WEBVTT - Vaporware: The Software Edition 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.560 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.480 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.919 how Stuff Works in love all things tech. And in 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.720 the last episode, I've focused on examples of hardware that, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:28.120 while promoted by a company, never actually made it to market, 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.720 at least not in the form that was promised. So 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:33.960 in this episode, I want to take a look at 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:38.120 software that did a similar thing, and so we're talking 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:43.600 about vaporware specifically in the form of software. Mostly in software, 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.199 there's some overlap here. So this episode is actually going 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.680 to go out to all the programmers out there who 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:53.920 have dedicated countless hours towards working on something that never emerged. 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.360 I cannot imagine how frustrating that must be, to dedicate 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.320 hours of your life toward a project only to see 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:05.760 that project fizzle. UM. Hopefully, those of you out there 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:07.959 who have been involved in such a thing, at least 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.280 I hope you got paid for it. If not, that's 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.959 even worse obviously, But one piece of software that is 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.520 not on this list anymore is, of course, the infamous 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:23.360 Duke Nukem Forever game for a decade that title topped 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:29.319 numerous vaporware lists, most famously WIREDS Hall of Fame for 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:34.040 Vaporware got inducted in two thousand three, I believe by Wired, 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.280 and that was because the editors got tired of including 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.800 the title in their annual Vaporware Awards feature. They said, listen, 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.479 we can't just keep putting Duke Nukem on this list, 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:46.119 so we're gonna put them in the Hall of Fame. 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.240 And then in two thousand five the raaders demanded that 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.520 they put it back on the list, so they did so. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.560 George Bussard, who was a developer for three D Realms 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.000 UH and kind of a project leader, he first announced 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:04.280 work on Duke Nukem Forever back nineteen by n. Wired 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.280 was listing the game as vaporware because back then, two 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.280 years to make a computer game was an unusually lengthy 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.480 development cycle. Today it's not that unusual at all. Games 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.400 take millions of dollars and years to develop for your 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.280 your big Triple A titles, but back then it was 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:24.000 considered to be unusually, like ridiculously long. The game would 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.639 end up missing ship dates multiple times, largely because three 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:30.280 D Realms wanted the title to be a cutting edge 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.840 game that took full advantage of the latest hardware, and 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.519 hardware kept getting better and better while the game was 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.880 still in development, so they would change game engines a 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:41.600 couple of times, and that meant that a lot of 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.600 assets they had developed for the game had to be 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.400 completely scrapped and rebuilt. In other words, every time there 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.000 was a reason to change things, it's set everyone back 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.280 months or longer. The game did finally come out in 0:02:55.320 --> 0:03:00.280 two thousand eleven, fifteen years after the initial announcement, and 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.120 by then the game was published under two K Games 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.160 and developed by Gearbox Software. So one thing I guess 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:11.200 I can say is that there's a possibility, maybe only 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.320 a slim one, that one or more pieces of software 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.200 I talked about in this episode could one day come 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:22.919 out after all. Just don't hold your breath now. Another 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.320 game that is frequently mentioned when the term vaporware comes 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.919 up is Star Citizen, But to be fair, Star Citizen 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.000 has been releasing updates to an alpha build of the 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.440 game regularly. Now, it's true there's no beta version of 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.840 this game in place yet, let alone a commercial version, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.280 but it's also true that there are at least gameplay 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.240 elements that backers can you can play right now. If 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.000 you backed the project and you have access to it, 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.960 then you can actually play those gameplay elements. It's just 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.360 not a fully cohesive game yet. The story of Star 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.240 Citizen is such that it leaves many people purple next 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:04.000 once they start hearing details. So here's a quick overview. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.560 The game's development began in two thousand eleven with Chris Roberts, 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:12.040 who founded a company called Cloud Imperium Games. Roberts had 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.240 previously worked on some really notable games like Freelancer and 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.479 Wing Commander, and his goal was to create a massively 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:25.800 multiplayer online space simulator. Players can own and operate space vehicles, 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.839 they can go on missions, they can engage in combat, 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.000 and they would have this enormous space environment to explore 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.440 and live in in that game. At least that's what 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.440 they'll be able to do once the game is finally finished. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.400 In two thousand twelve, Star Citizen began to raise funds 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:49.080 both on Kickstarter and on its own site. Kickstarter's goal 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.760 was five thousand dollars, but their campaign raised more than 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.839 two million dollars. It was one of the most successful 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.000 campaigns at that time, and the game has raised funds 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.520 largely by selling in game assets to players, such as 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:08.720 special ships, including ships that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.240 I've listened to podcasts with hosts who have spent hundreds 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:16.039 of dollars on ships for the game. But spending that 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.280 much money for a virtual game that blows my mind. 