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Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

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201–210 of 648 posts

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#201
post #41

Drop.io. Got bought by Facebook I think and was unceremoniously shuttered. Last.fm, well. I really miss it. Windows Phone and especially the Metro Design (although some of it carried into Modern UI).

Last.fm is still around! Although I guess you could say they didn't succeed, per se.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#202

iPod Nano (6th gen) and to a lesser extent, the iPod Shuffle. It’s the best clip-on music player I’ve ever used, and there’s a void now with it being fully discontinued. I’m not a fan of their intended replacement (iPhone + Bluetooth headphones) due to weight and the headphone options available.

The replacement is more likely the Apple Watch and wireless head / earphones.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#203
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this something folks outside Google can access to get a human being in Google?

Lord no. In what universe would it make sense to let random people spam a channel you're using to coordinate an emergency response.

Outsiders would be -v devoiced.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#204
post #6

Swype. It disappeared from my phone this week and I'm in shambles.

Man, I was just this week thinking about reinstalling it. It's the only phone software I've ever bought. They took some features away a couple years ago so I uninstalled it in a snit, but I've been using gboard for gestural spelling and it's just crap. Over 50% needs respelling and/or returns nonsuggestions.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#205
post #19
post #6

Swype. It disappeared from my phone this week and I'm in shambles.

Isn't this integrated in all modern keyboards? At least Google keyboard does it now!

Gboard is pretty weak in comparison. Much worse spelling and its custom dictionary may or may not work, I have no idea.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#206
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this integrated in all modern keyboards? At least Google keyboard does it now!

If I use the default keyboard instead of swiftkey on my iphone I can't swipe for words and have to peck at the screen like its 1860. So unless there's a setting I'm missing somewhere, no.

If it's gboard, you might have to enable it in settings.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well OS/2 v3.0 became Windows NT so sort of succeeded, just not for IBM or in name (unless you count cash registers).

Spiritually maybe. The lineage between the two isn't official.

Windows NT is what the project Microsoft was working on as their planned next version of OS/2 got renamed after Microsoft and IBM broke off their partnership and IBM kept OS/2.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#210
post #58

Pebble smart-watches. I had them from the original kickstarter, and eventually had a Pebble Time Round which I loved. Whilst I now would never buy a smartwatch, I think that theirs were by far the best. Slimline, with a great UI, and nice functionality, and also not locked into either mobile ecosystem. I'm not entirely sure what caused their death, but my personal view is that they tried to become too big, and I don'…

At the time there were no other options in the niche, and it fitted well with what some of us wanted: huge battery life, few features that worked well, lightweight, robust... cheap! Meanwhile Samsung, Garmin etc. went after Apple looking for features at the cost of everything else.

Today there is a myriad of competitors; when pebble.com went down, I bought one with 45 day battery life and otherwise the same features as a Pebble HR+ at the same price, plus GPS. There's third party apps for a few bucks.

I do miss the always-on display and its clarity, but not dealing with the slow and buggy software and lack of sync or ability to export the data. And I have more confidence in Xiaomi being around in a few years, not that it matters with Google Fit, MyFitnessPal and local CSV backups.

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