What are some tech products that you want that you can't seem to find?
Stuff like a pretty case with slots for optical drives, a laptop with a shitton of ports and all-day battery life or anything else that seems to go against the trends.
This thread is for complaining about how you can't find it and (maybe) finding it thanks to someone else.
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A proper non-Apple Macbook Air equivalent. Because imo for the average user that just browses the internet and does some light office work it seems perfect. And with that I mean:
Tbh i thought we would get it with Intels lunar lake processors, but so far no luck.
Honestly this sounds like a Chromebook to me.
Haven't looked at Chromebooks in a while, but you are right that the use case would be similar.
However I was under the impression that they are mostly competing at a lower price point. So I assume you wouldn't find nice build quality or screens.
Beyond that I am not really familiar with how chromeOS stacks up nowadays or if it would be trivial to install Linux/windows on them. Especially if they still have EOL dates after which they aren't updated with software anymore.
A quick search tells me that Google seems to work on a laptop and plans to merge (?) android and chromeOS more.
So overall again products that share some aspects of what the MacBook Air makes attractive, but doesn't offer the full package.
I have installed Linux on a Chromebook, actually. There's a really good guide on MrChromeBox.tech
The screen on my Chromebook was fine, at least by my (admittedly somewhat low) standards.
And yes, the have EOL dates, which sucks. It's why I installed Linux on mine.
I wonder if there is a Linux distro targeted at the average user who just browses the web and needs office software. I guess Mint comes a bit close, but it also has many other apps preinstalled.
Does your average non technical user who wants a device like this care if it's not the highest quality screen?
The demographic that is just Apple fanboys and they weren't giving up their overpriced garbage no matter what.
I didn't specify "non technical" as I'd actually like one like it myself and would consider myself at least moderately tech-savvy. I meant average in what many people actually end up doing on their laptop, which is browsing, writing, watching videos and maybe doing some very minor productivity tasks.
That said i would say that yes, even non technical users would appreciate a high quality screen. They admittedly probably wouldn't know to look out for it at purchase or what to look out for on a spec sheet, but in my opinion they would appreciate it during use (more so than some extra unneeded performance)
Yes, apple fanboys will be fanboys, but the M-series Macbook Airs are imo are just a really great piece of hardware. Particularly the M1 when it came out and even nowadays imo is even priced decently for what it offers.
So far i don't know a good non-Apple alternative that manages to fully match the M1 Macbook Air features (sans the non-upgradable storage that Apple charges way to much for and that destroys most of the value proposition).
My DBA has had the same two monitors for a decade and most of the devs just use whatever monitor was on sale.
Technical people are not the people buying Macs. Mac has its place and it hasn't been technical folks since TPM chips and WSL.
If like to see what you think the "features" are that can't be replaced. Literally every single feature of a Mac is implemented better with Windows or Windows with WSL. "It's closer to Linux" No, Linux is closer to Linux and I can't dual boot or WSL on Apple silicone. "Muh security" TPM is 10x more practical and slightly beats out Enclave in performance. "Muh hardware" if you spend that much money on any laptop it'll perform well. If you spend that much on a Windows laptop you'd get even better hardware. You could build multiple Linux machines that each outperform the Mac for the same price. "It just works" I have had multiple hours long troubleshooting call with a Jr Engineer that proves otherwise. "Muh package manager" if you struggle with this, you're not technical. "Muh iOS dev" iOS/Android apps can be tested in a pipeline or through the myriad of tools like Device Farm. Ship it with Fastlane and call it a day. You can handle both app stores this way.
Why do you want a Mac? The only valid choices are aesthetics, brand loyalty or ignorance.
I feel like something got lost in the discussion here. I don't want a Mac, that's the whole point.
I want a device that is like the Macbook air, but without the crap Apple pulls. So with easily expandable storage, ideally expandable RAM and an easy way to run another OS than MacOS on it (i am aware that in theory Ashai Linux is an option for Aplle silicon macs).
Because i do think in this case there are more valid reasons than "aesthetics, brand loyalty or ignorance", simply because the Macbook air to me in many ways seems like a very well rounded, nice package (with the caveat of Apple doing Apple things) and the rest of the market doesn't offer an equivalent. With the Macbook Air M1 being 4 years old by now and options like Intels Lunar Lake existing, it really would be possible to make.
There's no advantage to being Mac like.
You can't pick the most expensive brands and claim they're "well rounded". It's like buying a luxury car and saying it's your reliable little daily commuter.
The point is there is no valid reason besides the three reasons I stated for someone to want to buy a Mac. Either you like the looks, the brand or you just don't know any better and you refuse to learn. Each of those options is valid, but you do have to pick one of them.
What is it about the MacBook Air that makes you feel it is well rounded? Why do you need the compute? Is it for video editing or 3D modeling? Because those run fantastic on midrange hardware now. Are you a developer? Because Mac hasn't been the developer choice in over two decades. You know what's better than being Linux like? Being Linux. WSL and the TPM chip removed anything else that might draw a rational consumer to Apple. Do a little gaming? I've got bad news about Macs. Lol. There's no real reason anymore.
Dell XPS 13 Snapdragon seems like it's trying to compete with the Air.
Sadly doesn't seem to be fanless, which imo is a really nice feature when you dont care about high performance. Not sure if in the real world you can find good deals on the snapdragon laptops, but list price is also quite high and that keyboard with touch function keys doesn't seem great either.
