WORST Tech Fails

[@i00Productions]

14:33 Ok.. just to break a couple of myths: BetaMax was not used in the pro space that was BetaCam.. and was actually a different format that could be used on the same media.. although, if you used a BetaMax tape for BetaCam you could only fit 30 mins of video.. There were BetaCam tapes that could hold more, but these were physically much bigger and cost much more. BetaMax was actually a worse format.. Also many people seem to think that Sony developed both and licenced out the worse one of the two (VHS); they didnt, JVC invented VHS. Edit: BetaMax is also NOT digital

[@-Ricky_Spanish-]

My wife bought a Steambox (Windows version) when they were a thing and it was actually really good for the price. It was able to keep up with gaming machines twice as expensive at the time and still performs pretty well as a gaming box for older games. Essentially just a small form factor PC, but we got a lot more out of it than we have from most consoles.

[@BeyondBaito]

A friend of kine has one. Until he could build a new PC he used this to play all his games. It did good.

[@sdbegotist]

Was able to get a r2 Alienware one a couple years ago, and was a really neat compact system

[@devilmikey00]

I mean steam machines were just PC's with the steam branding running steam OS instead of windows. None of them had special hardware or anything like that, it was all off the shelf PC components. I'm not sure why people even compare it to the steam deck which is a bespoke piece of hardware made specifically for valve. Steam deck was a branding initiative for steam OS and little more.

[@ignatiocabron]

@@devilmikey00 i sense seethe, cope and mald in this comment.

[@kylemulkey9659]

Also I have that exact Steam Machine. Its great, it fits under my TV, plays a bunch of older games that don't have high requirements, controller works great and I installed an ssd and added 16gb of ram so it runs super quick

[@softxpandguest708]

I'm one of the freaks who absolutely *loves* my steam controller, and I really hope theres a version two before mine die. Not only is it the best HTPC remote ever made, it's awesome for racing games (especially Rocket League), which is about all I use a controller for anyway.

[@icanrunat3200mhz]

The Zune's amp + DAC sounds better than any iPod. The Zune desktop program was somehow a worse experience than iTunes on Windows, and the interface on the Zune itself was similarly horrible, but the hardware was top-tier. The original battery in my 80 gig model still holds a charge for multiple days.

[@AlabamaJones901]

I had a Amazon Fire Phone, and kinda liked it. Just didn't like Fire OS, once you flashed the Nexus ROM on it it was a good phone

[@cyberfox7249]

Same here. I flashed a nexus rom, too. I hated the fire os so much, but if someone doesn't know much about tech, then yeah, not really a phone for them

[@shawnhudgins8419]

The VHS win against Beta was more about the length of time you could record to the tape than it was about porn. The VHS allowed people to record a full American Football game where Beta did not have the length to do it. There were many other variables that caused VHS to win out, but the porn angle was a myth at best.

[@cyberwomble7524]

"Beta did not have the length to do it" - sounds like porn to me...

[@RyanKuebel]

It actually was because JVC rightfully guessed that people would want to rent movies eventually and made deals with movie studios to release movies on VHS.

[@VintageFenrir]

Fun fact: If you go out into international waters, you are either bound by the laws of the country the ship is registered in, or you are bound by the laws of the country you left from. You aren't free to do anything you want.

[@fantom0369]

the real issue with the Wii-U was the name of it, nobody I knew bought it because they thought it was an accessory for the Wii. if Nintendo named it the Super Nintendo Wii I have no doubt it wold have sold well

[@Tagiau]

they tried to repeat the 3ds name. Sadly just adding a letter to the end doesn't do as much as saying it's the third ds, and also a 3d ds.

[@bandito241]

Yep. I was one of those since I never found the tablet like controller anywhere. When I found out what it was I was so mad.

[@SakuraAvalon]

Nah. The Wii U had way more issues than that. -The reveal: One of the biggest mistakes, was the initial reveal. It made it look like the gamepad was an add on for the Wii, not a controller for a new console. And this overshadowed the reveal of their new console, as they had to spend time trying to undo the damage. -The marketing sucked: From the lack of commercials, to the commercials targeting kids, the lack of explaining how this was different from the Wii/not just the gamepad to the casual market, the message was a complete mess. -They tried to appeal to two demographics and failed. It tried to be more hardcore, to get back those who wrote off the Wii, but the name, the gamepad, and the anemic hardware was a turn off It couldn't let go of the Wii audience, so it carried over the naming convention, and the gimmick controller, but was too complex to sell like the Wii. -The gamepad was never fully justified, and its price, made lowering the price of the Wii U too much for Nintendo to swallow. Leaving the Wii U unable to get a solid price cut to let people in. -The games(or more so the lack of) While the Wii U had some solid games, it did not have a lot. And due to the anemic hardware, and poor install base, the Wii U struggled to get third party to support it, leaving Nintendo to pick up the slack. Which they couldn't. This lead to the Wii U suffering intense droughts, making the system an even harder sell for people. While also causing some Wii U owners to ditch the system. Look, I loved my Wii U. But let's not pretend the name was the only thing holding it back.

