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Here Are 30 Things That Were Supposed To Be The Next Big Thing, But Ended Up Forgotten, As Shared By People Online
While it’s fun to guess and debate what the next big thing will be, regardless of whether it’s technology, political or social situations, or any other aspect, it’s much more fun to take a look at the things people said would be the next big thing that never did.
Reddit has recently been discussing just that—all of the things that people thought would be huge, but that most of us have now forgotten (or didn’t even know) about.
The online community’s user u/LineOfDeath (very appropriate given the question) asked people “What was supposed to be ‘The Next Big Thing’, but totally flopped?” and over 50,000 comments later, the AskReddit post blew up with over 76,000 upvotes in under a day.
Bored Panda invites you to take a look at the things people answered in the list below. And while you’re there, vote and comment on the best ones. Well, OK, not the best ones, but you get what I mean.
More Info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Not entirely relevant, but I liked the trend where everybody wanted the smallest cell phone possible. For 20 years cell phones got smaller and smaller. Often being the main selling point of the phone.
Then all of sudden you could watch videos on your phone, and almost overnight the trend reversed to “larger is better”
Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
I like the reversion to Nokia burner phones- not being pestered by the internet. Snake in colour
CatWoman312 4 years ago
I miss flip phones. Hanging up on someone was a lot more dramatic that way
Kristal 4 years ago
I still use mine, I don't have a smartphone and yes, I still flip the phone shut! Lol
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Ozacoter 4 years ago
Me too. I want a small phone that finally fits in my baby hands
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John Dilligaf 4 years ago
There's a meme that explained that. Screens started getting bigger when we realized we could watch p0rn on our mobiles agvberq_46...561c47.jpg 
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 4 years ago
I miss small phones. My old Motorola Play was just the right size for my pocket. My current phone is too big.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
That scene in Zoolander where he pulls out his tiny phone. The lost dream!!!!!! LOL!!!
RELATED:
#2
Google Glass
thetacotruckman 4 years ago
but it has a THINGY on it so that makes them better.
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Ray Heap 4 years ago
Actually a great idea and could have changed the way we view content, only somebody came up with the word "Glassholes" and this thing died.
Leodavinci 4 years ago
That wasn't what killed Google Glass. What killed it was what kills many things. They're a solution in search of a problem. Outside of a narrow range of possible practical uses, who, and why, would anyone wear them? Most of my life I didn't need to wear glasses. Now I have to and I hate it. No one who wears glasses wants to do so. Why would anyone who doesn't need to wear them, do so? The same pundits who promoted things like GG (and AR and VR) are the same geniuses who proclaimed 3D would die because no one wanted to wear 3D glasses, while ignoring the fact most people don't want to wear those VR/AR HEADSETS... or Google Glass. Then there's the crass invasion of privacy Google Glass presented to others in the vicinity of someone wearing them. Rumor has it that Apple is working on some sort of AR eye wear. I could be wrong (I was wrong about the iPod flopping), but as a 30+ year Apple user, I doubt even they can convince people to wear something they don't normally wear.
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Paul Davis 4 years ago
There were people attacking people wearing these for "spying" on them, punching the glasses off their faces.
Chewie Baron 4 years ago
I remember how over here in the UK, supermarket giant Tesco announced that they had developed an app to use on Google Glass the day before Google announced they were cancelling it. Smart move Tesco.
Tenley Samson 4 years ago
wait wasnt somthing just like this on the simpsons- just search up google glassess simpsons
#3
2020
panda123 4 years ago
His job involves being around a whole lot of people it appears
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Virgil Sanders 4 years ago
remember at the very beginning of the year, when everyone was acting like it was going to be a good year? boy, how times have changed...
Daniel Brodzik 4 years ago
There is a scary number of people who still don't want this to end.
#4
The Segway. It was supposed to change the way everyone lived. The invention of the century or something like that. A really big deal.
Christian Bradshaw 4 years ago
Agreed. Riding on flat ground? Awesome. Hit a bump? You entire life flashes before your eyes. 10/10 experience, would ride again
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Pezor Zass 4 years ago
almost got run over by a cop riding one of these in an elevator. I'm not kidding.
glowworm2 4 years ago
I want a movie where the chase sequence is a bunch of cops riding Segways going after a bunch of elderly guys in wheelchairs.
WholesomeArmyweeb 4 years ago
alas, it's only meant for mall cops.. we ordinary civilians cant compete-
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
60 Minutes did a program on how it would help people who couldn't walk, how it would revolutionize transportation, etc. Then the dang thing was actually released...
Frans Meijer 4 years ago
But... you have to stand upright on it and be able to keep a good balance. How does that work for people who can barely walk?
Load More Replies... Niffler_13 4 years ago
My grandfather had one instead of a wheelchair. He was able to stand, but walking was hard. He had it outfitted with off-road tires (they lived on a farm)
Karin Gibson 4 years ago
I tried on at Leeds Castle in Kent. They are really great. Shame they are illegal to ride on normal roads.
Alan Jarvis 4 years ago
As I understand it - the fact that the Segway wasmade illegal to ride on Public Roads and Sidewalks was what stopped it from becoming a real alternative to inner city transportation.
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#5
Airship travel. These were the next, awesome way to travel long distances; in fact the spire on top of the Empire State Building was meant as an anchoring point for airships.
