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    Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

    Betamax and VHS.
    Sinclair ZX81
    Sinclair C5s
    LED watches, calculators and watch/calculators
    Minidisc
    Laserdisc
    PDAs
    Nintendo Gameboys
    Concorde
    Teletext/ceefax
    Dial-up modems

    Soon to go
    DVDs
    CDs
    USB sticks

    In my research, I was surprised to find that I-pod Touches are still selling

    #2
    Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

    Minidiscs never really caught on in the US, but I had a player, and I really enjoyed it.

    I don't think you're right about Gameboys, there are new versions (DS) that are popular.

    Comment


      #3
      Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

      Bored of Education wrote:

      In my research, I was surprised to find that I-pod Touches are still selling
      Indeed, I've just bought my third (2nd hand, I smashed one and lost one); it gives me many of the advantages of a mobile phone - music, apps, camera, a timer for when I do the Independent Sudoku - without needing to get a phone.

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        #4
        Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

        inca, minidiscs never really caught on anywhere. They only really were of use for people working on radio, or who were recording music.

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          #5
          Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

          I've got some early radio spots sitting around on DATs. A lot of good that'll do me. See also ZIP Drive and Syquest discs, of which I have a couple...of.

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            #6
            Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

            Calculators? Don't small business people use these all the time? Bit more convenient than a computer.

            Soon to go
            DVDs
            CDs
            USB sticks


            Don't understand any of these, particularly the last one. USB sticks are really useful - if I'm round someone's house and they have some media I like, they can just chuck it on a widget that's small enough to keep on my keys. I don't know anything else that does that.

            I and others I know continue to buy and use CDs and DVDs (then again, I'll probably be breaking out my minidisc walkman again soon as I've lost my MP3 one, and I still use cassettes as well).

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              #7
              Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

              Soon to go: Paper versions of shit tabloid papers (I think the more serious will survive longer)

              Edit: Doh. It reads "technology"
              Edit: and come and gone

              Comment


                #8
                Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                delicatemoth wrote: Calculators? Don't small business people use these all the time? Bit more convenient than a computer.

                Soon to go
                DVDs
                CDs
                USB sticks


                Don't understand any of these, particularly the last one. USB sticks are really useful - if I'm round someone's house and they have some media I like, they can just chuck it on a widget that's small enough to keep on my keys. I don't know anything else that does that.

                I and others I know continue to buy and use CDs and DVDs (then again, I'll probably be breaking out my minidisc walkman again soon as I've lost my MP3 one, and I still use cassettes as well).
                Note that I specified LED calculators as they were like something from Star Trek when they were introduced.

                I thought twice about USB sticks and put it in as, being a late adopter of stuff, I haven't used mine for ages and have been using dropbox instead. Having said that, though, you look like more of a user of old technology than I am so maybe you aren't representative. CDs and DVDs, like vinyl, will, I am sure carry on for a decade or two but I can't see them being in general use for a while.

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                  #9
                  Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                  I find it interesting how iPods have moved from being High-end, top of the line technology, to a place where parents buy them for their six year-old children to stop them asking to play on their phones.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                    /worryingly, I've been meaning to get my first USB stick for a while now, stopped only by the fact that I have no use for it, and now you're telling me they're obsolete? I am so behind the times it's scary.

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                      #11
                      Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                      Zip drives (which I see now WOM mentioned)

                      & Floppy disks for that matter.

                      and I think we are probably getting close to the end of Hard Disk Drives as well.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                        A number of these storage technologies will continue to have a life in applications that are particularly security conscious.

                        Some of our clients would literally fire us if we uploaded documents to the cloud.

                        I also think that CDs and vinyl will last longer in the classical world than it its pop equivalent.

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                          #13
                          Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                          CDs, despite ten years of iTunes, still make up 61% of the purchased albums market in the UK. Vinyl is 2% and the rest downloads.

                          Albums purchased as download bundles are in steeper decline than CDs. The iTunes generation is taking up streaming and there is a hefty wodge of people who can't be doing with either.

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                            #14
                            Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                            Manned space flight
                            Fax machines
                            Dial up information services (movie times, sport scores, etc.)

