What is a product that sounded promising but ended up being very underwhelming?
What is a product that sounded promising but ended up being very underwhelming?
145 comments
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Google glass. Sounded like we'd all be wearing these glasses that we'd not be able to do without, but even looking back that sounds like such a poor idea. I try to not be on my phone as much as I can, I can't imagine wearing glasses with an interface in my direct vision constantly, especially when a lot of it would be shit like emails, LinkedIn notifications of people I might know, and my siblings sending me 12 Instagram posts in a row.
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Would've been awesome for maps though
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smartwatches are surprisingly good for directions/routing. they vibrate one way for left turns and another way for right turns.
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I wanted to be like the kid from Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and have a mouse wired up to it. Lol.
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Companies keep trying to recreate something similar for motorcycle helmets
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Guess what, they're already working on the 3rd version.
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I want smart glasses that are a scaled down smartwatch. Give me like 3 lines of text & a vibration function.
If I could insert the interface from my Pebble into a pair of glasses I would be content.
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The first Segway.
They’re were quotes that cities would be designed around this invention. Before it was announced it was a balancing standup scooter.
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I was legitimately sad it didn't take off. It was a really cool piece of tech but it got mocked for being nerdy or geeky.
I wonder how much of that was encouraged by oil and car companies.
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Yes. The "Ginger"/"It" hype was off the charts. People were legitimately wondering if it was going to be some sort of jet pack or something.
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Gob Bluth rides one, which reality captured the vibe they gave for the average person.
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George W. Bush falling off of one didn't help either.
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Spicy take: high speed Internet (specifically high-speed) and cell phones.
What the fuck am I smoking?
Listen. Look around you. People expect for you to be connected 24/7. Your boss, your friends, family, they all expect you to be connected nowadays. Hell, Australia had to pass a law stopping employers from contacting you outside of work hours.
Then everyone has an opinion and they all want to share it (me too!), and if you don't have an opinion, you're a fucking weirdo, a dirty centrist, ignorant, or many other things (you're probably a Nazi or something, shithead).
Social media is designed to make you feel like shit and you're antisocial if you're not on some social media site.
Everyone is depressed and tormented by the constant flow of negative information on their pocket squares that they feel obligated to subject themselves to, all because someone they care about will get mad or be disappointed if they don't know or have an opinion about everything that happens every second of every minute of every hour of every day. I have a pocket square (which I'm using right now) because I feel like I have to have one nowadays. A significant amount of this is enabled by widespread high-speed Internet. Some of it would still exist, but a lot of it would become unfeasible due to the Internet being too slow. Doesn't matter if you have some crazy 32core phone with 64gb of ram and 2tb of ssd storage if you're limited to T-1 speeds or slower.
Sigh I'm doing the "old enby yells at clouds" thing aren't I?
Yes, the Internet is great and has done a lot of good things, and quite honestly, at the end of the day I honestly think it's done more good than bad. But I also think it's massively overrated at this point.
Cell phones kinda fit into the same category of, "everyone expects you to always be reachable"; and with the same conclusion (still good but overrated). I don't know how I feel about non-cellular tablets.
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Sounds like it's extremely overwhelming, in a bad way. Wouldn't call all that "underwhelming".
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Perhaps it's just whelming.
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The side effects of an amazing technology.....but the technology is still amazing. I wouldn't interpret it as overrated at all.
When something comes along that can be misused so easily, then it takes a conscious effort to avoid misuse. It's the same with cars, processed foods, or any modern innovation really. Be the change you want to see. Reject social media. Turn off pretty much every phone notification. Have screen free time. Socialise without screens. I'm trying to do all these things. It's difficult when no one else is interested in following suit and I just get excluded when I'm not on the platforms everyone else uses.....but I'm trying to gather a circle of people who are aligned in this way of living.
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You make a very good point. Things aren't black and white and because something has produced Benefits, it doesn't mean that it has only positive consequences.
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I would have loved to see what the world would be like if the internet was only Gemini. The internet is incredible, but I have no doubt it's more a curse than a blessing at this point.
