The Computer Chronicles - Consumer Buying Guide (1999)

[@lacitysun]

"The future of software in the handheld world, like everyting else, is headed for Microsoft" *that didn't age well*

[@rjaytan3699]

Android and iOS is shaking

[@JaredConnell]

Well at the time the competition was palm and windows ce, neither of which are around anymore and the competition today, android and iOS were years away at the time of this show.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

@@JaredConnell the idea is that complacency is what ran MS out of the handheld world. They built up windows CE then recycled that for the windows mobile platform where their arrogance met their fate. Famous interview clip posted up showing how Steve Balmer laughed at the iphone's release saying how stupid it was, had no future, and that their customers knew windows mobile platform was way better.

[@kurtsnyder]

Stuart saying "they have that Pokemon junk" and then saying "oh, sorry!" LOL!

[@JaredConnell]

You can tell his kids were into it a little too much lol

[@imperiumcommentingnetwork4677]

this episode is as old as, or older, than me. So cool to see the history of computers.

[@CaptchaNeon]

I still have my Age of Empires Age of Kings game after all these years and I still love it.

[@daehawk9585]

It was the best of all those type games.

[@imperiumcommentingnetwork4677]

same

[@PyroX792]

"[online shopping] is on track to be a $380 million dollar industry in two and a half years" wow! No one in 1999 would have guess that one online retailer would be making over $600 million a DAY in the year 2021.

[@zoranvanderlei9665]

"I believe that the future of software in the handheld world, is like everything else, headed for Microsoft."

[@jcp012000]

Sure!. Windows phones are the vanguard of the mobile revolution!!

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Windows CE and its derivative successors were so strong in the marketplace then. Only Palm came close and they didn't have the same level of computing power the CE systems had. Microsoft got complacent and thought they had the best out there, sat still, and Google eventually ran over them while asleep.

[@drhoads08]

Those interactive playsets were so cool!

[@20EUR20]

I bought my first computer in 99 💚

[@BuckySeifert]

Dude that pirate game is like a proto toys to life thing.

[@WhatALoadOfTosca]

"I'm going to have to ask you to top yourself"... Flip me Stuart! Easy!

[@jus1332PSP]

It's cool they got mario as a guest

[@JLLockwood]

That playset was kinda crazy tbh. Kind of a cool concept there. A bit like nintendo with that one.

[@sternkrieger1950]

That presenter really showed off that iBook awfully, simply going over how sexy it looks and that it has a G3 processor. Tim made it worse by saying it's for kids. In actuality, the iBook G3 was the most powerful consumer laptop that blew away highest end Pentium laptops on multimedia applications such as Photoshop and video editing. Also, it was one of the most rugged and durable laptop ever made aside from the Panasonic Toughbooks. It's too bad that all these "it's for kids" comments made Apple switch to a less rugged and durable model down the line.

[@randipoling635]

Thats 1999 for you when computers were beige boxes and laptops were black/beige blocks of plastic and computer parts. Thats just how it was back then.

[@JaredConnell]

I wouldnt put it anywhere near the toughbook, in fact from what I've seen they weren't much more durable than other laptops from the time. And he was saying it had a g3 because if you were into macs you knew the g3 was a powerful chip especially for a laptop so it could run some more power hungry apps. They don't have much time on this show especially the buyers guide shows where they have less than a minute for each product so I don't know what else they could have really said tbh

[@fuelvolts]

They did have a point though; they weren't taken seriously as a business machine because they looked like toys. If they would have made a black one their reputation would have been held in higher regard at the time. Not saying they should have, though.

[@alexkaa]

It's interesting to see how the clothing got more and more casual over the years - compare this to 198x..

[@billgates3699]

I don’t miss this era. The sheer overload of broken promises. “It works just like magic!” Doesn’t work 🙄 I remember circuit city and Best Buy at that time. The camera aisle alone was like a Cambrian explosion of weird creatures that were loosely related, alien, and grotesque. It was impossible to compare two products fairly because they all had dumb gimmicks and promises of the “coming standards” but it was always a gamble because most standards died with only one product that supported it. HD-DVD has nothing on the volume of tape, storage and communication technologies that threw their hat in the ring and sucked the consumer down with them when it failed. Notice how many completely new, as in totally original rather than imitating or iterating, technologies are on Computer Chronicles at this era compared to the mid 90s or late 80s. Same for TechTV at the time. We were being overloaded with tech crap. If only you could see the PDA selection at stores at that time. That was enough to make me nauseous. Every PDA was a gamble as far as what tech would stay and what would die and what was coming next and what was compatible with what. I don’t miss this era. If there is less tech diversity today, good. At least I know my phone has app support and a user base to ask for help. I think the end of this whole nightmare was a little thing called the “KIN”. Yeah, go ahead and research this phone…thing and you will have just a taste of how absolutely awful this era was.

[@TheCyberDruid]

"It's the fastest selling console on the market" Weird to hear that in 2023.

[@wonderpierrot]

OMG did Tim loose part of his index finger?!

[@johnalbertson79]

Who cares? You act like that's some God awful disfigurement. It's a very common injury you dolt.

[@yellowblanka6058]

@@johnalbertson79 Losing a third of a finger is not a "very common injury" unless you work in a sheet metal shop in Appalachia or something.

[@JaredConnell]

Oh wow I've never noticed that before. I wonder what happened?

[@b3ans4eva]

That pirate ship is the original Toys to Life.

