Next big things that never lived up to the hype, failed, or disappeared without a trace... What do you remember??

[Electric_Andy]

Memory sticks. They were great for a lot of years, but I don't have any use for them now lots of things are cloud based. I remember putting music on them (8Gb seemed massive at the time) and sticking it into my car stereo. I guess they are still handy for confidential documents, but I can't see myself needed one ever again

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Memory sticks. They were great for a lot of years, but I don't have any use for them now lots of things are cloud based. I remember putting music on them (8Gb seemed massive at the time) and sticking it into my car stereo. I guess they are still handy for confidential documents, but I can't see myself needed one ever again

They're actually pretty good if you want to transfer a large amount of data quickly

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I have a rotary phone from the late '60s' that still works, so the land line will stay.

Almost nobody calls me on it except for my Dad anyway.

In fact, it's mostly used to find my mobile! 😆

Operator operator …

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Assuming the power-cut isn't JUST in my house, how likely is it that the local broadband infrastructure will stay up in a power cut?

Also rural (tiny village) so plenty of power cuts and router/Wi-Fi Access Points all on UPS. On FTTC with OpenReach internet stays up through power cut. But recently changed to TrueSpeed/County Broadband FTTP but not had a power cut since changing but their cabinet in the village does make a constant buzzing and they won't have laid in power from a distance so I guess it's down to UPS in the cabinet and longer term experience will reveal how much UPS/consumption their cabinet has.

 

[Beebo]

I can take power directly from my electric car via a 3 pin adapter.
Very useful in a power cut.

 

[annedonnelly]

When is this? I'm not sure my parents are aware. They went through great pains when moving house to get broadband, new mobile contracts, and a landline because "what if we have a power cut". It seems an awfully expensive back-up, given that you can still use mobiles as long as you've got a bit of signal.

It's being rolled out at different times across different exchanges. I think one a few miles up the road from here has already been done, but not here yet. The mobile signal in the village here is poor and with an elderly population some of them have never got into mobile phones. I was trying to find someone to come and talk to the over 60s about the changeover but the best I could do was get a leaflet from Citizens Advice.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Cat translators. It was far from purrfect, then disappeared.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Seen this morning in a local charity shop.

 

[colly]

Pet Rocks.

Mine was a surly bugger.

 

[Drago]

Space X shares.

 

[AndyRM]

It's being rolled out at different times across different exchanges. I think one a few miles up the road from here has already been done, but not here yet. The mobile signal in the village here is poor and with an elderly population some of them have never got into mobile phones. I was trying to find someone to come and talk to the over 60s about the changeover but the best I could do was get a leaflet from Citizens Advice.

Keeps getting pushed back too. It was meant to have been done by 2025, but now the estimate is 2030. Doesn't help that Openreach are pretty hopeless at actually communicating with providers.

 

[AndyRM]

We still use the landline a lot more than my wife's mobile, and a little more than mine.

Partly because mobile reception is useless here, so the mobiles only work by calling over WiFi, and partly because my wife's mobile is rarely within hearing distance, even if it is charged and turned on.

Plusnet are turning off our landline facility next month (even though we are unlikely to get FTTP this year - we already have FTTC), so as we want to keep a home phone, will be switching us to EE, whose router includes an adapter, and we should keep the same number.

Give them plenty notice for keeping your number. Although PlusNet is part of EE they are notoriously bad at porting numbers.

Worth keeping an eye on this site for when you're likely to get FTTP:

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker

 

[Dogtrousers]

Watching the time trial in the Tour de France today I thought about the two speed hub gear that was going to kill the front derailleur off.

I remember Filippo Ganna using it. The next big thing.

Not heard of it since
https://vcpcycling.com/filippo-gann...lleur-killer-hub-for-giro-ditalia-time-trial/

 

[Alex321]

Give them plenty notice for keeping your number. Although PlusNet is part of EE they are notoriously bad at porting numbers.

Worth keeping an eye on this site for when you're likely to get FTTP:

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker

They said from the start that we would be keeping the number. The transfer happens tomorrow now.

And yes, I check that site regularly. Though TBH, 60Mb/sec is plenty for us, and we usually get a bit more than that now.

 

[AndyRM]

They said from the start that we would be keeping the number. The transfer happens tomorrow now.

And yes, I check that site regularly. Though TBH, 60Mb/sec is plenty for us, and we usually get a bit more than that now.

That's good, on both fronts.

They've cracked down (a bit) on it now at EE, but the number of folk I spoke to (usually elderly) who'd been sold full gigabit broadband when their internet usage was negligible was absolutely shocking.