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Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

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

#621

Post by com2kid »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #572
arendtio wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with your pain points, I would not say XMPP that the protocol isn't any good. - Pidgin: Just take a look at their bug tracker. You will not have any problems finding tickets requesting essential features which are 6 years and older (e.g. Message Archive Management). So unless the Pidgin devs get some done I would not use their client (Gajim is a much better alternative, especially since the 1.0 release…

From the user perspective, Pidgin is pretty much unmaintained at this point, so it's like complaining that old software isn't modern. Also, ejabberd doesn't disable OMEMO by default for quite a long time already.

And yet Pidgin is the go to client for people, especially on Windows.

When I got a MacOS machine up and running, I installed Adium (top result still if you go around looking for a MacOS XMPP client), also a dead project.

On Android, the top XMPP client does not support OMEMO and the new hotness XMPP client does not support OTP!

I have a legacy client on Android and Pidgin half hacked together with random plugins on my Windows boxes and I forget what in the world MacOS is running because I have it turned off half the time because the more clients I have connected the more problems I have and holy crap this is why Slack is a great product.

XMPP has had 20 years to solve these problems, and part of their problems of course is that the base protocol wasn't designed to solve these issues out of the box.

But, from the end user's perspective, Telegram, Signal, What's App, Slack, Discord, and Teams, all "just work"!

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

#622

Post by thomasec »

wyclif wrote: post #610
s_m wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Electrical Guitar Company makes new aluminium-neck guitars, if that's something you're interested in. https://www.electricalguitarcompany.com/models/

I'd love to get a TB500 with the single coils and single volume and tone controls, but I don't think EGC makes them right now.

This is my grail guitar. I've been reaching out to random people for the last few years trying to acquire one. Not easy to find!

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

#623

Post by webmaven »

WD-42 wrote: post #102

XMPP. The entire chat landscape is a damn travesty right now. First Facebook disappeared behind it’s own walls, then google... I really miss the days where I could use one client to chat with all my contacts. I honestly think Im in contact with less people now because everyone dropped support for open protocols.

> I honestly think Im in contact with less people now because everyone dropped support for open protocols.

Same.

Well, it's not the only reason I'm in contact with less people now, but it's a major component.

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

#624

Post by mgav »

apexkid wrote: post #243

Google glass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass A pure ingenious effort to turn humans into cyborg by adding the 4th dimension of computing to their lives in a non intrusive and seamless way. I can never understand why google couldn't make it popular given that wearable tech like watches and fitness band is catching up so quickly.

I think down the line we'll see wireless Google Lens, as in contact lense(s), that provide all kinds of information to the wearer, unbeknownst to all others. Maybe power will be generated by harnessing eyeball movement. Maybe a see-through camera. Maybe...

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

#625

Post by tgb »

kyrra wrote: post #560
tgb wrote: post #386

The best feature of recent years was when Google started showing you information from your emails on the Android smart home screen (swiping to the left). It was brilliant: have a flight tomorrow? It would show you the information, including gate information which is never on boarding passes anymore. It would show you package tracking info. Estimated traffic coming back from work today. Weather. It had really everythi…

Also, I think if you swipe left from the home screen, there is a button at the top next to the ... menu (that's the Updates menu). This brings up your coming up next, weather, and other cards like that. It's always been there since they started showing need by default.

Good to know! What a strange little icon... (Oh, I guess it's like a physical inbox tray?)

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

#626

Post by rocky1138 »

test6554 wrote: post #237
rocky1138 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NAT killed this dream.

Having to buy static IPs rather than just getting one with your internet subscription.

I wish there had been stronger pushback legislatively for these two (and other) attributes of ISPs.

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

#628

Post by dominotw »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #190
dominotw wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought one. It had terrible battery that gave me less and less range on every charge. Resale value was non existent. Piece of garbage.

To each their own I guess. I bought a 2015 Volt used and have owned it for nearly a year and a half and it's the best car I've owned. I consistently get 40-42 miles a charge.

maybe i just got a defective battery or something :D

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

#630

Post by dev_north_east »

WD-42 wrote: post #102

XMPP. The entire chat landscape is a damn travesty right now. First Facebook disappeared behind it’s own walls, then google... I really miss the days where I could use one client to chat with all my contacts. I honestly think Im in contact with less people now because everyone dropped support for open protocols.

> First Facebook disappeared behind it’s own walls, then google...

Google stopped XMPP compatibility before FB messenger did. I believe the latter still had an interface to the XMPP world up until 2015.

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