This Was Ahead of its Time!
čas přidán 10. 06. 2023
Top 3 Gadgets that were ahead of their time, and why they'll reappear in our future 👀
MKBHD Merch: shop.MKBHD.com
Tech I'm using right now: www.amazon.com/shop/MKBHD
Intro track: 1AM OMW by Ballpoint
Playlist of MKBHD Intro music: goo.gl/B3AWV5
~
MKBHD
MKBHD
MKBHD
MKBHD Merch: shop.MKBHD.com
Tech I'm using right now: www.amazon.com/shop/MKBHD
Intro track: 1AM OMW by Ballpoint
Playlist of MKBHD Intro music: goo.gl/B3AWV5
~
MKBHD
MKBHD
MKBHD
00:53
Toby catapult escape from a moat. Full video on our channel #storror #parkourSTORROR
zhlédnutí 7M00:11
Math is so easy - AMANDA THE ADVENTURER ANIMATION #shorts #animation #memesSkinny Pale
zhlédnutí 36M
Komentáře: 6 061
You know time is flying when Google Glass was 10 years ago… wow.
Or HoloLens
Nah it feels like 10 years ago to me
More like 7 years old
TERRARRIA MAN
@R.E.X i remember those lol
You should def do more "off the beaten path/unusual/cool Tech devices" like this videos. It's fun to see what could have been and might still be influencing behind the doors current tech trends
Also online gaming . which was almost unknown on handhelds
Totally agree - I also like that he included the last one; it's like "Motorola Atrix walked so that ______?__ could run" dunno who'll run with it yet, but that's kinda the point
He used to have a lot of those in his earlier days
Really could make this a series, giving full in-depth documentaries about products ahead of their time and their influence
If you like the idea you should do it yourself
P-GA era Majority these Days.... *(**03:38**).* sounds like That kind of example, somewhere.
yeah there is a ton of stuff he didnt mention. also saw no comments about the palm pre. that thing was ahead of its time imo. wireless charging WAAAAAY before others. i remember as a kid i couldnt wrap my head around wireless charging i thought it was the most insane thing ever.
@skies yes and meanwhile, those Money-Takers: 'hrm.... *Not Enough.* [Throws out Years of scientific/etc researching and promises down into oblivion too instantly and Indifferently in exchange for something more of that same old 'Faster results']'. and so we are still back with the majority of wired-bound techs still....
Had to pause during the intro to say that I appreciate you bringing up the EV-1. To be honest, it made my stomach turn. It’s a primary example of a company making a product that’s good for the masses but bad for the bottom line. I invite anyone reading this to watch “Who killed the electric car”. I am also glad to see these tech enthusiasts embrace the past that lead us to this point. So often we forget all of the blood sweat and tears that goes into the world around us. People dedicated their lives over many moons just for us to have the ability to turn on light with the flip of a finger. Stay saucy my friends
I don't really think a car that has an effective range of 50 miles(2nd gen being less than 100) is "good for the masses" 😅 If you want to go way back to the early 1900s and complain about electric vehicles being pushed away for easier methods of travel across country, and remember, that was the point, people were traveling further distances, they wanted to be able to refill and go, but go ahead and make that debate, but don't make it on the EV-1 😂
This has the potential to become a series, like once a month, one of this! Really cool
I barely remember details, but I definitely had a girl in my theater group around 2008-2009 who had a smart watch that she could use to read texts and answer calls, before smart watches were a thing. It was mindblowing to all of us.
Pebble were early players in that area. If it was a monochrome screen with silvery black pixels, it was probably a Pebble
@jameswalker199 Pebbles was from 2013 I believe. Till today, I am still using the pebble Time (White). Sadly the band becomes dirty and start to break, glass starts become dull and battery life is shorten heavily (from 1 full week to 3 days max). But it is still usable
@- Conget - is it worth it to buy it now? Can I really read texts and message someone from my WhatsApp?
Don’t know how nobody has mentioned the PSP being ahead of its time. It came out in 2005 with a built in browser, camera and had really good games. That thing is legendary.
I loved my PSP, and later Vita. I still think about Wake Up Club.
Yeah but I think he's talking about things that failed because it was ahead of it's time, the PSP didn't fail. It was popular and sold for about 10 yrs
PSP didn’t have a built in camera, it was an add on
Or the Garmin GPS. It had games, a browser, a good UI, and of course could navigate. The iPhone before the iPhone
Heard of Game Boy? You could attach a printer to that thing 😂
I used Google Glass to record myself taking measurements. Normally, I have to hold a camera. or have another person hold the camera while I walk around throughout a building with a laser tape measure. With Glass, I had both hands free to just walk around and measure. One tap to pause, two to stop recording. The only issue I had was it would quickly overheat. No one ever gave me flak. Most people wanted to try it on.
There are impressive replacements on Amazon. I can't link one, but you should search for head-mounted cameras.
