Are we still reading Washington Post?

You’re describing a UI that I’ve only seen in cheap hardware store flashlights. Yes it’s infuriating when you can’t just turn a light on or off, and choose the mode you want. I use strobe when crossing streets at night but my lights make it easy to access that feature when I want it.

Who is this “favorite flashlight manufacturer”? I find it odd that you both have a favorite, and buy lights that act like this. There are thousands that don’t.

Had me in the first half.

Oh boy: https://intl-outdoor.com/, https://www.killzoneflashlights.com/, https://flashlightgo.com/, https://jlhawaii808.com/, https://www.fenixlighting.com/, https://www.acebeam.com/, are some commercial manufacturers and retailers. Some of us that are further gone also trade used ones.

You might be in another world, or the 90s perhaps?

Different settings are useful because modern flashlights use LEDs and get absurdly bright. Dimming them lets the user select an amount of light appropriate to a task, and preserve battery life. If you’re in the dark you’d want to start dim to avoid blinding yourself or annoying others (in a campground for instance). Strobes are good for getting attention.

Many of my lights use a common firmware called Anduril, which has some other nice features like a simulated candle flicker, or lightning storm (I use this for Halloween). It also allows me to turn it on directly to the lowest or highest settings, otherwise it defaults to the last level I used. There’s even an auto-shutoff feature which is nice for a night light.

It’s not intuitive in that someone with zero knowledge can pick it up and understand all of the features, but it is simple enough that someone can at least turn it on and off. If you know how to use it you can immediately access the lowest level or the highest level, without having to scroll through a bunch of modes you don’t want. You have to ramp the output up or down, but you can always turn it off with one click.

Most have modes that you can click or hold to change, but a simple click will turn it on or off. I’ve only noticed the forced mode cycling on cheap hardware store lights.

“Muggle Mode” is for Anduril 1, Anduril 2 usually comes in “Simple UI” by default, and requires unlocking which is probably better for most users. Anyone familiar will be able to detect it and unlock, other people are less likely to burn themselves.

We’re trying to get away from wrapping everything in plastic film.

As far as easy, commercially available stuff I like UniFi. You can set custom recording schedules, or never record. Or only record motion. You can also set privacy zones which are blacked out and not visible or recorded.

You do need one of their consoles or NVRs to manage them though, and they aren’t super cheap.