The Hindenburg kind of put a damper on it, though
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
The "becoming popular" isn't very accurate --- it's more "Since the 90s, companies promoting them have been going bankrupt again". There's endless digital mockups of giant cargolifters for roadless terrrain (say, logging zones in remote canadian wilderness) but that's it. E.g., Cargolifter whose death left this beauty (and they didn't even have to build anything, that's how they survived a decade), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort
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Ian Taggart 4 years ago
No wonder all the parallel universes in the TV shows have so many zepplins.
Mewton’s Third Paw 4 years ago
I want to go in an airship like the one in final fantasy 3 (6).
King Joffrey 4 years ago
As far as I remember, modern zeppelins use helium (non-flammable) as opposed to hydrogen that was used in the Hindenburg. Also, most airships this days are blimps (no rigid frame, essentially a balloon) rather than heavy-frame zeppelins.
Katinka Min 4 years ago
I think, they might get a comeback. The Hindeburg had to use the wrong kind of gas, but the basic prionciple is great.
Erik Granqvist 4 years ago
It was not only Hindenburg that put a stop to airships. And it was not only the hydrogen. Airships were (is) very dependant on weather - or rather a lack of wind. And the exess bouyancy in an airship has never been that good = they cannot carry much weight compared to their size.
#6
Google+ was supposed to be the answer to Facebook
Monika Rhodes 4 years ago
You could have hidden a body on Google + and no one would find it. lol
Data1001 4 years ago
I really liked it. Despite their seeming omnipresence, I trust Google a lot more than Zuck & Facebook, so I quite enjoyed having a similar platform where I could share things I wouldn't normally share on my other social media accounts. I was actually sad when it shut down.
Linus Nilsson 4 years ago
I think most people thought that google+ was so much better than Facebook, but FB was too big by then. I really liked Google+. Then FB copied every feature that google+ brought to the social network, snd noone batted an eye...
Russell Wood 4 years ago
I really liked it, I don't know what happened to it, I personally think it had potential!
W.G. SamKito - bored 4 years ago
It was a great communication tool, before they decided to go Facebook.
Doubleheader 4 years ago
Does anyone remember google chat? I actually really liked that program at the time. It was super basic.
Florence Hastings 4 years ago
Google+ might not be the answer to facebook but google has the answers to everything else.
#7
3D TV
Aurelia! 4 years ago
why would you want to feel like YOU are getting attacked by zombies every time you watch the walking dead? The point is to enjoy OTHER PEOPLE getting attacked by zombies.
Kennedy Johnson 4 years ago
I would think that it would make it more fun.
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Ryan Deschanel 4 years ago
"I need to stay precisely here in front of the middle of the screen, my head hurts and I am about to vomit... Great. "
Candace Fitzpatrick 4 years ago
My two pair of 3D glasses that came with my tv are sitting collecting dust
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#8
The European Super League.
Rob Chapman 4 years ago
Don't forget about the WLAF (World League of American Football), which was a dismal failure, restructured as NFL Europe, and then failed a second time.
King Joffrey 4 years ago
Admittedly, I don't know much about football but can anyone explain why this was such a bad thing (genuine question)? To me it looked like F1 but for superclubs so I can't get my head round why football fans would not like to watch a league with only superclubs. Also, isn't this exactly like, for example, NBA which also has a fixed number of teams and no relegation?
#9
Hoverboards? I remember in a span of 3 months everyone had them and showed them off and then they just disappeared.
Mangelo Il Fumatori 4 years ago
These were *never* hoverboards, in my eyes. A real hoverboard would be like the one in "Back to the Future 2".
John Montgomery 4 years ago
My thoughts exactly. It felt like they were trying to capitalize on back to the future fans but in name only.
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Chenandoa 4 years ago
They were known for igniting after 30 minutes of use...and I mean, like a cmapfire
Lucca Wenner 4 years ago
One of our neighborhood kids has one. He was riding around on it with a big stick in his hand....no kidding...weird kids.
VulcansAreSexy 4 years ago
I never understood what was so innovative about them. Aren't they just motorized skateboards? I mean maybe there's something going on technologically that I don't know about but even if it has a dilithium reactor the end result is still just a skateboard that might burst into flames. Plus, now if we ever get actual hoverboards, we'll have to come up with another name because "hoverboard" is taken by boards that do not, in fact, hover.
#10
The Panama Papers
François Carré 4 years ago
That so few people were impressed or even interested in such a scandal is actually concerning. World's financial traffic is completely out of control, ordinary people are constantly dispossessed from the wealth they create, and nobody cares.
Dynein 4 years ago
ihe problem is, It's not something that anyone can solve on their own; it would require significant social change and international laws. These kind of super big changes that require a lot of momentum behind them usually only happen once a tipping point has been reached and people feel like they have nothing to lose anymore.
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Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
More accurately, who buy ad space on whatever network/news channel/infotainment.... Editors will not run anything that offends advertisers, lest the ad revenue folks get them fired.
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QueenMiri 4 years ago
Yeah.. It was revealed and like.. Nothing.. Absolutely nothing.. No charges.. No one got sued.. And it just goes on.. What even?!
Gandalf the Pink 4 years ago (edited)
Sometimes I worry about humanity. We show the capacity to fight for a brighter future but sometimes it feels like we don't pay attention to the biggest most insane things that goes on right before our eyes.