So in my book that's still no match for what a macbook air m1/2 offers, which by now are a few years old and can be found for decent prices. They might be aiming at the same market, but aren't equal.
Ah, good point!
Good luck finding anything fanless without being SOC. Though it looks like a Framework would make you happy: https://frame.work/
3:2 sounds horrible. What’s the application when most videos are 16:9?
Anything other than watching fullscreen video? 3:2 is so much better for reading, drawing, anything even vaguely productive. It's very close to the ratio of metric paper.
Yea, I can see that. I mostly use my PC for games, but for work, I have multiple windows across the screen at different ratios.
As someone else already answered it is of course not ideal for movie consumption, since it gives you black bars top/bottom, but for productivity it is really nice. Everything from writing, spreadsheets or reading on the Internet benefits from it. Reading long horizontal sentences isn't that comfortable and often times task bars at the top and/or bottom take away some extra space. So a typical 16:9 display ends up offering very little useful working space. The taller aspect ratio isn't a massive shift, but a nice quality of life improvement.
It also means that you have slightly more space for the keyboard or a larger track pad.
If you are ever in a retail shop that carries Microsoft 's surface laptops you could check them out, as they are one of the few laptops that use a 3:2 aspect ratio display.
I'll join the ranks asking for a perfect phone.
Mine would have:
I'd like to add some strength too. I don't give a shit about the latest AI fuzzy on any phone, but if it would please last at least a year without cracking the screen or the back that would be amazing. And a record for me. Doesn't have to be razor thin either. Just make it beefy.
i don't even need good specs or sd card, just a good camera, foss rom and good battery
the pixel line is what you're looking for. Sounds odd but they're the easiest to degoogle.
i know, but i in my right mind can't give any money to google
Then buy second hand
And then install graphene OS
Excuse me, waitress... I'll have what SHE'S having.
Payment with NFC without google play services.
Only thing I could figure out (except maybe looking into Chinese payments systems which... No. Just no) is Garmin Pay.
Once set up, works with the smartwatch and does not use the phone, or the internet, at all.
I know it's not exactly what you asked, but its what I managed to do. Garmin watches also work pretty great with Gadgetbridge :-)
You just made me consider a smartwatch... I haven't wanted a watch that can become obsolete because of its tech but if that helps me degoogle it might be different
I personally have an Instinct 2.
It basically has most features of a smartwatch, but it has no color or touchscreen. I get notifications, I can stop my podcasts, check the weather forecasts, track my sleep or heart rate, it even has a moonphase complication.
It's all handled through the buttons. The UI is brilliant, considering the limitations, the sensors are great, and battery really lasts me longer than two weeks.
It gets all information from the phone (though Gadgetbridge, via BT). I install the official app to manage the Garmin Pay features, and uninistall right after.
The payment function does not even depend on the phone. It just copies some of the card data inside the watch.
Every now and then (at least once a day) I need to enter a 4 digit PIN, which is annoying to do using the buttons.
Great watch.
I don't wear a watch but if it fixes the problem, might be worth looking in to.
Do bear in mind that not all banks and/or cards are supported. Out of my 6 payment cards, over 3 banks (I know, ridiculous), only 3 are compatible. One bank is not compatible at all, the other one supports the debit card on Garmin Pay but not the credit card.
I knew that before hand. Garmin has a list... Somewhere.
but that depends on the vendor. highest chance to do it is with Monero, even considering that basically no one knows it
Global Xperias (Xperia 1 VI [XQ-EC72]) fits most of this.
A smaller phone with flagship-level cameras and a headphone jack. I know I’ll have to charge it more often or it’ll be thicker. I’m willing to make that trade-off.
And not a slimmer phone. Make it as thick as a wallet full of business cards. I don’t give a shit. I use my phone for reading text, listening to music, and taking pictures. Just make the fucking camera top of the line and let me use my good headphones. If it’s several millimeters thicker, so be it.
https://www.unihertz.com/
rip Asus Zenfone line :( It was almost exactly what you wanted.
Perhaps an Xperia 5 V? Depends on where you are, and just keep in mind no telephoto but it has a pixel-binned 2x (48mm) zoom :)
Phones with smaller screens
A lot of dumbphones have pretty small screens. My Light Phone II is about half the size of my old Something-Or-Other brand smartphone.
But if you want a small pocket supercomputer that can make calls, someone else already linked to https://www.unihertz.com/
A media player that isn't just a modified android tablet in a box with an HDMI output. (And loaded with spyware). And doesn't require an always-on internet connection.
What about an Android tablet running a custom ROM without GApps flashed, and an adapter for HDMI? There's a handful of widely sold tablets that also have a decent development scene and are cheap second hand. Check XDA forums for various models before deciding which one to get
Pc with an asrock mobo
I'd like some PC support for HDMI CEC
My use case is a bit niche, my PC is hooked up to my TV and AV receiver.
My tv, av receiver, and even certain game consoles all talk to each other well enough through CEC controls that I can do a lot from a single remote, and not even a fancy pants universal remote, just the one that came out of the box with my tv. It was a little mind-blowing when I realized I can more or less navigate the menus on my PS4 with my TV remote. The TV remote turns up the volume on the AV receiver, most of the inputs on the receiver, depending on what's hooked up to them, will come up on my TVs input menu, the TV will wake up the PlayStation when I go to that input, etc.
I'm aware that CEC is a bit of a mess with how different companies implement it, but personally I've been lucky and a lot of it has worked pretty much out of the box for me.
