Key Takeaways
- Battery technology has not evolved as much as we would have hoped.
- It’s virtually impossible to escape from ads even with all the ad-blocking tools we have at our disposal.
- We still can’t make a call to someone if they’re dialing us at the same time as we’re dialing them.
- The mess of unstandardized cables still remains, even with the introduction of USB-C.
Technological progress over the last two decades has undoubtedly made our lives easier and much more convenient than we give it credit for. The internet has been nothing short of a revolution, mobile phones have made a pretty big dent in our technological history, and our gadgets and devices have universally improved in performance and utility.
But there are certain areas and aspects of technology that haven’t improved as much compared to twenty years ago. Some fundamental issues that we used to face then, remain more or less unchanged even in 2024. This is fundamentally not about things changing shape and form, but the benefits that they bring at a basic level. Whether we take a look at phones, computers, or the internet, we still have a long way to go to achieve a technological utopia.
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8 Battery life and longevity
When will batteries be good?
For all the advancements we’ve seen in smartphones and laptops — performance, displays, camera quality, form factors — a pretty significant area is still woefully lacking. Yes, I’m talking about batteries. Battery life on phones and laptops used to be long enough in the early days when we weren’t running absolutely everything on them. But, as tech rapidly melded with our lives and power requirements increased exponentially, batteries failed to keep pace.
Yes, battery sizes have grown, battery life has increased, we got wireless charging before GTA VI, and in some cases you can now make your high-end smartphone or laptop last a day and a half with heavy usage. But battery technology has remained more or less the same. When are we getting batteries with week-long battery lives? Where are the batteries that don’t need replacement after a few years so you can continue enjoying the same quality over time?
I feel we’ve waited long enough for batteries to evolve fundamentally so that we can stop worrying about charging our devices on the daily. We keep hearing about many nascent technologies gaining traction in testing labs, but it’s high time someone actually came out with a product that can be incorporated into a consumer smartphone or laptop to revolutionize our experience.
![XDA-Best-MWC-2024](https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/xda-best-mwc-2024.png)
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7 Mobile data and Wi-Fi
Sometimes, I can’t send WhatsApp messages
Saying the internet is one of the greatest inventions of all time is obvious, but you’ll resonate with me when I say that internet reliability still manages to disappoint us at the worst moments. Mobile internet was essentially a gimmick in the early days of EDGE or 2G connectivity, but with 3G, 4G, and 5G internet, we rarely think about how far it has come.
Despite that, to this day, I find myself with virtually zero internet connectivity in many areas. There are times when I struggle to run a Google search or send a WhatsApp message. It takes work to spread decent internet to faraway areas, but I’m talking about experiences that I’ve had directly in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. If you consider Wi-Fi, I’m sure you have also experienced lackluster connectivity even when it says “connected” on your phone.
Whether it’s network congestion, hardware problems, or ISP deficiencies, we still find ourselves struggling to go online at least a few times every year. In 2024, that seems a little too often to me.
![Eero Max 7 nodes from above on a wooden bench](https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/wm/2023/10/eero-max-7-review-angle-eye-spy.jpg)
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6 The scourge of ads
Ad blockers can only do so much
Ads are an inescapable reality of our lives. They used to find us on the street, on our TVs, via print media, and later online on our PCs and smartphones. You might manage to escape ads on your TV, thanks to paid streaming services (even that might not help soon), but what about online ads on your computer and smartphone? Ads are everywhere — on YouTube, on internet browsers, inside your apps, embedded in your operating system, and even on lock screens.
With Microsoft finding new ways to push ads on Windows and streaming services contemplating in-content ads, there’s very little that ad-blocking tools can do anymore. Yes, I understand the irony of bringing this up on a page full of ads. Watching ads to support free content can still be understood, but if you have to tolerate them on the software you’ve paid for, where does it end? Perhaps it will never end. And the more technology evolves, the easier it will become for companies to target us with ads in novel ways.
![The Windows 11 lock screen on the IdeaPad Pro 5i.](https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/wm/2024/06/lenovo-ideapad-pro-5i-12.jpg)
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5 Two people calling each other at the same time
Yep, this one is incredible
This has probably boggled your mind more than once in the past — how is it that we still can’t establish a connection when you and your friend are calling each other at the same time? In these uncommon but not rare cases, all you’re greeted with is the message that the number is busy. Well, yes, it’s busy calling me; how about you just connect the call?
It’s frankly unbelievable that our telecom infrastructure can’t detect that the other person is trying to call me at the same time as I’m trying to call them. Is it that hard to do? Even if it is, someone should be working on this. How many times has it happened that you just missed a call as you were trying to answer it? And then you reasonably call back the next second, only to discover the number is busy, and that the other guy is calling you again. This is not a trivial problem to solve.
