These $300 earbuds will fail in two years, and no fixing is available, says this CEO،
It's Friday, so it's time to relax and check out the third “Worst in Show” Award by iFixit!
They scan and select the most scandalous products from the annual CES forum and “reward” them in various categories, such as “Privacy”, “Security”, “Repairability” and… “Enshittification”.
“Enshittification” is the word of 2023, according to the American Dialect Society. As Wikipedia says, Enshittification is also known as platform decline – the pattern of decreasing quality of online platforms that act as two-sided marketplaces.
Back to the “Worst in Show” awards. iFixit judges awarded them based on product-related questions like “How bad is this product?” “, “Are the problems with this gadget innovative? “, “To what extent do the negatives outweigh the positives? ” And much more.
The problem with headphones
In the “Repairability” category, Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, picks the anti-price for the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 headphones. “If you spend $300 on a headset, you expect it to last. Especially if it’s Sennheiser, the trusty brand known for its bulletproof and durable over-ear headphones,” he says.
The problem is that “like almost all other True Wireless earbuds, these contain three separate batteries. Budding cells will fail after two years of regular use. Sennheiser doesn't sell replacement batteries, and Internet forums are full of people complaining that the company doesn't repair them.
What else is “the worst”?
Okay, this one isn't what you'd call “mobile tech,” but it's hilarious — again, it's Friday, so don't take things too seriously.
In the “Who asked this?” section. » category, the “winner” is… Instacart AI-powered smart sarts.
“We see 10,000 ads a day, but that’s not enough for Instacart!” Their new “AI-powered” shopping cart with a display screen tracks what you buy and shows you curated ads… er, “experiences” to “connect” with brands. It uses historical purchasing behavior to promote the junk food you bought before. Grocery stores are overwhelmed and navigating promotions is exhausting, and I question the sanity of those who thought we should make things worse,” the blog reads.
