🥷Crazy Dark Patterns, The KO II, and Sears Home Nostalgia

Teenage Engineering strikes again

Nov 27, 2023

Hey friends!

If you’re stateside - I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving with your friends and family.

We had a wonderful time back in Maryland with my family.

I always make sure to get a crab cake and some Berger cookies anytime i go to Maryland. It’s a must. If you live anywhere near the Washington DC area, make sure you go to Roy’s Kwik Corner for the most delicious crab cake around.

If you’ve never had a Berger cookie - you can purchase them online. They’re essentially shortbread cookies covered in chocolate frosting.

Delicious enough to crave - Dangerous enough that I’m glad I live in TN now.

I used to have to buy Old Bay chips - but those are now available in TN.

Did you keep up with all the AI drama? I guess Sam returning to OpenAI worked out after all. Incredibly insane story.

I forewent any Black Friday deals - there was nothing compelling enough to get me to cough up any dough.

I know - it’s Cyber Monday - it’s often best for me to completely avoid the day, as I’m always on the lookout for a fantastic deal.

Nothing I own is close enough to breaking for me to make any kind of justification to replace it.

I did wander through this Github collection of software deals - nothing caught my eye though.

Shall we dive on in?

👀 Crazy Dark Patterns

I helped a family member cancel their newspaper subscription last week. The absolutely INSANE company was charging north of $150 a month for the daily paper.

Mind you - this newspaper is a shell of a shell of what it was when I was a kid.

You wouldn’t believe what the bill had written on it.

(Paraphrase) “Subscription will continue continuously, regardless of payment status.”

WHAT.

Generally - if we don’t pay for services, those services will stop. Be it electricity, internet, or a car - bad stuff usually happens when you stop paying and don’t communicate with the company.

For example, during Covid lots of companies introduced hardship plans - just call and let’s discuss your situation.

Not with this Newspaper - nooooo - they’d charge forever if you let ‘em.

This personal tale reminded me of an article about dark patterns that I recently saw in pudding.cool.

Dark patterns are essentially little tricks that get you to do things that you normally wouldn’t do otherwise - like buying a shirt because there’s a countdown timer.

OR - that “subscribe and save” button you see that’s occasionally pre-checked.

One of the WORST of the bunch is the “phone call to cancel” nightmare.

The websites that took the longest to cancel subscriptions were the ones that required phone calls: the New York Times took 17 minutes and 36 seconds to cancel, and the Boston Globe took 3 phone calls (which was undergoing technical difficulties in order to cancel, hence the three phone calls). Savage Fenty required either a phone call or taking a person via a chat interface online, which took 7 minutes. (source)

That’s just plain insanity. 17 minutes to cancel a subscription.

Users should be able to hit “I want to cancel” and that’s it.

I will say - I don’t mind the downsell dark pattern - where companies like Canva will introduce a secret cheaper plan. Sometimes I bite.

The Hall of Shame on Deceptive Design keeps a log of a lot of dark patterns - and most companies are guilty of them - ranging from Stripe to Porkbun.

I recommend reading this pudding article - there’s some really interesting stuff to discover.

Dark Patterns

💥THE KO II

The amount of times I’ve “simped” over a Teenage Engineering release is probably at least 3-4 times now.

and - most digital tech publications are currently covering the KO II.

The KO II is a digital sampler on steroids.

meet the evolution of the world's most sold sampler. based on the legendary PO-33 K.O!, the new EP–133 K.O.II adds more power, more sampling capabilities, a fully reworked sequencer and brand new punch-in 2.0™ effects. introducing a workflow that lets you go from idea to TRACK faster than ever. it's pocket operators gone pro. (source)

“Pocket Operators gone pro” is a succinct summary. If you remember the Pocket Operators line - they’re itty bitty samplers you can take on the go to make beats.

Example:

The mad lads at Teenage Engineering decided to take this little idea and GO BIG with a “it can do it all” digital sampler.

Here - check out a demo track and see what this immaculate device looks like.

I can’t believe they’re selling this for $299. Compared to the more expensive $1,000ish price tag of the OP-1, this device falls within the budget sampler price range.

It’s portable and has a built-in mic: you could go sit at a park, fiddle with a guitar, record a sample, and start creating a track without your laptop or iPad.

Teenage Engineering took what we loved about the Pocket Operators (small, affordable) and wrapped it all up into one package.

Definitely putting it on the dream tech list.

Even if you don’t have any interest in the KO II - check out their webpage for it.

It’s . . . a knockout.

KO'd!!!!!

🏠 Sears Home Nostalgia

Did you know that Sears used to sell DIY kits for building a house?

Yes - years before the modern modular home movement, Sears was shipping out kits so you could build your home from the ground up.

Alas - They stopped producing these in 1940.

Copywriting side note - That first paragraph slaps in terms of authority. Value list, guarantees, etc.

I recently discovered that there’s actually quite a few people who research and catalog sears homes. I had no idea!

Depending how how old a neighborhood is - (if it dates back to the 30’s) it’s possible there may be a few around you too.

Sears-homes is a lovely blog dedicated to discussing sears homes, and proving their authenticity.

Here’s an example of a house they found and authenticated.