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.839 But in two thousand eighteen, the company announced a package 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:27.640 called the Legatas Pack, and that includes one seventeen ships 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.480 with various add ons and skins for the game, all 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:37.000 for the low low price of twenty seven thousand real 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:43.719 world dollars. So you'd spent twenty seven thousand dollars for 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:52.680 virtual ships in a computer game. What an earlier completionist 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.119 pack sold for fifteen thousand dollars. In order to even 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.599 see the stuff that's included in the pack, you have 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:00.920 to be part of an elite group of enthusiasts who 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:05.000 have spent at least one thousand dollars one thousand real 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.800 world dollars on this game so far, a game that 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.159 only exists in alpha mode, and by that I mean 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.640 only parts of the game exists in alpha mode, or 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.400 or you could just call it the company and ask 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:18.960 about it. They'll tell you more over the phone, so 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.520 you don't have to spend the thousand dollars to get 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:25.560 access to that website. The game has raised more than 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:30.360 one hundred eighty six million dollars since it first started fundraising, 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:32.960 and while early goals were to have a full version 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.880 of the game available in two thousand fourteen, the company 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.719 has since backed off on announcing a date when the 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.599 game will be done. They got burned too many times 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.039 saying well, it's gonna be out at this time, and 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.719 then they missed that date. Some people have become pretty 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.480 cheesed off about this, going so far as to suggest 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.400 that the company has a game in perpetual development just 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.160 as a way to coax more money from hopeful supporters. 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.760 In other words, they don't ever have to deliver a 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.960 full game. They just have to keep people strung alow 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.840 to keep getting fundraising money from them. But there's no 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:08.080 denying that gameplay elements have emerged over time. There are 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.800 total sections of this game you can play, and other 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.840 games like Minecraft existed as a playable beta for years, 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:18.360 to the point where people didn't even care if the 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.000 game ever emerged as something more than a beta. Still, 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.400 this is a game that's currently an alpha, not even 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.920 beta testing, so there's no knowing when or if the 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.880 full game will be available. Now, I could do a 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.960 full episode about games that never came out, and maybe 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.040 someday I will, but for now, let's just go over 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.480 a few anticipated titles that have to this date not 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.480 made it out of development, and some of them have 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.160 been canceled. One of those would be Star Wars thirteen. 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:47.960 That was a game that was supposed to allow the 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.320 player to control the famous Boba Fette in an action 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.920 adventure style game. The title referred to a level inside 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.080 the enormous city planet of Correissant. Corressant just looks like 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:03.240 a huge planet filled with skyscrapers, and you would divide 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.200 the planet up not just by quadrants, but by level. 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.200 Was supposed to be a level filled with seedy underworld characters. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.480 Early video footage was shown off at industry events and 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:18.640 looked really impressive. But then the Mouse House purchased Lucasfilm 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.480 and along with it Lucas Arts, the the game studio 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.000 that was developing this game. Disney made the determination to 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.920 stop all internal development for games at Lucas Arts, and 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.880 all the developers got laid off. Lucas Arts exists now 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.720 only as an entity to issue licenses to other game developers, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.280 and so thirt thirteen was shelved. Disney chose not to 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.960 renew the trademark license in I plan on doing a 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.920 whole episode or two about Blizzard soon, but one thing 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.400 I will not be talking about is how their game, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.480 StarCraft Ghost did once it went on sale, because it 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.280 never did that. It never got out of development. The 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.560 idea was to it a stealth based game set in 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.840 the popular StarCraft universe, and StarCraft is a real time 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.720 strategy game, but Ghost would be a different type of gameplay, 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.559 completely meant for consoles rather than PCs, and it was 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:13.600 supposed to come out in two thousand six, but it 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.120 wasn't until two thousand fourteen the Blizzard officially said, yeah, 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.679 this one's not coming out. Also, in a mysterious and 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.560 creepy demo for PlayStation four came out, and the demo 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:29.280 was for what was called pt PT stood for Playable Teaser, 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.080 And in this teaser, you would walk down the hallway 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.840 and you would encounter creepy and disturbing imagery and then 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:37.959 you would discover yourself at the beginning of the hallway 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.240 over and over again, and the creepy stuff would grow 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.840 even more disturbing, and it would change each time you 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.400 went down the hallway. At the conclusion of the trailer, 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.600 and was a video teaser for Silent Hills, obviously a 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.520 game in the Silent Hill horror series. Hideo Kajima, famed 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.440 video game designer, and Guillermo del Toro, the famous filmmaker. 