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I can agree. Anything business wise with it worked just fine before the internet and was not all that annoying. going to the bank regularly or such. heck much of it could be done by phone. Even something that theoretically should be a no brainer win like streaming media has become increasingly worse to the point its value is questionable. What am I really getting from it. Then there are single player games requiring network connections???
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I've been thinking more, and I think the Internet would be better off if it was segregated into two, mutually incompatible lanes. Lane 01: slow lane for webpages, online games, general web usage. Lane 02: high speed but exclusively for filesharing. Lane 01 content can provide links to Lane 02 content for filesharing purposes, but Lane 02 is set up so it can't actually be embedded.
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That's why I like Lemmy so much, quirky, slow updates, small...
The error was letting normal people in, like video games 🥲
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VR - It has been through a few hype cycles, but never quite makes it. Cost, weight, battery life (or tethers), lack of highly desirable games, required floor space, nausea (in some people), etc.
Starlink - when announced it sounded like the solution to ISP monopolies and rural broadband access. But the roll out was so slow that other solutions have caught up. For people with no option other than satellite internet, it is still great (if they can get it) but for a lot of people, better options now exist.
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Also, it's way overpriced tbh. Sure I get that it's internet from space and all but I just see the price keep rising instead of dropping over time.
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Disagree on VR, depending. I use a VR dry fire training system, and it's def. improved my real-world shooting.
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Playstation vr has been worth it for me. Great games and very good tracking. The library overall is underwhelming but the quality is there.
Beatsaber (obviously) Arizona Sunshine Walking dead Gun Range VR Swordsman VR Moss RecRoom
Those are some of the top games.
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Large language models
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They are great if you don't care whether they are accurate at any given point in time.
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Yep they're a great tool if you know what they excel at. But instead if you're not familiar and you hear the over hype in the media, companies leaders etc, you're going to have a bad time.
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The Ouya
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Still have mine somewhere, I wonder if it would be possible to take a Shield and put it in there or a RPi...
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Microconsoles in general never really became a thing. Guess there isn't much of a market for them.
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Self-driving cars
I bought into the hype 10ish years ago. I had expected it to revolutionise road transport.-
Realistically. Trains will revolutionize road transport of goods and people if the train industry properly maintained their rails, operated above board (unlike the one that had the chemical spill in Ohio and other issues), and expands a bit. The largest expense in good transport is long haul and no one wants to drive long haul. Last mile will probably need trucks and drivers for at least 3 to 5 more decades. And taxi services have similar challenges to last mile delivery. Personal self driving systems need even more consideration than taxi services, and will likely take five to ten years after taxi services become recognized as safe.
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In my (in the industry) experience: Agile killed safe development by pushing superficial internal deadlines that look good instead of are good. Safety requirements therefore are never met, but people keep looking like they're approaching at least one, but end up sacrificing other things that no one is concentrating on, causing more set backs than improvements. Self driving will not be legally commercialized until either someone lobbies bad development onto the roads, or capitalism realizes that quarter profit isn't as important as ten year profit and Agile finally burns in a god damn fire.
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Apple Vision Pro
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Seems only the influencers took the bait. And then they returned it once the channel had its run. Anyone know of any real world users/ uses for it?
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Probably nothing beyond normal VR stuff. It's still pretty new and it sounds like Apple is still trying to figure out the chicken or the egg problem when it comes to developing an entirely new platform and have decided to try putting the egg first to see if anyone will incubate it for them. Who knows if they'll commit long enough for it to pay off. Tbh I can see VR enthusiasts still getting something out of it since it sounds like people have figured out how to get it working with steamvr. Other than that though, I don't really see any uses for it. I think they're going to have to spend a lot of time looking for problems that are worth paying $1,000~$2,000 to solve (I'm assuming that's what a "consumer" version would cost), and then refine their solution until it feels natural before widespread adoption will be a thing.
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It’s actually got traction in industry where we were already exploring AR for things like using 3d models to enhance maintenance on large facility equipment.