Mostly I just want the volume controls on my keyboard to control the volume on my AV receiver.
I recently got a pulse eight dongle that I think in theory will let me do that, but it's not exactly the most intuitive thing to configure.
A high-quality laptop without any branding.
I'm currently using a 9-year-old, woefully underpowered laptop made by Xiaomi. Full aluminium unibody, and NO logo. Not printed on, not etched in, not glistening only in the right light. NO LOGO.
I'm not a billboard. I'm not responsible for your brand recognition. Ironically though, far more people have come up to me and asked "hey, what laptop is that" than ever would have cared if there was a logo on it.
It also just looks and feels fantastic, all-aluminium-no-logo just looks so sleek.
So yeah. I will not be upgrading until I find another laptop of the same build quality, with no logo. Tuxedo has that option for most of their laptops, but for some reason not for their only current full-aluminium body -.-
Oh, and don't come at me with stickers.
I'll extend that to every product as well. I hate branding specially in clothing.
Well then. Maybe you could wrap your heart in duc-ta-a-ape! *runs away sobbing*
Fully agree with the sentiment, and at the same time I think it's a lost battle. Even more so with more niche tech like cameras (where one is usually invested into an ecosystem instead of having just one piece of gear that can be sold on its own 5 years in - like a laptop).
A IP68 e-ink Linux phone with both wireless charging and induction charging (to charge other devices), no cameras at all, solar panel on the back, usb-4 and headphone jack, 1TB storage , 15'000 mAh battery, two separate WiFi cards (to allow simultaneous hotspot and client use), and finally a radio transiever for both short range comms and long range AM and FM radio.
Technically possible with current technology, but as far as I can tell, completely unavailable in the consumer market.
Price, size and weight are irrelevant for all usecasses of such a product, as far as I'm concerned.
As I'm getting more and more into keyboards, I've realised I dont want a laptop anymore.
I want a powerful phone (16GB RAM, 8-cores) that I can:
That is, I can come home from work, slide my phone into a USB-C dock and start typing away on my Linux desktop with my fancy keyboard
I haven't used a laptop for many years now, I mostly code from an android tablet, into a remote machine. You can find ones with great battery life and keyboards.
Oh wow, I'm always surprised to hear about the coding habits of prolific devs. So you dont use a local IDE? You run termux and the code in vi/emacs on server?
Yep, I've coded remotely for many years now.
I used to use vim, but now helix, as my main rust and javascript/typescript IDE. So I mainly use termux+ssh .
Unfortunately for android dev you pretty much have to run android studio, so I use an android VNC client for that.
Don’t quote me on this but I’m quite sure you can run Linux on Samsung phones with termux/prootdistro
Edit: I specifically mentioned Samsung because of their Dex mode but it seems plenty of other phones also allow video out via usb these days. I can’t say for sure they work well with Linux but I do know it’s doable on Samsung.
I remember the Ubuntu Touch had a feature like that that kinda worked, but they never fully commited to it.
As for doing it through Termux, I'm not convinced that X11 works terribly well in Android for it to reliably extend a display to another screen. I've never tried though, so I could be we way off
I'd really love to find a new radio for my car that: 1) can serve as a monitor for my back-up camera, and 2) isn't a fucking touch screen.
There are models that are one or the other, but I haven't found anything that's both. The closest I've found is a compromise - a touchscreen that also has a few tactile controls. But I don't want to have to rely on any touch screen when I'm driving. I simply don't feel compelled enough to spend $400+ for a frustrating half-measure.
I settled on a SPH-10BT a few years ago. It didn't have backup camera support though IIRC there is a radar add-on, but don't know how available it is anymore.
It seems insane to me, especially with the prevalence of Apple/Android Auto, that no car company is willing to have the phone be the supplemental screen in the car.
That there's no built-in phone mounts in cars still bugs me. Put wireless charging on a spot on the dash, NFC/Bluetooth to get it to automatically snap into car mode. Don't have to develop an in-house UI that everyone hates and can focus on making a car.
My nissan rogue (2014-2016ish) has this
Cheap large e-ink android screen. Doesn't need to do anything other than be a consistent, always on display with a long battery life.
https://shop.boox.com/collections/noteseries
They look neat, but way too powerful and expensive, and not big enough. I want a whiteboard size e-ink display with a processor like a potato for like <100 USD
Hmm.... The one I've seen; hisense for example its non touch, and the monitor is 1500 bucks.... I've seen a big white board like thing at a local library and some schools, unsure what they are called or how much they cost. A quick search revealed the below but that is crazy expensive. I would then rather get a traditional white board with a marker and then take photos with a phone or camera and store in a hard drive.... Not the same I guess...
QuirkLogic Papyr - A large 42-inch E Ink display designed specifically as a digital whiteboard. Priced around $6,000-7,000.
&
RICOH eWhiteboard 4200 - A 42-inch E Ink collaborative whiteboard, similar price range to the QuirkLogic.
As someone who's been wanting a boox tablet for a while I don't think they fit "cheap"
Yeah no you are right. I waited a couple years for pine64 tablet to become a commercially available project then gave up...then used paper and pencil a nd took photos everyday of my notes pages and manually stored them.... But after a few notebooks my backup was getting large and tagging pages with text tags was getting annoying so Now I use go10.3 which wasn't as expensive as some of the other ones like remarkable paper pro or boox tab ultra C pro..... I use that offline. Copy things and docs via USB from laptop, and backup things manually and copy back into laptop manually....
what's "large" and what's "cheap"?