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.600 We're working on the project with actor Norman Das, who 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:04.120 is providing voice and performance acting for the game. But 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:09.400 the game eventually got canceled. Cojima would leave the company, 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.559 or he was fired or something that's never been totally clear, 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.320 and then Cojima went on to develop the as yet 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:21.560 unreleased game Death Stranding, also starring Ritas. So what is 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.120 Death Stranding about? Beats me. I watched about ten minutes 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.600 of footage from and I still have no idea what 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.080 that game is all about. Other games that fall into 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.440 this category include Titan, which was another Blizzard title that 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.240 never made it all development. There were a trilogy of 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.719 games that were called Insane that was also supposed to 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.240 have Guillermo del Toro's involvement. Those never came out. Also 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.160 a game called Agent, which is an espionage game that 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:49.920 was supposed to come out from rock Star Games. It 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.840 was announced way back in two thousand nine, but as 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.760 of yet has not come out, But there have been 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.560 reports from as recently as ten that's some variation of 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.320 that game Miss still in development. So maybe we will 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:05.600 one day see Agent see the light of day. Next, 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.040 we're gonna turn our focus from video games to other 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.800 types of software. But first let's take a quick break 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:20.800 to thank our sponsor. Now, in the world of software, 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.560 there's an old example of vaporware that still gets reference today. 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.680 The example dates all the way back to nine three, 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.800 and that's when a company called Ovation Technologies announced a 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.520 suite of productivity software that it said would leave all 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.920 competitors in the dust. The company claimed it's Ovation Suite 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:45.760 included features like spreadsheets, word processing, data management, communication tools, 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.680 all of them integrated together. So it's going to be 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.440 a powerful tool for businesses, far exceeding the capabilities of 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.599 competing software that was just starting to get a foothold 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.160 in the market at that time. Ovation produced a demo 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:01.800 of its product Sucked, in order to show off what 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.880 it could do at various trade shows. The demo was 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.800 a video, and here's the thing. The video was filled 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.120 with false claims because there was no actual product to 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.800 show off. The video was just completely manufactured. It wasn't 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.800 supposedly showing off a concept, it was supposed to be 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.040 showing off a working build of the software. The truth 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.360 was the company had nothing to show yet. The demo 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.760 was created in an effort to convince potential investors to 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:33.199 pour money into the company. Presumably that money would then 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.480 be used to actually make the software that the company 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.600 was claimed to have built. But Ovation wasn't able to 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.040 stay above the waves of bankruptcy, and eventually they ran 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.920 out of money before they could ever produce anything real, 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.320 so it instead became an infamous example of vaporware and 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.040 smoke and mirrors. Some people going so far as to 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:57.240 say it was essentially a hoax or scam. Others are 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.679 a little more charitable, and they said, well, they didn't 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.720 intend for it to be a scam. They were just 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:03.960 trying to raise the money to build the thing they 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.600 wanted to build. And instead of saying it like that, 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.080 they said, hey, we have this thing, we've built it already, 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:12.920 invest in us and you'll make your money back. And 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:18.320 that was dishonest. When I did episodes about the Macintosh, 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.640 I talked about how Apple as a company was struggling 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.079 in the nineteen nineties before Steve Jobs returned to Apple. 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.480 You know, he co founded the company, but he was 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:31.480 then pushed aside and uh, John Scully essentially took over 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:35.720 and Jobs found himself leaving the company or being fired 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.360 from the company. It all depends upon whose account you believe. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.840 And then he went to start a new company called Next. Meanwhile, 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.720 back at Apple, developers were hard at work trying to 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:50.200 create the next generation of the Mac operating system. The 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.840 preceding generation was called System seven and that launched back 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:58.720 in n It worked well, but it's still depended upon 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.800 old architecture that by design limited what users could do. 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.800 And the reason for these limitations was in order to 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.720 streamline processes. So, in other words, the stuff the operating 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.360 system could do, it could do really really well. But 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.920 largely it could do that stuff really well because the 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.400 developers were ignoring all the stuff the operating system could 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.240 not do. And one of those things was true multitasking. 