WEBVTT - Big Misses in Technology 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:09.040 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:17.560 tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Welcome again, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.639 loyal listeners to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:22.720 and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot Com. 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.040 Sitting next to me, laughing is head off at me, 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:31.200 as usual, his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So, uh, 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.320 we're gonna talk about some flops. Yeah, and not earlier podcasts, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:41.680 oddly enough, not peda flops, not ter flops. No, we're 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.320 gonna we We decided we wanted to look at some 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:49.199 some famous in some cases infamous technological flops, stuff that 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.559 just did not go as planned, didn't perform as well 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.480 as it was supposed to, maybe you know, made a 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.080 big splash and then immediately sank. Um. So we're we're 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.040 focusing on the hardware side. I'm are in the future podcast. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.640 We will focus on software that totally flopped as well. Sure, 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.800 went on, So do you want to start each shall I? Well, 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.319 I don't know you said you had yours divided up 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:20.600 into category. Okay, I have handheld devices, game systems, computers. Well, 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:26.959 I'm kidding. I'm kidding about the potpourri's words. So U so, 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:28.880 do you have a particular category you want to start 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:32.120 with or should I just launch whatever you like? Because 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.200 like I said, I mean, I've got I've only got 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.240 a couple of handheld devices, but I have several game 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.600 systems and computers that I can talk about. Well, my 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.319 my all time favorite and the one that made me 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:46.080 think of this is a game system related um. And 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.280 some people consider it a success. I consider it a 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.880 sort of a flop. And that would be the you 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.800 knewer people were you know, if you're born after or 0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:04.520 just gonna get would um the at man um. I 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.800 I had an attor growing up. My wife had, so 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.840 she added that to my tech museum from the marriage. 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.639 I consider it the the prize of my collection. Um 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.760 kind of her dowry, Yes exactly, you know, forget the 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:22.120 hope chest. And the problem is and and this is uh, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.200 from what I've I've read in the past, Umtory really 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.120 pushed its engineers to come up with new stuff that 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.720 it could patent, and uh, they came up with this joystick, 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.280 which is an analog joystick exactly like well not exactly 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:38.520 like but very similar to the ones you might see 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.760 on modern controllers like I'm the Xbox three sixty or 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.160 the PlayStation controllers that the little thumbsticks. But this is bigger, 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.360 and it's a it's a lot bigger actually, UM and 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.520 uh comes attached to a a numeric keypad. And the 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:55.600 problem with this is a lot of the games at 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.079 that point were very you know, up down, left right 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:03.160 sort of games, and so this sixty degree controller made 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:04.920 it a real pan and neck to play stuff like 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.520 pac Man and anything you needed a firm straight up 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:10.840 and down left right direction fire. I heard that it 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:15.040 had a real hard time resentering. I also heard that 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:17.880 they were fairly flimsy and could break at you know, 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.720 a moment's notice. Some if you were a an energetic gamer, 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.120 let's say, you could probably go through one and just 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.200 a couple of gaming sessions. I actually sent back the 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.720 one that had my my the one that came with 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.200 my wife's system, had broken, and I sent it to 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.240 this place in California called Best Electronics, which actually has 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.000 a lot of the old Attari parts, and if you 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:38.840 send in your controller, they will give you a discount 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.760 on a remanufactured one. It has since broken too. I'm 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.360 not surprised it was. It was not very hardy. There 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.440 were some other problems with the attar besides the fact 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:50.360 that it had allows the controller. So I'm glad you 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.840 mentioned the controller because that was definitely on my list, 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.960 but itself was on my list. The main reason was 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:01.080 because it was not backwards compatible, not in the least. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.440 You couldn't play at games on the R which was 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.880 a very common gripe at the time and had a 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.040 bunch of games. Yeah, and the worst part was was 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.040 that they started to re release the games in formats, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.400 so you would have to buy the same game to 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.560 play it on your new system. So you have to 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.479 have two copies of the same game just to be 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.719 able to play it. So if you are a current 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.840 console owner and wonder about backward compatibility and why they 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.440 bother doing that, that's why, because people will gripe now, yeah, 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.799 as anyone who's owned any of the Nintendo machines leading 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.960 up to the WEI could argue, because of course that's 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.640 the same problem is that they would they off Nintendo 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:48.160 would often ignore backwards compatibility, and um, and I mean 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:49.839 that was one of the things about PS two that 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:51.719 people loved was the fact that you could still play 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.279 the PlayStation one games on the PS two, most of 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.839 them anyway. And same thing with the Xbox three sixty. 