I have always wonder why AT&T tried tosell us on Video phones for so long…even when nobody wanted to buy them? Remember video phones (where you could see the person’s face that you were talking to)? The telephone company came out with them (in a primative analogue version) in the early 1960’s-and nobody wanted them then. Nobody wants them bnow (it seems)-I just got a salvage catalog that has these things for sale.
Now, I have no desire to look at somebody that I’m talking to on the phone…so why didn’t the phone company take the hint?
I aslo don’t understand cellpnones with picture capabilities…why do I need such a product? So I can send porn shots to people?
Actually, videophones have taken off, just not in the way AT & T envisioned. We’ve got videoconferencing and webcams. So it’s not that it was a bad idea, it’s just that the original idea for them needed fine tuning. Remember at one time IBM couldn’t see the need for PCs, Bill Gates didn’t think that PCs would need more than 640K RAM, and people scoffed at Preston Tucker for making safety a design emphasis in his cars.
Apparently, this is one of the primary uses for those things. Most health clubs have banned cellphones from their premesis, because people are taking pictures of other people in the locker rooms and posting them on porn sites.
I’m a little taken aback by the desire of food makers to create either oddball flavor combinations (such as mint Oreos) or the same flavor but an odd new look (Heinz purple ketchup).
The worst of the worst had to be Ore-Ida Funky Fries. Chocolate flavord potatoes? Cinnamon fries? Blue food? There isn’t one good idea in the group.
Because they sell? Maybe not to you, but the combinations are making money for their manufacturers.
Actually, the big difference is that years ago, Nabisco would have invented a mint chocolate cream cookie and call it a new name. Now, they release it as a variety of an already existing brand. This makes it easier to market – by calling it a Mint Oreo, most people would understand immediately what it was. If it were, say, a ChocoMint, you’d have to explain, costing more in advertising.
You’re clearly not in the target demographic. These foodstuffs are aimed at kids.
I love mine. It’s great when travelling to be able to send real-time photos to your friends. It’s also a good way to always have a camera around. I must have a few dozen photos of my life until I got my camera-phone last year, and now I have hundreds. Plus the novelty of having your own photos in the background and having your friends’ photos pop up when they call is a lot of fun.
Of course, the idea that everyone needed a cell phone was pretty whacky idea even 10 years ago.
Yeah, because back then they had payphones.
Out of curiousity of course, 
what’s the name of the salvage catalog?
Yea, too bad his ideas never caught on. 
Actually, they had no target demographic. Those items are already off the market.
Any Canadians remember Molson Export Light beer from about twenty or so years ago?
At the time Ex (as it’s commonly known) marketed itself as a blue-collar beer. TV commercials emphasized Bob (or Chuck or Tony) and the boys playin’ cards, finishin’ up work and punchin’ out, or helpin’ each other with home or car repairs. The actors playing the “boys” were down-home, salt-of-the-earth types who’d be havin’ a coupla Molson Ex by the end of the commercial.
Somebody in Molson got the not-so-bright idea that what was needed was a light version of Export. So they made one, put a pale blue label on it (Ex’s normal label was fire-engine red) and sat back, waiting for the stuff to sell as well as regular Ex did.
It never happened. A few cases must have sold, but if memory serves, Ex Light was quietly removed from shelves within a few months of its launch. Obviously, neither Bob, Chuck, nor Tony (nor anybody else) were impressed with a light version of a hard-worker’s beer, and in a pale blue label to boot.
Sure they did, they just missed. Like the Edsel.
Chocolate-covered mint Oreos have been around for years under the name of “Mystic Mint” and those things are darned good. I could eat a boxful if I didn’t think too much about the fat content.
I’m with you on the fries though. Yuk.