Compared to the value prop of increased reliability and enhanced frontline accessibility of consumable model data its cost is not a barrier and its quality is a MASSIVE step up from the equipment we had.
I’ve heard about it being used in high cost per unit sales experiences too, like jets or whatnot, it haven’t seen that directly.
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Ok so I do agree that the Vision Pro is crazy overpriced and never gonna succeed by itself.
But remember the first gen iPad? That thing sucked!
The iPad 2 was a genuine quantum leap forward for the form factor, so I’m waiting to see the next Vision device before making a proper call.
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The iPad had the Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field to save it
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Adulthood.
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Wow... Maybe for you, but it was everything and more for me. Fuck childhood. Give me freedom, independence, and not having to follow the rules of my parents.
No curfew, no bedtime... You can figure out what you want and do it. Living with a girlfriend. Making and spending money. Driving your own car. I get that maybe adulthood may not be for everyone, but I'll take it any day over childhood!
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You know, I'm genuinely happy for you.
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Ouch
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Foldable phones - at least the early generations hat lots of troubles with the hinges and scratched screens.
Still as of today, testers are undecided if these category of devices really has a benefit compared to just buying both a tablet and a phone (and still saving money).
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yeah its cost. If the cost could be the same or only a slight increase then I would go for fold.
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Well the folding aspect is pretty good.
Software otoh...
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Fuck everything samsung touches for software but I love the zfold series. Only phones I've ever owned that I can carry without a case and not break the screen. Not sure if it's still a problem with other phones as I don't see as many cracked screens as I used to. I am clumsy as fuck amd drop my phone all the time but these plastic flexible screens never break. The early models were breaking from common use where the fold crease would break but they seemed to have improve that flaw. It also only happened to me after a year or more of heavy use and it was covered by insurance so never really turned me off to the phone.
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I was very excited one year to get an early Roomba vacuum. It looked so fun and convenient.
I wouldn't say it was bad, but it was very meh compared to the high hopes I had.
It went in a senseless pattern without setting up the electronic boundaries. It had trouble docking. It filled up very fast and had to be manually emptied. It was loud and slow. It just overall felt like it took longer and required more manual handling and maintenance than a regular upright and couldn't even clean everything, so I still had to vacuum.
On top of that, the battery died after about a year. I got an expensive rebuild with supposed better cells from a local reman company, and that died again in about a year. The new battery was more than the Roomba was worth by then, so I gave up on it.
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At least now they have ones where the base station cleans out the robot. The old style was basically not worth it. It vaccums by itself but then you have to clean the little compartment out which is sorta more annoying than just vaccuming yourself. It was only useful when you literally needed to be able to do two things at once which was what I needed at the time as my wife had just had knee surgery and was laid up. so it would run cleaning up while I was getting her stuff or what not and when I did not have something else to do i could pick them up and clean them out.
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I've seen the ones with the trash station, but then I'd think you'd still need to dump that into the regular trash, fluffing up all that dirt again.
My house is a single story, open design, so I don't think it really works well without setting the boundaries, as it just spreads itself too thin trying to do the whole place, and as it's slow, it makes whatever room it's working in somewhat off limits as you dont want to step on it or block it. The timer would help with that though, but it still seems more complex than the 10-15 minutes it takes for me to grab the upright and do all the floors, plus hit the nooks and Crannies and ceiling corners as well.
It's still no Rosie from the Jetsons. 😕
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Mine is alright, it doesn't mao the room but kind of finds the perimeter and start to just do lines back and forth. It's nice to vacuum when I leave the house.
It's loud, but at least it's doing something if only evidenced by how much I empty the damn thing. Every couple months I have to take it and the dock out to the garage to blow it all out with their air compressor.
I do think it makes me keep shit off the floor more. It wants to eat cords a lot. I want a second one with mapping so I can have it do specific rooms and this one can get sent to the basement where it doesn't need to be as fancy.
I really hate the space it takes up, I would love one that was shorter so it could be stored underneath the side tables, or the dock and empty bin were flatter so it could be under the couch or something.
