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Over the years, there has been a lot of dumb technology. It’s hard to keep track of all the ideas that seemed great at first but ended up being a nightmare. Here are a few pieces of technology that just didn’t make the cut.
Autodialers: an electronic device that automatically dials phone numbers. Once the call has been answered, the autodialer either plays a recorded message or connects the call to a live person. There were great intentions behind this invention, but autodialers aren’t people’s favorite piece of technology.
Virtual Boy: a tabletop portable video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Basically, these 3D goggles were the 90s version of virtual reality but the technology was not ready for this advancement quite yet.
Microsoft Bob: an attempt at a digital assistant, this software was intended to provide a more user-friendly interface for Windows computers. It was discontinued shortly after because it was very clunky and cheesy.
Clippy: a paperclip office assistant character that was created by Microsoft. The main issue with Clippy was the technology was not fast enough to load in a timely manner, making the entire screen freeze and work come to a halt.
Digital Pets: an online pet you could feed, play with and take care of — this technology made doing real chores impossible due to the time commitment to caring for fake pets.
The main point is, there is a lot of technology and some of it works and some does not. The difference between good tech and interesting tech is the implementation and the audience.
If you have new technology, make sure people are ready for this technology and make it work with the already existing tech. If you solve problems instead of adding to them, new technology will be seamlessly added to people’s lives easier.