WEBVTT - Tech Flops, Fails and Misfires 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:15.200 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.880 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.159 and I love all things tech, and you know, I 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:25.520 occasionally like to do episodes like the one that you're 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.760 listening to now, where I talk about tech companies or 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.800 tech products are just tech in general that failed. Now 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.800 I would be fibbing if I said part of this 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.880 wasn't due to schaden freuda, you know, that weird sense 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.160 of pleasure you get from seeing someone else fail. I'm 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.800 not proud of that. It is a factor, But mostly 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.120 I like to cover these things to really look at 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:54.840 what went wrong when that is you know, determinable. So 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.760 was it just a bad idea? Was it a good 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.760 idea but ahead of its time? Was it you know, 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.280 poor execution? So it had nothing to do with the idea. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.160 Was just the way that people tried to, uh, you know, 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.319 take advantage of it? You know? Was it crumby people 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.840 scamming other folks or sacrificing the health of a business 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.520 for their own self gain or was it some combination 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.840 of these things or something entirely different. So today I 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.560 thought we would revisit some various companies and tech products 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:28.720 that failed and see what lessons we can learn, if any, 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:34.200 and maybe maybe you know, indulge our schadenfreude along the way. Also, 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.200 some of these are stories that I've covered in other 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.399 episodes of Tech Stuff, but since we recently passed the 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.560 one thousand, six hundred episode mark, I figure a lot 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.440 of y'all probably haven't heard those. I hope you'll forgive 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:49.640 me for going back over some stories I've talked about 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.920 in the past. But let's get to it, because there 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.560 are a couple of them where I feel like I 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.000 need to make some updates. So I figured to start 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.919 this all off it would be fun to talk about 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:06.120 Microsoft Bob, because not only was this a notorious flop, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.880 but it also spawned some stuff famous the famously irritates 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.880 people to this day, like like the comics Sans font 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.959 Um often gets lumped in with Microsoft Bob. Let's let's 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:23.640 break this all down. What exactly was Bob Well? In 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.000 the early days of personal computers, using a computer was 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.959 a bit daunting for the uninitiated before g u I 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:36.840 or gooey operating systems. That's graphical user interfaces that would 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.840 be stuff like the Mac operating system and Windows. Before 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.440 all that we had DOSS. This was a command line 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.400 based operating system. That means you would have to type 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.960 in stuff to navigate the file systems and to execute programs, 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.760 and it wasn't exactly intuitive, like you'd be doing c 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.639 D to change different directories and things. That these systems 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.200 were a bit of a barrier to entry for a 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.440 lot of folks because it just looked like, you know, 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.880 gibberish if you were to glance at the screen not 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.880 really understand what the command's all meant. But then you 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.680 had the gooey systems, the graphical user interface systems, so 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.400 you had stuff like Windows and mac os where you 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.360 can represent programs with icons, and clicking on an icon 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.840 launches a program. This is way easier to grasp than 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:35.840 using directory commands typed into a text based operating system. 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.640 But even this could be a little intimidating for new 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.320 users who had never worked with a computer ever, and 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.080 so some engineers at Microsoft came up with an alternative. 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.760 Bob replaced the familiar desktop layout of Windows three point 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.960 one with a cartoon representation of various rooms and the 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.320 objects in the room would stand end in as icons 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.000 for different programs. So if you wanted to check your schedule, 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.680 you could click on a calendar that's hanging on the 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.480 wall in your room. Do you want to look at 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.800 your monthly budget, you click on a little binder has 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.080 a dollar sign on it, and that's sitting on a 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.200 little coffee table. You even had a little dog named 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.360 Rover who would pop up in the corner and he 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.919 would give you either helpful tips or irritating ones on 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.599 how to navigate and use the system. Rover would serve 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.200 as a model for another Microsoft creation that would get 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.159 tons of hate over the years. That would be Clippy, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.640 the paper clip that would pop up and say things like, 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.200 it looks like you're trying to write a letter, would 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.680 you like some help with that? And for the record, 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.960 I actually did not mind Clippy, except for the times 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:50.839 when it would try to help me do something that 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.640 I had done a thousand times before. The goal of 0:04:55.720 --> 0:05:00.200 Bob was to map various computer functions to the real 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.560 life equivalent of the activities you would, you know, do 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.599 to manage the same thing. So it was to strip 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.440 all the computer stuff away and