The very best in obsolete and failed technology...

o1s1n · 08-02-2014 12:41AM

sum41dude wrote: »

Ladies and gentlemen I present you: The PSX. What a completely bizarre and absurd concept.

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/6/65055/2180982-psx2.jpg

It's not really that bizarre or absurd, was just a digital video recorder with a PS2 in there too.

It was also the first Sony device to use XMB.

I was looking into picking one up a few years ago but the menus are Japanese only

moxin · 08-02-2014 12:41AM

Czarcasm wrote: »

The Nokia 7110, cracker of a phone, and then I went and bought one of the first 3G models available, no, not the Nokia N70, but the Motorola V3x, one of the first phones I started custom modding and a phone that was simply so way ahead of it's time that it was short lived, because "It's too big" was the general consensus...

That was in 2005, and it'd actually be considered discreet by todays standard smartphones! :pac:

Your aerial was not big enough.

I think bigger aerials on mobile phones will come in fashion again and your Nokia 7110 will be a goldmine. Actually on a serious note I must wander down to those 2nd hand mobile shops and grab an ancient phone that has an aerial, it will become quite a fortune with age

obezyana · 08-02-2014 12:42AM

Anyone remember the Barcode Battler

iirc it was got in Quinnsworth.

08-02-2014 12:45AM

I'm amazed that the humble audio cassette tape hasn't been mentioned, it revolutionised our lives in the 70s. We could just tape the songs rather than have to buy the records (another obsolete) media.

Sir Osis of Liver. · 08-02-2014 12:45AM

Worked all summer when I was 13 to save up for a Commadore Vic 20.
Came with 5kb of ram.
Nice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_VIC-20

08-02-2014 12:46AM

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Worked all summer when I was 13 to save up for a Commadore Vic 20.
Came with 5kb of ram.
Nice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_VIC-20

I still had mine until the last house move a few years ago.

Cantremember · 08-02-2014 12:47AM

This thread should be in Old Farts reminisce about why Betamax never made it.

Czarcasm · 08-02-2014 12:51AM

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Speaking of iomega products anyone remember the Clik - a PCMIA card storage device holding up to 40Mb
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71MWX50PXPL._SX466_.gif

antodeco wrote: »

IrDa from phone to laptop, to connect at 9600kbps. Keeping the infrared beam in a straight line so not to knock off the connect. Then, you could buy the Nokia data cable (NKU-5?) That made it a little more reliable!

Speaking of PCMCIA Cards, 56k modem cards were where it was at back in the day, then came the half-sized Express Cards and I'd one that was an analog TV Card, then the cards were replaced by everything USB.

o1s1n · 08-02-2014 12:57AM

Cantremember wrote: »

This thread should be in Old Farts reminisce about why Betamax never made it.

And it would have made it too, if it wasn't for the pesky porno industry.

Czarcasm · 08-02-2014 01:01AM

obezyana wrote: »

Anyone remember the Barcode Battler iirc it was got in Quinnsworth.

I remember those! :eek:

One of the guys in my class had a Sega Game Gear but around the same time, one of the lads got the ever famous, way ahead of it's time and I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet - Atari Jaguar

Nonoperational · 08-02-2014 01:05AM

gugleguy wrote: »

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.

Ah would you go away!

Jimoslimos · 08-02-2014 01:23AM

Czarcasm wrote: »

Speaking of PCMCIA Cards, 56k modem cards were where it was at back in the day, then came the half-sized Express Cards and I'd one that was an analog TV Card, then the cards were replaced by everything USB.

I had an analog tv tuner card and also a 3g modem.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/T-Mobile_PCMCIA_UMTS_WLAN_Card.jpg
Preferred them to usb sticks since they were less likely to snap off when moving the laptop

Cienciano · 08-02-2014 01:29AM

Anyone rememberelectronic personal organisers?
http://images.geeksimages.com/imageshare/S/300x300/SF2000-unit.jpg
Before mobile phones obviously, late 80's and early 90's. I reckon a few kids had them because companies got them for their dads, and the dads realised they were completely useless when this amazing technology replaced it.
I think they could store phone numbers, had a calculator on it, you could write notes, and it had a calendar.

shedweller · 08-02-2014 01:48AM

This thread reminds me of the "you know you're getting old" threads.

Still have that minidisc player and md walkman too. I remember seeing stacks of zip drives in virgin records in dublin thinking they were savage yokes. But then mp3's came out and the rest is history.
Progress eh? Waits for no man.

Tokyo · 08-02-2014 01:50AM

Cienciano wrote: »

Anyone rememberelectronic personal organisers?
http://images.geeksimages.com/imageshare/S/300x300/SF2000-unit.jpg
Before mobile phones obviously, late 80's and early 90's. I reckon a few kids had them because companies got them for their dads, and the dads realised they were completely useless when this amazing technology replaced it.
I think they could store phone numbers, had a calculator on it, you could write notes, and it had a calendar.

Heh - I remember these - back in the day before mobile phones, the pitiful amount of numbers you needed to know could easily be memorised. Anyone who had one of these things did so for no other reason than the fact it was a thing with an LCD screen and lots of buttons...

mickdw · 08-02-2014 01:51AM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Concorde

Go away and educate yourself please.
The tech was flawless which was a stunning achievement given it was designed in 60s.
As for being obsolete, If there was anything that moved the game forward, I would agree but there is nothing even in the horizon that can match it. You cannot even argue that it flawed due to be uneconomical to operate. British airways made alot of money from Concorde for many years once they sorted out pricing structures.