[@KabelkowyJoe]

19:00 Made in 2010 using it still for 13 years! [idea] HP EliteBook 2730p - 24/7 "server like machine in kitchen :> Multi OS - Windows 7, OpenSUSE, PrimeOS you can have docking station you can have adittional batt. 6h Its old, it's bit slow even with SSD should upgrade to something better like 2740p (noisy) or 2760p If i could choose something else i would go with ThinkPad starting with X41 and X61T Compaq was owned by HP

[@wallacelang1374]

I know that Stewart Cheifet is more of a computer guy, but he said that the Sega Dreamcast was a popular video game console. Unfortunately the Sega Dreamcast ended up dying in a marketplace that was dominated by the Microsoft XBox and the Sony PlayStation. Of course I did like neat portable keyboard for the palmpilot, I just wish that they could make one for the Android smartphone.

[@Bag_monkey]

Is it just me or is Stewart interrupting more than usual?

[@deadinside777]

Oh man, Lexmark printers. I hated those things.

[@mokopa]

Lexmark and Brother were the first major printer manufacturers to officially support Linux, long before Linux became as 'mainstream' as it is today, and for this reason I will always respect them

[@deadinside777]

@@mokopa Out of the two, Brother was the one recommended the most when you asked around forums for a good printer for your Linux box. Lexmark did have drivers but I remember them being not that great, closed source and only supporting a few printer models. Don't know if it's any different now because I just stopped buying that brand and switched to HP when I moved to Linux as my main OS.

[@OhFishyFish]

@@mokopa I love how Linux market share graph for the last 20 years is a flat line sitting at 2%, but fanboys still think its gaining popularity.

[@mokopa]

@@OhFishyFish Yawn, whatever. Why are you so scared of Linux?

[@allentoyokawa9068]

@@deadinside777Brothers is Japanese, so far better than Lexmark

[@heathbarker3004]

Dang Stewart let them talk...Anyway this is the horse and wagon of computers.

[@yellowblanka6058]

Naw, this was well over a decade beyond the horse and wagon level of computers.

[@FreedomForAll2013]

In 1999, it seemed like people were constantly needing to upgrade! A modchipped PS1 was just easier back then! PC gaming usually meant installing one game at a time but were still better I suppose

[@dorlaretz5901]

?

[@yellowblanka6058]

An average gaming-capable PC in 99 was considerably more capable than the PS1, and this 99 was the year the Dreamcast came out and blew away the PS1 on a technical level, with the even more powerful PS2 coming out a year later.

[@admiralandersen]

Psion... They made the best PDAs. Such a shame they stopped making them. I still use my 5mx and Netbook. Both over 15 years old, and still works perfectly.

[@jcp012000]

Not as a daily driver I hope?

[@WhatALoadOfTosca]

I used to write shareware for Psion. Made me a pretty penny as a student. They were way beyond their years and so powerful.

[@allentoyokawa9068]

junk

[@hannahm8832]

93-99 we the saw the giant jump in software but also the price dropped immensely. If people then saw what we have today theyd explode

[@mokopa]

Is Steward on coke in this episode? I've never seen an episode where he interrupts guests, even finishing their sentences, with such frequency. He's really excitable and hyper in this episode!

[@WhatALoadOfTosca]

He does it in every episode... To the point of almost being rude. He's always done it, ever since the first episodes.

[@Leonard_MT]

@@WhatALoadOfTosca in an interview he said was to keep things no too technical and to prevent the show from becoming 1 large sales pitch

[@z1g]

Stuart sure likes talking over people. I love these nostalgic videos and understand he needed to keep things moving along, but constantly trying to finish others sentances is pretty annoying. Thumbs up regardless.

[@Wizardofgosz]

Wow. Was that dude mansplaining over the woman in this episode or what?

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

Looks like schindler was a regular at burger king as well.

[@mokopa]

His belly indeed does draw the eye

[@yellowblanka6058]

That purple and green computer has to be the ugliest PC I've ever seen.

[@Fiilis1]

This seethrough PC and Mac was horrible to look back then as it is now. LOL

[@pbajnoci]

6:09 hilarious

[@infinitecanadian]

That lady looks like Grace Lee Whitney.

[@aurathedraak7909]

Dream cast- the fastest selling? 100m sold Ps2 in in two years. 155min sold and still the top one that sold fast. Dreamcast discontinued. I wish I was the past and told the future.

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

More like 10 million sold. If Dreamcast had sold 100 million there would be a Dreamcast 4 by now and the xbox would never have existed.

[@fordxbgtfalcon]

Lol, Dreamcast never sold 100 million units..... not even close...

[@drhoads08]

Also "The Best thing about the Dreamcast is the controller" LMAO... WRONG!

[@ivanbreak]

i wish someone could show them Unreal engine 5

[@demonsaint1296]

Not going to give a time stamp. Looks like someone soiled themselves. I could tell by the facial expression. Definitely looked like an accident.

[@nwmusic2010]

Stewart, stop interrupting your guests!! Ugh.

[@LoveMafae]

Dead😊

[@Frankiedejongo]

RIP

[@RVoogt]

bigstar.com sounds like a porn site like onlyfans or something. :D

[@AbdiPianoChannel]

No one uses the term COMPUTERS any longer. People are into smartphones in these days.

[@infinitecanadian]

Not true; they have Steam which is used on computers.

[@yellowblanka6058]

A smartphone is still a computer, it's just in a different form factor with the display and input integrated in the unit.

[@allentoyokawa9068]

Nope, PC is the way to go