It’s right there in the name of this website. We here at Futurelooks are constantly looking to the future, bringing you the latest and greatest that the digital lifestyle has to offer and looking forward to what’s yet to come on the horizon. At the same time, we recognize technology’s past. Unfortunately, some of that old stuff just won’t go away.
We like to think that we live on the bleeding edge of technology, playing with a tablet PC netbook and a cutting edge computer mouse. However, there are some people out there who refuse to innovate, sticking with what’s known and comfortable. And here are five pieces of outdated technology that they continue to use. Why can’t you just let it die?!
Calculators and Adding Machines
Arithmetic is a necessary part of our lives. I understand that it is absolutely necessary to tally up those figures for income tax season, calculate the total cost of buying a batch of cool t-shirts, and convert some money from one currency to another. That’s all well and good, but we don’t need standalone calculators anymore.
With the noted exception of specialized calculators (like graphing calculators for math class), the regular pocket calculator is no longer necessary. Your laptop has a calculator. Your cell phone has a calculator. Why on Earth would you still need a regular standalone calculator? Adding machines are even worse! Look at all that wasted paper when a simple spreadsheet program can do so much more.
The Ubiquitous Installation CD
Most netbooks don’t have optical drives these days, because they’re not really all that necessary. The only time that you’d ever really use a CD or a DVD or a netbook is when you get stuck with a stupid installation CD. Some accessories and hardware require software and drivers, but it’s such a pain that so many of them still come with installation CDs.
There are two very simple ways that companies can easily overcome this clearly outdated technology that refuses to die. First, they could simply direct you to an appropriate webpage where all supporting software can be easily downloaded. We’re all connected to the Internet.
Second, they could use a small USB flash drive (or a BIG one like the 32GB Corsair Voyager if you’re so inclined). This way, the flash drive can still be reused. With the installation CD, it serves its single purpose and then is rendered quite useless.
Flipping through the Yellow Pages
My local telephone company still delivers a new copy of the Yellow Pages and White Pages each and every year. I don’t think I’ve thumbed through that dated and cluttered directory in ages. The Yellow Pages were positively useful ten years ago, but times have changed.
Have you heard about this thing called the Internet? You don’t have to get your fingers all dirty flipping through the Yellow Pages when you can much more easily search for contact information through Google or your favorite online directory. Better still, you save a whole bunch of trees in the process.
Landlines and Phone Booths
When cell phones first hit the scene and the “Zack Morris” was the coolest thing on the block, but mobile phone service wasn’t exactly the cheapest thing in the world. The reception wasn’t the best, voice quality was mediocre, and battery life was far from being truly acceptable. Times have changed and many people are abandoning their landlines in favor of a cell phone-only existence. I’m one of these people.
There are certainly some arguments for why a person or a company would want to keep a landline telephone. There’s that whole issue of 911 service, of course, as well as the issues with reliability. Having consistent service with a landline is easier than having consistent service with a cell phone.
That said, the pros of a landline-free existence far outweigh the cons. Do you need to make long distance calls? Skype and other VoIP services are far more affordable. Moreover, there’s no real reason to need a landline if you have a cell phone with you all the time. Why pay for two services when just one will do?
I still find phone booths to be a bit of an oddity, but I guess they have to be there for tourists (who don’t have a cell phone that’ll work locally) and for rural locations where cellular service is sketchy at best.
Do You Have a Fax Number?
As a tech journalist and someone who reviews a fair number of products over the course of any given month, I interact with quite a few couriers and delivery people on a fairly regular basis. Most of this interaction is quite congenial, but I’ll come across some negative experiences with couriers too.
Well, I recently send a product back to the manufacturer and I assumed that it got there. Three months later, the manufacturer inquired about the whereabouts of this product. After digging up the tracking number, I looked through the online interface to discover that the only scan was the pickup scan. The parcel was lost somewhere along the way. Uh oh. That’s not good.
I called the courier to see what happened and they said that they would investigate. The representative on the line asked if I had a fax number where they would be able to send supporting documentation and so forth. While many companies still use fax machines to this day, I don’t. I don’t need one. It’s just so much easier to have something scanned and emailed as a PDF, because the last thing that I need is another loose piece of paper floating around my home office.
Fax machines should go the way of the dinosaur. With the instant delivery and reliability of email, fax should be a thing of the past.
Even If You’re an Early Adopter…
Some technology just refuses to die. It’ll straggle behind, because there is still a demographic that wants to use it. Sometimes, it’ll get repurposed (a wristwatch is more a piece of jewelry than it is a timepiece). Other times, it’ll stick around because of people who refuse to adopt something new and better. Even when legislation kicks in like in the case of the transition to Digital TV, there will probably still be people out there wondering what happened when their sets go to snow and that antenna on the roof no longer works.
The almighty early adopter is guilty too. Even though you happen to be an early adopter of most new tech, you’re probably holding on to some old school technology too. Do you still read the dead-tree edition of your local newspaper when you can also read the news online? Do you still watch DVDs when the content can be delivered in digital format? Yeah… me too.
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