The iPhone 15 Pro is nice though.

100% agree. Bought one myself!

If you want a high quality washing machine get a speed queen https://speedqueen.com/speed-queen-difference/

Thank you for taking the time to drop this link. I had exactly the question I think you anticipated: "Where can I get a really well-made washer and dryer?"

Or Miele if you're in Europe

I heard about Miele dropping the ball lately, but mine (9 y o Miele W 3371 Edition 111) never needed anything replaced/fixed so far. I can recommend.

The trade-off is that the speed queen is pretty inefficient and does a mediocre job of actually getting clothes clean. But it'll last forever.

They have a model with a normal powered agitator.

>Edit: also three colleagues bought iPhone 15 Pro phones this time round after Samsung last time. Don’t know what happened there but you don’t make a switch like that unless you dislike what you had that bad.

Samsung got rid of all the things that made their devices different (micro sd card, headphone jack, MST, IR blaster, etc) and then changed the design of the phone to look more like an iPhone. Software also has been moving that direction. There's nothing special or unique with main Samsung flagship phones anymore (with exception of s-pen and folding phones). So by jumping to Apple you aren't losing much in terms of hardware if anything.

On the other hand iPhone have been adding more customization features things like widgets on the home screen and allowing to change the defaults to make it more like Android.

> Samsung got rid of all the things that made their devices different (micro sd card, headphone jack, MST, IR blaster, etc) and then changed the design of the phone to look more like an iPhone. Software also has been moving that direction. There's nothing special or unique with main Samsung flagship phones anymore (with exception of s-pen and folding phones).

True - there are tons of options with Android.

> So by jumping to Apple you aren't losing much in terms of hardware if anything.

I think you are net gaining in terms of hardware quality.

> On the other hand iPhone have been adding more customization features things like widgets on the home screen and allowing to change the defaults to make it more like Android.

Not nearly enough; e.g. I use Syncthing to manage/sync data across devices in my home and have customized it exactly how I want it and I don't need to pay iCloud tax every month - no such luck with Apple. But beyond customization, the main issue is lock-in about which they are (understandably) doing nothing. If you use a idevice and have buyer's remorse, tough luck getting stuff out to a non-Apple ecosystem without friction.

What are you doing that requires you use iCloud in lieu of FOSS/self hosted options?

For photos, check out PhotoSync. It supports a one time purchase and is phenomenal for its use case. Fairly powerful; not something to use without reviewing every single setting first.

You guessed it right, its Photos and Videos. Thanks for suggesting PhotoSync, will check it out.

Probably a bit more than you want to deal with, but I use Samsung phones and my wife likes her iPhone. We have Nextcloud set up, and both phones auto upload all pictures to the cloud (in the basement).

Hope you have an offsite copy somewhere.

I have been meaning to explore nextcloud. What client do you use for Android and iPhone?

The only issue is the other Android options are pretty mediocre, so it's Samsung or the "others"

I swear there has to be a conspiracy driving everything to the iPhone-featureless-hardware + *Cloud*-all-the-things + nickel-and-dime paradigm. It can't be that customers are really this... helpless.

Well, if all the new models are made out of shit, when your old phone goes and you need a new one you have to buy a shit phone. Your purchase then goes into a graph in a presentation that shows that people really love holding shit, because why wouldn't they be buying it? Meanwhile, almost all competition for non shit products has been completely reduced and everyone except the execs hates almost every product that exists. Presentation giver gets a bonus

We had a Samsung washing machine that failed (leak killed control board, something that isn't uncommon with that model) and we were a few months out of warranty. They said the warranty period wasn't a problem and offered a hefty discount on other Samsung products as well, including a TV we were already considering. Control board got replaced and the machine is back in action.

Arguable whether something obvious like a washing machine being able to leak and kill a critical bit of internal hardware is good enough though...

Prices on repair parts is the issue IMHO. I have a $1000 Samsung Washing machine. Had a similar issue with the control board dying. If I had to replace it myself, that circuit board is a $400 part. Without labour. You can't return it if it doesn't fix the problem. I just cannot see how it can cost $400 to supply a board that is part of a $1,000 washing machine including retailer margin. Once you add in $100-200 to have someone actually fit the part... it's just silly.

