this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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During a recent episode of The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber shed some possible insight into the company’s view on one of its most important products. Saying that “the mouse built this house,” Faber shares the planning behind a Forever Mouse, a premium product that the company hopes will be the last you ever have to buy. There’s also a discussion about a subscription-based service and a deeper focus on AI.

For now, details on a Forever Mouse are thin, but you better believe there will be a catch. The Instant Pot was a product so good that customers rarely needed to buy another one. The company went bankrupt.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think it's time to stop with subscription bullshit.

I understand that they prefer that, but it quickly becomes the only purpose fulfilled by these devices which is not fulfilled by more normal ones, while the main purposes suffer, looking closer to an excuse.

Also the argument of businesses going bankrupt when something is done too well - that's by design. Progress works via removing bottlenecks one after another. Businesses which were located at those bottlenecks die. It's fine, the society doesn't need them anymore. Management and employees have mostly transferable skills and experience. If they earn less, then maybe their work is worth less, since the business failed. Investors lose money, and that's fine, it's the purpose of investment - judge wisely and win, judge poorly and lose.

It still irritates me how sometimes socialist-minded people say that it's bad that in capitalism businesses (and whole industries) fail, and this should be fixed, but then blame capitalism for the results of preventing businesses (or whole industries) from failing.

I have internalized all the leftist arguments heard here, some are fundamentally and practically very true, but sometimes fixing the thing you have would yield results just as good or better as looking for that better thing you don't know where.

OK, I've diverted from the point.

Somehow businesses making nails and screwdrivers don't complain about making too good a screwdriver. Because, well, the good screwdriver still dies after sometime, and the amount of people who need tools grows, yadda-yadda.

This should work the same way in computing, but hype-scamming customers is such a norm there, that doing business the normal way seems the way to bankruptcy to them. They should all fail. We are doing - for the real-life useful output, not for FLOPS and IOPS, - just a bit more than in 90s, but for orders of magnitude bigger cost.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

socialist-minded people say that it's bad

No they don’t, assuming your talking about democratic socialists not old eastern bloc socialism.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

There's one way subscription-based hardware might be a good idea: it would motivate the companies to focus on quality and repairability, because they would be the ones who have to deal with that stuff. Unless of course if the EULA of such hardware is complete shit. Which of course it will be.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Oh I have a Forever Mouse. Bought a Microsoft Intellimouse Optical in 2001 or so. Still works. Use it with my Raspberry Pi sometimes. Also bought another Microsoft wireless laptop mouse like a decade ago. Still works just fine.

...The Logitech mouse that I bought against my better judgement in 2020 is starting to show signs of fatigue.

Also how the everliving hell do you add AI to input devices? Are they just going to guess what I'm pointing at?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Maybe they mean one with a nuclear battery.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

it was these keycaps: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001681753913.html

Came with the wrong size space, so had to order a smaller in (not shown in the pic), which isn't listed on Ali anymore.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago

Trying to make a flagship product and keep it pumped up through subscription sounds a lot like live service games.

And those all fucking suck.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Another piece of the Forever Mouse puzzle is the software. Logitech uses its Options Plus software which essentially walks people through making prompts to interact with AI. But Faber says this is just the start:

This is intended to appeal to investors instead of customers.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Yeah I really can't imagine any scenario where I want my mouse to... Help me prompt AI??

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Hey I need my mouse drivers to do chatGPT api calls, how else will I be able to email my toaster when I want to put bread in?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Maybe they could focus on making better mice! The super light x 2 is falling behind more and more every year

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

If I made my thoughts known about this development, I'd be permanently banned from lemmy.world.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I've already got a Forever Mouse though... I'm using a $25 Logitech M705 I bought 10 years ago, before they cheaped out and replaced the metal scrollwheel with a plastic one. Works great. I have to replace the battery once every two years or so. I've got an 11-year-old Logitech mouse at work too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

My MX510 from 2005 died recently. I'm sure it's just a cable issue since if I straighten it out perfectly, once in a while I can still get a signal through. So I'm contemplating of desoldering it and put a new one in, it was otherwise flawless.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

My g9x is getting flakey, and I'm very sad.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Logitech stuff is already sort of a subscription based service, since their stuff is designed to fail after around 2 years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Really? Been using a logitech trackball at work for 14 years now. My k750 keyboard lasted me almost 10y until the battery completely gave up and I wanted to upgrade. My Mx keys has lasted me for years since.

Similar stories for my mice, none of them have failed, I've only upgraded because I wanted lighter, more/less buttons or for other reasons.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Their recent offerings have been a big disappointment. Gone were those days where you'd buy a logi mouse and keep it for atleast 5 years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

My trackball mice have had parts deteriorate at around the two year mark before. After this one breaks, usually the scrollwheel or the left click key, I'm switching to an opensource trackball system.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

So many CEOs these days have their heads completely up their own ass when it comes to the concept of "buy it for life".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Try getting them to last longer than 2 years before the scroll wheel breaks before you try to stump this shit

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