A cheap ARM laptop.
Pinebooks have been sold out for ages, and then it’s a massive leap up to MNT Reform or Copilot+.
I just started watching eBay for used Pinebooks, but nothing has popped yet.
Edit: Actually, there are some decent options for Snapdragon 7/8 refurbs on Amazon. Mass market brands can be so hit or miss by model, so this’ll take some research, but it looks like there are 20-30 results to consider.
This is adjacent, but it's worth pointing out that framework has recently started selling risc-v motherboards for their laptops for adventurous folks.
the battery thing is real. I basically can not find a laptop with weak/low power cpu and igpu, but a huge battery. I get that we can not do more than 99whr, but for weak stuff, I can not find anything above 50 practically.
well, if you carry around a bag anyways a battery bank could alleviate that
yes, but that is a separate investment
A low power 17 inch or larger laptop in a sub $1K price point. I have big hands (and crap vision) and I use the fuck out of numpad, but i really dont need a gaming GPU or a higher end cpu in a laptop.
If you don't need much power, you could probably look for something used and get a good deal on a 17" laptop.
A phone with a 5-5.5" screen. I'd be fine with a midrange chipset and camera. The Zenfone 10 was the last one that even came closer but they would only support it for two years and locked the bootloader (and lied about the unlock service eventually coming back online).
There are plenty of portable second screens for laptops now. But it seems weird you can't just hardwire a second laptop without having to resort to internet based screen sharing solutions.
if you're saying what i think you're saying you may be interested in something like a nexdock
Basically a laptop with no internals that acts as an external monitor, battery bank and peripherals for another device
some cheap all-in-ones i've worked on have hdmi in and out.
one of 'em i have here is an old atom celeron dell aio with 1600x900 native screen but on its hdmi input, it'll run at 1920x1080. and yea, running that instead of its true native res sucks about as bad as you think it would--but it is still 'usable'. the real sucky bit, though, is the pc has to be on in order to switch it to hdmi in.
a lenovo aio that went through here a couple years ago had to be rebooted to switch it from hdmi input mode (acting as a standalone monitor) back to pc.
A modern, power-efficient replacement motherboard for the Thinkpad X220/230
Would be absolutely fine if it were just a low-profile SBC that sat in the SATA compartment with some barebones connections out to the ports, keyboard, display, speakers, and battery. It can't be that crazy of a product. There's already million super-niche SBCs out there, literally the only hurdles would be interfacing with the proprietary keyboard (a solved problem) and the battery.
Ahh, the ol’ breaker breaker
Only $28.00 on Amazon!
A power efficient e-ink laptop.
A laptop with a colossal battery life, I don't care how chonky it is.
A smart watch that can do much more than the simple crap they do now. Larger is fine, maybe a smart bracer.
Multitools that are specifically designed for trades. It's not tech, I would just love to have a multitool with specific tools for welding.
Some kind of wrist device where I can copy a file from one electronic device and paste it onto another device with hand gestures.
A Clockwork uConsole device that's a bit more powerful and can use m.2. Those things are neat little kits, but they're alway always always sold out of the good version. I wouldn't mind a laptop in this format.
A low power laptop with a massive battery that lasts a week.
A small portable pen plotter or printer that isn't thermal (thermal print fades)
My wife has a circuit machine that’s super tiny, she can put a pen and use it as a plotter.
A SBC with SATA ports, to use as a Plex server. I've only ever found one (the Zimaboard), but it's a bit pricey for something that I'd still have to find some way to house with an external HDD.
The ODROID-HC4 has two SATA ports. Alternatively, you can get one with an NVMe slot and stick a NVMe to SATA card in it that will likely get you four ports.
I hadn't looked at any ODROID stuff, and the HC4 is a cool looking solution! I'm actually even more impressed with the M1S, which has a built-in M.2 slot. Can't use my existing spinny drives, but for the price of the M1S, I could pick up an NVMe drive to go with it.
Another option would be to get a RPi and throw a hat on it:
https://radxa.com/products/accessories/penta-sata-hat/
I had looked at those, but the hat alone is over $70. Plus they need an RPi5, because earlier ones don't have a PCIe interface. For that much, I could get a Beelink or something similar.
The hat is a cool idea, though.
Ive heard some people use usbC connecting drive enclosures, could probably rig something up with the backplane from one of those, but yeah a finished product like that would be neat.
I think ive seen a mini-PC with a hotswap m.2 bay built in though?
Toilet that posts updates to Facebook
A Linux phone with colour e-ink screen and writing capabilities like the reMarkable.
I've realized that for a lot of things that a phone does, e-ink is too slow to refresh. Even web browsing becomes painful to navigate sometimes. Maybe a dual-screen approach would work with e-ink on one side and a regular screen on the other?
I'm reminded of something I saw recently where a guy had a mini old screen for typing, but an e-ink main screen. It was a DIY cyberdeck, and weird enough that I don't think it's useful for you or OP, but I figured you'd find it interesting to hear that your suggestion seems to be on the right track
Yeah, maybe, not a bad idea. I'd be happy to use my phone less, though. Call, messaging app, note taking, and maps is all I need. I can leave browsing for when on the PC.