So the whole thing gets binned. Because for twice the price you get a new everything with 4-5 years warranty. Car spare parts also have this issue. It gets even weirder, every dealer for Mitsubishi Australia sells spare parts for literally 5x the price of the same OEM Mitsubishi part but ordered from Amayama. This held true for a stack of parts I checked from a $0.30 washer to a $120 shift fork to go inside a gearbox. More recently I looked at the ABS Control Module and it was only 2x but that's a $2,000 part. $2,000 OEM from Amayama, $4,000 from a dealer.

I get that there is some overhead in warehousing spare parts for years, but still. There is clear profiteering and something needs to be done if we're going to be remotely sustainable long term.

Never mind that we've been building modern washing machines and dishwashers for 20+ years and yet every model from every manufacturer uses a different unique part, made from scratch, which managed to make the same mistake 100 other versions of that part have made and fixed causing them to often fail.

I'm ranting, oops...

I hear you. I looked at fixing the machine myself and we considered just replacing it when we thought the warranty was too far gone, but it seriously irks me to throw out an entire machine. It feels incredibly wasteful.

We must shop the same brands. I scratched a rear removable interior panel of a Pajero (fridge rubbing against it for 3,000km of corrugated road) and asked for a replacement price out of interest when I was in for a dealer service. $350 or so for what is a single piece of moulded plastic. Unique to the vehicle, but not otherwise complicated.

I like your idea of trying to standardise at least some components across various brands of a product (like is done with USB standards). It shits me that everything is optimised for cost and profit rather than for consumers and the broader environment.

I've always been wary of import white goods after hearing the horror stories about Samsung's and LG's, and comparing that with my experience with domestic ones where parts are cheap and largely shared across brands; then again, with most of them being owned by Maytag/Whirlpool, it's not like there are many companies either.

Incidentally, for car parts, the Big Three had a lot of parts interchangeability at the height of the automotive era, many of which are still available today in the aftermarket, but it seems that for newer models they have also started becoming more closed and proprietary.

Basically no one makes white goods locally in Australia, so :)

I had a failure in a bosch dish washer which probably would have been control board replacement and $$$$ if I had it fixed. But I happened to look up the issue on the internet and learned that it was a common problem - a bad solder connection on a particular pin on a relay on the control board.

Re-soldered it, and it has been fine for a couple of years.

This is why it’s a good idea to buy the most common model of anything, or whatever enthusiasts buy.

My family has kinda done the same by having a Toyota Corolla and an older bmw 3 series (without the turbo and 4wd thankfully). Also got the base model Bosch dishwasher.

At least if you can’t repair it or part it out yourself, there ends up being some efficient network of buyers that can fix it or at least harvest the remaining good parts.

At least you didn't have to replace all your hardwood flooring like my neighbour 2 days after his shiny new Samsung washer and dryer were installed.

Samsung's constant chasing of Apple has removed most of the reasons I would buy a Samsung phone.

For me it was:

- adding sponsored links (amazon I think) in an OS upgrade on my flagship phone

- camera (and other apps but with camera it is most annoying) sometimes taking way to long to open, as if there was one or more network calls involved

- general lagging

- software updates stopped after less than two years

Went to a cheap iPhone and it was way smoother. I understand Android and Samsung has improved, but why switch back? My entire family is on iPhone now and my only problem is someone thought it was a good idea to put a random limit on 6 persons in a family group. (BTW, Android had the same problem last I checked. So much for diverse teams.)

It also kills me that Google has a more open security hardware platform. There's reasons GrapheneOS is Pixel-only.

Had a similar problem with a Samsung washing machine here in the UK, one of the more expensive models too. After just a few months, it developed problems.

I had to spend hours on the phone to their support people, who would tell me to reset it, switch it off and on again, wait a few days and try again etc - just... useless. I practically had to bed them to send someone round. Eventually they agreed, and a local repair guy came round - he spent a few minutes looking at it, declared it a write-off, and told me he advises all his customers to avoid Samsung!

To be fair, the Samsung that makes appliances has very little connection to the Samsung that makes phones or TVs, aside from the name.

But I otherwise agree. My Samsung washer & dryer will be the last Samsung appliances I ever own.

My last Samsung phone had an annoying habit of hanging up as soon as the proximity sensor decided the phone wasn't up against your face. Turns out that was somewhat common. They did replace the phone, but shortly thereafter I abandoned my Android allegiance and went with iPhone so I wouldn't have to tinker with a device I use as an appliance.

Why would hanging up based on the proximity sensor be a thing? That'd make using the keypad for phone menus nearly impossible, unless you put the phone in speakerphone pre-emptively.