to make it really 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:15.800 intuitive to use. So what happened? Why did Bob flop? Well, 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:20.760 there are several reasons. One was that Microsoft's major update 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.800 to Windows, which was Windows, was right around the corner, 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.280 so getting an overlay for Windows three point one just 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:33.680 before Windows launched probably wasn't the best timing. Another was 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.800 that Microsoft Bob was a one dollar purchase at launch, 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.160 which is a pretty pricey piece of software. It was 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.760 also resource hungry, so to run Microsoft Bob you needed 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.880 a computer, and that was at least a four D 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.240 six meaning Ahead and Intel four a D six processor 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.000 or better. You needed eight megs of RAM and thirty 0:05:56.040 --> 0:06:00.560 megs of disk space. Now today that's nothing. Your phone 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.000 has far more capabilities than that, But back in the 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:08.400 mid nineties this represented a fairly hefty computer, and not 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:13.680 that many people had them. But wait, there's more. According 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:18.039 to PETTERI Jarvinen and I know I've butchered the name, 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.720 I apologize anyway, a writer for a computer magazine, Microsoft 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:27.280 Bob also had non existent security. Alright, so Bob was 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.960 designed to work not just for individuals but for households, 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.039 So you could create a password for your account to 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.560 let you access Microsoft Bob. But apparently this was more 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:43.800 for personalizing your experience rather than securing it. As the 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:49.080 review said, if you entered a password incorrectly three times, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.400 the assistant like Rover would pop up to help you 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.360 reset your password. Do you see an issue with that? 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.920 Let's say you and I share a computer, and I 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.680 happen to know that you've got a digital personal diary 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.600 on that computer, but I can only access it if 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.240 I were to log in as you, because you've protected 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.960 it in a private space that I don't have general 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.320 access to. Well, if this is true, if this piece 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.440 in Computer magazine was accurate, I wouldn't even need to 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.640 guess what your password was. I could type anything three 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.240 times in the password field, and then reset your password 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.840 to something I know and log in as you. Then 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.760 I can read all your juicy secrets in that diary. 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:40.560 When you try to log in, well, first it looks 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.200 like you're locked out of your account, but if you 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.560 enter the wrong password three times, you get to reset 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.040 the password again, and so it goes. Or you could 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.040 log into my account and reread Havock. I should add 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.200 that there were only a couple of reports that this 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:01.080 feature existed. Like I looked around to see if I 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.120 could find verification that in fact, this was something that 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.160 Microsoft Bob did, And in our episode where we talked 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.480 about Microsoft Bob many years ago, we talked about this 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.920 feature because that's what we were finding the reports on. However, 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.400 I do not have Microsoft Bob installed on my machine, 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.400 so I can't actually verify that that really happened, and 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.760 I did see some discussions that suggest that maybe that 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.679 wasn't the case. Maybe they were using an earlier version 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.880 of Bob or something. I don't know because I've never 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:35.520 personally used it, and I cannot verify this, So it's 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:37.839 a it's good to say that this is a possibly 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:42.199 apocryphal story, and I sure hope it is an apocryphal story, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.840 because otherwise this is effectively the same as having no 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.960 password protection at all. Again, unless the password didn't exist 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.280 to secure things, but rather to create a personalized experience 0:08:54.320 --> 0:09:00.440 for each individual who was using that computer. So everyone 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:02.920 with access to that computer would be able to log 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.600 in and see the UI that's laid out like a house, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.240 and each person could create their own private rooms, and 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.560 they could even lock those rooms with password protection, but 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:18.760 there would also be public rooms that everyone shared. What's more, 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.400 you can make changes to public rooms. Actually can make 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.680 changes to your private rooms too. You can move stuff around. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.679 You can even delete icons that go to applications. You 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.400 could vandalize rooms in other words, and I don't know 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.440 if the room passwords were connected to the user passwords, 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:39.520 or if they were if you could use the same 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.040 password trick that I mentioned earlier to get through it, 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.880 but either way, it's not a good solution. Even if 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.840 you logged in as a guest, you can make changes 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:51.480 to all the public rooms. You could delete stuff and 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.240 move things and hide icons in different places and just 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.720 make life generally unpleasant for the other people who use 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.240 that same shared computer or One last thing that really 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.400 killed Bob was that Microsoft didn't really want to make 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.000 deals with o e MS, or rather wasn't able to 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:10.760 make any deals with O E M S. And O 