It never made it to market, but I was really excited about the Pebble Core. It was supposed to be a small, light clip on, standalone device that had a 3G modem, GPS, Spotify, and Alexa for voice commands. Basically, it would've been great for going for a run where you can listen to music on Spotify over Bluetooth and tracking your run with a GPS. I guess smartwatches can kind of do this now, but a lot of smartwatches are still meant to be paired with a phone. Anyways, Pebble was bough by Fitbit (which was then bought by Google) and the Core was never released.
One thing i thought was revolutionizing back in the day was Project Ara, that modular phone google was making. You could change the parts easily, to different types too. It was an upgradable phone. I believe that would be a huge step in the direction of fighting planned obsolescence and could be a win for the right to repair movement.
The concept pictures looked so cool as well. Broke my heart when I heard it was discontinued, really believed in that project
Psion 5mx was way ahead of it's time. Around 1998, I was typing papers, playing games, and with the modem attachment and my Motorola Startac cell phone, was sending emails from anywhere and could also surf the web. While it was large for a handheld, it was tiny as handheld laptop. Truly awesome setup many years before smartphones and long before ultraportable laptops.
I find the Google Glass super interesting because one of my current professors basically invented it. It was an extension of his thesis at MIT in the 90s for a headmounted display. He would wear his original prototype all the time and use it to give him information relevant to the conversations he was having with people while wearing them. Today, he still leads the Glass project at Google, but it doesn't sound like they're making many new developments (as far as he is telling us). I know privacy was a big concern with them, but he takes privacy very seriously. He also cared a lot about making it a great experience for users. It really was ahead of its time, but I believe it will be a reality soon enough.
These professors love to pretend they’re bigger than they really are. 😂 I don’t believe it.
Glass was wonderful, I loved and still do. I wish it was more durable in rain and heat.
More context on the GM EV1. The car was actually really well received and people loved it, but GM created it to show how crap electric cars are. So when customers had a completely different reaction to what they expected, they bought all the cars back and destroyed them in fear that it would create a market shift towards EVs. Basically they didnt want to self sabotage their ice vehicles
That's shitty af
Oh wow. What an "if you ever feel stupid..." story.
so they did a kodak
Interesting
Why would GM care? If the car was enjoyed by customers, it seems like it'd be silly not to make more.
Great idea for a video. Me personally I would have definitely included the Xperia Play. Way ahead of it's time but Sony had it doomed to fail from the start for many reasons. I'm honestly shocked we have never gotten an Xperia Play 2 today with far better specs since Sony basically holds the patent for the slideout physical gamepad.
Ps vita was also ahead of its time but sonys memory card doomed it
I remember thinking Goolge Glass was super cool as a kid. I think maybe if it had more of a development time and in current day and age, it coulda been a popular product.
07:45 I love how you talked about this friction in the workflow between collecting the data that you want to post online, and the editing process. And I feel like that's the problem that we're having in our modern world, that we kinda got so lazy to perform any demanding tasks. We got so used to having everything work automatically without human input. It's the lifestyle that's being suggested to us by so many tech companies. It's the dream that they want us to live, despite it being a little counter-productive. For me, I attribute the failure of all these products to the fact that sociiologically we weren't ready to that lazy lifestyle yet. And not everyone liked that gimmicky effortless tech that exists nowadays. There's a probably a solution to every single problem that you haven't had yet and you wouldn't now. That's how crazy technology is getting. I think the norm culture shifted from "this is a cool thing to have" to "this is a must in today's world".
While watching this video I was sitting here thinking ‘gosh it would be cool if Marques mentioned the Atrix - and then there it was! The multiple docks were very cool, and the idea that you would have the dock for your car, dock for your desk, and laptop dock was visionary. Something like this for CarPlay would be amazing
I'd love a callback series for old/weird/cancelled tech that never got too far. I remember Microsoft made these really cool phones before the smartphone era really took over, called Microsoft Kin. They were always connected to mobile data and *had* to be connected to some kind of social media account to run. It wasn't quite a smartphone, but it wasn't a basic phone either. Remember when phones having the ability to play mp3 files was a huge deal??
Marques Brownlee was ahead of its time. One man that reviews gadgets on a video format and became the single person to drive an industry tech creators unlike anybody on the platform has ever seen. Definitely worth a mention.
Seriously great video like almost all of his videos. Honestly one of the more underrated content creators despite his still wildly popular videos. In a sea of people making entertaining and clickbait content, he somehow makes impactful content that drives trends to advance how tech is involved in everyday life while still being entertaining for people who aren't nerds. Really appreciate this man and all of the work he's done and this video really drives home why I love his channel
He def cares about quality rather than quantity
🙏👏
someone has a crush
I would say Linus was the first one to get the ball rolling for tech reviews but Marquees made it blow up in popularity!