[@JechtAruon]

I loved my note 7 as it had a great program for editing pictures. I used this for putting a Picture in Picture and adding a banner you could add text and I use for the machine settings where I worked at. It was a great way to organize all the different settings for quick reference. Then I got a note 9 and that feature was gone in photo editing. Wished Samsung kept that feature on the notes as it was really handy.

[@mrunderhooks4798]

Did it blow up after u wrote this?

[@JechtAruon]

@@mrunderhooks4798 nope I never had an issue with the phone. Charging or using the phone if never got hot and was quite cool.

[@lordcorgi6481]

The Wii U is still a great console. I think the biggest problem is that people that didn't know what it was thought it was a $300 accessory for the Wii.

[@bforster2237]

It reminded me of when the SNES came out and the parents being upset that it wouldn't play the NES games, again the people with the money not understanding it's a completely new and different system

[@Acid_Ash]

@@bforster2237Well honestly most probably did know it was a different console but were mad because they're kid or they couldn't play the games they already had on a new console. I mean if I was a parent that'd piss me off too. Cuz if the nes got too old or the carriage slot didn't work my kid will have to ask for a whole new library and I already spent a bunch of money to so my family has a good Christmas

[@bforster2237]

@@Acid_Ash right that's what I'm saying it was that people really didn't understand what it was, not parents were upset about the same exact thing. (I had both conversations one with my mom explaining the SNES was a completely different system, Then again with my wife explaining the WiiU was a completely different system because she didn't want to buy a Wii tablet for our 10 year old son.) It was a poor choice in marketing if the snes had been called the Nintendo FX and the WiiU was called the Nintendo Flex or whatever to separate it from the previous generation more people would understand it's something new and has nothing to do with the previous generation.

[@slob5041]

The Wii U had no real games for a year and was really really slow

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

There were WAAAAY more problems than that

[@TheLegoNation]

Wii U is underrated and overhated

[@WolftenDragon]

I still have mine lol Nintendo just didn’t treat it right 😢 it had a lot of potential

[@AlabamaJones901]

I still want one

[@itscaptaincakes]

I loved the Wii U I was surprised how hated it truly was for other people

[@pongchannel.]

Not really as an owner it was kinda bad

[@Ellivation]

I didn’t know Scott the Woz had a burner account!

[@AM562]

10:30 well another flaw with the zune is that you could only use music bought from Microsoft store. That I heard of. But I never had a zune so I don’t know if that is true but I think I heard that from a DankPods video a while ago

[@BruhHowDidIGetHere]

I loved my Zune HD. It was amazing and everyone always asked me what it was when I was using it in public.

[@Standard-Gamer]

2:55 It hasn't been entirely forgotten. Apple fanboys who've never owned an Android phone like to bring it up when all of their other arguments about why Apple is better inevitably fail.

[@DragonManMike]

Hey Austin and crew! I've got a project going right now where I am putting a modern ITX gaming PC into the shell of an old iMac. Its been a huge challenge but I would love to watch you guys take on the same challenge!

[@Tagiau]

No matter what you do to the internals, it will never make a g3 have a good enough screen to be used. Like 2nd gen intel imac is the earliest with a good enough screen, but you're not fitting a gpu into that.

[@TyGamer0426]

I enjoyed my time with the wiiU I loved using the pad for the item screen in Zelda Twilight Princess and the "instant transform into wolf" button.

[@Slackerdude74]

The Wii U was imo the best Nintendo console, and I have had all of them from the NES when I was alittle kid to the Switch now. I really did like the Wii U, and I really liked the touchscreen on the controller and the games that used it was great.