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.520 e M is an original equipment manufacturer, and those deals 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.600 would have had Bob pre installed on new computers, but 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:22.000 Microsoft didn't really pursue that. This is typically how companies 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.560 like Microsoft get their products on brand new machines. So 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.400 if you buy a computer off the shelf at a 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.920 retail store or online through most providers, chances are it 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.760 comes with an operating system and a suite of software 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.120 that's pre installed on that machine. So behind the scenes 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.480 you have these big deals going on, and Microsoft just 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.199 didn't really do that with Bob very much. So Bob 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:53.079 didn't Bob, Bob sunk. What's next. Let's talk about Microsoft 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.320 a little bit longer, just for a moment. There are 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.320 certain builds of Microsoft's Windows operating system that received a 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.600 really bad reputation. So, for example, Windows Vista, which was 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.679 released in two thousand and six, became the punching bag 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.400 for a lot of computer review magazines. It was following 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.760 up on the massively popular Windows XP operating system. In fact, 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.760 that operating system is so popular that there are still 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.439 some people out there using it like two decades later. 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:27.240 Windows Vista confused people like right all the gate because 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.760 upon launch there were six different versions of the operating 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:39.640 system you could choose from. There was Starter Home, Basic Home, Premium, Business, Enterprise, 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:45.640 and Ultimate. That immediately caused some confusion right away. Windows 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.440 Vista also required a pretty beefy PC to run well, 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.360 so people who wanted to just upgrade from Windows Xpedo 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.120 Windows Vista and still use their old computer, they often 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.120 found that the new operating system made their computer is 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:05.200 really sluggish and unresponsive. And I have complained multiple times 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.959 on this podcast about how I hate an operating system 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.199 that hogs up computer resources because back and rag J 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.760 years to dang dang, dsh prompt, and yet I liked it, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.000 and it just it was a much lighter lift for 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.040 your computer, so more of your resources could go to 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.960 all the programs you want to run, not the operating 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:29.840 system that's in the background. Vista did improve over time, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.880 but that initial launch version turned a lot of people off. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.560 It was a really bad first impression. Microsoft would seemingly 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.920 learn its lesson, and when Windows seven came out, the 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.560 company incorporated the best of Vista's features while leaving out 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.480 the worst of them. And then came Windows eight. Alright, 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.800 so let's go ahead and do this one too while 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.840 we're here. Windows eight launched in twenty twelve, and you 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:57.040 know what, when I start looking at this list, I 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.400 see a lot of entries that hover around twin eleven 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.400 and twelve is launch dates. There was something about those 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.560 years anyway. This was Microsoft's attempt to unify the PC 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:12.240 and the tablet experience. I suppose the thought was that 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:16.040 there were all these computers coming out they had touch screens, 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.960 you know, laptops and just regular displays that were touch 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.880 screen displays, and that we were all going to migrate 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.800 to using computers that had these touch screen interfaces, even 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.600 though most people I talked to who have machines that 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:33.600 do have touch screen capabilities very rarely use the touch 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:38.040 screen part. But this meant that Microsoft really doubled down 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.319 on a user interface that just didn't take off. It 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:46.400 was really optimized for like that tablet touch screen experience, 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.040 but that didn't really work so well for desktop users. 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.440 And as a result, the operating system was not really 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:58.040 simple to use, and people hated it. Many people hated 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:01.600 it enough that they uninstalled it and went back to 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.360 Windows seven and again. Microsoft addressed many of the issues 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.880 of Windows eight with updates, but it really wasn't until 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.040 the launch of Windows ten that people came back round 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:17.640 two being excited about a more recent Windows build. I 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:20.920 don't know what happened to Windows nine, don't ask me. 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.920 And we'll have to see if the release of Windows 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.480 eleven will show that the company has actually learned its 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.440 lesson or if it will repeat its past mistakes. All right, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.960 let's look at two thousand and twelve and get away 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.440 from Microsoft. Two thousand twelve is when Google introduced a 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:44.120 spherical media streaming device called the Nexus Q. And by introduced, 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.680 I mean unveiled, not launched. Uh. It kind of looked 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.000 a bit like a black bowling ball with you know, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.520 a logo on it. It was sort of a predecessor 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.640 to Google's Smart Speaker homes system and the Google Chrome 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.520 Cat gadgets. The Nexus Queue was meant to bring streaming 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.200 media to the living room. Now by streaming media, I 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.640 should be really clear, the Nexus Que had very limited options. