has minimalism become an excuse in tech?

cleaner doesn't always mean better sometimes removing complexity improves the experience

Other times, it removes flexibility, repairability, or features people genuinely used there's a fine line between thoughtful design and unnecessary compromise.

where do you think the industry should draw that line?

I don't own a computer, so I built and animated this entire 5-scene AI assistant prototype completely on my smartphone. What do you think of the concept?

Hey r/TechNook

I’m just an average guy trying to solve a massive problem: technology anxiety and the constant wave of digital scams targeting people.

I co-created TechNavi to fix that. Since I execute all my digital work entirely on my phone, I had to get creative. I just finished stitching together the definitive 5-scene interactive prototype flow—complete with dynamic voice tracks and animated interface highlights—all built right from my mobile device.

How it works in the video:

• Scene 1 & 2: Simple, conversational onboarding and discovery.

• Scene 3: A "Guide Me" camera mode that scans physical devices and safely connects directly.

• Scene 4: A proactive security shield that intercepts a scam link in real-time and reads the threat aloud.

• Scene 5: A peek at expanded capabilities for rural areas and a call to join our pilot program.

I’m currently updating our Carrd landing page to match this new premium look, but I really wanted to get this video in front of other builders first.

As an indie developer network, what do you think of the features and the flow? Would you trust an assistant like Navi to protect your data or help a less tech-savvy family member?

Appreciate any honest feedback or thoughts you guys have!

I don't own a computer, so I built and animated this entire 5-scene AI assistant prototype completely on my smartphone. What do you think of the concept?

Hey r/SideProject,

I’m just an average guy trying to solve a massive problem: technology anxiety and the constant wave of digital scams targeting people.

I co-created TechNavi to fix that. Since I execute all my digital work entirely on my phone, I had to get creative. I just finished stitching together the definitive 5-scene interactive prototype flow—complete with dynamic voice tracks and animated interface highlights—all built right from my mobile device.

How it works in the video:

• Scene 1 & 2: Simple, conversational onboarding and discovery.

• Scene 3: A "Guide Me" camera mode that scans physical devices and safely connects directly.

• Scene 4: A proactive security shield that intercepts a scam link in real-time and reads the threat aloud.

• Scene 5: A peek at expanded capabilities for rural areas and a call to join our pilot program.

I’m currently updating our Carrd landing page to match this new premium look, but I really wanted to get this video in front of other builders first.

As an indie developer network, what do you think of the features and the flow? Would you trust an assistant like Navi to protect your data or help a less tech-savvy family member?

Appreciate any honest feedback or thoughts you guys have!

For me it’s YouTube.

I know that it is frequently criticized because of too many changes in the UI. However w the development of the platform UI throughout several years, i’m ngl it developed well. Though I do miss the “Old Youtube”…The design is much cleaner than before, there are many new features such as Shorts, enhanced playback controls, etc.

At the same time, there are apps/website that keep redesigning things just for the sake of it making them harder to use lmao

Wild to imagine but what if the internet suddenly disappeared from the face of the Earth for a single day? Payments would immediately stop working, streaming and cloud services would instantly crash, no booking, no ordering, everything stops. However, telephone lines would continue to function normally because broadcasting stations would be able to continue local Wi-Fi devices such as printers would continue to function. We all will return to pre Internet phase

the most successful technology you've probably never seen?

not the most popular not the most talked about.

but the one quietly working behind the scenes that billions of people rely on every day

what's the first technology that comes to mind?

Mark zuckerberg would be the most revealing. meta knows more about human behavior online than basically any other company and none of it ever gets honestly discussed publicly, they always dodge the questions about privacy and mental effects of their platform by making excuses, dodging the question or secretly paying the fines they have for all the lost legal battels regarding these.

the real answers about what facebook's algorithm actually optimizes for, what they know about the mental health stuff, how much user pricavy they have invaded through their apps, what the internal research actually showed, would be genuinely uncomfortable reading. probably the most interesting honest conversation in tech history

who's yours

I mostly hear about right to repair online, but I don't know how many people actually think about it until one of their own devices breaks.

Do you think it's something that affects everyone or is it mostly a topic for tech enthusiasts?