4 Overheating hardware
Even premium hardware isn’t immune
As manufacturers try to cram more and more performance into essentially the same form factor, things are bound to get toasty. But, this doesn’t have to heat up our devices and PC components more than what they can handle, right? After all, companies are supposed to rigorously test devices under stringent conditions before launching them. Well, that’s what you’d expect. But as it turns out, that doesn’t always happen.
Whether it’s flagship smartphones or high-end PC hardware, nothing is immune to overheating — I’m talking overheating to the level that it prevents your hardware from doing its job. On multiple occasions, my Pixel 7 has declared that the phone’s temperature is too high, due to which it can’t record a video. And this was on a very regular day with relatively mild sunlight.
Other times, I’ve seen my RTX 3080 throttle itself at normal GPU temperatures. The Core i9-14900K is also known to suffer from thermal throttling at stock settings, even with high-end cooling. The Ryxen 7 5800X, despite not being a particularly demanding chip, is known to run at unusually high temperatures. High-end hardware should not be plagued with such issues. These kinks should be ironed out long before the hardware hits the shelves.
![Intel Core i9 14900K in a CPU socket in a motherboard](https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/wm/2023/10/intel-core-i9-14900k-cpu-1.jpg)
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3 Crashes and blue screens of death
Just as inexplicable as before
Perhaps every PC user is familiar with applications or the entire OS crashing now and then. You’re either returned to the desktop without any explanation, or greeted with a blue screen of death (BSOD) with a random error code and some text that is of no help. This behavior of our computers has mostly remained unchanged since they became popular around 20 years ago.
While computers back then were simpler with fewer programs installed and lower chances of things causing crashes, it definitely used to happen. And now, only the frequency of crashes and BSODs has changed. They still leave us puzzled as to the root cause (in many cases) and we typically just restart our systems and hope to never encounter the issue again. PC hardware might have become more advanced, but it’s not immune to the occasional fatal error.
2 Device repairability
Got a dent? You need a replacement
When we first got hooked on computers, phones, and other tech devices, we seldom questioned the need for a replacement if they suddenly stopped working. Sure, you would probably try to get it repaired under your original manufacturer’s warranty, but you took them on their word if they said it couldn’t be repaired. Today, users are much more aware of their rights. But that hasn’t changed things much when it comes to device repairability.
Even today, outside of a few niche brands, you can’t expect a lot of repairability or modularity for your phone or laptop. And whatever is repairable often costs too much. The biggest names in the industry are known to inflate RMA costs where minor issues are fixed for large fees. The industry, as a whole, needs to accelerate efforts toward bolstering the right to repair. Until we get there, take extreme care not to drop your precious hardware.
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1 Standard cables
USB-C is now Anakin Skywalker
The deluge of proprietary cables was a huge pain for many years before everyone realized that something had to be done. USB was intended to become the standard for connecting peripherals to computers. And it did help to an extent, but the kind of devices we were using made it difficult for a one-size-fits-all approach. USB-C was later introduced to unify power transmission, data delivery, display, and audio connectivity.
However, this created a new mess of conflicting fast charging standards and USB data speeds. Today, the number of different USB-C standards has created more problems than were solved. Sure, you can charge most phones and laptops with any USB-C cable, but the charging speed you’ll get depends on the cable rating, quality, and length.
Even USB Power Delivery (PD) fast chargers are not enough, you often need PD PPS (Programmable Power Supply) support for the maximum speed. Figuring out the differences between USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 1×1, USB 3.2 Gen 1×2, and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 has become a headache. Throw in the proprietary charging and data transfer standards from some manufacturers, and you have yourself a veritable soup of mumbo-jumbo.
![The front I/O ports on the Satechi Stand & Hub.](https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/wm/2023/11/satechi-stand-hub-with-tv-1.jpg)
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The more things change, the more they stay the same
Technological advancements in the last two decades have transformed our lives in ways that would seem incredulous to someone from the 2000s. But what wouldn’t seem as shocking to them is the slew of tech problems that we still face every day. Many of these problems have existed for close to 20 years in some form or another.
Some of these problems might be artificially created, while others are simply hurdles that we still find hard to overcome. Perhaps, someday, we’ll get revolutionary batteries that will last for months or even years without charging, or we’ll finally be able to connect to someone who’s calling us at the exact instant we’re calling them.
![10 worst tech fails of all time](https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/10-worst-tech-fails-of-all-time.jpg)
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