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                              #15
                              Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                              I'm pretty sure that in my lifetime, cassette tapes have come and gone. I don't think they were around (in the UK) much before 1975, when I was 3, and no-one's produced one since 2005 (when I was 33).

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                Why no mention of cassettes? (edit: except by Rogin, beating me by seconds)

                                That's the one that really gets my goat as a music consumer, as the period when I stocked up on obscure French hip hop ("K7s" over there) I bought on cassette for ease of transport and to play them on the way home. The same things on vinyl, or even cd, would now be worth vast fortunes.

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                                  #17
                                  Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                  8 tracks
                                  "Quadrophonic" sound
                                  Boom boxes
                                  Portable phonographs
                                  45s

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                                    #18
                                    Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                    Some ltd ed. 45s are still produced, eg for the Northern Soul film, the Rocket from the Crypt tour I went to last year etc

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                      But those are clearly for the collectors/ironic hipster market, no?

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                                        #20
                                        Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                        ursus arctos wrote: A number of these storage technologies will continue to have a life in applications that are particularly security conscious.

                                        Some of our clients would literally fire us if we uploaded documents to the cloud.

                                        I also think that CDs and vinyl will last longer in the classical world than it its pop equivalent.
                                        Banks still use back-up Tape Libraries. Getting data off them after they've been sent for storage is a bugger of a problem.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                          matt j wrote: Zip drives (which I see now WOM mentioned)

                                          & Floppy disks for that matter.

                                          and I think we are probably getting close to the end of Hard Disk Drives as well.
                                          Zip drives were great. Just about the same size as a 3.5" disc, but with 100 times the storage capabilities. They were only ever useful for about a few years before CD burners and USB sticks became widespread, alas. I know college students now that have no idea what Zip drives are.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                            You can still buy blank cassettes (and floppy discs, which retain some specialised uses) in high street shops, though I think Zipdiscs and minidiscs have to be purchased from specialist suppliers nowadays. I'd suggest that high street availability is a reasonable metric when deciding whether a technology has 'gone'.

                                            I think the last time I bought a 45 was a couple of years ago, and I would do so again. I'm neither a collector nor a hipster. I just don't understand the need to chuck out old formats when a new one comes along, and the 45 rpm single remains a great format if you have a record player.

                                            Zip drives were great. Just about the same size as a 3.5" disc, but with 100 times the storage capabilities.

                                            When I was studying Performing Arts I used Zipdiscs and minidiscs a lot for recording and ordering soundtracks. Both are really useful (as are DATs), but I can see why they didn't catch on with the typical consumer.

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                                              #23
                                              Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                              my mam has finished doing up the house, and taking pride of place above the television is a shelf for our collection of er tapes, cds and dvds. I didn't quite have the heart to tell her....

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                                                #24
                                                Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                                Presume there is a shelf for the VHS, then, too.

                                                I like delicatemoth's test for when a technology is "gone".

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                                                  #25
                                                  Technology that has come and gone in your lifetime

                                                  Incandenza wrote:
                                                  Originally posted by matt j
                                                  Zip drives (which I see now WOM mentioned)

                                                  & Floppy disks for that matter.

                                                  and I think we are probably getting close to the end of Hard Disk Drives as well.
                                                  Zip drives were great. Just about the same size as a 3.5" disc, but with 100 times the storage capabilities. They were only ever useful for about a few years before CD burners and USB sticks became widespread, alas. I know college students now that have no idea what Zip drives are.
                                                  That was a very short-lived technology, but it served an important purpose for a while there.

                                                  It may be that hard-drives and USBs as we know them disappear and some other incredibly mind-boggling technology comes along for those high-security situations you're talking about. Because if you care that much, you're probably willing to pay a lot for it which might open up the options for developers. I don't know what that would be.

                                                  I still find drop-box, etc, sort of a hassle and not as reliable as just handing over a USB stick. I suspect some kind of physical media will always be around, but it will get cheaper and cheaper per megabyte and perhaps in the future, you won't need to plug it in. The machine will be able to read it remotely across a short distance.

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