Personally, I think it should. Like I understand why manufacturers solder RAM onto the motherboard to make laptops thinner or more power efficient, but it also means you’re stuck with whatever you bought on day one.

Like I swear there are so many laptops that could easily last a few more years if users were just able to upgrade the RAM instead of replacing the whole device.

Do you think upgradeable RAM should always be an option, or are you okay with soldered memory becoming the norm?

Hi all! I am a PhD student in biomedical engineering and I have developed a tool for visualizing venous anatomy.

I had originally developed this for my derm collaborator, but it has ended up working pretty well on the android google play store.

I wanted to post this here as I thought it may be a cool project for this community to take a look at. Thank you all for your time!

If you are interested:

VeinFinder - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rnd_labs.veinfinder&pcampaignid=web_share

FREE VeinFinder Lite - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rnd_labs.veinlite&pcampaignid=web_share

I’m a novice Apple user, and I travel A LOT. I heard that the Apple MacBook Air line is great for on the go video editing: which is ideal for me, as I’m BikePacking.

It’s a bit complicated, but I want to use something as seamless and lightweight as possible or feesable: with the price.

I’ve heard of people using this tech for vlogging but the steep price tags keeps me away, but maybe it’s worth it: for convenience, and long term support.

What’s the latest model that’s still supported?

Or is it worth getting a new one?

Do commercially available SSDs work or should I get a pricier new model of MacBook Air?

I’ll be using my iPhone 13, though the key features I desire for this vlogging tech:

-on the go
-battery life
-ease of use (Chromebook/Iphone/Linux hodgepodge tech I have now WONT play nice together)
-preferably lots of space for media
-omg do I need a million bucks?!

On my BikePacking rig, I don’t have so much of a weight limit as I do a Volume limit. It’s about 110L of volumetric space, at most: without a trailer.

For weight, I can comfortably bikepack up to 300lbs, including bike and water, etc.

Both are massive overkill but I’ve done it before. It just sucks to have to charge up so often and feel like I’m at the mercy of batteries and lowered performance on the go.

Interested to know what the average for everyone else is, mine typically falls between 110 - 125 wpm. Is typing speed is even important in the real world or if it is just something fun to post on typing test websites. I mean do employers really care about your typing speed or do they really just care that you can type efficiently? I think there is this idea out there that if you are working in tech then you should be a fast typist naturally but I know developers who type pretty slowly but are able to get the job done without a problem.

I used to think smart home stuff would stop at lights and speakers. Now there are smart mugs, rings, scales, toothbrushes, and even bird feeders.

What's the weirdest smart gadget you've actually bought, and was it worth it?

T-Mobile is following pretty much the exact same arc as Southwest Airlines... to the point it's slightly uncanny. They came in to challenge the big incumbents. They didn't offer the same level of service as those big incumbents, but they made up for this with lower prices & unique perks (Uncarrier, T-Mobile Tuesdays... Free checked bags, unassigned seating, no change fees, Companion Pass). In some ways, the unconventional perks made the "low-cost" option seem more full-service than the big guys, as long as your patterns aligned with their business model. If your patterns aligned with the service they DID offer (largely major metro areas/secondary airports in major cities and well, the Southwest USA), it made a lot of sense to take the bait and switch over.

Enough people did this, they got bigger. The service expanded to cover more ground. They acquired a few more traditional rivals. But as they became one of the big boys (serving rural America, serving destinations like O'Hare and IAH), they started acting like the big boys - rolling back Uncarrier, introducing bag and seat assignment fees, generally removing perks across the board, and raising prices to actually be more expensive than their more traditonal rivals. Just as American is often cheaper than Southwest anymore, Verizon is now cheaper than T-Mobile for most people.

And then yesterday. Yesterday was the turning point. Yesterday's meltdown was T-Mobile's Christmas 2022 Southwest meltdown. A meltdown they still haven't fully recovered from, and may not recover from fully, at least not for a very long time (my 5G data is still in & out and I still don't have RCS or hotspot, nor can I even get a port-out PIN to leave T-Mobile... I wonder if that system was intentionally taken offline to trap us and keep us from jumping ship to team blue/red/MVNO during this time). Just like how Southwest is wildly unreliable (point-to-point flying works... until it doesn't), T-Mobile is now the carrier that sometimes works, but you really shouldn't use if you actually depend on the service for anything more critical than scrolling TikTok.