Load More Replies... Leslie Donsen 4 years ago
There was another release dubbed The Paradise Papers. One highly notable name on it - the Queen of England. Oops..
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
This was less a "shocking reveal" than a "no sh*t Sherlock" read, for me, but I was raised to be very cynical about the wealthy. And then everyone said, "Wow, wish I was rich enough to do that stuff!" and away went the moment.... *sigh*
#11
The area 51 raid.
Chillace 4 years ago
ah i remember me and my friends were joking about going there even though we were like 1000 miles away
AlmightyOne 4 years ago
We were still kids at the time, but we wanted to go, too. Naruto running became a huge thing
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Emily Stanford 4 years ago
Omg I remember everyone talking about this but the day it was supposed to happen it just disappeared
Gandalf the Pink 4 years ago
There was a medium sized gathering though. Perhaps it had something to do with the military saying "we will protect guarded areas with lethal force if necessary" 💀 I'd also bail if the only reason for risking my life was for a meme. Maybe, depends on the meme.
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The roomba king 4 years ago
Bruh my little brothers art teacher let them watch the live stream.
Nevits Yibble 4 years ago
When desperately wanting to believe something reaches comical levels of pathetic
#12
Mini disc
M O'Connell 4 years ago
Mini disc was widely accepted in the broadcasting industry for field recording, and was popular in general in Japan. It wasn't a flop, just a niche product that tried to escape from that niche, but really just stayed there.
F. H. 4 years ago
It was really popular in Germany, too. Suddenly, all the kids in my class had one - while I stuck to my MP3-CD discman. As soon as I went to university, I never again saw one.
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will.u.b.mine 4 years ago
no one: me still having a ton of these that I sold at school: =] good business *thumbs up*
Manuel Baca 4 years ago
I still have one. I used it in Grad School for Theatre to record pre show music and sound effects when designing projects.
#13
This one might be a bit obscure just because I've only ever met one other person familiar with it, but Google's Project Ara modular smartphone was looking like it could've been the end all be all of smartphones.
Based off the Phonebloks idea of having a Lego-like hot-swappable module phone, the idea was that you could switch out any components of the phone on the fly. Camera, fingerprint scanner, even different quality screens. Conceptually, it really looked like it could take over the phone market, as it would lead to people not having to buy whole new phones anymore, but rather replacement or upgraded parts to a phone they already liked, thereby reducing costs and increasing utility.
You don't want a phone with 5 cameras that inflate the cost unnecessarily? Just buy a one camera module. You want a 1440P Super Amoled screen to replace your 720P regular screen? Buy one and swap it in.
However, like many Google projects, it died off for myriad reasons and the longstanding era of $1000 dollar smartphone slabs lived on.
Michelle Geiger 4 years ago
It makes you wonder if there was a conspiracy by Apple or another major manufacturer who squashed this idea/phone. This way you have to spend a lot of money every few years for a new phone. Just think of the landfills full of old phones.
Leodavinci 4 years ago
You do know that the vast majority of cell phones are not iPhones?
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JennyLaRue 4 years ago
Did google watch everyone willingly just shelling out for the latest new phone and think 'oh, we'd be selling ourselves short with this option'?
Gustavo Di Salvo 4 years ago
I was following this project with great interest. The thing is, like Google Glass and many other initiatives, this was not really a final product that failed but a beta test that maybe one day can be offered to the public.
F. H. 4 years ago
Production issues and lack of interest resulting in lack of funding.
Load More Replies... #14
Windows phones.
Simone Maenza 4 years ago
i had one. Nokia Lumia. best phone I ever had, perfect camera, awesome software ... unfortunately the lack of apps made it useless in the long run. they should have made it compatible with Android apps.
Charl Marx 4 years ago
Came here to say the same thing. They really missed a trick with that, was the only thing which frustrated me, rest of the phone was great.
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Dre Mosley 4 years ago
Arrived late to the party. The Android/iOS dominance was too much. Sad, really. I had a Windows Phone and would have kept using it had MS not thrown in the towel; it really was quite good.
Rob Dabank 4 years ago
My mum has one of these and keeps saying how much better it is than the iPhone I bought her and she doesn't use!
#15
What ever happened to those curved televisions? I remember seeing one on an advert a few years back bit havent seen or heard about them since.
Daria B 4 years ago
I have a big curved TV precisely for this reason. Also a big curved monitor, also using it to work from home. So, sometimes, when I work in the office, the flat screen feels kinda round, like, the old TVs.
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Bonnie Walsh 4 years ago
It's actually AMAZING when you watch stuff on it. It's hard to explain unless you see it. When you watch a show or movie, it's literally like seeing it for the first time. It's like something familiar to you, becomes brand new
Carolina Fernández González 4 years ago
My current TV is curved. It looks great from every angle and there is not glare. I love it.
ivan bolitekurac 4 years ago
Curved pc monitors are still a thing.And they are cool if they are big enough
Don't Look 4 years ago
I live with one every day. I’m looking forward to never looking at it again.
Erik Lawrence 4 years ago
the viewing distance needs to be just right to get the full benefit... thats why curved gaming monitors are still a big thing. easier to get the full immersive experience with a computer monitor than a TV IMO
Candace Fitzpatrick 4 years ago
When I bought my tv the guy tried to up sell me the curved version. It was $1200 more, I said no thank you.
