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Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#961

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

feanaro wrote: post #627
stillblue wrote: post #166

The Apple Ecosystem. I've invested a lot of hard earned money into it. I have an ipad, iphone, a macbook air, an apple watch, airpods pro and a mac mini. Bought these over the years. Just the way these things work so cohesively to me is pure magic. The attention to detail on extremely minor things is pretty impressive. I haven't had to think about "doing" anything with tech ever since I bought apple products. You jus…

I would and do highly recommend to my friends and family to stay away from Apple. Computers are meant to be interoperable and not locked into a single monopolistic system which then had the power to make your life awful. The attention to detail is also overstated when Apple cannot get basic things right. I have an iPhone for testing stuff and recently a numbered badge appeared on one of those built-in music related a…

> The attention to detail is also overstated when Apple cannot get basic things right. I have an iPhone for testing stuff and recently a numbered badge appeared on one of those built-in music related apps. It wasn't obvious what the number referred to, and to find out, I had to dig deep on the web on some user forums. The reason turned out to be that Apple pushed some kind of updates (e.g. new sound effects or something like that), which are hidden somewhere 10 menus deep. To dismiss the number badges, you had to go and open each of the effects from about a hundred of them, because there is no indicator which ones are new. There is apparently no other way to dismiss the number badge.

I'm actually really curious what this was. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I'm incredibly familiar with apple devices and I can't think of anything that matches what you've described.

I also wanted to share a tip with you — you can turn off app badges in Settings -> Notifications -> Some App.

With iOS 15, you can also create a 'focus mode' where app badges are disabled, and just have it scheduled to be on all the time. If this sounds appealing, let me know and I'll walk you through it.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#963

Post by thesmok »

raffraffraff wrote: post #501

Garmin Fenix 5s Sapphire: notifications from my phone with custom replies, 6 day battery life, buttons. No touch screen (operate it "blind" and in the wet), waterproof, scratchproof. You do need to pay extra for the sapphire screen. Swiss Army knife (they're sooo well made) Under armour underwear: no seams, last ages, extremely comfortable. Darn tough socks: extremely comfortable, last forever, never smell. Altra Lon…

My only complaint about the Swiss Army knife is the plastic plates on the handle didn't survive in a dishwasher – they've got warped. Still usable though.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#964

Post by MrDresden »

cinntaile wrote: post #939
fastasucan wrote: post #897

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an argument why we should adhere to your personal standard of a tent being light only if its under 1kg? Is it supported somewhere else? What if someone comes and claims that a tent is light only if its less than 500g?

I never said you have to adhere to my standard. Light is subjective of course. There is no such thing as a light weight standard for tents and if there was it still wouldn't be objective. I base my opinion on what is available in the solo tent market where I look at a combination of price, durability, where it will be used and how many days the hike is. There are not that many tents under 500g so it's a bit too restr…

I guess we are looking at different use cases for these tents.

I hike inside and around the arctic circle, sometimes during winter time.

That my shelter, that can take the beating that this kind of climate can dish out, weighs only around 1/30th of my total equipment weight makes it an incredible deal.

And subjectively very light.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#965

Post by rozab »

raz32dust wrote: post #130

Google flights is fantastic. Don't know if it is "the best-designed thing I've ever used", but it is on top of my mind as I just used it yesterday. Google doesn't get enough credit for the things that they did do well - including Search and Maps. Another is Macbooks - the pre-2015 ones at least. I haven't used the latest M1 ones, which I hear great things about. The Aluminum body, the flawless screen, magsafe, great…

Recently bought transatlantic flights through Google Flights and it gave better results than all the traditional players in the space (skyscanner, kayak, etc). It's not just something to pad out search results, they put some effort into it.

Also, for every single flight they have the mass of carbon emissions displayed right next to it? Seeing that huge figure (1 ton!) definitely made me more hesitant to fly. Could this be... an altruistic design decision? From Google?

