Simplicity works because it brings you happiness. You feel a sense of immediate mastery. Simplicity as a design goal makes life harder for the gadget makers, of course, because designing next year’s model is no longer as easy as piling on new features. But simplicity is a goal worth sweating for.

In other words, some trends demonstrate maturity, brains and good taste on the part of the manufacturers; it’s worth taking a moment to celebrate them.

Okay, that’s enough. Now let’s go back to complaining.

This article was originally published with the title Big Progress on the Little Things.

7 Comments

1. 1. JamesDavis 09:04 AM 9/27/11

   Alright! Here is a complaint and how to solve it: cell phone carriers like Verizon and AT&T charge unbearable fees for talk, text and Internet and all the other cell phone carriers follow Verizon and AT&T's lead in setting prices for cell phone use. They use these two year contracts to really stick it to you and it takes an act of Congress (and you don't even want to go there) to get your bought and paid for cell phone, which now legally belongs to you like that shirt you just bought does, unlocked. So every time you change carriers to get a better deal, you have to buy another very expensive cell phone and pay an huge fee to break your two year contract.
   
   Here is how Walmart solved the problem: they sell unlocked phones; you have to pay full price for the unlocked phones (but if you use their service, the phone can be almost free or free), and they sell their own service at $45.00 for unlimited talk, text and Internet and no two year contracts. That is not a bad price considering that all the other cell phone carriers charge close to and over $100.00 for the same service and they always have a two year contract which opens the door for them to really stick it to you somewhere within that two years (usually two to three months down the road is when they start sticking it to you). Buy yourself a really good unlocked phone and then get a carrier, who has the lowest price for unlimited talk, text and Internet, and get them to send you their sim card. If they are unwilling to send you a sim card without you first buying one of their phones...stay away from them, they are bad news. Unless you have more money than brains, the unlocked phone is the best way to go and a "NO TWO YEAR CONTRACT" is the next best way to go. This way, if those cell phone carriers hike the fee on you...drop them like a hot potato.

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2. 2. promytius 10:18 AM 9/27/11

   Television, after you bought one, used to be FREE to watch.
   Telephones used to weigh 10 pounds and cost about $8 a month, and my dad still complained it was too much.
   Text was only found in books and on signs, and reading them was free.
   Now my cable "provider" wants me to sign a 'bargain' agreement for $180 a month - almost what I spend on food a month - to 'protect' 'my' price; right... cell phones? As long as I can piuggyback on another account, OK $5 a month, but when that ends, so do my cell phone relationships.
   Roku boxes are cheap and after that free to watch - where there is a technology, there are still humans left on the planet who will act responsibly and compassionately instead of acting like little republican monsters of greed; you know, the rich and entitled, who just can't seem to squeeze enough out of the little guys to satisfy their avarice, lust and an insane need for more and more money. It's really not technology that causes all the grief, it's what has always been the problem: the limited capacity of humans to act responsibly.

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3. 3. lamorpa in reply to JamesDavis 10:40 AM 9/27/11

   You say, "cell phone carriers like Verizon and AT&T charge unbearable fees for talk, text and Internet"
   
   They're not "unbearable". Hundreds of millions of people pay them every month. It's a free market. Let the market work it out.

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4. 4. JamesDavis in reply to lamorpa 01:17 PM 9/27/11

   You are no doubt one of those greedy little republican monsters commenter #2 spoke about. The market is working it out and just because Verizon and AT&T has millions of customers doesn't mean their prices are not unbearable. When a cell phone company lowers their rate, Verizon or AT&T buys them out by an aggressive takeover and jacks the fee back up. Compare Verizon and AT&T's unlimited talk, text and Internet with Walmart's $45.00 unlimited talk, text and Internet and tell me that Verizon and AT&T's fees is not unbearable.
   
   I got a super good cell phone, Samsung T404G, from Walmart for under $60.00 and the unlimited plan for $45.00. You do the math 'lamorpa' and tell be the better deal between Verizon, AT&T or Walmart.

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5. 5. lamorpa in reply to JamesDavis 01:49 PM 9/27/11

   I'm sorry you have a fundamental misunderstanding about how free markets work and how, though they are certainly not optimal, they always end up better than controlled 'markets'. But if you believe in them strongly you may want to move to the USSR where such controlled markets are the rule. Oh, wait a minute. Too late...
   
   As far as 'unbearable' goes, people pay their bill each month. They're bearing it.
   
   As far as my political, physical, and ethical attributes go, you may want to watch out for the warpage your personal anger is introducing. You can be sure the SA forum is no place for name calling.

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6. 6. Desert Navy 02:18 PM 9/27/11

   I find it incredibly ironic the vast majority of high-tech companies are run by liberals and they get called "greedy little republican monsters".
   

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7. 7. Steve3 06:44 PM 9/27/11

   Freemarket?
   
   If anybody knows where a freeemarket really exists please let me know.
   All I see are cartels everywhere I look and buy.

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