#16
The "Dark Universe" cinematic universe, starting with 2017's THE MUMMY.
Eduard Korhonen 4 years ago (edited)
Started with Dracula Untold really. But that was a complete failure, so they tried again...and failed 😂
Fred L. 4 years ago
Wasn´t a completely bad movie though. And thanks to the final scene with Charles Dance I´m still waiting for a sequel.
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Alison Wells 4 years ago
The reason the recent Invisible Man movie worked was because they were focused on making one good movie, not setting up 10 others.
Ryyde Cade 4 years ago
I hated this movie, Tom Cruise is way too old to be playing the dashing boy wonder, he is older than Russel Crowe irl. Movie still makes me 😡
Virgil Blue 4 years ago
Oh this was such a stinker. The characters were just too unlikable. Sad really as the underlying movie universe idea was a good one. At least there was a more than decent video game made of it.
#17
Asbestos
Technically it was a hit! Right until it flopped when people figured out the whole 'inhaling rockfibers is not healthy' thing...
GirlFriday 4 years ago
It is still one of the most effective insulations and flame retardants of all time. It is just that whole "poking holes in your lungs" thing that killed it.
Candace Fitzpatrick 4 years ago
The town of Asbestos, Quebec just recently changed their name... I wondered why it took them so long!
Audrey Conrad 4 years ago
funny story actually, when i was in sixth grade, my middle school built in the sixties got a positive thing of asbestos and then gym was closed off. we got the day off from school that day :)
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Bad entry, not a flop at all. It's like saying bronze age tech (and iron age and stone age and roman and medieval tech) flopped... Also, I look out of my window now and see 20+ garages with asbestos cement roofs; it's been replaced, like lead additives in fuel and CFCs in fridges, by other products.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
It was the ONLY high temperature fiber insulation material there was until fiberglass was commercially produced in 1938.
that rando_;) 4 years ago
Actually, they were cancer-causing. There is an old mental asylum behind my school. You can go through the grounds but are not allowed in any of the buildings because of the health risks. It's popular with dog walkers.
Leodavinci 4 years ago
Lots of misinformation about asbestos. There are actual two different kinds and only one is actually hazardous.
#18
Dip N Dots...
Been the "Ice Cream Of The Future" for 40 years now it seems.
Mifa 4 years ago
To be fair Dip N Dots were luxury items in elementary school. I remember begging my friends for money on field trips so I could get one.
Niffler_13 4 years ago
Still see them all the time at Fairs & Sporting events and they always have a line. They also have Dip n Dots vending machines. Not a flop
will.u.b.mine 4 years ago
dude those were good when we'd go to the movie theater on a BETA trip
#19
McDonald's pizza.
Beth L 4 years ago
Turns out the vast majority of McDonalds had drive-thru windows that you couldn't pass the pizza through without turning it sideways, and it was easier to kill the pizza idea than put new windows in every McDonalds.
tmw 4 years ago
historically accurate! the smaller sizes could go thru the window on an angle, but the large size had to be walked out and delivered to the car. so funny. that idea went away very fast.
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Snickerdoodle 4 years ago
They were so good! And while working we made pizzas with any toppings we wanted :)
#20
Xbox Kinect
Kennedy Johnson 4 years ago
I still own and use this sometimes. It’s cool but , not as cool as it was.
Guy MacGregor 4 years ago
As a game developer who worked with these (the second as well), I am a bit sad as there are packed with so many tech and possibilities... And we did so few...
RoseTheMad 4 years ago
The kinect dancing games (i forget the names, it wasn't Just Dance but it was kinda similar) and workout games were great. With the wii it only followed the remote, so you could easily "cheat", but the kinect followed and tracked your entire body, so far less easier to cheat!
King Joffrey 4 years ago
Again, I'm not sure why this flopped. Had oodles of fun with it but then they stopped making games that would use the tech.
scrappyrat 4 years ago
That was done in one of the "Paranormal Activity" movies. It was pretty cool. :)
Load More Replies... #21
Lazer discs the size of records.
Tim Haight 4 years ago
I remember those. Few places sold them. Everyoine sold and rented VHS tapes. And people could program their VCR to tape their favorite show.
Data1001 4 years ago
I remember visiting a friend who had one. He had to flip the disc over in the middle of the movie because it couldn't store the whole thing on one side, lol.
Leodavinci 4 years ago
Depended on the player. Mine didn't require you do do that.
Load More Replies... Nikki Hilton 4 years ago
We used them to teach science in the '90's. That particular curriculum didn't last long.
#22
QR Codes. After so many years, they're finally getting some traction during Covid. I wonder if it will last.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Errr.... every single logistics company uses them? Like, hundreds of millions of packages worldwide daily? It's just a 2D barcode, so more info and more error checking = cheaper and faster to reliably read.
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Crazy Dog Lady 4 years ago
I think they're used more behind the scenes for businesses. The food store I work at depends on them. They're used a lot at Amazon for shipping as well.
Premislaus de Colo 4 years ago
They're pretty useful in storage companies. They make job hundred times easier.
Enna S 4 years ago
The problem was that you used to need a separate app to read QR codes. Now most (all?) phones just read them automatically through their cameras. I remember downloading a QR-code reader on my phone so I could see what this random QR code was doing on a menu (must've been 2011 or so?). It was a link to the farm where the lamb came from. Like, what? It took a while to make them more useful.