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#966

Post by approxim8ion »

bobcostas55 wrote: post #678
MrDresden wrote: post #649

I have no one thing (these are the things that pop into my mind, all within their own category/niche); * My Hilleberg Akto single person hiking tent scores very highly. It is designed for lightness, durability and simplicity when setting up. It can better be set up/torn down by one person in a storm than most other tents I've owned. * My Leatherman multitool has been with me for years in some fairly bad conditions. I…

The kindle hardware is excellent, but the kindle software is one of the worst pieces of garbage ever. Just filled from top to bottom with utterly deranged behaviors.

Agreed. But in its defense, the software on my Kindle has remained the same level of bad for the last 8 years. Compared to my Android devices that have slowed down significantly.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#967

Post by cinntaile »

MrDresden wrote: post #964
cinntaile wrote: post #939

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said you have to adhere to my standard. Light is subjective of course. There is no such thing as a light weight standard for tents and if there was it still wouldn't be objective. I base my opinion on what is available in the solo tent market where I look at a combination of price, durability, where it will be used and how many days the hike is. There are not that many tents under 500g so it's a bit too restr…

I guess we are looking at different use cases for these tents. I hike inside and around the arctic circle, sometimes during winter time. That my shelter, that can take the beating that this kind of climate can dish out, weighs only around 1/30th of my total equipment weight makes it an incredible deal. And subjectively very light.

Yeah I could have framed my original response better.

I have hiked above the arctic circle but not during winter time. Then I would look towards what you are using. ;) You do seem to hike a little heavier than me, but that could be a seasonal thing. When I go for a 10 day summer trip my pack is around 19-23kg, enough stuff to deal with weather around 0C and rain storms.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#968

Post by mdrzn »

bouncycastle wrote: post #410
akg_67 wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminded me of my experience at a Japanese Onsen (hot spring) last week. While entering the Onsen, the sliding door is automated and slides to open on it’s own. While exiting, the automated sliding doesn’t work. It has handles with no indication of pull or push or slide. The design of handles suggest most probably pull. I kept trying to pull/push with no movement. Finally, realized I am supposed to use those handl…

Reminds me of this japanese comedy sketch https://youtu.be/ZkQNP2cqG2I Another tricky thing is figuring out how to flush the public toilets. The user interface is non standard on every toilet. The most surprising way I've encountered was to step on a button on the floor. (Remember to never press the big green button)

Such a great sketch, even without audio!

I hate that we don't have a universal way to encode and decode how to use doors/buttons/levers.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#969

Post by aidog »

gsruff wrote: post #816
aidog wrote: post #724

I picked up this nice bluetooth keyboard the 3E neo recently. It's a japanese brand. It fold's into pocket size but feels so sturdy and the keys are the perfect size. So satisfying

Do you know if this can be purchased in the US?

Probably not, but maybe something out of the same factory. It can be bought on Amazon Japan.

This is their site: product.3ec.jp/neo/

The IC-BK20se from iClever does look very similar and might be available, but no guarantees. I decided to go with the japanese product because the marketing material seemed more polished. I had a look at the model with the trackpad but the keys were a little smaller. Bit too small.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#970

Post by stocknoob »

feanaro wrote: post #627
stillblue wrote: post #166

The Apple Ecosystem. I've invested a lot of hard earned money into it. I have an ipad, iphone, a macbook air, an apple watch, airpods pro and a mac mini. Bought these over the years. Just the way these things work so cohesively to me is pure magic. The attention to detail on extremely minor things is pretty impressive. I haven't had to think about "doing" anything with tech ever since I bought apple products. You jus…

I would and do highly recommend to my friends and family to stay away from Apple. Computers are meant to be interoperable and not locked into a single monopolistic system which then had the power to make your life awful. The attention to detail is also overstated when Apple cannot get basic things right. I have an iPhone for testing stuff and recently a numbered badge appeared on one of those built-in music related a…

Yeah, I love recommending Wild West, open ecosystems to nontechnical friends and family.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fossbytes.com/fake-whatsapp-pla...

In case you didn’t have enough fun cleaning up spyware-infested PCs, you have phones, too!

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