As we enter the last month of the year, I look back on a few things I learned this year.
The news is broken – Regardless of political leaning, one thing I came to realize is how broken the news industry has become as so much of the mainstream media has lost its way. Too many of the stories that are written by reporters are not news, but speculation, much like what we get from opinion columnists. Whenever I see a headline using the words could, might, possibly and the like, I skip the story, because it’s not reporting on what actually happened; it’s about what could happen based on the writer’s speculation or unnamed sources. Why obsess over what might happen? If it happens, then react. Then there are the cable networks filled with pundits predicting all sorts of things with an air of certainty, yet in reality, the could have done as well throwing darts.
Worst app/worst service – When I studied the famous Harvard Business School case of Fedex’s founder, Fred Smith, I was in awe of how he built a new overnight delivery service using ingenuity and technology. Yet today Fedex has one of the worst websites of any major company I’ve come across. The site’s appearance and user interface (below) is abysmal. It’s often unable to fulfill basic needs, such as rescheduling a delivery or tracking a package. More times than not it asks you to try again later. The site seems to be a reflection of how unreliable its service has become. In recent weeks, I received four shipments from around the country with email alerts of when each was due to be delivered. One delivery with a signature required came three days after it was due, but told me I needed to be home for each of the days before it arrived. Another I paid $5.55 to delay its arrival day by 3 days, yet after paying, it told me delivery would be made on the original day. The others did arrive on the correct day, but hours later than the time window provided.
I send and receive lots of shipments associated with my wine art (www.wine-maps.com) and I’ve found the most reliable shipper to be the USPS, followed by UPS.
Best app/best service – When Amex treated this 20 year customer badly after experiencing a problem with a charge on my Platinum card, I decided to look for a replacement and selected the Chase Reserve Sapphire card. Amex was, and perhaps still, is considered premium for service, but it’s not taken everywhere, making it difficult to put all my business charges on a single card. The Sapphire Visa solved that problem and I’ve never looked back. What surprised me, however, was how good their online portal and apps are, making it a snap to check my accounts, pay bills, deposit checks, check charges, and do most anything. Considering how many activities it needs to support, it’s easy to navigate, easy accomplish things, and just an amazing piece of software.
This year I spent more time using its benefits accrued from earning points. We used Chase Travel to book a European trip and had our choice of using points, converting them into dollars, or using them as airline points. Every so often there are bonus specials with the points worth 20% to 50% more. This month they were offering a 50% bonus using points to purchase Apple products, essentially a 33% discount. (Apparently not everyone had this option. When I mentioned it to a few friends, one didn’t have the offer, while another did and snapped up an $1100 iPhone 16 Pro for the equivalent of about $750.
Remarkably, after all these years, a week does not pass without another offer from AMEX trying to get me back.
Everyone is constantly charging their devices – It seems all of us are constantly looking for chargers, cords, battery packs, and outlets to keep more and more of our products charged. That now encompasses items from watches to iPads to security cameras to phones to computers and to cars. We even need to keep backup batteries charged to back up the phones when they go dead and we’re not near an outlet. We live in fear of running out of juice. Ironically, my biggest challenge remains my iPhone. Apple continues to maximize the importance of slender phones over battery life. My least concern? My electric car that’s I charge at home overnight and rarely drops below 50%.
Scamming is rampant – With X, formerly Twitter, becoming a cesspool, I moved to Threads, a competitor started by Meta. I’ve now moved on to Bluesky, a much more responsible company, to get away from Meta, the company that still hasn’t done much out to stop infecting our kids with suicidal messages on Instagram.
My purpose of being on a network like Bluesky is to keep up with current events and connections with a few good journalists I admire. A quick perusal once a day brings up useful information on some of the important events of the day. But I’m also receiving dozens of scam requests from others to follow them on this rapidly growing site. A majority of them come from members with a profile photo of a hot young woman, and a propensity for them to immediately begin a chat. The conversations are all the same: Where are you from, what do you like to do, can we be friends, and let’s take this conversation off Bluesky and use Telegraph. They are all trying to entice you into an online relationship where they can sell you crypto, extract personal information, or begin an online romantic relationship to steal your savings. Then there’s the email with the never-ending fake receipts for the Geek Squad, PayPal and software products trying to get you to open attachments.
The gadget revolution has peaked – As one that used to write about the best of technology each year, we’ve reached the point where there are very few exciting new products. Innovation has leveled way off and we are no longer awed by new things. Consider how these products came out 10 to 20 years ago and haven’t changed much after all this time: iPhones, eBook readers, video doorbell cameras, WiFi routers, etc.
Travel is getting harder – Sure, I’m getting older and it takes a bit more effort to get around, but the world of travel has become much more of a pain. There are long lines and delays everywhere, from check-in to security to immigration to taxis. As one who had never checked a bag, I now check them on the return trips and hope they arrive on the same plane as I do. It’s just a pain to lug your bags on and off your flights and through the long corridors of immense airports. Now flights seem to be less frequent, more likely to be filled to capacity, and with a greater chance to strand you overnight. For frequent travelers, there are fewer ways to find affordable business class seats.
Biggest bargain in tech – Large screen TVs are priced at amazingly low prices. They used to cost more than an iPhone, but now you can buy three for the same cost as a phone or one for the price of a fine dinner. 55-inch TVs from major brands sell for as little as $199 to $279 and an 65-inch set for just $80 more.