A phone with the charging port on the upper side instead of the bottom. This makes using the phone easier when it is being charged. Also, recessed camera lenses. Why do they have to stick out? When placing the phone on a surface, the camera lens cover will get scratches over time. If the phone was just one milimeter thicker, the cameras on the back wouldn't stick out and one wouldn't need a phone case, that adds to thickness anyway. It also would be nice if phone manufacturors would still have smaller screen sizes (max. 6") in their portfolio, as it is inconvenient to carry a larger phone in a pocket.
Right angle charging cord helps #1.
Why don't you simply allow your phone to rotate 180° by sensor? Granted, the camera and speakers might be at odd positions but that's still closer to your goal right?
This is and was the current workaround. On my old phone I had to install an app for that because they decided that there is an up and down which didn't allow for a 180° rotation.
When held upside down the buttons on the side are misaligned to where the fingers and the thumb are placed. Thus, the volume up-and-down buttons are swapped, which is rather unintuitive.
Before a smartphone holder for my car was handed down to me (I never bothered to buy one for myself) I placed my phone inside the cup holder located at where the shifter is. When the phone needed to be charged, it was not possible to have the phone oriented in the "normal" direction, as the phone would have stood on the charging cable resulting in damaging of the cable. For that reason I made use of the app that allowed me to rotate the phone, so that the charging port would have been on the upper side.
why not use a tablet you might ask? i love the handling of a solid, non-detachable keyboard.
I have a GPD laptop with a tiny screen, it’s good enough to run most games. I changed the no name NVMe to a Samsung and it’s way more reliable and faster. Also runs Linux now. Built in game controller works well for most games (shows up as Xbox controller or a mouse using a switch).
last i looked at them (some time ago now) they either:
i should probably have a look at their models again in the near future, thanks for reminding me. are you happy with yours (and willing to share which model you use)
I think the one I have is called the GPD win max 2011. There was a choice between the AMD and Intel processors. I think I went with intel to have thunderbolt (I have an E-GPU enclosure if I ever need more power) but it does everything I throw at it.
Very happy with it. I can play AAA games, it’s portable, touch screen is nice, has a touch pad too. Charges with USB-C which is super handy for me.
I have a GPD Win Max 2 (2024 model). Battery lasts for 8-10 hours of work (coding, some browsing, occasional video) and it can run Cyberpunk with Raytracing. It's an absolutely amazing little device.
I believe it cost around ~1400€ for the 64GB model and they just released the 2025 model with doubled CPU cores.
And yes, Linux (Fedora 41) runs on it without any issues. There's no driver for the fingerprint reader yet, but some hackers are working on it.
A 3.5mm-to-Bluetooth adapter that can do simultaneous headphones + mic. I have a device with no Bluetooth, only a 3.5mm TRRS jack (headphones+mic). I want to connect it to a wireless Bluetooth headset but the only adapters I can find won't do both at the same time, only one or the other.
On top of that, it'd be nice for the Bluetooth spec to roll out a higher bitrate version of HFP, as it's common 16 kHz monaural configuration is awful when listening to multimedia while on video calls, like for remote watch parties or just listening to music or playing video games while hanging out on discord. I ended up just buying a USB to TRRS adapter with pass through Power Delivery in order to use my Android device with proper AV quality.
A standalone remote or phone app that connects to my car's entertainment system that can control the satellite radio without the need for a passenger to have to lean way forward to use the touchscreen all the time. I miss the days of screen controls next to the cup holders instead of everything going through the touch screen.
Google stopped making Chromecasts to push their stupid Google TV box, and secondhand ones are $150
So... That
So like, fuck walmart, but I believe their private label sells pretty much the exact same thing as the most recent chromecasts running android
Remember when MP3 players were a thing? Well I still listen to mp3 files, but I can't put them on my smartphone because manufacturers artificially reduce storage size on phones to force people to use cloud services, and the available mp3 players that accept microSD cards are remarkably bad in many ways. It makes me pessimistic about tech in general, there is no sense of humanism or building progress, that in the future the products will be easier or better. Based on current trends, it seems like in the future the tech will just be more exploitative and consumers are just captive at this point.
I have an iPod that I use for music and I love it. I could put Rockbox on it so I don't need iTunes, but I do really love the stock firmware.
Anyway, point is, my 2nd gen iPod mini has 128gb of microSD storage and is the best portable DAP I've ever owned.
A phone with current hardware but without a camera notch in the screen. I absolutely hate the notch, it annoys me on a deep level that I can't get over.
Android (or at least my Galaxy) has a setting that lets you disable the portion of the screen where the notch is, which makes it essentially identical to a phone with no notch.
Looks like its a developer option, "display cutout"
On mine it appears to be a regular setting under the display options called "camera cutout". I do have developer options enabled though, so maybe that doesn't appear for people who don't.
there are multiple phones without camera notches, the sony ones with just a thicker top bezel, the redmagic's with an under-display one and some of the older ones with popup cameras
I have a nothing phone 2a and it's just a circle on the screen, standalone. Idk if that's much better but it's smaller and not connected to the top.
Depends what you call tech. I've been looking for a salt nic vape (say 10 watts) in the 1 ohm range with a easily replaceable battery for the last year. Bonus points if it doesn't leak to hell and gone. Haven't had a whole lot of luck with that so far.
Pretty much any portable device with a standard type, user replaceable battery. God bless Ryobi and the other power tool companies for building weird but useful tools beyond power drills. All with replaceable batteries.
