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Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

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Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#791

Post by SuperPaintMan »

CiaranMcNulty wrote: post #445

Pebble - they created a series of smart watches that had: - long battery life (2-7 days depending on model) - e-ink colour screens, that were always on - an extensive app/watchface ecosystem - actual attractive watches I had a series of them and was all-in on the new models announced via kickstarter, when they suddenly disappeared and were bought by Fitbit. All forthcoming products were killed off. They've been prett…

I still miss my Pebble, but picked up a TI-Chronos after losing mine years ago. It hits a sweet spot for me between being user configurable, having limited communications and display and y'know, being a actual wristwatch. It's not nearly as full featured as my Pebble, but it also has a multi-year battery life and long range subghz RF for notifications and whatnot.

Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#792

Post by tvanantwerp »

mholmes680 wrote: post #664
jvvlimme wrote: post #629

SimCity up until SC4. EA really dropped the ball there, completely destroying a classic. No one ever asked for a multiplayer version. And most just want to build a big city, not the tiny sh th les it only lets you build now.

On the off chance you (or someone else) didnt come across it: Cities Skylines is worth the price. (though i didnt stick with it through the expansion packs) https://www.paradoxplaza.com/cities-skylines/CSCS00GSK-MASTE...

Cities: Skylines is an amazing city builder with a massive library of mods. Check out r/CitiesSkylines for screenshots of some of the cities people can build--some of them look like photos of actual cities!

Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#793

Post by tomjen3 »

MehdiHK wrote: post #695
kodablah wrote: post #270

Surprised nobody mentioned them yet: Borland and their approach to UI development. I know some of their products live on, but I am nostalgic towards the wysiwyg days of old without being forced to use MS. I of course am aware of modern equivalents, but sadly the market/users moved.

I wish I had a Delphi like IDE and RAD tool but for Golang instead of Pascal. Ability to write cross-platform GUI apps in a Go as easily as Delphi would be a dream come true.

There is Free Pascal and lazarus, but I must admit that if I need a cross-platform tool today, I would make a webapp - not that it compares at all to Delphi, but it works everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#794

Post by usermac »

calebsurfs wrote: post #761
rsync wrote: post #71

Altavista. I miss it every single day. Searching for technical (unix, programming, etc.) content is so much easier when you can use nested parens and proper boolean language. This is in contrast to google where searches return things that don't even contain your keywords. This is in contrast to google where the modifiers like allinsite: and '+' and "quotes" are not respected or change their behavior over time. Man I…

Try selecting "Verbatim" in the tools menu - it can really improve your google search on technical topics.

Learned something. Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#795

Post by ConceptJunkie »

aerovistae wrote: post #83

Ensemble Studios, makers of Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, and Age of Mythology, some of the best RTSs ever made. There are other great RTSs, but they're all great in different ways from the Age series, which nothing else resembles. Microsoft bought them, and shut them down not long after for insufficient profits. Sigh. Age of Empires IV is being made now since they noticed there's demand, but the studio they chos…

I loved playing Age of Empires on my PocketPC. I can't find anything like it for Android.

Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#796

Post by serg_chernata »

luxpsycho wrote: post #757
function_seven wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has ditched so many cool things in the MacBook line. 1) MagSafe. I know they really want to go all in on USB-C, but the original MagSafe connector was awesome. Even the weaker 2.0 version was nice. There were two instances where that connector saved my laptop. 2) The laser-drilled power indicator. That was so cool. It looked like the light magically appeared through the aluminum. Now there's no indication whats…

My 2008 MBP has a cool feature I miss: regardless of whether the laptop was o switched on or off, lid open or shut, you could press a little button on the left side and a number of LEDs would light up to indicate how much battery you had left.

Just to clarify, that's #2 in op's list. I did not know this was discontinued. I'm gonna go home and hug my 2012 MBP extra hard.

Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#797

Post by tomjen3 »

Immortalin wrote: post #332
kodablah wrote: post #270

Surprised nobody mentioned them yet: Borland and their approach to UI development. I know some of their products live on, but I am nostalgic towards the wysiwyg days of old without being forced to use MS. I of course am aware of modern equivalents, but sadly the market/users moved.

Try the Red language.

Cross platform, macros, homoiconic. Jesus I need to look into that. That sound like a potential practical replacement for LISP

Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?

#800

Post by lloyd-christmas »

larkeith wrote: post #633
renegadesensei wrote: post #512

I miss variety in smartphone design. Everything looks the same these days. Samsung and Apple endlessly copy each other and virtually every smartphone has the same phablet aesthetic now. I miss the variety in shapes, sizes, physical keyboards, gaming features, operating systems, etc.

While the variety was nice, I think the phablet aesthetic is most popular for good reason - the sheer amount of screen real-estate and convenience is really unparalleled. What I could see in the future is built-in ways to expand functionality without loss of the current usability - imagine a phone with the ability to project images and a keyboard on a table, and recognize keystrokes, while still being just as good of…

> the sheer amount of screen real-estate and convenience is really unparalleled.

Personally, that's my exact complaint. I miss smart phones I could operate with one hand without straining my thumb to reach the opposite corner. I want a quality smart phone with a screen size ~4.5". I don't really want a screen larger than that. It would be nice if the big brands made a small version instead of a "normal" and "XL". The iPhone homepage currently has the motto "Welcome to the big screens". If I wanted a tablet, I'd buy a tablet.

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