The very best in obsolete and failed technology...

Tokyo · 07-02-2014 06:15PM #1

I saw a post online earlier about technology that was available when I was younger, and it got me thinking about the technology that was thought of as the 'best' at the time, only to disappear off into the ether months later.

For me, it was definitely this - the Somy MZ-R909 Minidisc player:

I remember buying one of these back in the day, from O'Connors of Galway when it was still on Shop St. If I remember correctly, I think I paid £220 for it at the time - not a small sum of money. At the time all of my money was going towards getting me through college, but for some reason I had extra money at the time, and after a LOT of thought, decided to splurge on myself. It was going to solve all of my portable music problems - I'd be able to run and cycle while listening to music, no skipping, even had a nice remote with display that I could control the player with while leaving it in my pocket!

I spent hours copying CD's to minidisc, playing the whole CD with the MD player on record, then going through it afterwards and adding the track breaks. OR creating compilation minidiscs by meticulously recording one mp3 at a time from my computer.

No more than six months later, portable mp3 players hit the marketplace for the first time, and my minidisc player was obsolete... I think it sits in my desk drawer to this day. I often wonder what kids would think of it if given one today.

Anybody else have tech from the past sitting in a drawer or a box somewhere that was the best of the best for a sort time??

awec · 07-02-2014 06:17PM

I had one of those!

No idea where it is now, I remember that you had to use an optical cable to record onto the discs and so the only way I could do it was through the playstation.

Skylinehead · 07-02-2014 06:19PM

Pffft, amateurs. I still have one of these:

http://www.minidisc.org/dmd-1300.JPG

longhalloween · 07-02-2014 06:21PM

mike_ie wrote: »

I saw a post online earlier about technology that was available when I was younger, and it got me thinking about the technology that was thought of as the 'best' at the time, only to disappear off into the ether months later.

I had a minidisk player too, with a red laser optical cable :rolleyes:. Fortunately I got it free from an uncle who bought a mp3 player.

I upgraded to this: http://www.reevoo.com/p/creative-muvo-v100-512mb about a month before iPods took off.

I also spent an obscene amount of money on a Sony-Ericsson C902 because James Bond had it in Quantum of Solace. Again, just before touch screen smartphones became the norm.

What good is a 5Mega pixel camera with a 2" screen!?!?

rob316 · 07-02-2014 06:25PM

I spent €300 on a minidisk player/recorder, think it was about 12/18 months later ipod came out :rolleyes:

Invested in hd-dvd also only for Blu-Ray to kill it dead.
edit: it was this one
http://www.av-land.co.uk/sony/mzn707/mzn707bluelrg.jpg

Mr. CooL ICE · 07-02-2014 06:25PM

I remember paying an extra £30 to buy a Nokia 3330 instead of a 3310 because I wanted WAP. What A Pileofcrap

Mint Sauce · 07-02-2014 06:27PM

awec wrote: »

I had one of those!

No idea where it is now, I remember that you had to use an optical cable to record onto the discs and so the only way I could do it was through the playstation.

I still do, and know where it is.

Tokyo · 07-02-2014 06:29PM

Skylinehead wrote: »

Pffft, amateurs. I still have one of these:

http://www.minidisc.org/dmd-1300.JPG

Hah - that was going to be my next purchase, once I had completed my minidisc archive to beat all archives... :rolleyes:

Thankfully I didn't have the time to splash out on one....

SPS1 · 07-02-2014 06:32PM

Gamecube/Dreamcast.

O.A.P · 07-02-2014 06:37PM

A d.v.d recorder for something like 350 punts. It still under the Sky plus box and never gets used.

DublinWriter · 07-02-2014 06:38PM

Minidiscs were technically inferior to CDs.

Let's not forget Beta standard video tapes, Dolby Surround, DAT, and Video8.

Ruu · 07-02-2014 06:39PM

Computer mags in the mid 90s were advertising the next big thing to replace floppys, the Superdisk 120mb disk! My richer cousins had one. Didnt last too long. Cant believe the price we paid for a video recorder in the early 90s, around £220!

Stavros Murphy · 07-02-2014 06:41PM

Oldies will remember the Sinclair C5 - "A transport revolution". A mates Da bought one with the idea of commuting to work in it. The fact one of us kids didn't die laughing at the poor sod is a miracle. It got quietly bunged in the shed after one short trip. The segway is almost as un-cool...

Tokyo · 07-02-2014 06:42PM

And then there was the Iomga Zip Drive....

Back when I started college, and had access to the internet for the first time, the only way you could bring all of your midi files, FORTRAN code and ascii art home was though a 1.44Mb floppy. Enter the zip drive.... 100Mb of portable storage per disk, parallel port connection, was a dream come true.... for about a year...

mickdw · 07-02-2014 06:50PM

mike_ie wrote: »

And then there was the Iomga Zip Drive....