You probably wanna look at the Olympus Air 01, which was also wayyyyy ahead of its time... The fact that you can just use the lens (which is physically superior, no doubt), with your cellphone was amazing! The only problem is with the wonky BT + Wifi connection, which was a real shame... as it shows so much potential...
Laser projector phones. I regret not being able to purchase one of those. However, I believe that they would still be ahead of their time if they appeared on the market today. I'm excited to welcome the day when they become viable, and we can finally get to experience their full potential.
I have watched a lot of Marques content over the years but this is one of his best tech reviews videos. He articulates everything so well. Great content!
Thank for the review review “Malumbo”
I had the Moto Droid Bionic back in the day, and had the lapdock for it. I didn't use it for too much, but I did really enjoy it. I thought it that time that was totally the future. IIRC, my biggest issue with it was the touchpad on the lapdock couldn't do multi-touch to scroll; that bugged the heck out of me :P I know my laptop wasn't $500, I think I might have scored it off of eBay or something like that? Probably $150-200 at the time. I think I ended up tossing it when I moved a few months ago. No idea what the bionic went, so it was just a paperweight.
For me the Sega Dreamcast was 'ahead of its time' for a console . Playing online Quake via a 56k modem with chat capability was incredible. It also had an internet Browser and the ability to attach a keyboard. And not to forget some of the peripherals they came out with was way ahead of its time.
Dreamcast was the best. So many memories on NFL2k1, NBA2k1, Phantasy Star Online, and Sega Swirl. I’ll never forget 9-9-99.
@Erineo Penaloza Oh man! NFL2K1 brings back so many good memories. Was also into Marvel vs Capcom!
Hey I liked the Dreamcast as much as anyone but it didn’t really do anything innovative or “ahead of its time” over its competition. The Super Famicom had everything mentioned (in Japan) before it.
So to break it to you but Sega saturn and the nes, snes had alot of these features and more and were truly ahead of there time that propelled the stereotype of the 80s and 90s of how far ahead Japanese tech was back then
I had a Panasonic 3DO that was def ahead of it's time. Major points if you know that console w/o looking it up.
We need more videos like this! So cool to look back on the past and see what could be making a come back 😎😎😎
I haven't really heard anything new coming out like it, but I remember being blown away with the Motorola Moto Z. Back when modular was at it's peak. You could put a speaker, projector and some other things right on the back using magnets. Really wanted that phone
As someone who had this phone, the only worthy attachment was the battery pack because the battery life on the phone was awful. I had 4 different Moto Zs between 2017-2019 because of hardware issues and a very fragile screen. I ended up not getting another Motorola phone after that after only ever having them and loving the brand for years. I bought out of my contract early just to stop using that godforsaken phone lol
Yeah I am with you. This list is great! One point I think you touched on is that google glass live streamed a LONG video. For some reason all the recordings on the current generation of smart glasses have really short limit times (like a max length per video of 10 minutes). That or you have to get some shady looking "spy camera" with bad video quality (8MP really?) and/or poor design. It feels like we have actually taken a step BACKWARDS. I remember the camcorder that my dad had. The weight sat on your shoulder. Someone had one of these at every family event and people would record for hours. The ones now are much smaller but that means you either have to wear them awkwardly like attaching a go pro to your body OR to hold your arm up the entire time (which gets old fast and can wear out your arm in like 10-15 minutes). I just want a google glass type product that I can wear to record the holidays or just to watch my kid do adorable things. Those are memories that I want to hold on to forever! Here is what I'm looking for: -At LEAST 12 MP camera with the ability to record 1080P video at 120fps. Autofocus as an option (can turn on or off). -USB C on the back of one of the stems so I can plug into an external battery pack for longer life without looking completely crazy. -The ability to record videos/audio that are as long as I'd like (assuming there is enough memory and power). -SDHC Micro capability up to 1TB, and 16 GB of internal memory. -A little bit of digital zoom (preferably via a forward/back button on the top of the right stem). -Digital image stabilization. Ideally with some facial focus stabilization option. -Bluetooth and Wifi that you can turn on or off. Bluetooth that can be connected to wireless earbuds so you can get real time feedback on what the mic is picking up. Bluetooth also good to connect to a smartphone to access more advanced options and to use the phone screen as a preview window or ideally to allow livestreaming. Wifi for cloud uploads, and ideally livestreaming. -Clear or polarized lens options. -Be less than $400 -Be not ugly. Is that really so much to ask for?
Yes. Obviously. I don't even know how you expect to plug it into an external battery via USB-C and not appear ridiculous. Although my desires are entirely identical to yours, I see no way that any of that except the SD card could be feasibly implemented.