Jellie Snijders 4 years ago
I simply use my camera on my phone to scan any qr code and the corresponding website or payment link or whatever opens, it is so easy and convenient! Even our church uses it, for the sunday money collecting for the different purposes
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#23
HD DVD
Still remember half the movies being blue and the others red.
Scagsy 4 years ago
Personally, I still prefer a disc in a box. Something tangible for my money. It's also fun to browse the collection for movies I haven't seen in awhile.
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#24
Amazon’s shopping buttons. They pushed really hard for those and I never saw the point.
ƒιѕн 4 years ago
Buttons you could place around your house. Put one by the clothes washer, out of laundry detergent, press the button and it automatically buys more.
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the annoying theatre kid 4 years ago
alexa kind of pushed it down because now you can just ask alexa to order you stuff
Paul Davis 4 years ago
It was one of those "What could possibly go wrong" technologies...well what about when the cat sits on it or your toddler plays with it? Just an incredibly stupid, poorly thought through product.
Manuel Baca 4 years ago
So you mean the buy now button? It was designed for when people didn’t have to do all their shopping online. So you you could buy one item and be done.
Tracey Hirt 4 years ago
The Amazon Dash was a set of physical buttons with a brand names you place near frequently-ordered items. Low on toilet paper? Press the "Cottonelle" button on the wall next to the toilet, and a package of your pre-approved amount would be on its way. Not soon enough for that particular visit, but it was supposed to save people the hassle of actually having to remember to order the items later.
Load More Replies... scrappyrat 4 years ago
I think they might have taken off if Amazon hadn't made you pay for them. If they'd given them away (or charged some tiny fee at most), I think they would have had more success.
Erik Lawrence 4 years ago
cool-ish idea... last roll of TP? stick a button next to the holder, push it and in 2 days you have more...same with all staples... did well at first, then nobody used them.... i heard makers were trying to scrounge them up as best they could for other uses, good tech inside.
#25
The 2010 live action avatar: the last air bender movie
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
If you buy the DVD, you get an empty package and a noted that says, "Sucker."
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haha laser go brrr 4 years ago
Dammit you stole the words right out of my mouth
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Minha Khan 4 years ago
I was really excited for Asian people because they were going to get representation of themselves considering that this was probably placed in an Asian country, but then they hired a bunch of white people for dark skinned people
#26
At the time video calling with your phone completely flopped because 3G couldn't support it. There was so much advertising about this thing that was meant to be huge but the tech really didn't work yet. But it did blow up later on with 4G, better phones, wifi in more public spaces.
Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
video calling is doomed to fail. I have to admit that zoom and skype are tedious.People like to do other things while speaking to others, which is why people still phone each other.
Kateryna 4 years ago
I have to disagree. Video calls are often really fun when talking to friends or relatives
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Scagsy 4 years ago
Making a call is overrated. I just text and if someone has the audacity to call me back I just ignore them. Is it just me?
Vicky Z 4 years ago
😅😅😅 no definitely not only you! My permanent reaction to a call is "oh f**k what the hell do you want now"
Load More Replies... Stephanie Did It 4 years ago
99.9% of the times I get a call, I have NO desire to be seen onscreen.
scrappyrat 4 years ago
This was a helpful thing for the deaf community. It made it easy to speak to others in ASL if you didn't want to have to text.
Erik Lawrence 4 years ago
uhmmm facetime? i know a quite a few people who rarely make calls anymore, they facetime everytime
Mewton’s Third Paw 4 years ago
It flopped because everyone isn’t just camera ready all day every day.
#27
Hydrogen cars were a promising new form of motorized vehicle. They were supposed to be incredibly good for the environment, emitting only water as the exhaust. They exist, but not like how some people imagined. I was a pretty big hydrogen car believer at the time. There are some hydrogen stations, but mostly centered around California. Thing is that the hydrogen is quite expensive and not very efficient compared to smaller engines, hybrids, and EV’s. The hydrogen is also somewhat inefficient to produce, store, and distribute as well. You can actually get a hydrogen car though, they’re out there. The Toyota Mirai is a really good example. Out of all hydrogen cars, that one is definitely most popular. In fact, Toyota pays for $15,000 worth of hydrogen in your first few years of ownership since it’s so expensive. This means that for your first 3-ish years of owning one, you might not have to pay a penny in fuel. As you can see I’m still a hydrogen advocate. Don’t expect to be able to take it very far from your nearest hydrogen station though.
danielw 4 years ago
hydrogen tanks- particularly composite tanks (fiberglass, carbon fiber)- are at least as safe as gasoline tanks. in some regards, actually safer.
Load More Replies... Evil Little Thing 4 years ago
But in the past year a research group figured out how to get algae to produce hydrogen, so H cars are getting another shot.
Beans 4 years ago
The thing is we need to look into alternatives to batteries. They pollute as much as fuel but in different ways. And they don't last. In 40 years we are going to have another problem with old Tesla's etc. I'm not saying hydrogen is the future necessarily. But we need to look into something truly sustainable, batteries (what hybrids and electrics use) are not it
Kendra Miller 4 years ago
We do need to keep researching and making the world more sustainable as fast as we can. EVs are here now, we can't delay switching away from gas cars for some magic energy storage/source. They are as affordable as a regular gas car. A gas car uses combustion to create energy, but an EV just takes the energy from the batteries. Meaning they are a simpler system and therefore less to go wrong and fewer parts to fix/replace. Plus a gas car will pollute not only when it's manufactured, but every day of it's life, while an EV only pollutes when it's manufactured. If your energy grid burns coal for electricity, then yes your EV is polluting, but as your grid is cleaned up and switched over to wind and solar, it stops.