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.840 You could stream YouTube videos, you could stream Google Play 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.840 movies and TV shows, or you could stream music from 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.880 Google Play Music, and that was it. This was two 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:28.480 thousand twelve. Netflix had been streaming content for five years already. 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.360 There are plenty of other streaming audio services out there 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:37.360 that were really interesting, and critics lamented that you had 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:41.200 such limited options on the Nexus Q. To control the 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:45.160 Nexus Que, you needed to pair a smart device with it, 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:47.880 whether it's smartphone or a tablet, and there was a 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.320 special app that you would run on that Android based device. 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.280 This would effectively turn your phone or tablet into a 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.600 remote control. There was no voice integration with the Nexus Q, 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.880 and it was expensive. The base model was meant to 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:08.080 retail for two dollars that didn't include speakers, so if 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.400 you wanted to use your Nexus Queue to listen to music, 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.480 you would have to shell out some extra dough for speakers. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:15.760 Unless you just happen to have some speakers that had 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.480 you know, banana plugs, that's the style of plug that 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.800 would go into the Nexus queue, then you could repurpose 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.240 those for your Nexus queue. Otherwise you had to buy 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.440 new ones that could be a few hundred bucks. Buying 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:29.920 the cables would also set you back another fifty dollars 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.960 or so. Google handed out free Nexus Q units to 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:39.480 attendees of the IO event that year. I did not go. 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.560 I've only been to one I O event and it 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.520 was one of the ones where Google had nothing to 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.240 hand out. So uh, I mean, I'm not big on 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.720 getting handouts anyway, because I don't review products, so it'd 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.120 feel weird to get them. But this was one of 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.760 those things that sticks in my craw the fact that 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.800 the one year I go was Yere where there was 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.000 there was no goodies anyway. Apparently Google got some feedback 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.960 about how the Tech was lackluster in comparison with other 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.600 similar streaming solutions on the market, and Google pushed back 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.280 the planned launch date from the summer of twelve to never. 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:21.240 Google abandoned plans to launch it, so now they're just 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:26.240 kind of collector's items. I guess maybe now I could 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:31.280 do an entire episode just on Google failures. In fact 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.000 that I think I might have done that at some point. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.440 So instead of that, we're going to cover some other 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.840 notable misfires in tech after we take this quick break. 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.320 All right, we're back. Let's get back to two thousand eleven, 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:56.040 two thousand, two thousand and twelve and magical time and tech. 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.320 A startup called color Labs started up it right in 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.200 twenty eleven. They wanted to take aim at photo sharing 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:08.840 on smartphones with a brand new app called Color. Bill Nuen, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.800 fresh off a massive deal in which he sold off 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.960 an earlier startup he had founded called La La. He 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.120 sold that to Apple for a whopping eighty million dollars, 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.680 founded Color Labs, and it was intended to compete with 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.320 apps like Instagram, which was not yet part of the 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.440 Facebook family back in twenty eleven, but it was going 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.560 to do this in a fundamentally different way. So rather 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.760 than follow specific people like your friends or celebrities or 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.119 you know, dogs that you know, I might be talking 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.600 more about my habits on Instagram here. Instead, you would 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.600 use color to look at photos that were taken an 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.800 uploaded near wherever you were in the world at that time. So, 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:58.240 in other words, you would wander around the world. Maybe 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.920 it's just your town, maybe it's a city you've never 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.359 visited before. You would whip out your phone, you'd open 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.880 up the Color app, and you would see who had 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.920 taken what photos near the spot you were in, which 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:16.080 I guess sounds interesting for certain types of experiences and photos, 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.719 but to me, it also sounds kind of like just 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.560 peeking in on the photos of people you most likely 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.760 don't know most of the time. I suspect that's pretty boring. 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:28.439 Or you're looking at photos, it's something that you can 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.119 actually see for yourself right where you are at that moment, 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.920 so you can say, like, hey, look, honey, someone uploaded 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.320 a picture of a tree that's right there, which doesn't 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:42.199 seem super compelling. Now I can see how such an 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:46.440 app might be interesting during big events that are happening 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.679 in a specific place like if you attended a concert 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:54.080 or a festival, or the Olympics or something, then you 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:56.800 might want to open up Color and look at photos 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.359 of other people were taking and uploading. But again, and 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.080 you'd likely get a ton of people who are taking 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.040 pictures with their friends, and you know, without knowing anyone 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.960 in the photos, you'd just be looking at random pictures. 