[@ringringbananarchy]

Matt was wrong about the Zune. The whole "no reason it failed other than perception". I had one for about a day. Back then I had a really tiny HD on my computer, and liked to keep all my music on my player (I had previously had a Creative Zen player, which was fantastic). I got the Zune 64 gig, and loaded 20 gigs onto my computer, because that was all i could fit, and then loaded it onto the Zune....then I erased the music from my HD and put a new 20 gigs worth of music. The Zune ERASED everything I had previously put on the player, and just loaded the new stuff. Because it forced synced what was on the computer it was synced to. When I contacted Microsoft for a solution they basically said that it was working as intended, and that is what their research showed that people wanted, and it was the only way it worked, you couldn't change it. The usual Microsoft BS "We decide what you like and need".

[@MSUHitman]

The best use of Google Glass I ever saw was Dan Ryckert of Giant Bomb fame using it to record his appearances as manager for an indie pro wrestling tag team in the San Francisco area playing the persona of the 21st century rich heel manager.

[@jsutrov]

hoodslam?

[@idrivehoopties]

@@jsutrovwelcome to the jam

[@R3AL-AIM]

Is OnLive on here? 😭😂 Pre-video prediction. How did that work better than in home streaming today, yet flop so hard?

[@ThatSashaBee]

What happened to the controller in the thumbnail? As for the Wii U personally I think it’s main issue was that it only marketed the gamepad and so generally people thought oh it’s just an attachment for the Wii? The Zune could have still worked if it came out a little later because one of the issues people had was that you couldn’t own your music kinda like now with music streaming services. I’m very happy that Amazon phone failed The Samsung one they’ve still not fully fixed that battery issue if I remember correctly MrWhosetheboss did a video on it. Google glass or Microsoft HoloLens I think could be a cool idea I think AR seems like something people could use in day to day life where as VR is helpful for training. My only question for any AR product is can we either make is so it can go over regular glasses 🤓 otherwise you’re gonna need to make it possible to get them with prescription lenses. I’m surprised the PSVita not on this list

[@mac3rdc]

The Zune was fantastic. I loved the Zune and even with its flaws, the PC app was better than iTunes. I honestly hoped Windows phones turned out better. I even had one. If they would have just got their heads out of their *sses and provided all of the same apps as Apple and Android, they would still have been competitive now.

[@TherealBlackheart]

1000%

[@bandito241]

I agree with you 100% specially with the PC app just being outright better.

[@deltasixgaming]

I had the First Zune that you could load Mp4 Files on and I remember having Multiple Movies on it

[@questionmark2459]

Yep I had a custom engraved zune hd and I loved it so much

[@bigt7229]

zune gang, software was basically Spotify before it became a thing

[@bottledwaterprod]

The ZUNE! I worked at a Gamestop when they came out and I wanted one. Partly because my 2nd gen iPod developed a mind of it's own after I dropped it on ice, but still. Hell, I still want one! I hate having my music get interrupted by phone notifications. No matter what settings I change, the app updates, and then suddenly my jam sessions are cut short again.

[@elijahvincent985]

Galaxy Home... a.k.a. standing Cow Udders. Guess you can say Samsung MILKED the expectations from that. The results of the product's reputation was UDDER-LY ridiculous. The public had a COW about it.

[@packers12to80]

Fun fact about the wii u....it'll be one of the most sought after systems 10 yrs from now for Nintendo collectors...outside of the GameCube it's already up there.

[@sshuraii]

The “it’s over $1500” threw me for a loop. 😂

[@KagatoAsuka]

The Zune failed due to Microsoft's own kill switch that destroyed every single Zune that was bought on Black Friday for cheap when it made its most sales. They literally pushed out an update one day that completely bricked every single brown Zune that people bought during Black Friday a year later.

[@joekopel]

I still have my Note 7... Never had an issue and refused to give it up. Verizon dropped me because of it.... Biggest issue for me is they disabled Oculus use with it... Making my VR set useless

[@elijahgibbins7746]

The Zune was legend!!! Don't you come at my nostalgia Austin lol

[@coffeecat086]

Dash buttons!!!!! I had one for diapers and one for wipes when my son was an infant. I hooked it to the Amazon brand stuff and checked my cart and orders every time because, just good practice, and it always worked fine. Those got moved when he was old enough to be fascinated with it because click click clickity buttons! 😂

[@Tagiau]

The zune had the most storage of any mp3 player of it's time. The screen on the hd made the ipod look like the screen in my 93 cosmo. I bought an iBuyPower steam machine. It got used twice, and then became a really awkward talking piece.