At one point I was looking for any type robust portable storage media that had reasonable storage capacity and good shelf life (2+ years), and was large enough to actually write on a label what was on it. So far the closest I've seen since 2005 have been the portable SSDs and the newish USB m.2 enclosures but that's still not quite what I'm looking for. Too large and non-standardized. Gave up on it several years ago and built a publicly accessible Nextcloud server. Yes I'm an old fart, dislike cloud storage and miss the floppy, Zip and Mini-Disk storage formats. I currently have a dozen mystery jump drives sitting on my desk in a 3d printed rack with only the vaguest clue whats on any of them. Most of them so small you can't even put a key tag on them. I hate it.
A reliable multi port (4 or more) USB-C charger that can output 65+ watts on all of its ports at the same time.
A reliable source for 100w USB-c 3.x PD cables that don't cost an arm and a leg. Anker makes good PD cables but tops out at USB 2.whatever.
Pretty sure more would come to mind if I sat and though about it for a while, but I've got to head to work now.
Suorin have some user-replacable battery models
Thinking more about it, rather than getting something like a suorin edge, you'd be better off just getting a backup pod system of whatever type you already have/enjoy.
Pod devices are essentially just a battery in a hard case as it is. To go a more hot-swappable method than they already are would involve compromises you might not have considered.
I don't know if it's possible but it feels like a cheap box for (sata) hard drives would be super useful for people having a bunch of old drives. The only ones I can find are top of the line expensive NAS or DAS stuff for say 2 to 4 large drives, not my 7 drives from 500GB to 2TB...
I use a 5€ sata-usb connector but it's not very practical, a usb hub + 7 of these connectors would cost like 40€ ... Not reliable or anything but it would just need a box!
https://www.amazon.fr/ORICO-daccueil-magn%C3%A9tique-Adaptateur-Compatible/dp/B07QD5DXV2
there is this ^ thing for 130, which is more expensive that what you mentioned but seems to fit your criteria moreso.
Thanks! Looks what I'm looking for!
Edit: en france par dessus tout, merci!
Rootable Android (or Linux) based "mp3 player". Basically an iPod touch. No cell radio.
I might struggle to make it the size of an iPod Touch but that's not difficult to build out of a Raspberry Pi.
That's cool, hadn't really thought about it. Basically looking for a wifi-only device I can install Signal on.
You'd get the desktop version of Signal doing it that way.
Nah. With an Android device, you can install the Signal app (it's even on FDroid now). You'll need a phone number to register it, but just to receive the code. Could be a mobile number you have, a landline, or a VoIP (ie, jmp.chat) number-- as long as you haven't already registered for Signal with it.
A Linux device could pose some difficulty, but I think there is progress being made on running Android apps.
Edit: sorry, forgot some of the context here. Leaving it since I'm pretty sure you can install Android on a RasPi.
Yeah I usually think of the Raspberry Pi as a box for running Debian on.
Literally couldn't fall asleep last night, thinking about how much I'd want this and how hard it'd be to neuter a cellphone to make this.
I'm amazed I can't find such a thing on AliExpress.
Why couldn't you just use a custom launcher? This isn't a hard task.
Let me preface this by saying that, compared to your average Lemmy user, I am not a technical person. What stuck in my head was removing the radio and comms tech completely - no cell radio, no wifi, no GPS. Literally just make it an average cellphone sized offline tablet, where you're adding stuff only via the USB port or SD card slot.
Assuming this were possible/actually worth it, would probably need custom firmware to actually make it useable anyway. Just taking an off the shelf smartphone and using a custom launcher would likely be the more practical route, but I'd be more interested if it was offline only from a pure hardware perspective.
But I digress - I just thought it was funny to see this when it seriously was the "What if?" that made it hard for me to get to sleep the other day.
You're thinking about it too hard.
Just use a launcher, sometimes called Kiosk mode/launchers, to launch one app. You can disable the other hardware if you want, but it doesn't seem like it really helps you reach your goal.
You could probably pull it off with a Pi Zero, battery pack, and screen if you want to get into it a bit. It's not that hard at all.
Probably - thought about it harder anyway (see: actually read stuff), and the closest you can probably get to what I was thinking about with your average smartphone is disconnecting and terminating all connections to the antennas.
Let's be real, though - if I actually intended to use something like this, it'd for sure be something cobbled together using an SBC like the Pi Zero.
It's not uncommon to just disable hardware you don't intent to use. You don't have to do it mechanically. There's a lot of kiosks around that have a lot more capabilities than they're used for.
If you're looking to do it with a Pi, banana, orange or raspberry, let me know. I've spent way too much time finding the perfect screen to use and case to print. I build a rechargeable handheld device that can pull up all my surveillance cameras and functions as a master remote.
My unicorn phone would be one that is both small enough to use with one hand (currently have a Zenfone 10 largely for this reason) and has a secondary camera lens that's a telephoto rather than an ultra ultra wide.
It bugs me that phones with a long lens are so comparatively rare, it's always just wide (verging on ultrawide) as default and when a second lens is added it's even wider again because people love distortions or taking photos in tiny rooms or something. Sometimes I just want to take a photo of something further away than a few metres and actually have it visible without zooming in, I'd even take a normal lens FoV as an improvement over ultrawide. Those phones that do have one tend to have it as a third lens and also tend to be huge, so get disqualified by the 'usable with one hand' criteria even before I reach the massively expensive part.
I'd also like an Instax back for the Hasselblad V series that was cheap enough that I could actually justify the cost of buying (say ~$200 AUD or less) though I will admit that's a pretty niche thing to be after.