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.400 Add to this issue the fact that the user interface 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.720 on Color was needlessly up tous, and you had a 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.600 recipe for failure. And that's exactly what happened with Color Labs. 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:22.040 The company is stuck around for a little less than 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:27.080 two years. Before it closed up shop. Color was a flop. 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.040 You know. One recent flop I feel like I need 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.720 to talk about briefly was Quimby, which I've done episodes 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:39.640 on before. Quimby was a failed service that that crashed 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:44.200 partly due to just incredibly bad timing and partly because 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.399 I'm just not sure that the actual use case for 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.480 Quimby was that compelling to start with. In other words, 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:55.800 you could blame the pandemic for Quimby's demise, but I'm 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.159 not convinced Quimby would have stuck around even if we 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.320 hadn't had the pandemic. Now, if you don't remember Quimby, 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.600 don't blame you. Even though it launched just last year. 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.400 It was a video streaming service in which subscribers would 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:14.720 be able to watch exclusive, highly produced content on mobile devices. 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:18.600 The whole use case for Quimby was that people like 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.119 to be on their phones. So you might, you know, 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.119 get in line somewhere like at the coffee shop, and 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.199 you look at your phone as you wait. So the 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.679 thought was, why not design an app that specifically targets 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:35.440 those people. This design extended not just to the user interface, 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.720 but also to the content itself. So, for one thing, 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:42.439 you could watch quimby content either in portrait mode or 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.879 in the landscape mode on your device, and your view 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.840 would shift to get a full screen experience, no matter 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.280 which way you were holding your smartphone, for example. But 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.760 this meant that content creators needed to be aware of that, 0:21:57.240 --> 0:21:59.879 and that meant that they needed to be really careful 0:21:59.880 --> 0:22:02.399 at how they film thinks, because if you were viewing 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.680 it in portrait mode, you know long ways like up 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:09.440 and down, you might miss out on important details that 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:11.719 would otherwise be at the edge of the frame. If 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:14.600 you were watching it in landscape mode, so filmmakers had 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.280 to take that into consideration. Otherwise, you know, like let's 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.040 say you're watching a mystery and there's a visible clue 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:23.879 if you're holding your phone and landscape, but when you 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.000 hold an in portrait, it's punched in and you don't 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.320 see that clue, You're missing out on something important. As 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.439 for the content piece, Quimby content was meant to be short, 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:38.280 like ten minutes, bite sized, quick bites. That's what Quimby was. 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.679 Content creators can make long form shows and movies, but 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.480 the user would access these in chapters that maxed out 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.560 at ten minutes. This meant that as a content creator, 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.440 you needed to structure your work so that you could 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:54.879 tell a story or at least an effective part of 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:59.560 a story, in ten minute chunks. For movies, this would 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:03.160 mean that would ideally have a piece, though it end 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.720 on a cliffhanger, and that kind of encourages the viewer 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:09.840 to keep watching and go to the next chapter, which 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:13.920 is sort of like a Dan Brown novel and just 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:18.239 as awful. I admit my bias is showing and I 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:22.520 don't care. The subscription models for Quimby came in two flavors. 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:24.800 You could cough up five bucks a month to watch 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:28.040 the content, along with ad support thrown in so you 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:32.240 would get commercials, or you could up that to eight 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.760 dollars per month and get an ad free experience. It 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:39.320 wasn't as expensive as some other streaming media platforms, so 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:43.560 at least it had that going for it. Back in ten, 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:47.640 when Jeffrey Katzenberg of Disney and DreamWorks fame first founded 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:51.280 the company, he brought on Meg Whitman to serve as CEO. 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:55.040 Even then, the idea was a long shot. But then 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:59.359 when the service launched in April of twenty the world 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:02.880 was in a very different place. COVID nineteen outbreaks meant 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:06.479 that the world was going into lockdown. People weren't finding 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:10.520 themselves in these situations that Quimby's founders had envisioned as 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:14.840 being the perfect scenarios to engage in Quimby content. Because 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:17.880 you know, there were no more lines, people were at home, 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:22.280 they could watch stuff on computers and television's. The short 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:27.120 form approach that was optimized for mobile just didn't make 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:30.480 much sense at that point. Making matters worse is that 0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:34.040 the company really front loaded the content for launch. They 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:37.240 spent an enormous amount of money to have a library 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:40.719 of shows and films for users, and Quimby offered a 0:24:40.840 --> 0:24:44.960 pretty generous free trial, but saw that many people simply 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:49.160 canceled their accounts rather than switching to becoming paid subscribers, 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:53.439 so it was unsustainable. Quimby was only around for about 0:24:53.440 --> 0:24:56.600 half a year. The company announced it would be shutting 0:24:56.640 --> 0:25:01.600