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.200 You could play most of the Xbox games on it, 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.880 so you know, you didn't feel like you had to 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:04.800 keep an old machine around just to be able to 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:06.599 play some of your favorite games. You could. You could 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.479 actually get rid of it, play the stuff on the 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:14.280 new machine so much now and and so on it went. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.000 As a matter of fact, a Torii had a giant 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.359 lead in the home with sort of began squandering it 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:25.600 because on my list or also the Attry Links and Jaguar, 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.360 and they got increasingly hard to use and people stopped 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.800 developing for them. Yeah, you've got smaller and smaller libraries 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.200 of games. The games that did come out were pretty lame, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.760 and so ATRII, you know, eventually was no longer a 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.800 player in the video game console war. I probably probably 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:45.760 shouldn't have mentioned the Links in a way because the 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.080 Links actually, from what I understand, was a pretty good 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.640 gaming system, but at that point they had already squandered 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.960 their developers, right. Yeah, that was the problem was that, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.880 you know, it was a good device without good content. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.279 That's the problem. And because they were going up against 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.760 the first Game Boy at that point, and endo because 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.479 some of these flops are are flops, not because the 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:08.359 hardware that itself was was faulty, but just because of 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.960 bad timing or other consequences. Um, all right, well, let 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.200 me let me throw another game system at an infamous 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:22.560 game system flop. Nintendo Virtual Boy. Oh boy, did you 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.400 ever actually try one of these? No, I'd seen them 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.240 and they looked kind of it looked kind of flimsy, 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.000 and I didn't want to mess with it, okay, because 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:32.120 they didn't want to try it out in the store 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.279 and have a break. Right, Yeah, you don't want to 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:39.160 end up buying a multihull system that has only fourteen 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:43.960 games in the United States. So the Nintendo Virtual Boy, 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.800 if you don't remember this or have you never seen one, 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.480 you wonder what we're talking about. It looked like a visor. 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.560 Um it was. It was this system. It was a 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.480 virtual health advisor. Yeah. The the system was was like 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.320 a you know, think of like an electronic binoculars really, 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.040 um on a little tripod and you would put your 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.040 face up to it and you'd look through the lenses 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.760 and it was all in red and black. Those were 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.040 the only two colors that could display, and it would 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.440 because you're looking at it through binocular vision, you would 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:18.560 given the feeling of depth. So it created a three 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.920 D effect, although I have to say, from my own 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:25.680 personal experience, it was not an overwhelmingly convincing three D effect. 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.160 And not only that, but Nintendo started to build in 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.520 elements in the games that would require you to take 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.720 breaks after you played it for a while, because users 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.520 were reporting problems with headaches, and I strain after using 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.080 it for more than, you know, fifteen minutes at a time. 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.520 And I don't know about you, but when I'm gaming, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.920 it's usually longer than fifteen minutes. Um. In fact, as 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.520 a as a kid, I was one of those kids 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.640 who would brack up the you know, three or four 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.960 hours of serious gaming all in a row, um, depending 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:01.720 on what the system was and what the games were. 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.080 So yeah, that would have been pretty irritating. Now. I 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.320 only tried it out in stores, and I think, um, 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.560 there's one kid in my neighborhood who had one, and 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.520 before we ostracized him for his choice and video gaming. Um. 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.160 I played it a couple of times at this house, 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:22.160 but then of course we ended up, you know, ostracizing him. Yeah, 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:26.120 we we we kind of banished him from the neighborhood. Yeah, 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.400 we do not speak of him. I I have what 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.160 I call Jonathan rolls his eyes at me moment. But 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.199 he may he may actually, uh, he may actually enjoy 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.760 the fact that I'm doing this. A long time ago, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.720 the Commodore company had something that they purchased from somebody 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.560 else called the Amiga. I made a series of fairly 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.400 successful computers, but what they also made was a console 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.240 called the Amiga c D thirty two. It was the 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:59.680 first thirty two bit console game system available in Canada 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.920 and Europe, and actually, uh Amiga was actually known for 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.600 its games. In fact, when I had my Amigas and 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.920 they were my only computers, people used to laugh at 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:10.600 me because they said, oh, well, I've got a PC 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.240 or I've got a Mac and you've got a game machine. Well, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.320 I think that's really funny now when people buy five 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.960 thousand dollar PCs to play games on. But um, the 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:20.800 c D thirty two was going to capitalize on that 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.200 because it was a console that you could hook up. 