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These ones I think had drummed up a lot of hype but failed to deliver:
- "ai" a.k.a. "Plagiarized Info Synth System". the magic is gone. it doesn't make decisions. hallucinations show how limited it can and doesn't match how it was marketed.
- "smart" cars. all the powers (and tracking) of smart phone apps inside your car.
- "smart" ref/ fridge/ icebox. plays skyrim. supposedly orders for you when eggs go out of stock. tracking. dedj in a year or so.
- "smart" tv. more ads. more tracking.
- NFT. owning the "receipt" of a digital resource is a funny idea. as long as you aren't the one owning.
- digital ownership. those online and cloud libraries of your music, books, etc. I have seen news of amazon, steam, and others de-listing items here. if you own one of those, they're gone.
- "google+". touted fb-killer. nobody was there.
- which leads to: any google product that was scrapped. because google killed it.
- hyperloop. vaporware. I mean, we can dream.
below are products that are solely in my opinion and YMMV:
- 4D movies. oh, seat is vibrating. i got wet.
- 1gb/2gb/4gb internet. promises up to advertised speeds. flat payment as if said speed was delivered.
- iphone. all the bright colors and jumping people on the ad. I don't see iphone owners being high as that. imo, the money i dropped on it is stockholming me -- i love it.
- salad. what's all these girls smiling and laughing at their salad?
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Blink Security Cameras.
Record for 30 seconds, then can’t record for the next 10. So you miss 25% of whatever’s going on at your house. Can’t add other users, so anyone you want to give view access to your cameras, you just have to give them your password, and thus, full access. No web UI, just the mobile app. No Home Assistant integration. Subscription required.
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Google Glass.
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I hate it so much I'm almost sad it didn't take off more for just a little while. Would have been fun to get the chance to hate it even more.
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Segway scooter
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Apple Vision Pro. It's incredible for the first days. Then there's no reason to keep using it.
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Really? This sounded promising to anyone?
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Why, don't you buy anything Tim Apple the marketing master tells you to?
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Cybertrucks
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My uncle is a Musk Stan and bought one. Ugly as fuck but 0-60 in under 3 seconds blows your mind enough to get past it. It's his Lamborghini or Ferrari. The vehicle will be used as a truck as often as a Ferrari is used to race. It's really something out of this world if you come from an area that has more cows than people. Uncle has money and still has his RAM TRX for everyday use. He enjoys his cybertruck so I can't hate... till I see that mother fucker stuck in a snowbank then I'm guna do donuts around it in the snowbank in 4 wheel drive real truck and leave him to wait for AAA for being an ass and buying a stupid star wars truck as my grandpa calls it.😂
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Smartphones in general.
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They were cool until the industry decided tall, skinny rectangles were the final form factor.
I'm on the last week of my dumb phone challenge (been daily driving a flip phone for the last 3 weeks), and I think I'm gonna keep it.
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But the convenience of being wired in every possible second of your life!
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Dictating notes into my journal (eg obsidian/mediawiki/dokuwiki) is very nice though.
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3D internet/web.
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145 comments
3D TV
anything that was shot in 3D was fucking amazing, if you where underwhelmed it was because you watched some flat post production 2D conversion cash grab garbage, which I assume was the case for most people since no one makes 3D televisions anymore (yes, I know projectors are still being made with 3D capabilities)
I never was able to see in 3D because my eyes can't bloody focus to produce stereoscopic images. 3D movies were hell for me and there was nothing amazing about the headaches it gave me.
I bought a 3D TV and liked watching movies on it. Agree that being shot in 3D is better, but anything released in 3D in theaters was good enough.
I don't know why they died. Too bad. Did streaming kill 3D perhaps?
The 3d stuff was great! The NVIDIA glasses were wild!
It's a shame it died off tbh.
I found 3D theatre experiences underwhelming and sometimes headache inducing, but watching Transformers on a friends' TV with all the properly rendered depth was fantastic.