The bit about photo-to-post work flow is so real. It'd be amazing if there was some wireless protocol where photos you snap on a DSLR automatically popular on your phone, maybe in an app (maybe bumming signal from your phone and pushing to the cloud as soon as you take them). Y'know how you can take a screenshot on your Mac and if your phone's awake, it just shows up? Maybe like that. Snap, mirror, edit, save/post. I'd be happy about it. Great segment btw. 🥂
There is one thing to say about camera software: I have never had to reboot my camera because it was acting up... I do have to do that with phones sometimes... I think I rather have a slightly worse UI on my camera than having to reboot it. I don't really spent that much time in my camera UI, it's a lot set and forget stuff. But that's just me!
If they made a newer version of glasses, with current generation of camera, display and battery technologies, I would buy it instantly without even thinking.
Pervasive consumerism at it's finest
Apple’s working on one right now, we’ll probably see it in one or two years
Until the price is $1500
No, you wont.
@SJ what is pervasive consumerism???
One thing important about the last point is that, even though they took longer than they should, most apps are now adapted to a desktop/web version that you can use simultaneously on your PC and smartphone without conflicts so its not a big deal to have separate devices with the same account. One advantage though would be to bring your phone to you workplace and connect it to the PC so that you can have the same files and session on different offices...
For me Google Glass, was a definite yes! But for Samsung, I would have to say the Gear VR headset/phone combo paired with the Gear 360 camera for taking 360 degree photos and viewing them in VR with A-frame. Although not exactly a consumer product I'd also like to make a shout out to the Raspberry Pi (any version) and Arduino micro controllers for the hobbist and programers out there. Along with affordable 3D printers. Not exactly the first ahead of its time items, but certainly things that made a real difference to me and maybe others.
Quick note, the Nexdock will work with devices other than Samsung. DEX works really well as a desktop interface, but LG has it's own version, if I remember correctly, stock Android 12 and up support desktop mode natively, and the Nexdock will work with things like the Steam Deck as well. It's more open than it's made out to be in this video.
I always liked the idea of the Light L16 as a "smart camera". A camera with multiple lenses that you can use in any circumstance possible
In regards to docking a device to different form factors. It should be taken into account that, with Thunderbolt, you can have a GPU in the larger form factor that can connect seamlessly to the device that you dock to it. This would allow things like video editing and gaming at levels you would not be able to experience on just a phone or tablet. This also means that you could have multiple docks with different uses. Granted this could get financially prohibitive, but the possibilities are still there.
Microsoft Kinect 2.0 was a great piece of tech that brought voice control and more to my home 5 years before Google Assistant. Also had a camera that would pan and zoom and follow on Skype calls. I loved it.
Man, Microsoft really shot itself in the foot with Kinect and Kinect 2. If they had just refined it more, gotten better games, kept the price down, been less creepy about privacy, and vetted that disastrous E3 reveal, they could have created a product that would go in nearly every family home. Instead, "the world's bears elling gadget" is collecting dust in second-hand bargain bins.
@Barrett DeCutler my family still has it. We got it back then. Its still alive and it helped with a bit of exercise too.
Kinect 2.0 is still the best value motion tracking camera you can buy, it was incredibly ahead of its time for $99 in 2013, if they just marketed towards AI and Robotics then sales would've skyrocketed. Even in 2022 a ton of people buy used Kinect cameras for robots just because of how damn good it is, the only other alternative costs $300 more.
The Nexdock is actually pretty awesome since it's just usb-c, but can also just be hdmi in you can use it for a lot of small/portable computers. It works really well as a raspberry pi laptop. It's also a pretty good Steamdeck accessory. Other gamepad computers like the Ayaneo will also work on it. I just wish it didn't cost as much as a netbook/steamdeck alone. It's easier and cheaper to just buy a portable usb-c monitor, portable keyboard, and battery pack/dock and DIY your own nexdock.
PSP was certainly ahead of it's time. It was probably the first portable device EVER to feature AVC/h264 hardware decoding (the Media Engine co-processor), which was SCIENCE FICTION back in late-2004 (video back then was all about the MPEG4 ASP, DivX and Xvid). Also featured 480x272 resolution, when most phones were 176x220/208, it took a year or two to see 320x240 and 240x320 as an standard. Even the iPhone in 2007 was 360x480. Not to mention the graphics, which were at least two generations ahead of Nintendo DS.
I loved the last one @Marques Brownlee. I think Apple (and other companies) could still offer their Macs/laptops to get additional processing power simply by connecting the phone via thunderbolt/USB-C to work as a co-processor.
I had the Atrix. The Multimedia dock was cool. Could be connected to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. And you could use it as a nightstand because it held the phone at a nice angle.
You are an extremely enjoyable content creator to listen to. I have enjoyed and learned a lot about tech from you and look forward to more of your videos.
One of my favorites was the Pebble Smartwatch. They definitely helped make smartwatches become mainstream. Their stubbornness to not make a smart watch with phone capabilities, and companies like Apple and Samsung creating more powerful and feature rich smartwatches caused pebble to die out, but it definitely was ahead of its time.
I loved my pebble so much!