[@cameronbosch1213]

The Newton was the basis for the iPhone and the Steam Machines basically were the foundation for the Steam Deck's dominance this year. The other devices I agree though.

[@Otterplus]

6:21 I have my personal head canon about bixby and how garbage it is. Imo it was a calculated move. Not that Samsung couldn’t do better, they chose not to. Why would they do that, you might ask? Because there needed to be a poor performer in the climate of Siri, Alexa, and Google assistant. At the time Alexa was early, but had lots of potential. Google assistant was new, but even with a proprietary launcher Samsung didn’t want to seem like “just another android manufacturer”. Plus the looming fear Siri would take customers fully from the android market share. So now that Bixby has cemented it’s position as a smoldering garbage heap the company can rise anew with a fully fleshed out Google assistant and OneUI and leave Bixby (and Touchwiz) firmly in the past as public steppingstones. It’s like a kid in school that purposefully sandbags their grades so expectations aren’t too high. They get by being a solid C student knowing they can fly by with As if they so chose.

[@_Tree]

The Amazon Phone came and went like a nightclub in Alaska 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@imthemachelper]

I’ve sort of stepped away from being extremely into tech, but watching this video is bringing back memories of all these tech gadgets that I thought were cool, but now don’t look cool at all.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

The Zune rocked! It was such a good music player. I had every version of it. Def too late to market to really compete, but such a great device.

[@theINQBS]

Apple always had a single click button up to when the Puck Mouse was introduced in 1997 BUT!!! For those of us Old School Mac guys, we ALWAYS pressed the control key to initiate the Right-Click and many of us still to this day do so for certain functions. So in essence, we've ALWAYS had the right click, and the Puck mouse's real issue was not being able to FEEL the correct orientation without looking at it sometimes.

[@ManiacalNut]

Dude I didn't know what a Zune was until my fiance had one. I was in LOVE with it! I still hate iphone/ipod and miss the Zune =/ The one I had was fully touch screen with a home button, with capability to play games. Also how I found Audiosurf in 2012 or 2011

[@McFlyOrPie]

14:50 Can y'all make a "This Is Extended" Channel and include all the "boring", real nerdy stuff?

[@joshuabrazile]

The “no porn on Betamax” thing has been debunked plenty of times. There was no way to police what people put on video and porn on Beta did exist. There was even porn on Laserdisc. Consumer Beta formats failed because of recording times. Beta 1 speeds were killed very early in consumer machines because you could only get about 30 minutes on a Beta cassette. They introduced Beta 2 and 3 speeds to try and compete with VHS LP and SLP speeds. Tapes back then were expensive, so people really wanted the longest recording times possible in spite of the slowest recording speeds looking and sounding like crap. VHS won the recording time war. Beta moved into the prosumer and professional space and thrived.

[@MSUHitman]

The Zune had better audio than the iPod and it's PC software was better than iTunes. I will die on the hill that the Zune was superior to the iPod.

[@keithbrown7685]

I thought the deal with VHS was recording time. People could record a two-hour movie on VHS, whereas Beta didn't/couldn't make it that long.... at first, but by the time they did, VHS had done the win-by-the-numbers trick.

[@roperaustraman4445]

The Wii Ü was great, I lived in a 450 square foot apartment and I could play on the game pad anywhere in the house without connection issues. I would often use it to watch Netflix and cook with the game pad in the kitchen, while my gf watched on the tv in the living room. Now I have to queue something up on the phone app and try to sync the time between the two 🤦‍♂️

[@nicolebrown1874]

I bought a Wii U last week, and GOD I love the gamepad. It's so comfortable playing Splatoon with it.

[@stlasmith]

I still have my zune. Yes, I was too cool for iPods. Now I’m a sheep, bah!!!

[@justjoe1071]

I still have my ZuneHD. I swear by it still as a standalone music device, even holding the power to take advantage of my 250ohm headphones. Oled is king and ease of access is blessed.

[@RobertMichaelWalker]

Nah remember the Zune came out years after the iPod video but it was a year before the iPod touch. It was a great device. Fully featured. Even had an FM radio.. It should NOT have failed. That poop color didn't help lol. Also they had those little ones to compete with the Nano. Still have mine prominently displayed in a case lol

[@noreen6474]

I love your contents guys. No disrespect but it helps me fall asleep.

[@MinorLG]

The fire phone released? I never knew it actually came out

[@allenellisdewitt]

Your comments on the Wii U seem to show that you do not have other people to live with in the same living room. Being able to be together without hogging the screen: Huge. Being able to easily play multiplayer games together? Huge. Just was too early.

