading brand. In preparation for a motorcycle trip across Europe this weekend I have been programming my satnav to put the route in. The tour company send the route as part of the package, and one "just" down loads the route on to the device via the official software.
The job is actually quite easy, but this depends on being able to fathom out how the software works. As usual there is a nice getting started type thing that says things like "start your adventure now!" and you can go onto youtube to see some cheery techie explaining a load of stuff you don't want at great speed using terms and phrases that have no place in a piece of consumer electronics.
About 18 months ago I purchased a sports watch as my old one was falling to bits. The new one is too clever for it's own good and doesn't seem to get the basics right. Again, there's a "getting started" part when you pug it into the PC and it finally starts to talk to it before I smashed the POS with a hammer. Again you can go on to youtube to see another cheery techie telling you what it does at light speed with a load of lingo.
With the new smart phone there was even less information for a device that does lots more.
The one thing that is missing from these pieces of consumer electronics is a decent, paper manual that one can look at and refer back to at you leisure. I don' want to down load it, I want it in the box when I open it. When I read it, it must explain the basics of what it is I have just bought can do and then go on in more depth. It must assume I know nothing and explain all of the jargon without assuming that the person that bought it has a job in IT.
There's plenty of changes of work which sees me operating the combine harvester this year. This is a big, expensive, complex piece of machinery that is driven by professionals. I am an experienced operator of machines and have driven these type of machine before, but not much in the last 20 years. I have been having a look at the manual. It is over 1000 pages thick. Everything and I mean, everything is covered in there. There's no cheeky chappie on youtube, but there is a manual hidden in the control screen which is free from "getting started" b
ks, just clear information. You even get a manual with a kettle, all it does is boil water, so why not with "devices" that actually do a lot of stuff? Perhaps I am a Luddite, which is quite possible
There will nearly always be an online version of a manual, usually in PDF format. There will also usually be step-by-step instructions in the 'support' section of the manufacturer's website. Failing that there are often forums where other users have posted walk-throughs, guides or answered questions. Someone somewhere will have run into the same issue you have and the answer will be online.
It's easier than ever to find answers.
It's easier than ever to find answers.
Funk said:
There will nearly always be an online version of a manual, usually in PDF format. There will also usually be step-by-step instructions in the 'support' section of the manufacturer's website. Failing that there are often forums where other users have posted walk-throughs, guides or answered questions. Someone somewhere will have run into the same issue you have and the answer will be online.
It's easier than ever to find answers.
I agree. I used to keep manuals in a box, sometimes for kit long since dead. Now I just bin them and look on line when I need one. So much easier just to print it when you need it.It's easier than ever to find answers.
This is driven by changes in the way in which we "consume content". It would never occur to my kids to look anywhere other than YouTube to find out how to do / use something. I find video an appallingly slow and restrictive (linear) way of learning, so it drives me mad.
But I think we must accept that we are just old guys and need to get with the program....
But I think we must accept that we are just old guys and need to get with the program....
I don't want to piss about downloading a PDF, They are horrible things to read. I want a paper manual that I can refer back to in a moment without looking it up on line or trying to remember what the poxy file was called or waiting while the laptop does another update or the wifi has switched off again. Nor do I want to waste time watching someone waffle on on youtube about a load of stuff that's not relevant.
The forums are a joke. What's my user name? Err. Password. Need to reset that. Need a new password now. Hmm. Not load enough, not enough numbers. FFS. Now, what was it I wanted to know? Oh yes. I want to know it now, not in 3 days and not after wading through a load of guff.
18 months I've had this fking watch and hate it more every day because trying to work out what the piece of st does it a pain in the fking arse. Even the Contact Us page on their website is ste.
The forums are a joke. What's my user name? Err. Password. Need to reset that. Need a new password now. Hmm. Not load enough, not enough numbers. FFS. Now, what was it I wanted to know? Oh yes. I want to know it now, not in 3 days and not after wading through a load of guff.
18 months I've had this f
king watch and hate it more every day because trying to work out what the piece of st does it a pain in the fking arse. Even the Contact Us page on their website is ste. Willy Nilly said:
I don't want to piss about downloading a PDF, They are horrible things to read. I want a paper manual that I can refer back to in a moment without looking it up on line or trying to remember what the poxy file was called or waiting while the laptop does another update or the wifi has switched off again. Nor do I want to waste time watching someone waffle on on youtube about a load of stuff that's not relevant.
The forums are a joke. What's my user name? Err. Password. Need to reset that. Need a new password now. Hmm. Not load enough, not enough numbers. FFS. Now, what was it I wanted to know? Oh yes. I want to know it now, not in 3 days and not after wading through a load of guff.
18 months I've had this fking watch and hate it more every day because trying to work out what the piece of st does it a pain in the fking arse. Even the Contact Us page on their website is ste.