I loved my pebble back then. I had the first full metal one and even liked the industrial look of it. It didn't have a lot of features but it did what it could extremely well. Til this day I still prefer buttons over a tiny tiny touchscreen for smartwatches.
After my Pebble died, there is no other replacement that I could find that works just as great as the pebble.
@Bryan Lim The closest replacement to my old Pebble is the TicWatch (currently have the Pro3GPS). Battery life (compared to the Pebble) still sucks, but it is a capable watch. Waiting for WearOS 3 to be released for it.
Great example!
I had the Atrix and I LOVED IT!!! I remember being so in awe of the finger print scanner and how little it lagged compared to my HTC phone before it. Wow lol.
I had an Atrix! Even if you didn't had the lap dock, you'd get a smaller one for charging and connecting to TVs and monitors and build a setup with an USB mouse and keyboard. It was slow but worked... also the phone had a micro hdmi port in itself to connect with a TV directly. Cool stuff
A DLSR with decent Android/IOS and live photo feature would be so cool...something that had the Galaxy camera not been cancelled, would have evolved to be a norm. Recently got a bunch of photos back from a photographer and I just feel like it's a bit of a shame that because these great photos were taken by a "real" camera, none of them had live photos attached, they really do capture something that a still photo or a video misses.
Cell to laptop wise I've thought about this, it's not those problems you mentioned. The display makers can really just allow bluetooth/casting sync to their displays wirelessly, or just USB-C wired. I think biggest problem is having readily available displays + keyboard/mouse EVERYWHERE, when that is ubiquitous like in 3 body problem novel, then your phone is all you need.
I was an engineer for an app for google glass enterprise edition 2 last year, I quit though because I didn't approve of military robots. EE2 was terrible with the operating system it had throttling issues until they released an os patch that seemed to fix it. Enterprise Edition 2 wasn't good when I worked on it and there were no app stores etc. I was working on it to be able to have zoom meetings, and to give commands to Boston dynamics robots.
My candidate for the "Ahead of its time" award is the Dell Streak. The first smartphone on the market with a 5" screen. I remember buying and using this phone and it was so ridiculously large compared to other phones that I was mocked mercilessly. Now look where we are! 5" is a small screen in today's world.
htc hd2 for me ,especially when u unlocked the bootloader and installed android froyo
To be fair, the screen may be not that big, but the device itself was pretty huge. Looked it up and it was bigger in every dimension than the iPhone 13 pro max so the mocking is justified lol
Samsung mega
I wanted the attrix SOOO bad back in the day the idea of a live feed of your smartphone on your pc/laptop would be amazing without having to pickup your phone, and the idea of just plug your phone into the shell of a laptop was also a good idea if it could be used for multiple years and multiple compatible phones
Sometimes a great idea is just too early. Google glass simply just didn't have enough use cases... That we knew of. Now people have had more time to think about it, more time to design some AR functionalities and more importantly: Massive improvements in AI and machine vision. But I also think you sometimes have to fail because the idea just didn't work for that one thing, but would be extremely good somewhere else. Think of Valve's Steam Controller, which itself failed, but the software... It gave any gamepad the ability to be remapped and basically work with any game. And now it's successfully utilized in Steam Deck. Being able to map numbers 1-9 to a radial menu on the touchpad makes even MMOs playable on the Deck, something that barely anyone would've bothered setting up on the Steam controller.
I love the idea of a laptop the size and rough form-factor of a phone. Imagine if you will, a laptop with an OS hybrid of something like Pop!OS and Android/GrapheneOS with full desktop app support but also cell connectivity and a full phone experience, being able to run phone apps as well, in a way that feels natural. A 16:9 aspect ratio and a full folding keyboard and a nub pointing device. Would be a dream.
Looking at your old pictures pretty much show how much you’ve grown over the years while being humble and good at what you do.keep it up
Since you mention the Samsung Galaxy camera I think the Nokia phones by Microsoft deserve a notable mention here. What other smartphone at the time had complete control of its camera lens focus and aperture out of the box at that time?
this was such a great throw back to all the tech that came out. I remember all of those that came out and even going into phone stores just to play with them.
Best Buy was always, use to be, a great experience for that, when you bought CDs or games but checked out the other tech. You could spend hrs. End there.
There was also Asus Padfone X, which got even into Lew's video. For me, it didn't have good enough specs to make sense. Instead, I went with Zenfone 2, which had an Intel Atom chipset. I was pretty happy until new games and apps stopped supporting it. It felt like nobody cared about a few people having an Intel processor. I also hoped that since it had an Intel, something like DEX now would happen soon.
Google glass and the sidekick 2 were one of my favorite devices of all time! Just so futuristic and fun to use.
I owned every single one of these devices. So much lost potential. That Galaxy Camera was SO cool. I was always hoping for a custom ROM for it, but there was never enough interest.
