Good technology is always connected. It can send information when and where it's needed, without human intervention. Fire alarms are useful in this way. Indeed, were the detector not connected to the warning system, the fire alarm would be useless. Telephones are useful because no procedure is required to connect to the telephone system.
Good technology is standardized.
One television will function much like another one. One brand of gasoline will power your car as well as any other, which is why diesel cars represent bad technology, despite their other advantages. One advantage of standardization is that it promotes interoperability, which means that you have choices, that you are not locked into one supplier or one vendor. Technology that requires you to own an Apple computer to play a video or that you connect with AOL in order to send e-mail is bad technology. I can't believe how much of this bad technology we have purchased over the years, and conclude that it must be only because there is no alternative.