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We need physical audio kill switches

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Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#121

Post by YarickR2 »

Skunkleton wrote: post #78
puranjay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My office (well, former office) used to have a touchscreen coffee maker. Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options!

I love my coffee maker so much. It has one chunky physical switch and no other controls or moving parts. No wifi, no smart bs, no pointless brew size settings, its not spying on me, or inflicting me with DRM. I've had it for over 10 years now, and have had to perform no maintenance.

You'll love this https://www.flairespresso.com/ Besides doing damn good espresso , it isn't even connected to the grid

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#122

Post by rhacker »

puranjay wrote: post #45
brandon272 wrote: post #29

I let my spouse, who likes the novelty of a touchscreen, talk me into a Whirlpool oven a couple years ago that is controlled by touchscreen. I had no idea it was possible to hate an oven so much. The only saving grace is that the stovetop elements are still controlled by knobs.

My office (well, former office) used to have a touchscreen coffee maker. Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options!

3 options? I think on all the coffee pots I've owned it's just a POWER button. How can a company replace that with a screen to be better?

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#123

Post by DoctorOW »

ricardobeat wrote: post #112
animationwill wrote: post #68

More important than speaker kill switches, we need physical/hardware microphone switches that disconnect the circuit. These are built into Amazon Echo devices, but it's unclear if Google Home or other Apple HomePod have this (a quick revealed they do not).

Google Home mini certainly has it, it's the only physical switch on the device.

IIRC My Mini has corrected me for speaking to it while it was muted so I'm not sure it's a hardware kill switch.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#124

Post by Natales »

Skunkleton wrote: post #78
puranjay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My office (well, former office) used to have a touchscreen coffee maker. Why does a coffee maker even need a touchscreen? There are literally three options!

I love my coffee maker so much. It has one chunky physical switch and no other controls or moving parts. No wifi, no smart bs, no pointless brew size settings, its not spying on me, or inflicting me with DRM. I've had it for over 10 years now, and have had to perform no maintenance.

Same. About 10 years ago I bought a Jura-Capresso super automatic coffee machine (S7). Very simple. 4 buttons. Small matrix text display with a good UX. Really nothing fancy. I clean it when it asks me to, and that's all the maintenance it needs.

I recently looked at the latest models, and they've basically have not changed. Maybe a bit more silent. That's it. The rest is all connectivity and LCDs. Solutions looking for a problem.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#125

Post by neya »

This is one of the reasons why all the amplifiers I build for my personal use, be it power audio amps or headphone amps, don't use any fancy audio switch ICs. I prefer analog exactly for this reason. A simple relay with a push button. Leaves me more room for other stuff inside the cabinet, while getting the job done in the simplest way possible.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#126

Post by skohan »

I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my 65 EUR gamepad, or 300 EUR headphones, I hold a button and wait several seconds for the result.

Why has UX regressed so much in these areas?

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#127

Post by combatentropy »

tetris11 wrote: post #27
onion-soup wrote: post #11

Nothing will ever come close to convenience of analogue volume knobs. They give both immediate action and infinite granular control. Same goes for kitchen stoves. All the modern touch controls with step-based control is the absolute nightmare in terms of UI.

Every microwave I have ever owned have been under $30, purely because I didn't want to go digital. Analogue egg-timer knob - good enough accuracy, and instantly pliable

I went the opposite way and bought a $240 Panasonic commercial microwave, because I also wanted it to last. It's just a little big.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#128

Post by anticensor »

amelius wrote: post #100
formerly_proven wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It depends". Digital built-in microphones use DMIC, which aiui is a one-wire interface where the microphone just sends a delta-sigma bitstream. If you implement the switch through a multiplexer or logic gate this kills the signal 100 % essentially. Analog electrets can't be just shorted, because that causes a loud BANG when you switch due to the bias voltage, so you use a capacitor in series, which only shorts the A…

Can't you switch the bias voltage off?

It would make the microphone half-off, still capturing the upper half of the soundwaves.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#129

Post by frankosaurus »

allenu wrote: post #105

I don't know what I'd do if my iPhone didn't have physical volume buttons. When I watch videos on YouTube now, as soon as an ad starts playing, I just mute it by using the volume button and look away for a few seconds as I can't stand ads (sadly there isn't a dedicated mute button).

Nice, I need to come up with a solution for this on desktop.

My dream is a Chrome extension which recognizes Youtube ads and auto-mutes while they are playing.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#130

Post by floatboth »

paxys wrote: post #79
tyingq wrote: post #50

I have certainly experienced this on Android. Random apps seem to be able to override my "mute the phone" command.

Same with iPhone. It's one of the most frustrating parts of iOS for me. The hardware mute button is pointless since apps can just choose whether to respect it or not.

Wasn't the hardware mute button specifically for ringtones and not media?

On OnePlus phones it's a 3-position switch with silent, vibrate and ring as separate physical positions.

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