Bad user experience — devices that talk

Example of bad user experience: 5 am, voice says “recharge battery soon” loudly enough to wake me up. Repeats at random intervals.

I spent 5 minutes in the garage trying to find *which* device was doing this (and smash it with a hammer). There are all sorts of devices (drills, saws, welder, etc) and it could come from anywhere and I cannot *quite* locate the stupid voice. But nor could I easily get back to sleep as I would be reminded every few minutes with *bzzzzz* “recharge battery soon”.

1. Who thinks we want non-essential rechargeable devices to speak to us? Sure, the smoke detector is a good candidate for a voice telling me to change the batteries.
2. Why wouldn’t it say “Hey, it’s the drill, recharge me”
3. 5am? Smart enough to talk to me but not smart enough to wait to a decent hour?

This is the kind of thing that assures me that the makers of whichever device woke me up have *never* in fact had the device in their own homes.