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Comment by blauditore | Hacker News Reader

Such details also annoy me, but this one would be very easy to fix with a semi-transparent sticker, or a marker.

If I'm buying a premium machine, I don't expect and want to mod it with $3 tape and ¢50 markers. It's like buying a premium car and installing an aftermarket instrument cluster because the OEM one is too bright at its lowest setting.

I agree, but reality is often different, even for cars. Sometimes because of incompetence, sometimes because of dark patterns. Many newer cars do have space for putting your phone somewhere on the middle console, but it's arranged in ways to make it impossible to place your phone in a way that would make it usable for navigation. Why? Because they desparately want you to use their own navigation setup (which probably costs extra too).

If we exclude a Dacia which lacked a screen and a radio, all the cars I have rented in the last three years had Android Auto and Apple CarPlay built in. Even though my phone was tucked there somewhere, I always used my phone's maps and other features while driving via the USB cable or wirelessly.

And, that wasn't half bad even. Did phone calls, used maps, listened to some music. Got the job done pretty smoothly.

Easier yet - it can be controlled in software. Turn it up, down, off.

No extra software required - uses the standard APIs.

The LED is the lining of the power button so it's not so trivial to fix without affecting the power button itself. It's quite an annoyance too I think.

Thin tape

Smudged adhesive, sticky button, a dislocated tape, dirt, ugliness, etc.

It's also not hard to fix in software, just like the original poster has done, without any ugly patches that can slide off leaving sticky residue

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