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:28.559 It actually had ports for keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately, Commodore 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.319 didn't manage things very well, and they never even got 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:33.360 to introduce it in the United States before it folded, 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.880 so it just sort of, uh, you know, it went away. 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.880 It was the game that that almost was. There were 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:41.760 some titles that I played that were available for the 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:43.440 c D thirty two that I played on the Amiga 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.040 that we're pretty cool. But you know, again, it didn't 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.080 matter that the uh just Hardna, it wasn't okay, it 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.440 was just sort of I mean, first thirty two bit system. 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.760 All right, I got another one for you, okay, Nakia Engage. Ah, yes, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.480 this is sort of a handheld gadget slash games system. Yeah. 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.640 So uh, and there's another one that I can add 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.280 in there too afterwards. No, no, no, the Engage two 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.800 was an improvement over the Engage and still was a flop. 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.920 But so then the original Knockia Engage. First of all, uh, 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.520 it looked pretty weird. Um. If you wanted to use 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.880 it as a phone, because it didn't have phone capabilities, 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.319 you had to hold it um in a really weird 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.640 sideways uh fashion, and you didn't hold it flat side 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.000 to your ear, you held it edge to your ears. 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:28.599 So people said it looked like you were holding a 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.319 taco to your face. Um, had Mexican food for lunch. 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.200 So uh, but yeah, it's an awkward design and uh 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.360 and the other the awkward in more ways than one. 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.960 If you wanted to switch the games out of the 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.120 original Knockia, you had to remove the battery to do it. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:48.800 You had to take the battery out, take out the cartridge, 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:50.760 put a new cartridge, and put the battery in and 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.480 start playing. So yeah, bad design. And um, it didn't 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.280 get a whole lot of support. Not a whole lot 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.000 of games came out for it. So although it hung 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.599 around for a couple of years, um, it just it 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.360 never really got a big market share. There's still some 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.200 elements of the Knockia Engage out there now. Knakia still 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.680 has the gaming platform um for the for its phones. 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.560 You can use the Knockia Engage platform on your phone. Um, 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.640 you're not actually using the the engage device itself. But yeah, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.520 that was another flop. The other one I was gonna mention, 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:28.320 of course, was the Gizmondo. Yes, which never was. This 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.640 was this was a handheld device, had had lots of 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:36.320 cool features in it, you know, a camera, GPS receiver. Um, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.520 but it was like four dollars for a little handheld device, 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.200 and from what I understand, it would drain the batteries 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.360 so quickly that there was really no way you can 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.120 have a satisfying gaming experience on it in the first place. 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.120 So another technology flop, and that, you know, the company 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.840 turned out to be sort of Yeah, the there are 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.000 a lot of interesting, interesting, controversial things about that company 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.560 and its founder. Um should read up on that. It's interesting. Yeah, 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.040 we really can't go into it because that's not really 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.040 about the flops. I mean, that's more. We should do 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.920 technology controversies at some point. That would be a fun one. Um. 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:15.520 I'm done with game systems, by the way, I am too. Actually, well, 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.120 there was the c d I. Yeah, we could talk 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:19.679 about other ones like the c d I, the three 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:21.839 D O. Yeah, I mean there are plenty of other 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:23.880 ones that that flopped. Well, the cd I was sort 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.480 of cross platform, you know, because it had one DVD 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.040 player and other stuff in it. Just that it was 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.040 kind of expensive and nobody wanted to buy it. Yeah. Yeah, 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.600 that's one of those that just never really found a 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.920 place either. Um. Okay, well, how about I go with 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:40.840 handheld devices? So we can go ahead and put up 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.840 the flameproof shielding around the podcast. Hold on one second 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.080 while I flip a switch. All right, there we go, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:52.800 there we go. Here we go. The Apple Newton. Don't 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.959 hit me, not in the face. Um the Apple Newton. Okay, 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:00.760 I know it has its uh devotees, but uh Apple 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.240 Newton was spanned. What a what a mess that was, 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.679 especially the original Apple Newton that came out. It just 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.080 even some of the designers who worked on the Apple 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.439 Newton say that it was rushed to market and that 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.440 it was not ready when it hit the store shelves. 