The Motorola idea sounds a lot like the Neptune Suite. It was a smartwatch and smartphone all in one. But it also added an external keyboard, screen and slab to pair with it. It also had a pair of bluetooth earbuds that also act as a charging cable. It was an Indigo Kickstarter program but it just fell apart when they couldn't deliver a finished product when the time came. I think it was in the late 2000's early 20 teens. Their idea was that you just walk up to an external dumb screen and all the data would pair from your watch to the screen. I thought it was an intriguing idea. Actually for using your phone as a laptop you can get a good multi-port HUB that has either Lighting or USB-C main connection line. I just learned that I could do this recently.
Oh man, I would 100% buy AR glasses (assuming they look like normal glasses). I wonder if all the processing could be offloaded to a phone and the glasses just receive and display all the information.
I remember watching a presentation where Microsoft showed off a dock for their windows phones that could run a full desktop experience. I was so sure that would become a thing by now...
It kind of is a thing... Samsung Dex is like that and people like it
Thank god people remember this. It's continuum for lumia. it even works without a dock with the connect app in windows 10. it was launched in flagship lumias the 950, 950xl later hp elite x3 and Alcatel Idol 4S.. I wonder why everyone is forgetting or ignoring windows phone. it lasted till 2015 and it's just 2022 how can they forget. As a WP fan i wanted everyone to know Wht microsoft tried to do.
I was getting hyped for it and my next phone was definitely going to be a Windows phone but then I never heard anything about Windows phones and last time I looked it up apparently Microsoft killed that off entirely :(
@YASHWANTH Windows phone just always sucked. Felt like microsoft were too full of themselves to see what they were doing wrong. I was a Nokia fan, so when the Lumias came out I really wanted to like them. But a friend of mine got one first and after testing it a while I decided that it’s definitely not up to par with Android or iOS.
@Jo Merci never sucked, ran so smoothly even on less power chips while Android would chug. The only thing that sucked was the lack of apps, and Google's war on it by not only not making apps for it but actively blocking third party CS-tv apps etc.
Google Glass with AI integration could be a game changer. Letting the AI see what you're seeing, being able to talk to it about what you're seeing, being able for it to show you things as and where you need it. No need for hands. Could be huge.
The problem with Google Glass was no one wants to talk to someone with a camera in their face. It was the equivalent of walking up to someone with your phone pointed at them: still not welcome. It was always cool in context of personal experience, like directions, learning about the stars, building history, etc. The problem is implementing it into social experiences. Enterprise context makes perfect sense, as does dedicated bicycling, or hiking. Just take them off if you want to have a conversation with someone.
i am loving this nostelgic look back in relation to future product development from my fav youtubers. Mr whos the boss just did an amazing video on this same topic. i miss when phones where fun... does anyone remember pulse magizine by sony?????
i've known 5 different companies that have tried to do shell computing for the past decade. It's insane how hard that built enviroment is to integrate across the whole user experience, much less enourmous range of phones.
This was an amazing and very informative video. I really enjoyed it.
Considering the changes happening in iOS right now, I would say Android OS was also ahead of its time in many ways. Lots of features killed off that were available way before they were streamlined.
It is, but the smoothness and straightforward iOS is unmatched compared to android
I think that Android phone makers and Samsung in particular throwing together features in 5 minutes and adding it onto their phone actually hurt the progression of phones due to those features working so awfully and people losing faith in them
@Chapter 7 Certified Samsung updates are the worst.
@Chapter 7 Certified this is the thing, it seems as if many andriod developers are coming up with ideas while drunk and put it in to their phones. a little while later apple will look for what they find the best features for their phones and like two years later they will have a decent product (with some stupid limitation lol).
Or iOS was just slow with its developments
The Atrix was one of my first smartphones. I went from the original Motorola Droid, to an IPhone, then to the Atrix. I loves it back then but couldn't afford the accessories that were supposed to make it great.
I still have my Atrix, laptop dock, car dock, and media dock. That phone was the greatest thing ever. If you had Citrix you could remote into any computer or server. It had a car mode before Android Auto. It auto switched to the right mode depending on the dock. Atrix was sooooo amazing.
Of course we remember Atrix ! It was a fascinating product. More than a decade ahead of its time, I'd say. The Asus Padfone came out a year later if I remember correctly. Also, very intriguing.
8:46 - This is one of the biggest missed opportunities when it comes to phone cameras I think. Why couldn't they just have a Micro USB / USB C connection? This idea has insane potential! They could make their own app so it works on multiple different models of phone. And if you're one of those people who wants to upgrade their phone for a better camera, why bother when you have this.
I find that a lot of technology is based on a poorly marketed but well thought out idea from 5-10 years ago. The one person who successfully markets a product in that category is considered the inventor rather than a successor to a previously owned concept. Take Nintendo's Power Glove vs The Valve Index. The literal on reason why it took us so long to perfect that technology was less about limitations but more about building a game where individual finger movements was actually a practical gameplay mechanic.
