What's a big tech product that you actually find useful?
Most of us in Lemmy know the importance of privacy and owning your devices in a big tech owned world (me included) but for once I thought to make the opposite question and ask if there are products by them that you actually use and enjoy them.
Important to say, I mean products you use even though there are alternatives, not monopolies like YouTube.
I’ve got to say that I’ve enjoyed having Echo speakers around the house and the things that they can do. I know Amazon may be listening in on me, but they’re bored to tears if they are! But I enjoy having the Echo speakers turn lights on & off around the house, set the Nest thermostat without having to get up, play music, answer questions, etc.
Agreed, and they help family life so much - “announcing” when meals are ready, using “drop in” as an intercom rather than shouting around the home, not to mention the stuff you’ve already mentioned.
It’s mainly because it’s the single most supported “cloud” service. You can almost guarantee that any ap or program is going to be able to use it without jumping through hoops, and that’s vital when you need quick, reliable off site storage.
Out here in the country, I might have seconds to back up what I’m working on if weather gets crazy fast. It isn’t often, and even rarer that it would also cause problems with my own storage too, but I’ve lost an entire almost finished novel to a lightning strike before, so I’m a tad paranoid.
The standard price for AAA games on all platforms went up somewhat recently, at least where I’m at. It’s not just steam that went up, I think that’s just the industry standard nowadays, as crappy as it is.
Honestly… I might get some pushback for this but Chromecast audio. Being able to get full home audio streaming for a fraction of the cost of a normal system with a few of those and a few old hifis. Worth it for me
I had some best buy house brand speakers that stopped working in groups when Sonos won their case. They were battery powered and sounded great! But they didn’t get updated so now they’re e-waste.
Where I am, your ISP always provides a free TV streaming box with your router. They’ve been Android for years now so my Chromecasts have been stuck in a drawer gathering dust
Ah this isn’t the chromecast streaming devices I’m talking about. It’s the older pucks that plug into an aux cable that you can stream music from your phone to
I love my Google Home and how it’s connected to my Phillips Hue bulbs. I love being able to just yell “hey Google, nightlight” when I stumble home after a long night out, no need to fight with switches and too-bright lights after drinking
I have 3 Google nest mini speakers or whatever they’re called, and I bought these smart outlets at target.
Connected 2 of them in the master bedroom, to bedside lamps for wifey and i. Being able to use the Google home app from our phones to control, or as you said just “hey Google, turn on Daddy’s lamp” is fucking solid. I hate flicking on light switches. Never realized it until I set this up.
I use Home Assistant to connect all the proprietary trash together but talk to my Watch rather than a smart speaker. I just haven’t got into the speaker lifestyle thus far.
No one product, but more of a collection of technologies underlying the Apple ecosystem. For example, AirDrop or Continuity (drafting something on one device and continuing/finishing on another).
Universal Control is pretty magical. I love having both my work and personal laptops connected to an ultrawide monitor and using my mouse/keyboard (actually Magic Trackpad, Magic Keyboard) across the two.
When I’m waiting for something for work I can slide the cursor over and do something on my personal computer.
My only paranoia is that the work laptop can track what I’m typing but that’s why I use the peripherals connected to the personal laptop to control everything.
Not sure if it’s big tech but anyways… The Stream Deck (not to be confused with the Steam Deck portable gaming console). This macro keyboard brought my productivity through the roof and now I don’t understand how I went so long without it.
Yes I guess you’re right… I wouldn’t know because I don’t stream or create content. The device is marketing towards those types… But it’s really a productivity tool that anyone can use.
I fuckin’ hated it and even the idea when it was new. I liked updates and being able to download my games (even though I just had dial-up at the time; it was slow, but at least I could get any game and not just what was available at the local EB). I didn’t like the idea of not having it stored off-site, though. I didn’t like the interface or having to run an extra thing. I especially didn’t like not being able to use the online gaming services I had been using for years because they shut down WON.
The thing I like most about Steam is that games under Linux just work, for the most part. I don't play AAA games online multiplayer which is, I believe, where that falls down, but other than that it really is pretty seamless
This, my dad refuses to download proton or lutris and prefers to use wine baseline, and he has been waiting for months now for his game to be playable again, meanwhile I’m over here installing games right and left and just playing them, even newly released games, it just works (most of the time)
Even then with AAA multiplayer, it's not a guarantee it's unplayable. Every Halo game on Steam works just fine, and Apex Legends was one of the first AAA MP games to support the Deck.
Agreed. I hate, however, that I don't "own" the games, I can't play game A on computer 1 and game B on computer 2 at the same time even though I bought game A and game B.
You can with Family Sharing. It also can be done a bit easier with some games that are otherwise DRM free by just running the executable from its install directory instead of through steam. Like Kerbal Space Program.
The latter method will even sometimes allow you to play the same game on two machines over the internet. I don’t know if you can do that with Family Share.
Important to say, I mean products you use even though there are alternatives, not monopolies like YouTube.
I don’t think this is quite true when it comes to YouTube. There are plenty of alternatives that content creators could use (and some do), from Vimeo to Nebula to PeerTube.
The reason content creators prefer to upload on YouTube are the user base and monetization opportunities. They’re not forced to do so, and in fact YouTube is facing competition from e.g. Twitch and TikTok.
I have too many to name honestly but one that comes to mind (but not really “big”) is a travel router.
It’s amazing being able to VPN into either my cloud server or home network all over an encrypted WireGuard tunnel. I use the same SSID/password as my home network so that I only connect the travel router itself to whatever network (Ethernet, WiFi and even hotel WiFi with the terrible portal) and all my devices just automatically get online.
I love Google maps but recently the “Recommendations” and “Reviews for things close by” gets annoying. It’s.becoming intrusive that I might switch to other service. I just want A to B direction, not “A to B and everything in between you might like.”
I feel like it depends on where you are. I used to travel a lot for work and Google maps would be less reliable than Here maps. Kept taking me to unpaved roads that no one used or like dead-ends. It was even more useless in a lot of third world countries I went to. They are really good at navigating around traffic and their POI data is way bigger than any other mapping solution.
I have Google smart speakers in every room except the children’s rooms. the fact that the music can be played synchronously in every room alone is worth my data to me.
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