We all love our gadgets. And when new ones emerge, we can’t envision how we lived without them. However, there’s an ugly truth to the world of technology: A great deal of what’s hot today becomes outdated in the future. Just consider the humble landline telephone. Sure, many households continue to have them, but a large number of people are dependent solely on cell phones and ditching the expense of operating a landline. It’s not hard to imagine a future in which landline telephones are no longer attached to our kitchen walls but are instead filling our landfills.
Here’s a glance at various other key pieces of technology that were once important and are now on their way to becoming useless. In fact, a number of these gizmos might become useless during the next 10 years.
Fax Machines: Many people hate sending faxes; it is old technology. There was a time when it was ground breaking, but don’t be shocked if this is one technology that quickly ends up in the “remember this?” classification.
Newspaper Classified Ads: The Huffington Post recently stated in an article that classifieds are on their way out. This is primarily due to websites like Craigslist. Sites such as this create huge forums for people to search classifieds all over the country and create their own for free. This may put the old-fashioned newspaper classified section out of commission.
Film-Based Cameras: It seems like film-based cameras are on their way out as well. People have a deep love for traditional film so it has taken a while for people to completely transition to digital. But with digital cameras, you can save all your pictures digitally and easily distribute them over the Internet without having to save negatives. Even Kodak has seen the consequences of this change. There is no arguing that in general we are going to bid farewell to film-based cameras.
The Calculator Watch: This little gem didn’t last very long, but while it did it was well loved. It was the perfect solution to always have a calculator on you. However, it wasn’t very attractive and now people have a calculator in their cell phone. That’s the reason it is on PCWorld’s list of 40 obsolete technologies.
The Video Arcade: The video arcade may be dying as well. Older gamers remember hoarding quarters so they could later feed them into Pac-Man and Space Invaders consoles at their local malls. Those times are gone, though. Gamers today prefer experiencing their video adventures from the convenience of their own homes.
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