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Oerff On Tour 4 years ago
The disadvantage of battery powered vehicles is the long recharging time. But technology is catching up fast. Now it's more of a problem to find a recharging point. Hydrogen is much quicker to refill. Hydrogen is a bit more expensive to make because it has only 70% of the efficiency of charging the batteries directly. But gas stations can be quickly converted to hydrogen. The gas can be transported via tanks or via most existing gas lines. The Netherlands have committed to building a hydrogen infrastructure. Producing it using wind and solar energy, pumping it through the existing gas mains, replacing natural gas. The factory will be in the north of the country, closely to our depleting gas fields. Wind farms are being built at sea, solar panels in the fields. Production is continuous, yield dependent on the weather of course (on windy days it's often overcast and vice versa). But it's the future. And it's source of water is abundant. It needs to be conductive, so we use seawater. Wind is endless. Both ingredients covered. Predictions are that cars will mostly remain battery powered, but vans and trucks will use hydrogen for long haul.
Damon Tripodi 4 years ago
both electric and fuel cell vehicles are WAY OLDER than you realize, look it up
John Baker 4 years ago
The first electric car came on the market in 1869, believe it or not.
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Max L. 4 years ago
That all sounds like the last attempt from carmakers to hold the technology to something difficult to distribute making it harder for electrical mobility to step up, when it’s obvious electrical power is already present in any fuel station worldwide. And with carmakers frightening about switching to electric already, many already said they will pass over hidrogen. It’s dead before even being born.
#28
Elizabeth Holmes.
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
Read "Bad Blood." She not only conned hundreds of people, she single-handedly set back the credibility of women in the tech industry.
tuzdayschild 4 years ago
"single-handedly set back the credibility of women in the tech industry" is unfair. Reminds me of when a black person does something illegal and all black people are measured by that person. This was a single dishonest women, not all women. I live for the day people stop thinking like this.
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Paul Davis 4 years ago (edited)
To be fair, these investors were complete morons. They handed her piles of cash without any good evidence she was able to do what she claimed. Particularly that she was making incredible claims to be able to do what literally no one else knew how to do theoretically, which SHOULD have required extremely strong proof before anyone gave her money for it. On tours the equipment would always be "down" for some reason once the tour reached the magic room where they were analyzing the samples, and the investors were too lazy and stupid to insist on waiting for it to work again, which would have unveiled the masquerade many times over. If only someone trying to invest in this had ever shown some critical thinking skills she never would have gotten very far at all with this scam.
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
To be fair in return? Someone (more than one, IIRC?) did. She fired them, then freaked out at people in the Dept of Defense about how these people wanted her to fail, wanted Theranos to fail, etc etc etc.... Theranos makes the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme look tame.
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Full of Giggles 4 years ago (edited)
A con artist. She co-founded Theranos, a bogus health technology company. She claimed her company had created a revolutionary blood testing method and falsified financial records to make the company appear profitable to potential investors. Theranos received close to $9B USD from investors and she kept half of it for herself.
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Full of Giggles 4 years ago
Not yet. Her trial is scheduled for this July.
Load More Replies... Pezor Zass 4 years ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes there's a documentary about the business scam she was running
Frans Meijer 4 years ago
There's an excellent podcast about her called "The Dropout". Really worth listening to.
#29
The Wii U
Romery Wells 4 years ago
YES. i still have my Wii U pad and all the acceseries to this day. and they work perfect
Guy MacGregor 4 years ago
Fun fact: I actually have my Nintendo Wii U Game developer certificate. And never touched a single Wii U (The development kit, once)
Aliquid A 4 years ago
Why is this on the list.... just add every previous game system. What makes Wii U special?
Vermillion Ace #443 4 years ago
O.o; it had potential, but the flaws it had were just too hard to ignore. That gamepad was a nightmare to work with, and all of that unnecessary touchscreen support stuff...it did at least spawn some decent titles though.
#30
hat streaming service that lasted like two months. ‘Qubi’ or ‘Qupi’ I think? Even bad timing aside (a mobile based streaming service at a time when no one could really leave their house) the marketing was just horrible. I saw ads for it for nearly a week before I realized it was a new video streaming service, and by that point was so annoyed by the ads untrusting everything I didn’t care at all, just out of spite. Also I mean it was just YouTube you have to pay for and got worse content. EDIT: it was Quibi. It made so little impact I couldn’t recall at first.
surprised pikachu 4 years ago
oh my gosh yes! the ads didn't even really tell you what it was.
cookie panda 4 years ago
ok last night i saw an add for a thing that puts babies to sleep, and it was like "baby keeping you both up?" *mother uses a thing to drop a liquid into its mouth and it just conks out* and then it said, use *product* and never showed it on screen, so it looked like an add for drugging a baby??? lol some people are just not good at ads i guess
Load More Replies... CatWoman312 4 years ago (edited)
I remember it because Sophie turner (Sansa, Game of thrones) was supposed to be either in a movie or show on it. She posted about it a lot on her Instagram page, but I didn’t really want to download yet another steaming service for one show
#31
Zune
tuzdayschild 4 years ago
I loved my Zune. Remember the day they went offline world wide. It was like a day of dysfunctional unity.