I miss Google Glass. I had one and thought it was super cool despite the nerdy appearance. I know there were a lot of complaints about how it wasn't able to overlay over your entire field of vision like a video game HUD, but I think it was smart to not design it like that. Having it just be a little rectangle in the corner of your vision made it very clear where your attention was since you'd see the user staring at the Glass display instead of straight ahead.
Good point 👍👍
Mostly because privacy was a concern
Having to look in the corner was a feature not a bug. There was a concern that overlays over the user’s vision would obstruct their sight and cause accidents.
@Mild Misanthrope who said it was a bug?
Should've been designed like scouter
I've never cared about camera specs on a phone, until the past few months. We've gotten to a point that a phone can take awesome shots. I've never cared about any camera more than a point and ahoot. Now, I'm actually considering getting an SLR, because I found I actually like taking pictures.
I think with the Atrix in the modern day, I wonder if you could add another weaker chip to the shell and then what you'd have is an OS and boosted performance on the laptop without the full expense of the full power laptop chip.
I think another example of a device that was ahead of its time was the Galaxy Note. It started giving us big displays before we were ready for it. I had a Galaxy Note 2 and I was made fun of literally everywhere I went. Then 2 years later everyone has giant phones. Clearly this worked out for samsung so maybe it wasn't that far ahead of its time to the point where it failed because of it. But big phones were not the thing when the note came out.
I wish he would've mentioned Focals by North in the google glass section. They did the whole google glass thing really well, were acquired by google, and then vanished. A really interesting story he should look into / explain.
I am glad you mentioned the Motorola Atrix, it was a great idea. I wish it could have gone further. I would buy an iPhone if they could work like Dex. I bought my Galaxy S20 just for Dex.
How is your experience with Dex? I wanna buy one too
I'm going to need a part 2 of this series. I know you and your team came up with 7 more ideas. This was great BTW.
Ahhh the pleasinga and satisfying number, no. 10
Audi A2 would ne nice
I agree on the all-in-one concept of a computer in your pocket. I wrote (and sent to Microsoft) this exact concept a little over a decade ago. It was about a phone with removeable storage (MicroSD back then, but maybe M.2 now), but you could connect it externally to a device (like an eGPU now) to bump up the power. But you still have the device you can disconnect and put in your pocket and have all your stuff with you. It's easily doable now, and whoever perfects it wins.
Wow, genius man invents a smartphone
@VR namek There is a full Windows/Mac smartphone? Interesting. You have a link to that?
This video is so well put together. Love it!
Interestingly, the descendants of the google glass and the Atrix are in symbiosis - the Samsung Dex currently enables HUD use-cases for AR glasses like the Nreal Air. Not entirely sure I'd call Vine or the early electric cars ahead of their time. Maybe Vine was exactly on time and Twitter just botched it, and then there's that whole thing with the electric car consignment conspiracy (idk about the veracity of that though).
Really interesting commentary. I remember Razer did something similar to the Motorola by utilising the razer phone 2 as a touchpad in a laptop base station. I think it was called Project Linda.
@MKBHD Razor has also created a similar concept where their phone slots into a laptop shell delivering processing power and act like a mouse pad at the same time.
One of the other things that I think "IS" ahead of its time, is Samsung DeX. It's really cool how you can wirelessly connect your own smartphone to a wireless-capable screen and turn it to a really decent computer just with the size of your hand. It's always with you and you don't need a separate mouse and keyboard 'cause you have it already as you can use your phone as a mouse pad and/or a keyboard.
In 2016 Windows 10 Mobile had this feature called Continuum that let you dock (wired or wirelessly) to a display/laptop and have a desktop environment powered by the phone. It was killed off by Microsoft, but from the beginning it had enormous potential. The hardware wasn't quite there yet though
Asus Padfone S can connect it's phone to a tablet shell. I also like the Microsoft Continuum idea (or just the general Microsoft software on a phone) that I bought Microsoft Lumia phone in 2016.
Although it wasn't on the list, he did mention it in the video while talking about the Motorola.
One other manufacturer to look at is Motorola with their 'Ready For' desktop environment. Each manufacturers 'Desktop' has pros and cons. For me, I sway to the Motos because they have a unique aspect of how to use it (look for reviews/how to vids), plus, Motorola don't stuff their phones with 'Bloatware' - multiple apps that try to do the same thing as many Google apps (that generally do it better in most cases) that Samsung 1- Deem it necessary to install them onto every device of theirs, with... 2- Forcing the 'Like it or lump it' approach by not allowing them to be fully uninstalled. Why not just have the 'Galaxy Store' app on their devices, and allow those that want a Galaxy equivalent app to then install what they want, rather than "Look, you buy our phones/tablets, you get our 'Meh' apps with it and you can't do nowt about it so shut up".... Don't get me wrong. Samsuing do great hardware, and my 'Perfect phone' would be something like the S22 Ultra running on Pixel (pure Android), or Nokia's Android One OS, or even Motos version of a basic Android (with their features like 'Karate chop' for torch, 'Double twist' of wrist for quick access to camera etc. And that camera hardware with the Gcam apk.... Hell yeah! Heck, starting on pure Android is a GREAT place to start customising your own phone your own way... 😏😎🇬🇧
@Mkurugenzi Mkuu Samsung prioritizes the Microsoft ecosystem, so they're probably related.
