Currently, we are in a state of chaos where every news about the company refers to Twitter / X or “X, formerly Twitter.” While the core service continues, it is certainly not Twitter as it was before Musk.
The End of Third Parties: The Decline of Clubhouse Copies
At the beginning of the pandemic, when happy hours spread over Zoom and sourdough starters were making the rounds, Clubhouse appeared on the scene with an app that facilitated voice chatting among large and small groups. Major tech companies rushed to launch their own versions of Clubhouse, but these old copies did not last long. Facebook was the first to abandon live audio rooms in December 2022, but in 2023 we also witnessed the end of Reddit Talk, Spotify Live, and Amazon’s DJ Amp live radio app. X Spaces still exists, although presidential candidates may not want to rely on it to launch their campaigns.
Netflix’s DVD Business
After 25 years, Netflix’s DVD unit said goodbye this year as the company shifted its entire focus to streaming. The final disks were sent out in September, allowing current members to keep 10 DVD discs for the lovely memory.
Password Sharing on Netflix
As promised, Netflix launched an anti-password-sharing campaign this year. The company offered an option to add two additional people to your account, but at a cost of $7.99 per person per month, and it is likely that it makes more sense for intruders to get their own subscription to the $6.99 ad-supported tier. This is exactly what Netflix aims to achieve to boost subscriber counts and revenue. There seem to be some ways to share passwords, generally for those not using a smart TV to watch Netflix. However, Netflix stated in October that people should expect the anti-password-sharing campaign to be completed in the coming months.
January: Snap Camera App
This Snapchat app, which replaced a lawyer’s face with a cat’s face, became famous during the pandemic when everyone tried to liven up Zoom meetings. Currently, video calls are a regular part of office life, and no one wants to see you as a potato. Snap agreed to discontinue the app in January.
February: AmazonSmile
Launched in 2013, AmazonSmile donated 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases made through smile.amazon.com to charities, where consumers could choose from over a million charitable organizations to support. On February 20, the program was closed as it “did not grow to create the impact we had hoped for initially,” according to Amazon at the time.
March: Google Glass Enterprise Edition
Google Glass was smart glasses that allowed access to information and internet connectivity through a single lens over a decade ago. However, the actual device suffered from many issues, including short battery life, privacy concerns, and the high price of $1,500. Google briefly pivoted to businesses before discontinuing Google Glass this year.
April: Amazon Halo
Amazon launched the Halo brand in August 2020 in an attempt to expand into the health and fitness market, following years of competition from Fitbit, Samsung, and Apple. Its first product was the Halo band, a screenless fitness tracker that could log all kinds of health statistics in exchange for a paid service subscription. However, Amazon was unable to keep up with the competition in the fitness tracker space. In our review of Amazon Halo, we found that “its features for voice analysis and body composition analysis were a bit creepy.” Amazon announced it would stop supporting Amazon Halo on July 31, 2023. On the positive side, people who bought a Halo product in the last 12 months from Amazon received a full refund.
May:
PlayStation Plus Collection
When the PS5 was launched in 2020, the PlayStation Plus Collection offered players on next-gen consoles 20 classic PS4 games for free while studios built their offerings for the PS5. Three years later, the PS5 game library has become robust, so the PlayStation Plus Collection was shut down in May. The games remain available to play if you have an active PlayStation Plus membership.
June: Alexa Celebrity Voices
In 2019, Samuel L. Jackson launched the celebrity voices program on Amazon when his iconic voice became the highest-selling digital purchase online. Users could download the skill for $0.99 to ask Jackson important questions such as what his favorite movie quote is or how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if it could chuck wood. Others like Shaquille O’Neal and Melissa McCarthy soon joined, along with price increases. The licensing fees for celebrity voices may have become too expensive for a company looking to cut back spending this year. Jackson’s voice disappeared in June, while the other two joined in September.
July: Cortana on Windows
In June, the AI claimed another victim as Microsoft targeted Cortana. The voice assistant never gained popularity compared to Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, and with the launch of Bing Chat (now Copilot), Microsoft removed Cortana as a built-in app in Windows.
August: Stitcher Podcast App
After three years of owning the podcasting app Stitcher, Sirius XM announced plans to shut down the standalone app and merge it into the Sirius XM premium app. Stitcher dates back to 2008 and has changed hands several times over the years. If you’re still looking for a good alternative to Stitcher, check out our curated selection of the best podcast apps.
September: Google Jamboard
In the pre-pandemic era, when we all gathered in crowded meeting rooms using whiteboards to sketch out the next big future, Microsoft and Google introduced smart boards that allowed for modern collaboration without the need for a whiteboard marker. Google’s version was called Jamboard, a $5,000 device with a 55-inch screen. In our review, we mentioned that it lacked some advanced features found in Microsoft’s Surface Hub. In September, Google announced plans to “end support” for Jamboard in 2024. Smart board enthusiasts willing to spend at least $9,500 can get the Surface Hub 3.
October: Mint Personal Finance App
Intuit had a Halloween surprise for Mint users, which was previously considered a leading personal finance tool: it will be shutting down and migrating its users to Intuit’s Credit Karma service. Mint features like unified account viewing, transaction tracking, spending reports, cash flow, and net worth estimates will be available via Credit Karma, but budgeting features in Mint (and support for some financial institutions) will not be available.
November: Apple Music Voice Plan
Music streaming services saw price increases over the past year. Apple Music joined this hike in October 2022, and this year saw the discontinuation of the more affordable Apple Music Voice Plan. At $4.99 per month, the Apple Music Voice Plan allowed unlimited listening, but the catch was that you had to ask Siri to play everything. In explaining the move, Apple simply stated it was “focused on delivering the best robust and integrated music experience for our customers.”
December: E3
The annual video game expo held by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has been on hiatus since 2020 when the pandemic forced organizers to cancel it. The association attempted several comebacks in the following years, but with major studios backing out and withdrawing from E3, the ESA officially announced the end of the expo in mid-December.
Comixology
After
Nearly 10 years after its acquisition of the digital comics app Comixology, Amazon has integrated it into the Kindle apps on iOS, Android, and Fire OS. Previously purchased books on Comixology were automatically transferred to libraries on the Kindle app. Comixology brought titles from a wide range of publishers, including DC, Image, and Marvel, to web browsers and mobile Android and iOS apps. It received a rating of 4.5 / 5 and an Editors’ Choice award from PCMag for features such as the guided view mode, which made reading enjoyable on small devices, along with digital comics released on the same day as the printed edition, and unlimited reading through the Comixology Unlimited plan. “All the books available in the Comixology app are also available in the Kindle app,” says Amazon.
Venmo on Amazon
Amazon is dropping Venmo as a payment option starting January 10, after more than a year of launching the ability to pay for purchases using the mobile payment app. At that time, Max Bardon, Vice President of Global Payments, said that Amazon was adding Venmo as a way to “meet the needs and preferences of every Amazon customer” regarding payments. While Amazon intends to continue accepting Venmo debit and credit cards, Venmo accounts cannot be added to Amazon accounts as a payment method and will only be usable for the next few weeks for those who have added their Venmo accounts to Amazon Wallet.
Bose Frames
In 2018, Bose launched the Bose Frames augmented reality glasses, turning sunglasses into a wearable audio device. In our review of the original version, we found
Source: https://me.pcmag.com/en/news/21063/game-over-the-tech-that-died-in-2023
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