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.840 You could kind of sort of multitask with System seven 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.400 mac os, but it was doing it in a way 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:37.120 that wasn't terribly efficient and wasn't true multitasking. Also, an 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.840 error could cause the system to crash, and if you 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.720 were running multiple programs at once, a bug in any 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.640 of those programs could cause the entire computer to crash 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:50.360 as a result. So instead of compartmentalizing each of these 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.040 instances so that if there's a problem, only that one 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.720 program crashes, it would affect the entire system. And so 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.040 the more programs you were running, the more likely you 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.040 would run into that and have to do a full 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.680 system reboot and lose all your work. So it was 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.560 not a great scene. Now. A proposed successor to System 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.360 seven was a project code named Copeland. It took a 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.440 very different approach to architecture to allow for better control 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.440 over multiple programs, among other things. So why was it 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.440 called Copeland, Well, it was named after the composer. The 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.840 code name for System seven point five had been Mozart. 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:27.800 There was a third planned iteration that was code named 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.840 Gershwin and Copeland stuck right in the between them. There 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.200 was supposed to be transitional to move the operating system 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.120 away from the old architecture of System seven and set 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.480 the ground for a new architecture that would support future 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.840 generations of OS builds. Apple announced that Copeland was in 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:50.280 development back in by Gil Emilio, who had recently become 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.760 the CEO of Apple, talked a lot about the various 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.840 features that Copeland would have. At that point, they had 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.360 renamed it. They were calling it System eight, representing an 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:05.160 entirely new generation of operating systems. Demonstrations of the operating 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:09.920 system did not go well, uh, they they people could 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.520 see promises of what the operating system might be able 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:15.720 to do, but you couldn't even do things like inter 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:19.040 in text in the early demos of System mate, and 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:25.280 that represented a big problem. Obviously, demonstrations uh did not 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.000 help the case. The development team was fractured, different groups 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:32.720 working on specific features, but seemingly no guiding hand to 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.280 bring all of those features together into a cohesive operating system. 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.800 So you had people working very uh intensely on just 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:44.560 a very narrow group of features with no thought of 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:46.880 how it was going to integrate with the overall system. 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:49.600 And there's a lot of feature creep coming into more 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.520 and more features that were being added to this operating system, 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:57.400 growing the project, making it harder to complete and in August, 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.800 Apple finally pulled the plug. By the end of nine, 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.119 Apple would announce that Steve Jobs would be joining the 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:08.800 company in an advisory capacity because Apple was requiring Next 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.960 Steve Jobs as new company in an effort to get 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.560 their operating system development moving again. Essentially, they were saying, well, 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.719 we couldn't develop the operating system in house, Let's go 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.560 buy Steve's company Next and bring those assets over and 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.120 make that into the new Mac operating system. Jobs would 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.639 eventually convince the board of directors to give the boot 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.000 to Gil Emilio and Jobs would take over, first as 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.600 interim CEO and later as the official CEO of Apple. 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.679 Back in music companies were in a tizzy because digital 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.879 music formats that made it incredibly easy to share music 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.840 on a global scale, peer to peer sharing networks and 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.400 pirate sites were undermining the business model the music industry 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.320 have been reliant upon for decades, and if you want 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.080 to talk about disruptive technologies, the development of digital music 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.399 file formats would be way up there. And so a 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.680 group of companies, not just in the music industry, got 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.280 together to try and create a solution to this perceived problem, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.960 and the idea was to create technology that would allow 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.520 music companies to sell digital forms of music and rest 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.120 assured that only the people who coughed up the dough 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.159 could listen to the stuff at tech that would foil 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.840 the attempts of dirty, nasty pirates out there who would 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.639 steal money right from their pockets. Sort of, all right, 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.119 let's put aside for the moment the fact that you 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.160 cannot prove someone who pirates the piece of media would 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.800 otherwise have paid for that media, because that would negate 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.560 your argument that they're stealing money from you. Right now, 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.280 you might think this sounds a lot like the group 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.560 which was called the Secure Digital Music Initiative or s 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.959 d m I, that they were trying to come up 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.520 with a DRM strategy, and you would be right. Digital 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.800 rights management was exactly what they were looking at. That 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:55.520 was what they were trying to do. They wanted to 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.719 create a means to imprint a digital water mark on 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.000 a file, so piece of code that could be attached 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.679 to a music file to prove that it came from 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.560 a legitimate source. The watermark would be designed in such 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.320 a way so that it would be really hard to 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.919 remove without it also causing some sort of damage to 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:18.000 the music file like decreasing the quality of the audio itself. 