08-02-2014 01:53AM

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Worked all summer when I was 13 to save up for a Commadore Vic 20.
Came with 5kb of ram.
Nice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_VIC-20

jeez, should have paid the extra for the c64.

wil · 08-02-2014 01:59AM

moxin wrote: »

CD writers killed Iomega Zip drives just like Zip drives killed the floppy. Of course DVD writers came along and killed CD's, its an evolution!

Actually floppies outlived zip, pcs were sold with floppies up to fairly recently, and despite the tiny capacity were more likely killed off by usb than CD.

Dont think anyone mentioned the Psion Organiser - something slightly less useful than the back of a cigarette packet, so the dad gave up organising

Then Palm Pilot or Treo, the original thickphones. About all they were good for was actually locating a wifi signal

DVD-R DL - (still hoping these make it:p)

Sony Memory stick - so you thought Sony could do you no wrong.

Anyone remember BluRay? (what? a page too soon)

debabyjesus · 08-02-2014 04:01AM

mickdw wrote: »

Go away and educate yourself please.
The tech was flawless which was a stunning achievement given it was designed in 60s.
As for being obsolete, If there was anything that moved the game forward, I would agree but there is nothing even in the horizon that can match it. You cannot even argue that it flawed due to be uneconomical to operate. British airways made alot of money from Concorde for many years once they sorted out pricing structures.

I pass the one on stilts in CDG every few weeks. It pisses me off every time because I never got to fly in it.

Concorde has no place in this thread for numerous reasons.

Sir Arthur Daley · 08-02-2014 04:06AM

1st Generation Iphone.

MadsL · 08-02-2014 06:52AM

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...

I was driving through Cambridge - the home of the C5 the other day, I was gobsmacked to see someone riding a C5.

Irish Guitarist · 08-02-2014 08:23AM

I have a 78 RPM record by The Platters and nothing to play it on. I have a Technics record player but it only plays at 33 or 45 RPM.

Molester Stallone · 08-02-2014 08:28AM

mike_ie wrote: »

Heh - I remember these - back in the day before mobile phones, the pitiful amount of numbers you needed to know could easily be memorised. Anyone who had one of these things did so for no other reason than the fact it was a thing with an LCD screen and lots of buttons...

I still have mine 21 years later, it holds 30 numbers!

zinzan · 08-02-2014 09:06AM

Tapwave Zodiac

Quite a nice bit of kit at the time, but company went bust and smartphones arrived on the scene killing off palmOS.. the volatile RAM was a right pain though - reinstall everything if the battery died...
Still have 2 of them.. the games that were released weren't bad - had a great screen for the time.

Was a bit of a collector of PalmOS devices at the time - bought a Zire 31 for herself, then upgraded her to a Tungsten E2 which she used until getting iPhone 3GS.

I started with a Tungsten C which was an excellent device at the time - built in wifi! Also got a Zire_72 (sat nav pack and built in camera!.. was great at the time!) Used it to record a talk given by Dirk Benedict (Face from The A Team)!

Then got a Lifedrive and upgraded the 4GB micro drive to a 4GB compact flash card which improved it no end, although it was a chunky device!
Still have loads of movies that I ripped and formatted for it.

Palm were right up there at the beginning of smartphones but really let the ball slip - didn't stop me getting a HP Touchpad when they took over WebOS though! Yet another Palm related flop! - though thankfully the home-brew scene has kept the Touchpad relevant with android releases or it.

I also went from an iPhone 3GS to a Nokia C7, thinking Symbian was going to make a resurgence as Nokia were finally developing it in a cohesive manner.. that didn't turn out very well either! I still us it as a sat nav device as the onboard maps make it pretty useful abroad.. it's also not a bad dash cam either!

So yep, I seem to have a history of backing soon to be defunct tech.. and have crates full of useless devices as result!

Not sure how much of this counts as failed technology though as each device had its own great features in it's time but was very quickly superseded by improved implementation and convergence of devices as the smartphone game took off.

One device I considered getting but thankfully didn't was released around the same time as the Tapwave Zodiac - The Gizmondo - it was one of the first devices to be ad supported (a bit like kindles are today). The developers of this device seem to have been as corrupt as hell and there appears to be quite a big back story to it. Multiple convictions for fraud:
Carl Freer
Stefan Eriksson
Mikael Ljungman

Ghost Buster · 08-02-2014 09:14AM

Me get club, Noog get spear. Me stuped. Kill Noog when sleep. Now me have spear. Ha.

antodeco · 08-02-2014 10:17AM

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I have a 78 RPM record by The Platters and nothing to play it on. I have a Technics record player but it only plays at 33 or 45 RPM.

Connect one to the other and play it through them both. It's all about mathematics!

Molester Stallone · 08-02-2014 10:31AM

antodeco wrote: »

Connect one to the other and play it through them both. It's all about mathematics!

He has only one record player. Mathematics indeed!

delly · 08-02-2014 10:36AM

I purchased a Nokia n95 sim free for €700 back in 2007. It was a pre crash Celtic tiger type purchase, God knows what I could do with that type of money today. In fairness though, it was a damn good phone for it's time.

FearDark · 08-02-2014 10:47AM

delly wrote: »

I purchased a Nokia n95 sim free for €700 back in 2007. It was a pre crash Celtic tiger type purchase, God knows what I could do with that type of money today. In fairness though, it was a damn good phone for it's time.

I paid almost 1000 for the titanium Nokia 8800, months later the N95 cost me 600 ish. Nokia were at the peak of their powers, they could do no wrong...then a friend came over to my house with a phone I had never heard of before. The iPhone...and it was just so far above ANYTHING you could get at the time, I didn't even imagine such a leap in tech was possible! Full internet! Full ****ing internet, and a functional mp3 player!

MonstaMash · 08-02-2014 10:58AM

Electronic voting machines

The very best in obsolete and failed technology...

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