I'm going to politely suggest that the issue does not lie with the item, the lack of manual or anything else. I'm afraid that if you want to use modern technology, you're going to have to modernise yourself first.The forums are a joke. What's my user name? Err. Password. Need to reset that. Need a new password now. Hmm. Not load enough, not enough numbers. FFS. Now, what was it I wanted to know? Oh yes. I want to know it now, not in 3 days and not after wading through a load of guff.
18 months I've had this f
king watch and hate it more every day because trying to work out what the piece of st does it a pain in the fking arse. Even the Contact Us page on their website is ste. The vast majority of people survive - nay, thrive - in the modern world, even 'oldies' like my mum or the 70+ year old partner of a friend who loved her Android tablet so much she took the leap to a new Moto G4 smartphone too... If you can't even tolerate something as simple as reading a PDF on-screen (explain to me how it's any different to reading PH please?) or remembering a password (pssst....any internet browser will do that for you...) and failing to be able to search something on a site then perhaps it's best you don't try and play with tech which seems to be beyond you.
Your tone comes across as being determined to frustrate a variety of very simple solution-finding methods. I was going to offer to find the solution for you but I won't help those who don't even try to help themselves first.
I'll bet that back in the day when manuals were invented you complained about having to look up the page number in the index...
I think we just witnessed a person become a grumpy old man. 
I'm pretty sure the watch company will send you a 1000 page guide if you pay them even half the cost of the combine harvester, never mind the fact that you could accidentally turn an entire town into mince meat with the combine harvester but that's less likely with the watch. The watch will probably cook your arm though if you press the wrong combination of buttons.
I do find myself on youtube a lot these days actually trying to understand how things work but it's a very distracting method!
I'm pretty sure the watch company will send you a 1000 page guide if you pay them even half the cost of the combine harvester, never mind the fact that you could accidentally turn an entire town into mince meat with the combine harvester but that's less likely with the watch. The watch will probably cook your arm though if you press the wrong combination of buttons.
I do find myself on youtube a lot these days actually trying to understand how things work but it's a very distracting method!
I don't mind pdfs but there's no way I can countenance video as any type of problem reference. It takes ten times longer and you're watching some tt moving their cursor in slow motion or talking st for a few minutes before the info you need arrives. If I can't find a written record I can't be bothered. How it became the go to medium is beyond me.
t moving their cursor in slow motion or talking st for a few minutes before the info you need arrives. If I can't find a written record I can't be bothered. How it became the go to medium is beyond me.jamoor said:
Indeed, don't need a manual. You're very much in the minority which is a good thing as it's a waste of paper etc.
Don't need a manual, but its to stop morons harming themselves.Toaster, for example, a normal person wouldn't dream of using a metal knife to extract the bread that's stuck, if the manual doesnt say that, then someone will sue the company.
If its online only, said moron will use the same excuse that it's not visible, etc and sue company.
Du1point8 said:
Don't need a manual, but its to stop morons harming themselves.
Toaster, for example, a normal person wouldn't dream of using a metal knife to extract the bread that's stuck, if the manual doesnt say that, then someone will sue the company.
If its online only, said moron will use the same excuse that it's not visible, etc and sue company.
Sure but I doubt any harm will come to someone from a smartwatch or satnav.Toaster, for example, a normal person wouldn't dream of using a metal knife to extract the bread that's stuck, if the manual doesnt say that, then someone will sue the company.
If its online only, said moron will use the same excuse that it's not visible, etc and sue company.
jamoor said:
Sure but I doubt any harm will come to someone from a smartwatch or satnav.
You'd be wrong:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2438430/Sat...
And that's from 2008, when far fewer people had them...
There is a lot of crap tech out there - sports watches and bike computers being the main culprits (to my eyes at least though).
Youtube is ace though - want to know how to do something then just search and watch the video, pausing whilst you keep up. This has made things like bike maintenance way easier for me. I actually manage to do what I set out to - sometimes at least!
Youtube is ace though - want to know how to do something then just search and watch the video, pausing whilst you keep up. This has made things like bike maintenance way easier for me. I actually manage to do what I set out to - sometimes at least!
I usually find that with portable-type tech, if I need to access the manual then the thing just isn't designed in an intuitive enough way. The thing that caused me the most grief was a digital lighting timer. A scrappy Chinglish manual was more hindrance than help: "Press button C three times to cycle through modes sequential thus S > S > M > or twice for on and off within time zone, press for hours to flash etc etc". I still haven't grasped the damn thing. The clocks going back or forward fills me with dread. Yet a cheap multi-function sports watch, though - I hesitated about splashing out £9.99 on that baby for fear of the same kind of thing, only worse. But I only needed to look at the manual once when I first had it. You can make all the functions work intuitively with minimal button-presses.
It's all in the design.
It's all in the design.
bloomen said:
I don't mind pdfs but there's no way I can countenance video as any type of problem reference.
My daughter, who is a teacher, said kids now use YouTube in preference to Google. If they want to know something they search for it on YouTube, and then watch a video that explains it to them.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff