Ask Slashdot: What Single Change Would You Make To a Tech Product?

An anonymous reader writes: We live in an age of sorcery. The supercomputers in our pockets are capable of doing things it took armies of humans to accomplish even a hundred years ago. But let's face it: we're also complainers at heart. For every incredible, revolutionary device we use, we can find something that's obviously wrong with it. Something we'd instantly fix if we were suddenly put in charge of design. So, what's at the top of your list? Hardware, software, or service — don't hold back.

Here's an example: over the past several years, e-readers have standardized on 6-inch screens. For all the variety that exists in smartphone and tablet sizing, the e-reader market has decided it must copy the Kindle form factor or die trying. Having used an e-reader before all this happened, I found a 7-8" e-ink screen to be an amazingly better reading experience. Oh well, I'm out of luck. It's not the worst thing in the world, but I'd fix it immediately if I could.

Comments

No LEDS

[phishybongwaters]

No LEDS to tell me the device is turned off. No LEDS to tell me it's "sleeping". OR simply a method to disable these LEDS because I'm old enough to not want my computer room looking like the engine room of the enterprise WHEN EVERYTHING IS POWERED OFF NO LEDS

Re:No LEDS

[mlts]

e-Ink displays on more devices would be useful in general. For example, on a home router, it could display the initial password on it, and with a button or two, have minimal configuration done (set the IP), so it can have the rest of its configuration done via a web page (or SSH.)

For external devices like a home NAS, it can show a snapshot of what is going on every so often (5-10 minutes), as well as show that there is an issue with a downed drive or fan. Even external hard disks could benefit, since the display could show SMART status, or number of writes for a SSD.

For a time back in the 1990s, every device had a LCD readout that had verbose info on it. The computer case showed what was going on via POST. The monitor (CRTs, at the time) showed resolution and refresh rate. Printers showed stats like how much toner/ink was left in real time. Even tape drives showed how long until they needed cleaned, what density and blocksize was in use, and the capacity of the cartridge. If those displays could come back as e-Ink items, it would be quite useful.

Common keyboard for Windows and OS X

[bhlowe]

Title says it all.

Lose the obsession with thinness

[Solandri]

I'd rather have a thicker laptop which could work off battery from when I wake up to when I go to sleep (~16 hours - both work and evening relaxation use), and charge overnight. A thicker phone which only needs to be charged every 2-3 days, instead of every night. A thicker tablet that can last a week or two on a charge instead of a few days.

My phone (Nexus 5) was so thin compared to my previous (Galaxy S with a slide-out keyboard) that I dropped it more times in my first week owning it than I had dropped the old phone in 3 years. I ended up getting a case for it, not to protect it but to make it thicker so I wouldn't drop it so much. I don't need nor want it to be any thinner. Do something useful with that extra space - like pack in a bigger battery. (I'm happy to report though that with the Marshmallow update, the phone easily lasts 36-48 hours on a charge. Many days it still has over 70% charge left by the time I go to sleep. Maybe we'll manage to get back to the days when you only had to charge your phone every 3-4 days.)

Re:Laptop stuff

[OzPeter]

- Put in place dedicated volume keys instead of clunky Fn buttons.

Back in the mid 90's I really appreciated the external analogue volume control on my Thinkpad. One quick swipe before booting up to turn the sound off ensured no embarrassingly loud chime when Windows XP started.

Re:Windows

[chipschap]

That is a well-thought through list with meaningful improvements.

You realize that most of what you suggest (except possibly items 8-10) would make Windows into ... well ... something like Linux :)