For us in east (central?) Europe Google Glass is something that was hyped to hell and back and then went radio silent. I think "ahead of its time" projects are recolutionary ideas crushed by the corporate dystopia we live in. They miraculously catch on when the royalty gets behind them. Think how Google is pushing the webapp concept after strangling Firefox OS back in the day.
The Google Glass was ahead of it's time for sure. We had a kid who brought his dad in for career day, they had HUGE plans for this stuff. The technology just didn't exist yet. Not everyone was hooked on technology yet either... If they had waited just a few more years...
Bro most of these gadgets are cool and you're giving them their flowers but you can't forget about yourself bro. You were wayyy ahead of time yourself and I'm giving you your flowers bro. I get a lot of what I know about any electronics from your vids. Thanks bro keep em coming!
I would wear the google glasses in stores and restaurants and the reaction from the employees was priceless. I always suspected they thought I was a secret shopper or something.
Honestly the fingerprint sensor alone was enough to sell me on the Atrix back in the day. I didn't even know there was the laptop form factor option. 😅
I know that CS-tv Originals shut down. But this theme is a great concept for a new season of Retro Tech. In-depth review of a failed old tech that is way ahead of its time per episode. It's a dope concept and it just goes to show how tech improves over time to accommodate crazier ideas.
Yes
That's because CS-tv Originals was ahead of its time.
@Leo Sanchez totally
I agree! Make this a series!
@Leo Sanchez ya, funny enough now that CS-tv music is taking off along with CS-tv premium and Netflix is dying it seems silly to remove potential added value to a CS-tv sub, but I guess they have other ways of supporting channels now.
It's probably in the 6K comments below somewhere already, but remember the DxO One? 2015/2016 1" sensor iPhone add on camera with lightning connector. The images it took were actually good. Too bad this never got a V2 in any sense. Probably even more than a dedicated camera with iOS/Android, I'd love something like that.
Really enjoyed this one. Keep up the good job!
I had the Asus Padphone with the tablet dock and that really nice. I have no desire to go out and get a tablet and not have support for full sync of my phone to it, just having a dock that you put the phone into (it was also loaded with extra batteries so the phone was charging as well) was awesome for my train commutes allowing me to read on a bigger screen and so on. Sadly the tablet is broken now and the phone is outdated but there could be a market for a third party general solution that could connect to a phone and transfer the screen from the usb port. Could have custom dock that where tailored to different phones to make the docking experience really neat.
Google Glass dying in the consumer marketplace was probably one of the only times I've facepalmed other consumers. A lot of this was on Google for allowing the anti-privacy folks control the narrative, but it was up to the actual people who buy this stuff to say "Shut up and let me decide for myself!"
I remember the ev 1, GM took the owners to court, and when that failed, they passed legislation saying the cars were unsafe. So the owners just kept it, and some were forced to sell it back to the manufacturer.
I owned the Atrix 1 for about 3 years. I had the laptop dock, but it also came with a dock to plug into your car and worked like Android Auto before Android Auto. I would actually use it as a dash came with the car dock suction cupped to my windshield. To this day I still tell people it was my absolute favorite phone ever. I still have it + the docks just sitting in a drawer lol.
save them, one day they will cost a lot cuz they will become antiques :D
I had an Atrix in college but couldn't afford the dock. I remember going to an Engadget meetup in SF and getting to use a dock at the table Moto had set up, I remember that even back then it felt a little slow. The phone itself was fantastic though! So fast as just a phone. One of my favorite phones, right up there with the Nexus 5.
@Kevin Foote Didn't have the Atrix, but had the Nexus 5. Loved that phone. I had the Nexus 5X too, hated that phone. The phone I hated the most was the Motorola i1 tho.
I used the laptop dock in college all the time. Miss the atrix life
If google were to put google glass back on the market, then they should come up with a way to add optical power to the lenses or be able to change blurriness of the the text so that people with glasses can use them (64% of the adult population) which would really help their sales as most online product buyers are adults or 16+.
For the motorola atrix... to solve the power problem, could the laptop(which is acting as the phone's adapter/ shield) have it's own power cable and have the phone just be it's CPU?
Imagine you hook that to those new cars so you can see your speed limit and the rear camera. Amazing. Why did they not make this sooner? My uncle had a Maserati that had a hologram. So cool.
i work for apple and the "whats a computer" thing is my favorite thing to ever come from this company and the bit you did with the moto phone laptop thing was pure gold