PalmOS, the touchpad was ahead of its time...
Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
941–950 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#942The scripting language for the Macintosh's rolodex-type database (Hypercard) called "HyperText". I'm not aware of any more natural language scripting tool before or since. I can still write code in it, some two decades later... For example: 'put the first character of the third word of line 5 of card field "sometext" into theChar' or 'put the value of card field "typehere" * 1.25 into theValue'
I was on the HyperCard 2.0 team. I'm also nostalgic for it. It's a shame no one has created anything as simple and useful for generating web pages.
Agree.
For a few years, almost anyone could create a filing system for whatever they were interested in or depended on. An online version would be dope.
(I see I called HyperTalk "HyperText". Oops...)
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#943Jinni.com was an amazing movie/tvshow recommendation service. You could enter the movies/shows you've enjoyed (or just choose one particular) and it would recommend you other movies/shows you may like and specify in what particular aspects are these similar to your choice/preferences. I haven't found any alternative nearly as good so far.
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#944Amiga personal computers were amazing, that's a pity there is no active development in the Amiga world nowadays and an Amiga is not a viable alternative to a modern PC/Mac.
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#945Google Reader. Now I have a mix of HN, Reddit and GMail, and none of them work really how I like.
Agreed. I'm sure there were many reasons it died, but my theory is that Google strategically wanted to kill it because the User was in control of the data-sources and the algorithm. Google wanted people to migrate to Google+, News, etc. where they control what you see. This is what Facebook and Twitter did. Their feeds used to be a simple chrono sort of sources you determined, but then they slowly took control. In my…
> the User was in control of the data-sources
I think this might be right, but this could be because it was an thus an awful interface for anyone who wasn't somewhat along the HN-user spectrum of technical nous.
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#946Rdio and Google Inbox
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#947Earlier 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…
MagSafe wires insulation always breaks at both ends and the connector is too wide to fix that with a heat-shrinked tube easily. SD Card slot is an essential thing, I can't believe they've removed it. Lack of HDMI is not a problem IMHO, I've bought a great Thunderbolt-HDMI converter for about $10 on AliExpress, out it on my HDMI cable and forgotten about the problem. Lack of some keys has always been a pain, removing…
> SD Card slot is an essential thing, I can't believe they've removed it.
Is this sarcasm? I don't remember the last time I used an SD Card on a laptop.
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#948Crashplan for home. Still haven't found another unlimited plan with linux client.
Backblaze B2 supported by several linux clients I believe. https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217664628-How-d...
B2 is not unlimited by at $0.005/GB it's pretty cheap.
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#949HyperCard. It's been decades and I've still never found a better way to make simple GUI applications.
In general there seems to have been a trend away from trying to enable users via personal computing. I'm sure you'll get a bunch of responses to this post linking you to someone's web-app builder, possibly some that are hold-your-work-hostage subscription services. It's not the same, and people who didn't live through the 80s and 90s, when the future of computing was still bright, won't even see why it isn't the same…
100%. Whenever I say I miss Hypercard, people find imitations but that's not the point. Hypercard was holistically perfect for a personal computer of the mid-90s. Having an equivalent today would be beyond mere imitation. It would have to extend the values and respect for users (ahem, "authors")
Re: Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was still around?
#950HyperCard. It's been decades and I've still never found a better way to make simple GUI applications.
I run Hypercard in sheepshaver and every once in a while show it to younger developers I meet. They are always blown away.