Precursors to Today's Technology: These Products Had the Right Vision

[Julio Franco]

Products like the Apple Newton and the Nintendo Power Glove immediately come to mind when reminiscing about technology that was before its time. However this article will focus on products and services that didn't necessarily flop out of the gate and all had a vision that helped shape today's technological landscape.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1513-tech-precursors/

 

[senketsu]

Didn't see a lot of these, but everyone I knew at the time (everyone) had a Sony Walkman. I even moved up to the Walkman Professional and kept it for quite awhile. You could fine tune the speed, Dolby B and C, could plug in a microphone, had a great case, sling it over the neck and the Walkman would be in my armpit (warm, out of the way, like a shoulder holster). Even had a primitive VU meter for recording (LED)

4 x AA batteries under the cover on the left, pitch control on the back.

 

[Wizwill]

Some years ago, my wife discovered audio books an has become an AVID consumer, exhausting every local library's collection of audio books. First on CD then MP3 CDs, she literally wore out 15+ Walkman-style devices over the years until the recent introduction of the now-common small, self contained SSD pack audio books becoming available in libraries.

Edited 5.25.19:
I finally switched to an 'unlimited' data plan for the now-ubiquitous use of streaming audio books at most libraries.

 

[p51d007]

Digg....boy how I remember the back fighting on that site with people getting their feelings
all out of whack because so and so got more upvotes than someone else....LOL.

 

[Uncle Al]

I love seeing that You Tube series where they show some of the older technology to kids (under 20) and ask them what it is and what id does as well as how it works ....... it's a scream!

 

[Kibaruk]

HP came with small "netbooks" before the EEEpc. No mention to Palm as well for how well they laid out the "smartphones"?

 

[mlauzon76]

'The handheld [Game Boy] didn’t go uncontested, however, as arch rival Sega launched the technically superior Game Gear less than two years after the Game Boy’s arrival.'

It wasn't the first time Sega launched a 'technically superior' console, for example, the SMS (Sega Master System) was the more technically advanced console, but the NES was more popular.

 

[gamerk2]

The Game Gear was a marvel for it's time, as it was essentially a mobile Sega Master System. Then again, that's why the battery life sucked.

 

[taylor1277]

As far as websites are concerned let us not forget about Yahoo. Where is it beyond the bottom of the barrel today or at the bottom of the list for websites. Don't forget that before most things you see on the web, Yahoo had it. And they had it ALL under one roof. Yahoo messenger, Yahoo Wallet ( paypal etc.) Yahoo Auctions ( Ebay etc.) Yahoo photos ( any photo site today ) and the list goes on. What happened to Yahoo, they just sat around and never upgraded anything, or made newer versions.

 

[Kibaruk]

What happened to Yahoo, they just sat around and never upgraded anything, or made newer versions.

What really happened, let me refresh your memory... Google came into existence, they started sending invites into a whooping 1 gigabyte mail system, when Yahoo and Hotmail were offering between 10-25 MB. Fast forward a couple of years, after everyone started catching up with them in storage terms they had lost a massive chunk of the email market.

 

[Tempus]

What about the HP iPAQ h6315. Released in 2004, it ushered in the idea of a handheld computer/phone combo.