Tiny Dynamine 4 years ago
Or basically anything that Microsoft does. They can't even make their own operating systems work properly.
#32
Google Wave. It was supposed to replace email with a more collaborative approach. Essentially it was like a dynamically-created discussion board you'd share with select people and you could have a more readable discussion than one with a bunch of forwards and CCs and the like.
I thought it was a good idea, but it flopped big time and Google got rid of it after a few years.
Beans 4 years ago
Pixel, Android OS, Chrome, Shopping, Docs, Drive, Google Pay, YouTube, Translate I'm sure there's more.
Load More Replies... #33
Sega’s Dreamcast
Guy MacGregor 4 years ago
Well... The dreamcast is technically the first XBox... So it does have a good legacy
JayWantsACat 4 years ago
I still have a DC. Online MP, Seaman, browser, etc. This console was way ahead of its time.
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Aski Markup 4 years ago
Same here. Sonic was so beautiful to play and visually gorgeous on this.
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Paul Davis 4 years ago
Lot of good memories of Dreamcast. Seems to me they had very stiff competition at the time, couldn't get enough games for it.
#34
The Sabre Triangle Tablet
#35
Quadraphonic entertainment systems in the early 1970s, were supposed to replace stereophonic systems. Now they are chiefly remembered for inspiring the name of The Who's second rock opera.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
The concept still lives on in the form of 5.1, and 7.1 surround systems. But those are being surpassed in availability by Atmos, which automatically mixes to best fit the speakers you have.
Lily Mae Kitty 4 years ago
I has one of those stereos before any of my friends so I was the coolest. /s
Oerff On Tour 4 years ago
I recall my dad having an olds delta 88 convertible with the quadraphonic 8-track player. The sound was incredible. Queen made a special recording of Bohemian Rhapsody for it. The "chorus" moved round and round and diagonally. Sort of figure-8 through the car.
#36
The virtual boy
Finn Jager 4 years ago
The virtual boy has a tragic story connected to it findable online if I am correct
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Robert Bailey 4 years ago
The virtual boy wanted to be a real boy. But he fell in with the wrong crowd and became a virtual ass.
Virgil Blue 4 years ago
This was headache on a stick. Tried it out at a game show. Maybe with current VR advanced it's time has finally come?
#37
Johnny Manziel
Calypso poet 4 years ago
He was always a douche. It turned out he was more Johnny than Football.
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#38
MoviePass
GirlFriday 4 years ago
You paid a monthly membership fee and could see so many movies each week for that fee. There were different levels based on how often you went to the movies and it offered discounts on concessions as well. It died off because of streaming services where you don't have to leave your home to see first run movies.
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Alexis Draskinis 4 years ago
There was no way to succeed in this one though. It was too cheap! Dont underestimate the amount of movies people will go see when it doesnt cost them $50 a trip!
Tracy Costa 4 years ago
Go look up the history of this company. It's like Fyre Fest but for movies.
Johanna McMahan 4 years ago
I had this right before COVID hit. I signed a year long contract to pay monthly, but as soon as lockdown hit they cancelled it for me. I miss it! And theater movies.
Steve Miller 4 years ago
Yeah, it was a glorious nine months where I watched a lot movies. It was actually an awesome service, but just not sustainable with large movie chains who were assholes.
#39
Ouya and microconsoles in general
Jill 4 years ago (edited)
We still have our Ouya for one reason only, BOMB SQUAD! It is the most fun and well done party game ever. The developer never sold it to any other platform and doesnt make any money from it. Win-Win! (Except for him, I would really love it if he had made some money on it.)
#40
Smart diapers! I’m pretty sure Pampers sells them but imagine it won’t be long before they’re discontinued. It’s an idea that’s been posted on Mommy blogs, childcare forums, magazines, news articles. Every so often I’ll see a story online while doing some childcare research. I don’t know a single parent, nanny, early childhood educator, caregiver that has or wants to use a smart diaper. The only way I could see it being useful is for night or for a special needs child. The idea is still being pushed as a “luxury” item for millennials but it’s just nonsense. What’s even funnier is that the tech is almost backwards. Cloth diapering has become insanely popular!
Shelp 4 years ago
Smart diaper? What a b*llshit... Just use cloth instead, it works perfectly and you don't have to buy anything "smart" that probably costs an arm and a leg. Plus, I don't need a smart device to notice that the baby has soiled themself.
AzKhaleesi 4 years ago
I had to google this. Let me get this straight. It has an RFID chip and it alerts you when the baby needs changed? Ummmm ok, so we're too lazy as parents to ... oh I don't know, watch the baby? or at the very least CHECK the baby? wow.
I want cake 4 years ago
I can see how it could potentially be useful to someone who has no sense of smell (I know two people who were born anosmic) but that's a pretty small market,and there are other ways to check if your baby has soiled their diaper. It just comes across as an attempt to cater to people for whom parenting is an inconvenience.
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Sista of the moon 4 years ago
I’d feel ok if the “smart diapers” were just super eco-friendly diapers
#41
Mixer, Microsoft's Twitch. Failed spectacularly.
ARandomPerson 4 years ago
when they payed 40 million for ninja and then gave up on mixer a couple days later
#42
Solar roadways
Niffler_13 4 years ago
They have them in European countries. It's actually a really good concept.
