Gadget confusion rules supreme in Blighty
Mobiles, satnavs, remotes and cameras all too complicated to use
Confused by your compact camera? Menaced by your mobile? You’re not alone, because many of us are baffled by gadgets, a survey has revealed.
Online gadget comparison website Reevoo questioned 2000 British adults and found that over one quarter had no idea how to use a digital camera properly, whilst 17 per cent don’t know the basics of using their camcorder.
Surprisingly, one in five admitted that they don’t know what most of the functions on their mobile phones do, besides from “make call” of course.
Quite a few people must still be getting lost whilst out in their cars too, because 21 per cent admitted that they have problems getting to grips with a satnav.
Many users also said they’re bewildered when it comes to getting their heads around MP3 players and TV remote controls.
Chris Winstanley, a spokesman for Reevoo, said: “What this research shows is that lots of people actually just want ease of use, rather than the added extras that many of us find too complicated”.
However, confusion over gadgets' features might not just be down to them having too many features or being too complicated to use. Because 38 per cent of people admitted they don't bother reading the manual first.
COMMENTS
Apply Unix philosphy to gadgets
Most people just see shiny shiny. I want my phone to be a phone and my mp3 player to play music(nonmp3 formats are fine). And people really do need to learn to keep devices until the next shiny thing comes out.
idiot nation
Basically if you can't work it out then you shouldn't have the gadget in the first place. Eat more Omega 3 or something. Jeez.
Paris, because she's up there with the smartest, apparently.
I hate my new mobile
I recently published my disappointment over my new Nokia N82 in my blog. It replaced a trusty Nokia 6300, and I was lured away by the promise of a better camera and GPS. What I got was a phone that requires multiple button press for the simplest of operations.
How could they have got the user interface so very wrong?
Throwaway society
or, you know, keep the damn things for longer than six months before buying the next shiny thing you see, that way you learn thru experimentation.
Also, gadgets are beginning to suffer from feature bloat; my phone (U600) has a 3.5 megapixel camera (kind'a ok for when I don't have my decent camera), mp3 player (no need for an iPod - yay!), tiny video player (pointless gimmick), radio (don't listen), synchs with outlook (gives me reminders for appointments, good backup for my phone contacts - double plus good!), alarm clock (does what it says), web surfing (screen too small to be useful), 2GB Smartcard (doubles as storage for files - backup etc). Along with bluetooth it also makes phone calls and does text/picture messaging, and if me and my laptop are in a wifi free zone it does allow my laptop to websurf thru it - not used because Virgin charges are not good for that.
I've had the phone for just over a year, never read the manual, but figured things out simply thru using it.
complex gadgets
If you need to read the instructions first then IT IS too complicated!
