What technologies that were available in 1999 are obsolete (see my criteria) in 2009?

General Questions
#1

Seeing how we’re nearing the end of the decade I got to thinking about technologies which have become (mostly) obsolete since 1999. I’m interested mainly in “current” consumer, non-niche technologies available at brick and mortar stores. For example, I’m aware you could still buy a brand new record player but they are really in niche use now. Or are they? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Here’s my list:

-Portable cassette players. (portable CD players are not far behind, are they?)
-ISA/EISA interface. I remember having old hard drives that I could still hook up to a new motherboard in the early 2000s but at one point they stopped providing support.
-Floppy drives (yes, you can order them online, but again, it’s a niche).
-IOMega Zip drives.
-VCRs (too soon?).

That’s all I can think of for now, what else?

#2

CRT monitors
Analog TV

#3

Analog cell phones?

#4

Analog TV we can definitely say it’s a goner!

CRTs? I think it’s getting close. I was at Best Buy the other day and I was surprised to still see some CRT TVs sitting in a corner. It was only about 4 or 5 but they were there. Not the case with computer monitors though. Those seem to be pretty much goners as well!

#5

Dan Blather: Analog cell phones certainly qualify. So do pagers for most uses/people.
[ul]
[li]Consumer-grade removable storage media based on magnetic film. (This encompasses floppies, zip disks, and tapes. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know if tapes are being used by serious data warehousers now that removable hard drives are so cheap.)[/li][li]PS/2 mice and keyboards. In fact, just about every consumer-grade connector other than USB, FireWire, and whatever monitors are using these days.[/li][li]Pay phones.[/li][/ul]

#6

MiniDiscs probably belong on the list too.

#7

Pagers are still pretty hot in hospitals and secure sites.

#8

Sounds like a niche market, they fit the definition as well as anything else that’s been listed.

#9

Analog TV isn’t gone. Millions of cable subscribers have it. I have a digital TV, but only watch it in analogue (actually, I only watch the recorded analog signals recorded via MythTV and streamed to it via ethernet).

Certainly I’m not the only one that’s too cheap to pay for digital television? I’m not talking movies and real entertainment, but television?

The day they take away my analogue option is the day I become a full-time pirate.

#10

Going, or gone is hydraulic power steering. My new Hyundai has electric power steering (no pump) and therefore better mileage.

#11

I’m really not thinking that ever qualified for the OP’s “non-niche technologies available at brick and mortar stores” criteria. :slight_smile:

#12

Fax machines except for old people.

#13

Film cameras (niche market?)

#14

Correct me if I’m wrong, but your location may play a role in your choice. It’s my understanding the analog tv has been discontinued in the US (didn’t the entire US switch to digital earlier this year? Or am I thinking of some other widescale platform change?)

#15

As someone who has worked at 4-5 different data centers since 1999, including one 3rd party DR location, I can assure you that tape is alive and well in the Computer Operations world, and won’t be going away anytime soon.

#16

VHS p;layers aren’t gone, and aren’t particularly “niche” – I just bought a VCR/DVD player last month off-the-shelf at Best Buy. That’s as Mainstream as you can get

#17

OK, then just consumer-grade tape drives.

CalMeacham: Can you find standalone VHS players? What is the selection of new VHS tapes (new means movies from the past year) compared to DVDs at Wal-Mart?

#18

I regularly get faxes in my store from my suppliers and when I ask them to email me the stuff they’re often reluctant.

#19

I mistakenly bought a keyboard with a PS/2 plug the other week. I wanted a basic keyboard, I was at Target, and the only choices were a couple of over-featured keyboards and one simple style with a PS/2 plug. My current computer doesn’t even have a PS/2 port. Arrgh. Annoying. The keyboard my computer came with is a USB and has sticky keys so I wanted a new one, didn’t even occur to me that there wouldn’t be a port in the back of the computer.

#20

It’s probably been obsolete for longer than I’ve been alive, but the Polaroid camera is no longer being made, if that qualifies.

David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence (2005) was the last movie from a major Hollywood studio to be released on VHS.