What a tremendous discussion topic! The solar charging remote is a nifty idea too. I hope the rechargeable battery and extra circuitry doesn’t cause any reliability issues and end up being its downfall over the long-term.
I wholeheartedly agree with your cynicism. I’ve been pondering your question overnight and have struggled to find an example of something that hasn’t been “enshittified” or isn’t otherwise a pain in the bum requiring maintenance or consumables or subscriptions or repairs or isn’t going to be obsolete within a few years. I suppose that’s one of the appeal of the homelab - getting away of some of that garbage that comes with using technology now days.
It’s hard to beat the solar powered calculator as an excellent example, but after some reflection I’d like to put forward a Philips DAB+ clock radio which I semi-regularly use.
I picked my unit up as an impulse buy about 10 years ago on the last day that Dick Smith traded (in the same haul as the Seagate Personal Cloud I’ve mentioned on here before). I don’t think it cost more than $10 in the bundle of clearance stuff I picked up on the day.
The specific model I have does one thing, and does it reliably. Audio quality is excellent, the time automatically sets itself from the DAB+ signal, the alarm is easy to set and unset, there are no updates, or subscriptions, or consumables or other considerations. Even the screen dims and brightens itself, and is gentle compared to the bright red 7-segment displays that seem to illuminate a whole bedroom. Turn it on, spin the dial, pick the DAB+ station I want to listen to, and turn it off (or have it sleep) when done.
Interesting that the only example in my life I could come up with is something that’s entirely offline, no WiFi, no USB, no phone/iPod docks… 