Obituary of dead devices
Every week we hear about the next device that has been discontinued due to "commercial unattractiveness." The manufacturing company invested millions of dollars in development, but the time came when the old product no longer makes a profit - and the object is erased from reality, although it could still benefit humanity.
Editor of Make: Online Philippe Torroun (Phillip Torrone) turned to commercial companies with an appeal to give old and unneeded projects in open source.
Torrone gives a lot of examples when discontinued devices could get a second life, but his article with examples is more like an obituary. It is unlikely that any of the manufacturers will agree to give their product, even if dead from the archive, because this contradicts the basic principles of business. It’s very rare for some companies to have such “enlightenment” (for example, Nokia was going to give Symbian to open source after the end of the business cycle of this project), but it’s rather an exception to the general rule, or they can change their mind and cancel their decision.
So, to the list of untimely dead, whose death is especially sad.
Sony AIBO Robots: discontinued in March 2006. A whole family of different toys, since 1999, more than 120,000 pieces have been sold. For many, these were examples of how robots can live next to humans and bring joy.
However, the company was frightened of the first cases of Aibo modding and hack and decided to kill the project in 2006 with the goal of "increasing the profitability of the business."
The humanoid robot Sony QRIO , listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the first two-legged robot in the world to run: the development was stopped on January 26, 2006, the model never went on sale.
Together with Aibo, these projects took decades.research work. If they went into the public domain, then Sony's reputation would rise to such a level that no saddest events could change this (by the way about the recent data leakage of 75 million Sony PlayStation Network users).
IBM Deep Blue : although this is a controversial example, because the product was non-profit, but still it is the first chess computer to beat Human (with a capital letter, not because it is Kasparov, but because it was the best representative of the human species in chess moment) .
Although IBM is as friendly as possible with the Open Source community, it never showed the source for Deep Blue. But now, more than ten years have already passed, probably already?
Ricochet wireless: even before the advent of 3G, WiFi and other technologies, the American company Ricochet since 1994 (!) tried to deploy a global infrastructure for universal wireless Internet access. Unfortunately, at that time the broad masses of the population did not yet realize their happiness, they only reached it ten years later. Ricochet company ceased to exist in 2001 by unlucky coincidence (the parent company went bankrupt), although Ricochet tariffs and coverage in some regions were already much better then those tariffs and coverage that are provided by current US mobile operators. Just imagine: anlim 128 kbps for $ 29 per month - this is in 1999!
Communication was provided through 900 MHz modems with 1 W power and support for P2P connections, which can still be found on the black market.
Personal recharge Potenco Pull-Cord Generator : a simple and convenient device for generating and storing electric energy.
One minute of exercise in your hand - and you can talk on the phone for 20 minutes or listen to an MP3 player for 6 hours. Unfortunately, the Potenco startup was not able to bring the device to the market and disappeared without a trace about five years ago.
Palm : the founder of the genre of handheld computers, which today received a second life in the form of modern smartphones and tablets.
After the acquisition of Palm by HP, the new models will no longer be called Palm, and the operating system Palm OS(Garnet OS) is already outdated and has given way to webOS.
Watch and Microsoft SPOT Technology : one of many innovative products invented by Microsoft but rarely reach the mass market. These devices, however, appeared on sale in 2004.
The original protocol used FM frequencies to transmit current weather information, stock quotes, etc. An information service costs $ 59 per year and is still supported, although the watch has not been sold since 2008. The service itself will be discontinued on January 1, 2012.
Cisco Flip Camera : A very handy portable camcorder that is smaller than a pack of cigarettes, with a USB port.
A few weeks ago, it announced the cessation of sales, although in 2009 the manufacturer of these cameras was bought for $ 589 million.
If they published the firmware on Github, CAD on Thingiverse and the list of parts on the wiki, then in a matter of months, millions of such home-made cameras would appear.
Editor of Make: Online Philippe Torroun (Phillip Torrone) turned to commercial companies with an appeal to give old and unneeded projects in open source.
Torrone gives a lot of examples when discontinued devices could get a second life, but his article with examples is more like an obituary. It is unlikely that any of the manufacturers will agree to give their product, even if dead from the archive, because this contradicts the basic principles of business. It’s very rare for some companies to have such “enlightenment” (for example, Nokia was going to give Symbian to open source after the end of the business cycle of this project), but it’s rather an exception to the general rule, or they can change their mind and cancel their decision.
So, to the list of untimely dead, whose death is especially sad.
Sony AIBO Robots: discontinued in March 2006. A whole family of different toys, since 1999, more than 120,000 pieces have been sold. For many, these were examples of how robots can live next to humans and bring joy.
However, the company was frightened of the first cases of Aibo modding and hack and decided to kill the project in 2006 with the goal of "increasing the profitability of the business."
The humanoid robot Sony QRIO , listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the first two-legged robot in the world to run: the development was stopped on January 26, 2006, the model never went on sale.
Together with Aibo, these projects took decades.research work. If they went into the public domain, then Sony's reputation would rise to such a level that no saddest events could change this (by the way about the recent data leakage of 75 million Sony PlayStation Network users).
IBM Deep Blue : although this is a controversial example, because the product was non-profit, but still it is the first chess computer to beat Human (with a capital letter, not because it is Kasparov, but because it was the best representative of the human species in chess moment) .
Although IBM is as friendly as possible with the Open Source community, it never showed the source for Deep Blue. But now, more than ten years have already passed, probably already?
Ricochet wireless: even before the advent of 3G, WiFi and other technologies, the American company Ricochet since 1994 (!) tried to deploy a global infrastructure for universal wireless Internet access. Unfortunately, at that time the broad masses of the population did not yet realize their happiness, they only reached it ten years later. Ricochet company ceased to exist in 2001 by unlucky coincidence (the parent company went bankrupt), although Ricochet tariffs and coverage in some regions were already much better then those tariffs and coverage that are provided by current US mobile operators. Just imagine: anlim 128 kbps for $ 29 per month - this is in 1999!
Communication was provided through 900 MHz modems with 1 W power and support for P2P connections, which can still be found on the black market.
Personal recharge Potenco Pull-Cord Generator : a simple and convenient device for generating and storing electric energy.
One minute of exercise in your hand - and you can talk on the phone for 20 minutes or listen to an MP3 player for 6 hours. Unfortunately, the Potenco startup was not able to bring the device to the market and disappeared without a trace about five years ago.
Palm : the founder of the genre of handheld computers, which today received a second life in the form of modern smartphones and tablets.
After the acquisition of Palm by HP, the new models will no longer be called Palm, and the operating system Palm OS(Garnet OS) is already outdated and has given way to webOS.
Watch and Microsoft SPOT Technology : one of many innovative products invented by Microsoft but rarely reach the mass market. These devices, however, appeared on sale in 2004.
The original protocol used FM frequencies to transmit current weather information, stock quotes, etc. An information service costs $ 59 per year and is still supported, although the watch has not been sold since 2008. The service itself will be discontinued on January 1, 2012.
Cisco Flip Camera : A very handy portable camcorder that is smaller than a pack of cigarettes, with a USB port.
A few weeks ago, it announced the cessation of sales, although in 2009 the manufacturer of these cameras was bought for $ 589 million.
If they published the firmware on Github, CAD on Thingiverse and the list of parts on the wiki, then in a matter of months, millions of such home-made cameras would appear.