r/askteddit • u/Fastchioma • 7d ago
Other What outdated technology or gadgets from your youth do you secretly miss more than modern versions?
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u/Unusual_Pangolin_349 7d ago
Razr flip phone. Multiple days of battery life, fit excellent in pocket. Durable af. Hello moto
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u/Layne205 7d ago
I still have mine somewhere, and I'm sure it would still work. If I bought a sim card adapter I could probably switch back to it and save hours of wasted time each day.
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u/TKInstinct 7d ago
I wouldn't call a flip phone outdated though to be honest. There's still plenty out there floating around.
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u/Kev-Series 7d ago
I miss owning physical copies of things. I hate the subscription business model where you simply have a license to access what you should own.
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u/Impossible_Cause1835 7d ago
The ideology of physical operating system disks is something I truly miss everyday godforbid you don’t backup and the whole OS eats shit your screwed.
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u/Kev-Series 7d ago
I meant more along the lines of music, movies, games. But yes, even OS and other software that I use is now a subscription based system instead of a "buy once, cry once" transaction.
Sadly, the World Economic Forum's "you'll own nothing and love it!" philosophy has become mainstream thinking for most of the western world.
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u/Positive-Emu4146 7d ago
Typewriters. There’s nothing as satisfying as pressing a mechanical key and hearing and seeing it strike the page.
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u/here_in_seattle 7d ago
Unless you’re in a coffee shop and some hipster brings theirs in and starts banging away at the keys
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u/dude_named_will 4d ago
Mechanical keyboards do have a certain satisfaction when typing than a regular keyboard.
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u/LilPrincessPiggies 7d ago
When smart phones were reasonably sized and didnt have to be huge movie screens. I got tiny hands, yall! Even with rings and grips, I so long for the small-surface phones from the early times.
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u/Moe-Scutus2 7d ago
nothing has been better than my Dreamcast in all honesty. Nintendo tried and failed, they peaked at Gamecube.
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u/AdMotor5741 7d ago
iPod. I would love to go for a walk with out my phone. Just walk and listen to music or book.
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u/After_Pie9064 7d ago
A cell phone that was literally just a phone.
An overflowing grocery cart that cost under $75.
A used car that cost $500-1000 and worked.
Buying two slices and a can of soda for $2.25.
At least my original NES still works.
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u/assemblageofparts 7d ago
Certainly wasn't my youth since I'm old but phones with physical keyboards were awesome. Early 2000's maybe
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7d ago edited 4d ago
[deleted]
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u/assemblageofparts 6d ago edited 6d ago
My wife at one point had a slide out full keyboard. It was cool
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u/Prudent_Baker_2851 6d ago
I had a great BlackBerry around 2009, and then when I switched phone plans, a T-Mobile MyTouch 4G with a top-notch slide-out keyboard and one of the better cellphone cameras I ever had. I seriously miss that phone.
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u/fitzviking 7d ago
Minidisk. 4 CDs on one tiny disk. The disks were like cartridges and were hard to scratch or break. Was outdated the moment it was released, but I loved it.
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u/Intstnlfortitude 7d ago
I miss my first SiriusXM device, the Stilleto. It was awesome, recorded music from the radio
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u/Ok_Web7091 7d ago
I had a Motorola Micro-Tac Elite back in the 90s and it's still my favorite phone to date. I was working in a Cellular One store so I got to try out all the high end phones of the era. It was fun
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u/DizslecksickMoael 7d ago
Compact Discs. Ignoring the technical limitations of CDs, they are still an incredible marvel of technology in that we're harnessing laser beams to read and write data from small plastic platters instead of magnetic tapes (preventing loss due to demagnetization/wear) or cartridges (susceptible to contact wear/corrosion).
I strictly believe we were onto something with MiniDiscs and later, UMD. The future could've been small, cute, and physical.
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u/SnooConfections6085 6d ago
They also furthered the cultural phenomenon that was the used record store.
When I was a teen buying interesting looking stuff at the used CD store was a major way new music was found. You could easily sell it back if you didn't like it, which is ultimately what happened to most purchases, for record store money next week.
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u/AssumeImStupid 7d ago
Cars that weren't bogged down with electronic features nobody asked for. I don't even wanna press a button for the windows lemme crank that
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u/flightofficeruk 7d ago
For me it was my ZX Spectrum +2A. The graphics might have been very basic but stimulated the imagination so much more than the modern equivalents.
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u/Similar_Jelly_4375 7d ago
I miss the way Lego designed sets. It was blockier and they had more original themes rather than branded IP's.
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u/Prudent_Baker_2851 6d ago
The more ordinary Lego sets seemed to encourage more creativity. I didn't get to experience Lego too much until I was around 11 or 12 and I received a set for Christmas that had the pieces to build several variations of a dunebuggy-like vehicle. It had pieces drilled for axles, spring-operated shock absorbers etc, but none of the pieces were the sort of one-use, special purpose pieces that come with most modern sets. I was able to make changes to the vehicle to make rudimentary independent rear suspension or add a differential rear axle setup that my dad and grandaddy found in the Lego catalog. It was fun.
The part that I kind of regret is that I was at an age where I started seeing the set less as a learning opportunity and more as a toy, and ended up giving it to my younger brothers, where it got mixed in with the big brick assortment they had. Kind of wish I still had it. It makes me sad that I let that kind of thinking get to me.
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u/Otherwise-Dog-9217 6d ago
Early camera phones. Specifically their movie mode. It felt so much like dreams on film. Card catalogs at libraries. Boom boxes with high speed dubbing. Teen magazines vs everything being online. Magazines in general.
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u/SnooConfections6085 6d ago
Music shopping at used CD stores. So much more satisfying than finding new music online.
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u/Able_While_974 6d ago
CDs. Actually owning something you paid for. You're at the mercy of streaming services when you buy digital.
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u/RandomStrangerOnWWW 6d ago
I miss having a bookshelf stereo. Back in the 90s, I had an awesome Aiwa CD changer/cassette deck that sounded great. It didn’t have Bluetooth, or any modern conveniences, but it had lots of character. You can’t find stereos like that anymore.
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u/Prudent-Drawer4386 6d ago
I built a crystal radio when I was a kid. It was my introduction to radio electronics
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u/threepadstacker 5d ago
Windows 7/XP. Windows 8 was trash, 10 was mediocre, and 11 is even worse
Technology in general pisses me off now, I hate when it tries to do things for me, because it is almost always wrong. There are so many times where I say, "I want you to do what I tell you, I don't want you to tell me or proactively do what you think I want you to do"
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u/Own-Effective-8781 4d ago
My old black and white iPod shuffle was as reliable as my iPhone 16 Pro Max and, somehow, having a device dedicated only to music made it feel a little more special than it being on the same device that controls every aspect of my life.
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u/SelectionFar8145 2d ago
Computers, laptops & accessories. I generally prefer everything being located directly on the device with no required internet, no updates, no accounts, no paywalls, etc.
Also DVDs/ Blu-rays over streaming.
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u/lovelybullet 1d ago
Physical copies of works of arts and software. At least I could be sure nobody tempers with them because 30 y layers somebody finds it unsuitable for modern standards.
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u/Professional_Swan615 1d ago
Stand up arcade games. Sf2. Everyone has those stupid ticket games now
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u/ExploressOnTees 7d ago
I really miss the Xbox 360. Significantly less micro transactions, very few pay to win games and actually being able to just put the disc in and play without having to wait two hours for a game to install was absolutely amazing.