Direct replacement for the wonderful Facebook PortalTV unit. Its digital pan and zoom to follow a speaker is excellent. It could start and end calls completely hands-free before meta killed the service to which voice control was tethered. It sits on top of the TV, it does its job, and does it well.
Now that it's abandonware by Facebook, I need something else before its hardware dies. I have 4 of these in the field and some of them are with remote geriatrics who have no tech support, and it has to work.
I'm gonna miss it.
I need an ecmascript library that demuxes mpeg when fed individual frames. Every lib just wants to take in a whole file or URL to a stream. I need to filter the websocket sending the data so I need to feed individual frames to the lib. I'm only finding commonjs libs that do this
Folding screen eReader....it would be extremely niche, but I want it
Recently heard about RePebble, so my complaining about smart watches may have to end
Holy shit. Thank you for bringing pebble to my attention.
No problem, have been on the search for a good replacement for a few years.... Ever since destroying mine on a door frame when carrying a heavy box
I miss my pebble time
A small android smartphone with good software support
How low-tech is still tech?
I want a device that can be armed and if moved without being disarmed (optional passcode) will set off an alarm.
This is both for my laptop when working in public spaces and for my cooler/food bag when camping.
They have these for bikes, I've not looked too far into it, but maybe that would work?
Knog does these for bikes.
An app like Shazam but that shows me : this is the song you played and these are the songs it reminds you of because the melody is from here and the vocals melody is from here etc. I am mad that every other song reminds me of another but I cannot check which one it is.
A laptop with trackpad buttons
Lenovo is the only one I can find, and they're above the pad for the nub
A SEGA Dreamcast
An drone that act as an ambrella
Couldn't you just attach an umbrella to a drone?
Reliable software. It's a thing of the past.
A physical slide out keyboard case for iPhone.
https://clicks.tech is about as close as you can get right now, though it’s not slide-out. Overall pleasant experience if you don’t mind the size increase.
Phone with dual sim card slots and a sdcard, plus pop-out camera (my present phone has all of that except the second simcard, and I refuse to replace this phone!) ** Charging port on top ** Slightly thicker to fit a larger battery - and possibly slightly better optics for the main camera.
Computer mouse about 15% larger than the "large" mouses they presently sell.
Detachable 10-key that's mirrored for easy left hand use.
In general, small electronic devices should have more than one button for interaction. It's easier to remember 3 different buttons than 3 different Morse codes to achieve the three different functions.
Something like this ?
If you're wanting a mirrored classic numpad with the bigger enter/plus I am surprised it seems like an unexplored niche of custom keyboard stuff. Can't find any atm.
Could probably grab a numpad kit like this and mount the everything on the bottom of the PCB, but you'd need to do some soldering. On the other hand, that kind of kit is generally recommended as a first soldering project.
What phone do you have? I used to have a work phone that had 2 sim card slots and an sd card reader, a huge battery that was removeable without requiring restarting and an audio jack for headphones but no pop out camera and the camera kinda sucked. bluebird ef500r-anlt. no longer being made sadly. has an ir blaster too. love it, wish it still could operate as a phone.
Have you tried a vertical mouse? I have a Logitech MX vertical and a left handed generic one that is pretty much identical to it in size and love them.
I saw a mirrored one once, that wasn't detachable but on the left side of the keyboard and I regret not buying it because I haven't been able to find one since. Plus it was close to $1,000. I tried making a picture of the keyboard i dream of. It's still a work in progress, somethings aren't correct and i'm missing a few keys still. https://i.imgur.com/wBBxNf8.png
devices should only have one button if they only need to be turned on or off.
The phone is a moto hyper one. 4 or 5 years old, I fear the day i need to switch. Technically it has two sim cards slots. More precisely: one sim card slot and one slot that can be used either for sim or SD card. Since sd card is non-negotiable for me, it means one usable sim.
Audio jack yes, but not replaceable battery.
I haven't tried vertical mouse. Maybe I ought...
No luck with the imgur link :( I'll try again later
yeah i need to find a better image hosting site. this might work https://imgur.com/a/uQCwjX9
Water bottle that auto seals and is easy to clean.
Is a truck tech? Fuck it I'm calling a pickup truck tech.
I just want a pickup the size of a 90s ford ranger that's a hybrid. Since I'm making it a unicorn, lets go 4wd
I'd like that but full electric, minimum 500km in the "tank" I had an all electric vehicle and LOVED everything about it, except the range. Then eventually I needed a truck for my job (but I did cram my Kia Soul to the brim for the 3 years I had it.)
I'd buy a hybrid though, if that's what was available.
It's why I like hybrids. I have a tendency to sometimes end up at least an hour away from an electric plug for a few days or so.
Lol, I'm gonna say no as I posted in a technology news community in response to news about Tesla trucks not being tech news just by virtue of being Tesla or musk related. OP was not happy.
That's fair. I'm less interested in the swasticar and more I find it's the only thing out right now that I can't find an appreciable workaround.
Diesel too?
Nah, I don't need diesel. Lets be honest at hybrid it'll do the job just fine as is.
Basically I want the kind of pickup truck that I can toss a few 2x4s in the back and go, doesn't have to be big, doesn't need a lot of hauling power. Which is the opposite of the way trucks are going nowadays, which are big as fuck and made to tow the fucking world with the shortest damn truck bed that I've watched people struggle to get a tv into because the bed is too short.