Irina Deneva-Slav 4 years ago
"They" don't "have them". One company built one solar road in France. It flopped. Spectacularly. Definitely worth a mention on this list. https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/22/14055756/solar-panel-road-electricity-france-normandy https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/296951-frances-solar-road-is-a-complete-failure https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-first-solar-road-turned-out-colossal-failure-2019-8
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#43
P.T. demo
RoseTheMad 4 years ago
It's not that it flopped, it's that Hideo Kojima ( main developer of P.T. and what would have become Silent Hills) left Konami, and Konami thus cancelled Silent Hills in favour of making pachinko machines. Honestly, since that move, Konami has gone downhill and has, imo, certainly flopped as a company. Silent Hill however, is still popular and many wish for a reveal of a new entry to the series someday, and there have been a few hints over the years but so far nothing, and the SH following has been dissappointed. (but honestly the Silent Hill games, especially 1-4 are some of the best horror games ever made imo)
Hotdogking 4 years ago (edited)
Yes. Please let a Silent Hill game come out on the PS5. That would be so cool looking. Edit: I AM CLAIRVOYANT!!!
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#44
Allstar Weekend
will.u.b.mine 4 years ago
like...the band that sings 'Hey, Princess'?...or am I stuped and wrong haha
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
GirlFriday 4 years ago (edited)
Remember those robot pets? They were supposed to be the wave of the future. It was an advanced Furby that you could teach tricks and maybe to speak.
Nerds All the Way Down 4 years ago
I do remember that! That's the only thing i recognize tho.
Load More Replies... Tim Haight 4 years ago
Hair in a can - Hyped breathlessly on off-hour infomercials, spray-on hair is supposed to cover up bald spots. In practice, the can emits a fine powder that ends up looking a little better than if you had used a can of spray paint hairinacan...39d94c.jpg 
Becky Samuel 4 years ago
This is in everyday usage for people on camera. Hardly a failed product.
Load More Replies... Tim Haight 4 years ago
Released at the height of the tech boom in the late 1990s, the CueCat was a massively expensive failure. Millions of the cat-shaped bar-code scanners were produced and shipped for free across the U.S., in hopes that people would use them to scan specially marked bar codes to visit Internet sites. (How this was easier than a typing a link, the company never did answer.) Despite a much ballyhooed launch, with CueCat codes printed in Wired and BusinessWeek, consumers never got into the idea of reading their magazines next to a wired cat-shaped scanner, and the CueCat became little more than a high-tech paperweight. cuecat-608...1eb66c.jpg 
M O'Connell 4 years ago
Their software no longer works, but if you happen to have one of the devices, there is a driver available that lets you use it as an ordinary text-entry barcode scanner. There's a bookstore by me that uses one at checkout.
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chi-wei shen 4 years ago
What about Youtube Premium? It's still not big and hopefully, it never will be.
Spork420 4 years ago
Those community bikes or scooters or whatever they were that showed up by the hundreds in cities a few years ago and littered every corner. Those came and went real fast.
AzKhaleesi 4 years ago
Those are still all over california but I think everyone realizes how much they cost to up keep etc. plus they were getting stolen.
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Alex Little 4 years ago
No-one mentioned the Sinclair C5? Although its going back quite a few years, to the mid-80's
GirlFriday 4 years ago (edited)
Remember those robot pets? They were supposed to be the wave of the future. It was an advanced Furby that you could teach tricks and maybe to speak.
Nerds All the Way Down 4 years ago
I do remember that! That's the only thing i recognize tho.
Load More Replies... Tim Haight 4 years ago
Hair in a can - Hyped breathlessly on off-hour infomercials, spray-on hair is supposed to cover up bald spots. In practice, the can emits a fine powder that ends up looking a little better than if you had used a can of spray paint hairinacan...39d94c.jpg
Becky Samuel 4 years ago
This is in everyday usage for people on camera. Hardly a failed product.
Load More Replies... Tim Haight 4 years ago
Released at the height of the tech boom in the late 1990s, the CueCat was a massively expensive failure. Millions of the cat-shaped bar-code scanners were produced and shipped for free across the U.S., in hopes that people would use them to scan specially marked bar codes to visit Internet sites. (How this was easier than a typing a link, the company never did answer.) Despite a much ballyhooed launch, with CueCat codes printed in Wired and BusinessWeek, consumers never got into the idea of reading their magazines next to a wired cat-shaped scanner, and the CueCat became little more than a high-tech paperweight. cuecat-608...1eb66c.jpg
M O'Connell 4 years ago
Their software no longer works, but if you happen to have one of the devices, there is a driver available that lets you use it as an ordinary text-entry barcode scanner. There's a bookstore by me that uses one at checkout.
Load More Replies... chi-wei shen 4 years ago
What about Youtube Premium? It's still not big and hopefully, it never will be.
Spork420 4 years ago
Those community bikes or scooters or whatever they were that showed up by the hundreds in cities a few years ago and littered every corner. Those came and went real fast.
AzKhaleesi 4 years ago
Those are still all over california but I think everyone realizes how much they cost to up keep etc. plus they were getting stolen.
Load More Replies... Alex Little 4 years ago
No-one mentioned the Sinclair C5? Although its going back quite a few years, to the mid-80's
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