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.040 So if you tried to remove it, then the sound 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:22.920 wouldn't be as good on your music file, and you 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.520 would ruin the thing you were trying to You're trying 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.840 to uh crack. And there was a second arm to 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.639 the strategy. They were going to partner with manufacturers to 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.280 produce devices that could play back s d m I files, 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.679 but only if there was proof that the user was 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.480 authorized to play those files. So let's say it's a computer. 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:43.760 The computer would have to have a proof that the 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.880 owner had a license to play that music, and then 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.200 it would say, all right, well the license matches up 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:53.320 with the sdm I water mark. Everything's good. The watermark 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.040 is a is a real water mark. It's clearly from 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.520 the company, so we will allow this file to play. 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.240 On Nimber six, two thousand, the group issued an open 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.360 challenge to anyone to try and remove the digital watermark 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.960 from some examples of music files without ruining those music files, 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.640 and to do so within three weeks. A group led 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.119 by Princeton computer science professor Ed Felton claimed to do 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.760 just that, though s d m I initially protested, saying 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.879 that the judging software, which by the way they themselves 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:29.000 had provided, could not take into account the sound quality 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.320 of the music file. Felton planned to give a talk 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.159 about his group's methodology, and s d m I, along 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.440 with some other parties, threatened to sue Felton and his group. 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.480 They said, this is going to be a violation of 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.280 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act the d m c A. 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.800 But the Department of Justice was disinclined to acquiesce to 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.280 the demands of s d m I in pirate speak, 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:54.879 so in other words, they said, go ahead, dog, publish 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.359 your work. Felton, you got it, We got your back. 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.280 S d m I effectively ended in two thousand one, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.280 although according to the then director, it was not because 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.840 the water marks could be removed. Rather, he said the 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:13.520 technology was not capable of being unnoticeable by golden ears, 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:16.760 meaning that he was saying that the process of putting 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.440 the digital water mark on the music files was by 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:24.480 itself affecting the sound quality slightly, and if you were 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:28.040 really really good at listening, you'd be able to detect it. 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.800 And that's why it never worked. It wasn't that someone 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.119 had cracked the system and they were able to remove 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.280 the water mark. It was just that it never worked 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.280 in the first place. UM. I don't know if those 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:41.000 are sour grapes or not, but anyway you could say 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:46.159 the whole stm I file uh form was was vaporware. 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:48.720 I have more to say about vaporware in the next section, 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:52.640 but first let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.560 All right, this next example is part software, part hardware. 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.560 Back in two thousand twelve, Justin Timberlake took a break 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:10.919 from bringing Sexy Back to take the stage at CES 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.280 in Las Vegas. He was there to announce a partnership 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.359 with Panasonic to bring a service called my Space TV 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.439 to the new Vierra HDTV television sets. The idea being 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:25.840 that would be an over the top service, So you 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.960 would plug your Vierra TV in, you would have it 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:32.120 connected to your network, and then you could tap into 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.200 this my Space TV service and the service would start 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:38.080 off with the library of music videos that my Space 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.760 already had at its disposal, which was around a hundred 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:45.320 thousand or so, and also my spaces library of songs, 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.440 which was around forty two million songs, and then it 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.720 was supposed to grow to quote encompass movies, news, sports, 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.040 and reality channels with a growing lineup of today's most 0:22:56.080 --> 0:23:00.240 popular broadcast and on demand content. End quote a wording 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:03.800 to a press release issued by the two companies. Timberlake 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:07.000 himself talked about the social aspect of the service, which 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:09.800 would let people share what they were watching in real time, 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.359 so you could create a sort of online viewing party experience, 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:19.000 but the service as talked about never materialized. Just a 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.000 note here, my Space did create a service called my 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:25.160 Space TV, but that was way back in two thousand seven, 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.160 five years before this c e S presentation, and back 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.320