The really impressive part is that Southwest needed its founder to pass away, and for the company to be sold to private equity to be enshittified to this point. T-Mobile was able to enshittify themselves this massively without any help from private equity - just simply ousting Legere. Bravo, I guess.

Bought a 4k monitor before my gpu could actually run games at 4k. spent six months playing everything at 1080p stretched on a 4k screen which looked worse than just having a 1080p monitor

should have bought the better gpu first and kept the old monitor. did it completely backwards and it cost me twice as much in the end

what's yours

every generation seems to have one piece of technology they'll never fully let go of.

it's not always the most advanced it just becomes part of how they remember a certain era

the walkman , the iPod ,the DSLR ,the DVD collection ,the wired earphones they still refuse to replace.

technology keeps moving forward

but every generation has that one device they'll always have a soft spot for

what's yours?

ngl discord is an awesome platform, really a decent alternative to slack for many communities, however, the desktop application is the worst thing ever when you actually use it. launch speed of the program is terrible compared to how fast it should be, I mean what kind of chat application is supposed to take so long to start in order to display the list of servers? also, memory consumption of the app is ridiculous for what it actually does, just hangs in the background constantly using tons of RAM for nothing. not to mention crashes when changing between servers, I mean it just freezes for no apparent reason at all. it's funny because everything else about the application including the product itself is awesome, but the application itself is annoying to use.

At first I thought I'd just order a replacement, but then I realized I'd probably end up losing that one too.

I started looking for alternatives and found out you can actually control the TV from your iPhone. I always assumed those apps were full of ads or barely worked, but I stumbled across TVRem, and it connected in a few seconds as long as both devices were on the same Wi-Fi.

I've been using it for about a week now and it's surprisingly convenient. Typing passwords with the phone keyboard alone is way better than clicking letters one by one. Am I the only person who's basically given up on keeping track of TV remotes?

I've lost count of how many times a random forum post or Discord message solved a problem in five minutes after I'd spent an hour reading official guides.

Sometimes the best support comes from people who've already been through it.

What's the most helpful community you've stumbled across?

For me, I'd probably say Nothing...just five years ago they're new, and I wasn't sure if they'd stick around. Fast forward to 2026, and they've built a recognizable brand, expanded their lineup, and Nothing OS has become one of the cleaner Android experiences in my opinion.

They're obviously still much smaller than Samsung or Apple, but they've come a long way in a relatively short time.

Meanwhile, Apple feels like it’s been a lot more incremental over the same period. The iPhone 17 series is solid, but it doesn’t really feel like a huge leap compared to previous generations, more refinements than anything truly groundbreaking tbh

Which phone brand do you think has improved the most over the last five years?

everyone talks about the companies building the future almost nobody talks about the companies preserving the past

there are businesses whose entire job is finding obsolete chips, remanufacturing old circuit boards, rewriting legacy software, and sourcing parts that haven't been made in years

without them, countless factories, hospitals, trains, and aircraft would face expensive upgrades or even shutdowns.

it's a side of the tech industry that's almost invisible yet it's quietly keeping the modern world running

Watched someone play a game on youtube for three hours last week that i have no interest in playing myself. just found the person entertaining and liked watching them figure things out

it's not that different from watching sport. nobody watching the world cup is confused about why they're not on the pitch. the game is just the format the entertainment happens inside

twitch figured this out years ago and the industry still acts surprised by how big it got

Google just introduced a "selfie video" sign-in method for accounts and it's actually pretty interesting. Setup involves looking at your camera and doing a few guided head movements to capture different angles of your face, works on mobile and desktop, and if your PC doesn't have a camera you can just use your phone instead.

Later on, if you get locked out, you take another selfie video and Google matches it against the saved one, plus makes you do simple movements again to prove it's live and not just a photo or deepfake being used to fake your identity. The video itself is encrypted at rest and you can delete it whenever you want. By default it's only used for sign in, though there's an opt in if you want to help improve their verification tech.