+ sensible or impractical? +

I like my gadgets. The world would be nothing without gadgets. There'll be so many things we can't do. But I'm not just talking about our mobile phones and notebooks and MP3 players. I'm also referring to pulley systems, touch sensors, and what-have-you that makes our daily life easier.

However some of the things that we see around us that are supposed to make our lifes easier actually make us more frustrated when we use them. Great example: water taps with sensors that're found in many a more upscale mall now. Problem is, how many times have you actually came across one that doesn't behave erratically? I personally don't find it much of a chore to free one hand of the shopping bags and run the tap the good old way by pressing it.

There are also some conveniences that nobody uses. It doesn't mean that they're useless, it just means we may be too used to going through the same action without it's help. Think the auto-doors that're appearing in alot of our cabs. Sure, it sounds like a good idea for shop-a-holics so that they don't have to free their hands of shopping bags before entering the cab, but our locals are so quick to the door once they hail down a taxi that there really is not much point in the cabbie flicking the lever to open the passenger side door. On the contrary, if a taxi driver tries to be helpful and open the door for the passenger, the door may smack right into the ribs of the aft-mentioned.

And some of them were just born not too smart. Especially those touch sensitive stuff. The touch sensitive 'buttons' are never quite sensitive to the ones that you actually want to select. Hmm, so much for looking a tad cooler. I mean, how much more space or how much less cooler will making buttons that can actually be depressed be?

It's time we re-thought some of the things that're supposed to help us, not make us look more stupid with the product's own incompetence.