The GPS system is inherently much less accurate for elevation than it is for 2D position. If a GPS tells you how much your elevation changed on a hike, it’s probably doing it by having a 3D map of the terrain, and assuming you’re staying on the surface.
I’ll play devil’s advocate to all those complaining about touch screens in cars. At least for more luxurious cars loaded with lots of electronic gizmos, the alternative to a touch screen is a wall of like 50 tiny buttons on the car’s center stack, which I would say is even worse than a touch screen. That’s one of the reasons they went to touch screens in the first place.
Which is why I doubt the touch screen will go away completely; what you’ll get is a compromise along the lines of @enipla’s 4Runner – knobs for the most frequently used functions, climate controls, music volume, etc., and the more rarely used functions relegated to the touch screen.
In my Hyundai, the touch screen only controls the radio and GPS. You can also handle most radio controls from buttons on the steering wheel.
I just noticed one last night on my new oven. The screen that displays the temp of the oven politely shows “door” when the oven door is open. If you can’t see that the oven door is open when standing in front of the oven, you’re not going to see that little message.
If your car’s console has that many features, that’s already a problem.
But if you absolutely must have all those features, then make them voice-activated.
Wife and I rented a mid sized SUV from the Pittsburgh airport 2 months ago.
All they had was a BMW SUV. Fine.
My Wife is a Senior Appraiser. She’s no slouch when it comes to computers.
I am a GIS Applications Engineer. So, I do know my way around a computer, GPS and all it’s workings.
Fired that Beemer up… Couldn’t adjust the mirrors. That took about 15 minutes. Backed out got on the road and actually got the GPS working. Luckily, my Wife is from Pittsburgh, so she pretty much knew where the hell we where going. If you know Pitt PA, you will understand the madness that is involved from going to point A to B. You end up going through the entire alphabet.
How about the steering wheel? My '19 Subaru Forester has 21 controls on the wheel itself, not counting the paddle shifters. I’m counting a 4 way toggle as 4 controls.
Heh. I bought a used pick up. It has an aftermarket CD player. 24 buttons/knobs. And just to make sure, a remote control. In a two door pick up truck.
I can’t figure the stupid thing out. I get it to play once in a while.
There’s no Winky’s in Wilmerding!
Another stupid design is Maxwell House coffee 3 lb “can”. It has what is supposed to be a grip/handle molded in but its so small that you have to hold it by your fingertips. Totally non-functional. I can’t even find an image of one on Google. It must be too embarrassing to show. Folgers, on the other hand has a nice grip on their large container.
My mother is 82 years old and has extremely poor eyesight. She has trouble reading regular print, so I bought her this digital magnifier.
It works well. But as expected, when the rechargeable battery gets low, it needs to be plugged in to the charger, just like your phone. But here’s the problem: the plug & receptacle are very small. Her eyesight is so poor that she has major difficulty plugging it in!
You would think the designers would have said, “Um, people are buying this product because they have very poor eyesight, right? So we should also design it so a nearly blind person can easily connect it to a charger.”
It’s obvious they didn’t think about this.
Or, they thought “Hey, you know how we could get people to buy two of these?”
Has anybody dealt with small bottles with nozzles that start folded and you have to unfold them to dispense the liquid within, but you can’t unfold them with just your fingers because they’re locked in so tight to prevent leakage you need to get a pen or knife to pop it open?
My oven has a display that very helpfully says “door” when the door is open. As if you can’t see that the door is at your knees.
This item would certainly benefit from Qi wireless charging like many of the newer cell phones have.
I still have a car that has manual controls for heat and A/C. 10 years into owning it the vent control cable started to stick a little. 2 drops of oil later it was fixed. The next car after that had some weird electro/vacuum system that controlled the vents. It cost $200 to replace the head unit. The next car after that had a completely computerized vent system. And that is controlled by a PMC computer so if the car is having electrical problems it just cannibalizes the components it deems unnecessary.
I would pay extra for a new car that had mechanical controls.
I had a battery-powered booklight. Replacing the battery required removing four of the smallest screws ever invented. The screws were also in the lamp of the light, not the base. I gave up the second time they went dead and goes a USB charging cable version.
Anyone else have trouble getting those large bottles (Sam’s Club large) of shampoo and conditioner with the pumps to work? It says to turn the spigot to unlock the pump. I spin it and spin it and spin it and nothing ever happens. Sometimes if I unscrew the whole thing I can get it to pop open. I broke one doing that so it was useless. I’ve had it happen with two different sets that were two different brands. I will not buy those ever again.
Yes, I’ve had the same problem. One thing that has sometimes worked: Try tightening it first, then spin it the opposite direction.