A phone that runs Linux, has decent battery life, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
The reason this doesn't work is because Android and iOS limit the crap out of app functionality to allow for battery optimization. On Linux, users (and apps) do whatever the crap they feel like (and that's a good thing, until you talk about battery).
I've got one, but does it have to sell outside the EU too?
A Steam Deck with stock pricing in Mexico.
Magnetic audio cable break-aways
A decent brand of tws with multiple lights to indicate the amount of charge left. Also bigger battery.
All the branded stuff have single led with different colours to indicate charge percentage and also if paired or not.
I don't want to remember fcking rainbow to know all the features.
Strubb's pickles. They are supposed to be back under a new owner, but I still can't find them in any local grocery store.
Along these lines, if anyone craving Altoids sours of yesteryear, cracker barrel actually sells the spiritual successor.
A way to easily remove dust and debris without busting open the tower
I'm jealous of my friend's workstation that has an easily accessible filter in front of the case fans
This one I just found last week. I’ve been trying to get my tv on my vpn without having to flash my router with openwrt. It’s a samsung running tizen so not customizable unlike an android tv. I discovered the GL.Inet Mango and Shadow mini routers that come with openwrt pre-installed. Now I have my tv and older devices that don’t support my vpn client connected to it. I can also take it along with me when traveling to use when on hotel or public wifi.
You can easily get a case with an optical drive slot if you just get an older case. You can fit an older case with more modern components just fine. My current PC case is from 2017 and has an optical drive slot (which is fitted with an optical drive—though I'm afraid I've not used it in years...)
As for laptops with ports, they're out there but you may have to either get an older one or pay more money annoyingly. I wish it was standard for laptops to have ethernet ports. My modern, fairly mainstream trend-following laptop has all the other ports I need (USB obviously, HDMI, and 3.5mm headphone jack).
Fractal Design's Pop cases have a 5.25" bay. It's hidden behind a pop-off panel at the bottom, in the power supply basement.
dick sucking robot
I want physical media that is not sold on optical disks. Sell me content on SD cards for example.
Data cassettes using current LTO tech, but in standard compact cassette format
LTO cartridges are shaped so much more efficiently, for so many reasons, so why specifically compact cassette format?
Although I'm also just realising now that LTO is specifically optimized to be used linearly from start to finish (It's even in the name) and is pretty inefficient if you'd want to use it a bit, remove it and using reading it later.
It was more the size than the format, something that would be pocketable and consumer friendly.
This seems close enough for me to bring something that is more adjacent. I used to love tech programs, blogs, segments, what have you. Now though. Its all smartphone or ai related. I hate it.
A two monitor vga kvm switch
A wall ac that fits a sears sleeve or floor ac that uses a 220v plug, or an indoor swamp cooler that refrigerates the water, or an indoor ac that vents heat up since I don’t spend much time on the ceiling.
I want an open source cellular baseband chip. That's the chip that acts as a networking connection to cell phone towers. Not only would the drivers be open, but the hardware as well. It might be a little larger than most, as I would want it to be possible for users to dismantle it (destructively, of course) and verify against tampering.
Bunnie Huang's Precursor was a good start, but it lacks networking (as far as I know)
(Are crowdsourcing links allowed? I'm not going to link to the crowdsupply page, just in case, but it is more informative)
A few things.
A laptop with 2-way HDMI, so i can plug it into a game console and use it as a small TV. Note that i'm aware that HDMI might not work like this.
A wearable soundboard with speakers and batteries hidden in my pockets, and controlled by chorded buttons in my shoes. Use cases include crickets, canned laughter, the Seinfeld theme, and audible air guitar riffs.
A handheld computer that:
A music player / DAC that:
Somewhat ergonomic keyboards in laptops. I know split keyboards are hard because the screen has to be about as wide as the keyboard, but i'm sure there's a way and i intend to someday prove it. I know we can do better than typewriter shaped keyboards with QWERTY by default, even ortholinear boards would be an improvement because layouts can be done in software.
An electric notebook with a touchscreen that instead of using OCR to turn handwriting into text, stores handwriting as vector graphics as a middle ground between OCR and images with huge file sizes. Probably with a slider for how much to simplify lines, and an option to select areas of a page to convert to text via OCR so you can still have diagrams and doodles alongside plain text that's easy to export and edit.
A device like a generation I pokedex, but for real world animals and plants. This one probably won't happen because stuff like this is only done as smartphone apps anymore, not as standalone toys.
HUD goggles that are the display of a full portable computer.
And there's more stuff i want to exist that doesn't fit the question. Software (why hasn't anyone mad a 3+ D spreadsheet program?) and non-technical products.
The HUD goggles are starting to exist, not the way you described it but the technology is starting to get there.
Oh I have wanted a laptop which could act as a dumb console with video input and keyboard/touchpad out. Honestly would be great to have something like the framwork but just a dumb terminal that clicks down onto the main computer and then maybe another level that is graphics.
I want a Japanese ketai phone with android 10+, easily rootable, AND HAS A DAMN TOUCH CRUISER. They day Sharp decided to stop making flip phones with touch cruiser is the day innovation truly died.
Or an e-ink flip phone, that would be pretty cool.
Something that’ll let me plug a raspberry pi’s micro hdmi output into either: the usb-c input OR mini hdmi input on an (already-powered) external monitor. If anyone has success stories, I’d appreciate it.
Shoes with build in wifi
I want a smart phone built into a shoe. Get Smart style.
Free NSFW ai video generation available online