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.320 That never happens with technology, right. I read a report 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.920 from one I wish I had written down the fellow's name, 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:22.959 but I read a report from one of the founders 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.320 are one of the people who designed the Newton. Um. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.240 He actually left the project before it it finally went 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:33.080 to the stores. But he specifically said that that Apple 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.920 should not the Apple marketing crew should not say that 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.200 the Apple Newton could recognize your handwriting, because he felt 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.240 that that capability was not fully implemented and that it 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.800 presented an incorrect picture. And not only did they use it, 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:50.680 but they've used it in the largest font and put 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.320 it on the front page of the marketing materials. So 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.440 the Apple Newton, in case you don't know what it is, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:59.360 it was sort of a PDA and it was as 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:01.560 a pd A it that you could use to to 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:03.480 take notes. You you had a little stylist that you 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.480 could write on your your the screen, and it was 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.520 supposed to have handwriting recognition as well as all these 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.000 other capabilities. That was just one thing that it could do, 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.040 but that was what was really known for doing poorly. Yeah, 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.839 that's true. The the handwriting recognition sort of gets a 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.400 bad rap for an otherwise pretty decent little machine. And 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:23.800 for those of you who don't know what a p 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:25.800 d A is, For some of our younger listeners, it's 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.080 a smartphone without the phone or the camera. Yeah, it's 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.800 the GPS system. It's it's the way that you can 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.000 keep your your calendar and contexts and things like that 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.360 all at hand without actually being able to make any 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.360 phone calls. And the Newton technology actually moved into something 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.080 else called the eMate, which was supposed to be for 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.600 educational purposes but sort of a clamshell device and had 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:51.480 a little keyboard in it. A lot of people thought 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.960 it was kind of neat, but Apple killed it. That 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.400 was right at the point where Steve Jobs came back 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.520 to the company and he pretty much said, yeah, no 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.640 more Newton or EMI, right, mat Um, And the Newton 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.200 was UM. Well, first of all, it was small, but 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.280 not small enough. It was still a pretty bulky device. 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.040 When you're talking about handheld devices, and the most expensive 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.800 model costs a thousand dollars. That's a lot of money 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.080 for a p d AH it is, especially one that 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:24.520 doesn't necessarily recognize your handwriting. Yeah, I've got one other 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:26.600 handheld device I can talk about very briefly before we 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.120 move on to one of yours, if you like, or 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:30.040 if you have one you want to throw in. I've 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.080 got a I've got a handheld device, and I had 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:36.960 another gadget that's not really um handheld device. I have 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:42.400 the que Cat that cue cat. I don't. I don't. 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:47.840 That's not ringing any bells. Oh, Jonathan, I think that's 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.640 good for you, because the que Cat was advice UM 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.240 that actually Wired was going to try out this partnership, 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.400 but it seriously, you need to be sitting down for this. 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:04.760 It was a cat shaped barcode reader USB barcode reader. 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:09.480 Why because there was. It was a marketing device. You 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.320 would get a que cat and then they would send 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.480 a magazine to you, like Wired, and you would scan 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.960 the barcode. So if you were interested in something on 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.640 page seventeen and then had a barcode for the que cat, 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.120 you could read it. However, it also became known that 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:30.040 they each device had a number that was identifiable, so 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.720 it basically had cookies built into it, if you will, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.160 and so they could figure out what you were interested in, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.720 what you weren't interested in, and now wouldn't have personally 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.960 identifiable information, but they would know that, you know, whatever 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.280 your user number was, you know it was interested in 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:50.040 these kinds of technologies. Are number three really likes ladies underwear? Exactly? Um? However, 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:53.280 hackers started using them for different things. They found ways 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.880 to use them for other stuff like, uh, scan barcodes 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.400 to add things to your database. You could create your 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.400 own home library. And that made the que cat people 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.040 really upset, and they threatened to sue those hackers if 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.960 they could ever find them. Um. Nonetheless, the que cat 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.400 sort of evaporated and never came back. Um. And yes, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.800 it is cat shaped. It looks like a reclining cat. Well, 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.480 let me hit you with this hang held device really quickly. Um, 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.520 hopefully not literally. No, no, no, I don't own one, 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.800 so I couldn't. Um, but there are lots and lots 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.600 of cell phones that have come out that have we 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.879 could call a flop, okay, lots of phones that just 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.679 didn't work out, and um, I mean there are hundreds 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:35.760 of them. So I'm just choose. I just chose one 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:37.560 out of all the different designs, and I chose it 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.040 for one specific reason. I wonder if I'm right, but 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.960 let me see, I doubt it. The Semens Celebrity X one. 