Back when I started college, and had access to the internet for the first time, the only way you could bring all of your midi files, FORTRAN code and ascii art home was though a 1.44Mb floppy. Enter the zip drive.... 100Mb of portable storage per disk, parallel port connection, was a dream come true.... for about a year...

That certainly had its use at the time though. It really was a fantastic improvement over a floppy. I remember telling someone that it could hold as much info as a big stack of floppy discs and they were amazed.

Michael D Not Higgins · 07-02-2014 06:51PM

I had a Creative Zen Portable Media Centre back around 2004. It could play movies on a 3.5'' screen and had a 20gb hard drive. Unfortunately it was over an inch thick and more again with the case on it.

07-02-2014 06:55PM

I honestly don't know what most of the stuff mentioned on this thread is, a testament to it's impermanent nature.

DublinWriter · 07-02-2014 06:57PM

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

It got quietly bunged in the shed after one short trip.

Sinclair C5s change hands for not unsubstantial amounts of money these days.

Tokyo · 07-02-2014 06:58PM

Candie wrote: »

I honestly don't know what most of the stuff mentioned on this thread is, a testament to it's impermanent nature.

...or your age

In the words of Tommy Tiernan....

I don't know how many of you remember the whole taping songs off the radio crisis and how that nearly crippled the music industry! oh we had them worried then didn't we?!

Us in our bedrooms with our lunchbox sized tape recorders. Pressed up as close to the radio as physically possible while at the same time telling everyone downstairs to please be quiet! One thumb over the play button the other thumb over the record button - you had to use all your physical strength and co-ordination to get both buttons pressed down at the same time. There was some sort of special mickey spring loaded device on the record button if you got the timing wrong on that YOU COULD DISLOCATE YOUR SHOULDER!! Hovering over the two buttons waiting for the DJ to shut the **** up! And all for what? What was the cool music we wanted to download during the80's??

longhalloween · 07-02-2014 06:58PM

mickdw wrote: »

That certainly had its use at the time though. It really was a fantastic improvement over a floppy. I remember telling someone that it could hold as much info as a big stack of floppy discs and they were amazed.

I remember trying to explain to my Dad that there was 8 CD's worth of content on my mp3 player. We were amazed by the capacity.

I also remember struggling to fit a 2mb game onto several floppies. Those were the days.

circadian · 07-02-2014 06:59PM

SPS1 wrote: »

Gamecube/Dreamcast.

Both excellent machines. Dated yes, obsolete no. I wouldn't consider them failures either.

Betamax. Easily the biggest tech flop of all time.

SEPT 23 1989 · 07-02-2014 07:00PM

Concorde

jmayo · 07-02-2014 07:02PM

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

Oldies will remember the Sinclair C5 - "A transport revolution". A mates Da bought one with the idea of commuting to work in it. The fact one of us kids didn't die laughing at the poor sod is a miracle. It got quietly bunged in the shed after one short trip. The segway is almost as un-cool...

Do you know if he still has it or was it dumped ?

jmayo · 07-02-2014 07:05PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Concorde

Ehh how was that a failed technology ??
It's fly by wire system, electronic control of the engines and use of digital computers to control flight safety critical functions was the first of what is now commoneplace in airliners.

It hasn't been superceeded with anything better in terms of pure speed.

And it was in operation for over 26 years.

Adyx · 07-02-2014 07:05PM

I have the HD-DVD player add-on for the Xbox 360 along with 3 HD-DVDs. What's worse is I've never bothered watching them and I've barely used the Xbox.

Stavros Murphy · 07-02-2014 09:32PM

jmayo wrote: »

Do you know if he still has it or was it dumped ?

It's still in his shed, in mint condition, with the original wrapping...how the feck would I know?? That's 25 years ago ffs!

Sandwlch · 07-02-2014 09:36PM

SPS1 wrote: »

Gamecube

Still, it had a handle.

Sir Arthur Daley · 07-02-2014 09:42PM

mickdw wrote: »

That certainly had its use at the time though. It really was a fantastic improvement over a floppy.

Im sure there is a joke somewhere

josip · 07-02-2014 09:44PM

Bought a Sony minidisc, bought a Nokia "I need an exit" WAP phone, bought a 3D TV 2 years ago.

"Be not the first by whom the new is tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside."

gugleguy · 07-02-2014 09:59PM

5th Generation iPod Nano. The only Nano to have a camera ( deleted in the 6th generation Nano) . This camera could only take ok ish videos. It could not take photos.

Mr Keek · 07-02-2014 10:03PM

Bought a Creative Zen Vision M and I was on the bus like a pimp watching movies and showing off.

About 6 months after I buying it, I saw a girl with a brand new iPod Touch for the first time... She was watching some videos and browsing her albums with cover flow, my jaw dropped, made my yoke look like a Cassette Walkman!

A week later I had the Vision M sold whiles it still had any shed of value/cool factor and got me the iPod touch.

The very best in obsolete and failed technology...

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