As the decade draws to a close, we pay tribute to beloved technology and gadgets that are not with us any more.
In either case, may they rest in peace as the world is ready for better tech in the next decade.
1. Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer was the most widely used browser for almost two decades. It was the king because it shipped as a default browser with every Windows device and wide website compatibility.
After making us wait really long to load websites, Microsoft finally dropped the support for the browser in 2016. Later, it was replaced with Microsoft Edge.
2. Orkut
Orkut was a popular social networking service, for a long time, that grew out of a Google’s 20 per cent time project. The website was quite popular until services like Facebook took over. Finally, Google decided to kill it in 2014.
3. Apple iPod Shuffle
Apple, after making and selling iPod Shuffle for more than a decade, quietly said goodbye to the long-loved product.
The first iPod Shuffle debuted in October 2005 was eventually replaced by another Apple product, the Apple iPhone. iPod Shuffle, which stood alongside the iPhone and iPad as its own business division, is not anymore a part of Apple’s fiscal earnings.
4. Google+
With high hopes to conquer the social media market, Google started its own service in 2011. However, due to poor user engagement, the company finally pulled the plug, killing its Facebook-rival, Google+, social networking service earlier this year.
5. YouTube Messages
Another service that was killed by Google during this decade is YouTube Messages. As the name suggests, YouTube Messages was a direct messaging service which was an attempt by the company to make video-sharing and chatting easier on the platform.
6. 3D TVs
With promises of 3D experience in your home, 3D TVs made a lot of headlines earlier this decade.
However, it seems like big names in the television market including LG, Sony, and Samsung have given up on the idea of 3D TVs, at least for now, as they have not introduced a new 3D model in recent years.
7. Point and shoot cameras
After having high-quality digital audio and camera features on our smartphones, there does not seem to be any reason for buying a new portable digital camera.
Even though the point and shoot cameras brought amateurs to the Internet in the late 1990s and mid-2000s, they have now sadly faded out of fashion after people got better options in the form of smartphones.
8. Kickass Torrents
Arguably the world’s largest Torrent site for downloading copyright-protected content for free, Kickass Torrents, was shut down in 2016 after its owner was arrested in Poland.
Though was good news for artists, it was heartbreaking for those who enjoyed those millions of free, but illegal, downloads.
9. Yahoo Messenger
Instant-messaging client Yahoo Messenger is another piece of the Internet history that we lost this decade. After a declining number of users, the messenger’s parent company Oath or Verizon Media Group finally decided to end the service in 2017.
10. Windows Phones
After struggling against Android and iOS devices for years, Microsoft finally ended the support for Smartphones running Windows OS on December 10, 2019.
This means that from now users won’t receive any kind of updates which makes the phones officially dead.
11. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)
If you remember the early 2000s, you know the craze of BBM. Everyone who had a BlackBerry, was on the instant messaging service and rest of them always wished to have it.
Sadly, BlackBerry killed the BBM app on Android and iOS, nearly six years after its launch. In an emotional goodbye tweet, BlackBerry confirmed that the consumer version of the messaging service is not in service anymore.
12. Replaceable batteries on smartphones
If you remember the phones with replaceable batteries, you know how convenient it was to swap your discharged battery with a fully charged one.
However, smartphones got more complex later and brands decided to seal them completely. Currently, you won’t find any mainstream smartphone with replaceable batteries.
13. MSN Messenger
It was a slow, slow decline over the years, but with Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, the software giant had no real need for Windows Live Messenger. In 2013, the company merger the Messenger with Skype.
14. CRT Desktop monitors
Now, CRT monitors are a piece of history.
15. Portable Media Players
Media Players were the go-to entertainment gadgets for almost a decade, but with the introduction of smartphones, the era of portable media players came to end.
16. AOL Instant Messenger
AOL Instant Messenger was one of the first instant-messaging services that people experienced. For people in the late 90s and early 2000s, it was the first taste of the connected lifestyle that we are currently living.
Which is why, December 15, 2017, was a sad day for kids who grew up in the 1990s as the beloved AOL Instant Messenger was shut down, a little over 20 years after its launch.
17. Vine
Founded in 2012, Vine was Twitter’s video platform that people used to share six-second looping video clips. Users were able to share Videos that were published through Vine’s social network on other platforms too.
While the app had its share of followers, it failed to match up to the popularity of other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Finally, on October 27, 2016, Vine announced that it would be discontinuing the service.
18. The character limit on Twitter
Though 140 characters seem very limited, it became the most famous thing about Twitter just after it’s launch. However, to give a bit more flexibility to its users, Twitter doubled the character limit to 280 in 2017, but it’s still a place for briefer thoughts.
19. YouTube Gaming App (Dedicated Platform)
Google launched YouTube Gaming with an aim to bring live and recorded game streaming videos to the masses. However, the service failed to get enough traction and eventually became a part of products killed by Google this decade.
20. Media Player Classic
Media Player Classic has long been one of the most preferred free video players for people. It was a beloved media player for its wide file support, snappy interface and the ease with which it played H.265 files.
Here are some gadgets and services that we may not see in future.
21. Feature Phones (Almost there)
Feature phones were a part of our lives for a really long period of time and which is why brands like Nokia and Motorola will always be remembered for their iconic feature phones.
You might think that feature phones are going to stick around for a while now, the decreasing shipments are indicating that the era of our beloved feature phones is coming to an end.
With smartphones getting cheaper every year, sadly, we may not see these phones in future.
22. Headphone Jack (Almost dead)
After months of speculation, in 2016, Apple officially announced that it is not going to include the 3.55 mm audio jack in phones from now.
As a result, the Apple iPhone 7 and every iPhone that came after that do not come with headphone jacks. Soon after, other brands followed the tech giant and now we rarely see headphone jacks on top-end smartphones.
Though we still see headphone jacks in few mid-range and budget smartphones, with more and more people switching to Bluetooth, soon the piece of tech will become history.
23. Blackberry Phones (Maybe)
People would have made fun of you one and a half decades back if you would have said that BlackBerry is going to fail in future.
The last phone from BlackBerry came in 2018 and we have not heard of any upcoming phone from the company. Does this mean that the BlackBerry phones are dead? Well, maybe.
It’s sad to see all these technologies that were once the latest and greatest, flow away with the sands of time. But at the same time, it’s very exciting to see how technology keeps improving and making the quality of our lives better.