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.240 Is that what you were thinking? Yeah, because it was 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.520 an oval shaped cell phone that looked like a Star 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:55.359 Trek communicator device and this thing just, um, you know, 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.960 it just didn't do well. It was a little oval device, 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.200 and I mean I had a big monochromatic screen and 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:06.199 um and a weird keyboard that was our keypad. I 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.919 guess I should say a weird keypad that was shaped 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.240 oddly because it was at the other end of the oval. 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:14.920 And um, yeah, I mean it was one of those 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:16.880 things where I'm sure they thought it was a good 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.080 idea at the time, but I don't I don't know 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.960 anyone who bought one at all. Right, what which phone 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:24.720 did you think I was gonna say, I thought you 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.440 were going to talk about motor Motorola's Rocker. That's also 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.080 another good one. Yeah, that's because they basically was you know, 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.040 they're big MP three player slash phone combination, the one 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:37.879 that if you were to play an MP three it 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.960 stopped almost everything else on the phone. And there was 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.560 very little storage on board. So so not only does 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.840 it well, it doesn't hold very much. It's very sad 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:49.879 because it was nice looking. Yeah, oh no, it was 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.960 pretty I have a piece of technology that's not handheld, 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.240 nor is it a computer, So I guess maybe it's 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:02.600 our segue device. And that's Audrey. Okay. Um actually worked 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:04.679 for a company that that was very interested in the 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.200 Audrey at the time, and it was a an internet appliance. 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.639 I'm not talking about the fridges that have internet access, 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.280 although those are kind of flops too, or the coffee 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.840 mate yea with internet access, right, but um no, this 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.720 was a It was a very sleek device that that 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.720 three Calm made and very cool look and had a 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.080 little screen and it was basically so that you would 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.080 have an Internet appliance in the kitchen so that you could, 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.160 you know, maybe while dinners cooking, you can check your 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.480 email or you know, look up a recipe online, or 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.000 you know, do something for the It's sort of a 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.800 p D A light because it had a stylist that 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.160 you could use to use the screen. Pretty neat looking. 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.639 Hackers love it. They could, they could get into it 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.240 and mess with it. The thing is, it didn't sell 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.680 very well, and three Calm had to change direction, so 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:52.600 you know, it was really on sale only for about 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.880 a year, year and a half thousand time frames, so 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.280 kind of neat, but you know, and maybe now would 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.520 actually succeed a little better than it would have back then, 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:05.240 because now that we have more of an emphasis on 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.400 cloud computing where you don't even need a very strong, 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.600 you know, computing device or to access some really really 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.879 cool features, maybe today it would do better than it 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:16.480 did back then. But you see that with a lot 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:18.680 of the there were a lot of devices that were 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.240 meant to access the Internet and that's all they really 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.400 were supposed to do, and there were these thin client devices. 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.200 But the problem was back then there weren't the web 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.440 services that you needed to make that a useful device. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.879 You didn't have the Google Docs where you could create 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:38.040 a document and save it to a cloud storage system. Um, 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.080 you would needed a hard drive and most of these 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.760 devices didn't have any kind of real storage space on them. 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.280 So you know, back then not so much today. Who's 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:53.120 to say it might actually work? So? Uh, you have computers? Yeah, 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.320 I got a whole bunch of them. I can talk 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.440 about them real quick. Okay, So here's the first one. 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.680 A couple three. So the Apple three is supposed to 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.120 be to follow up to the Apple to the most 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.879 expensive model. Are the most expensive version of the Apple 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.840 three was a seventy dollars when it came out. That's 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.920 um pretty expensive in the mid eighties. Uh so actually 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.120 early eighties. And um so it had a proprietary floppy 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.720 disk format, which made it incompatible with earlier UM Apple computers. 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.720 So once again we're compatibility compatibility issues. Um, there are 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:30.480 a lot of hardware problems. I read one place where supposedly, 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:32.840 and I was not able to verify this, so this 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:37.480 is under the rumor. And but uh supposedly one technician 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.439