[@ChrisLincoln]

I love my WiiU! No, I don't have a lot of games, but the ones I have I love, plus the Virtual Console was great.

[@erronr]

Matt, where's that shirt from?! I want one.

[@bottledwaterprod]

Heeyyy! You skipped the "boring part"? I'm an amateur filmmaker and restorer/enthusiast of tech history and I wanted to hear the Betamax talk. I actually almost bought a sealed Betamax player not long ago for digitization and preservation.

[@MisterBail3y]

So you touch on BetaMax and skip over HD DVD vs Blu Ray lol which Blu Ray also won because of the adult movies lol

[@bioLarzen]

I would say the Fire phone basically flopped because it was little more than a device to direct its users to the amazon site to make purchases - but at a price point of genuine and actually good smartphones.

[@floodmaster]

Ok, hear me out with the iMac bit-- you can actually hack together a cable that lets you use the CRT as a display. I'm not kidding, you can put an M1/m2 motherboard in there and do adapter magic to use the original CRT as the display.

[@Flegz1]

Amazing video! Keep up the great work!

[@mlosuno402]

I had two Zunes. The HD design would still make a great phone design even today!

[@Musicswagg86]

Blowing up was a feature not a flaw of the note 7. Case use: girlfriend asks to see your phone You: hey google, self-destruct

[@ronanvelarde8072]

I'm surprised that the AMD fx cpu aren't here or the nvidia 400 series gpu

[@Pigmoxd]

iMac se?

[@repurpos6665]

It would be great to see a colab between this is and dankpods. 🎉 great video as always

[@marcmardini6873]

Never before have I needed something so much and not realized it

[@pessimisticdiabetic717]

I love the wii U SO MUCH, especially with keeping the digital shop, but it’s definitely true that not many games used the gamepad, but it was still very awesome.

[@DctrGizmo]

I actually remember trying out the Google Glass in New York years ago!

[@blazefoster4715]

Can someone drop a link for Matt’s shirt please. It looks cool as hell

[@nickjohnson7866]

Remember when the galaxy home was a MKBHD April fools joke..

[@digydog205]

Yo the zune had a subscription service! It’s was Spotify before Spotify!! Thought Matt was gonna say that…

[@durrell246]

It did, but coming out a year after the iPod Video and having a clunky ecosystem that you had to use, which Microsoft promptly stopped supporting killed it. iPods still have a cult following because Apple still supported them up until last year, but the Zune was largely a paperweight less than 3 years after launch.

[@pillsnpiegaming]

also international waters still has laws unless you are not on a boat or vessel, the laws of the country where the boat/ship is registered would be the laws you have to follow in international waters. coastal patrols just don't generally take place in international waters.

[@CurveTheRain]

I loved my Zune! Despite brown being a real weird choice it looked good!

[@gabinomorales106]

I still rock my zune! And I “unlocked” my wiiU in Tijuana to make it a Nintendo powerhouse. Some products get better once they get abandoned, like my psp vita that’s also unlocked and I have it filled with games!

[@brianmosleyb9104]

I own 2 Alienware steam machines currently, one upgraded and one totally stock.... The upgraded one runs my money pit driving sim and the other I use as a media center and for mild gaming. But with just a ram upgrade on an i3 model you'll see around 60fps on gta5 online for a real world example

[@gtijason7853]

PSP-Nes is also fun to say, because similar to orno-Pay it has 2 P's that are hard

[@giddySquirrell]

I loved my Zune!! That thing was a beast. No joke....I still have it on the charging stand on my desk.

[@clansvsme775]

The bixbie speaker looks a lot like the aliens from Chicken Little. XD

[@devrandvar]

I got a Fire phone for cheap when they got rid of a bunch of them on ebay and it was actually a really good phone once I rooted it and installed basically a stock android rom on it, I used it for about 4 years until the cellular died on it. I do not know what they where thinking releasing it in that state though. Amazon Fire OS was horrendous, it was barely even functional and all of the silly 3d effects had the phone running full tilt all of the time so it was slow, hot, and drained the battery, but once that was removed it had good battery life and excellent performance especially for the price that they were going for on ebay at the time. And RIP PSP, it died from embarrassment after that horrendous ad, lol.

[@bittertriumph2045]

I'm glad Matt loves the hard P.

[@dillonsukram9381]

4:15 I like that they ported many games to the switch. Mario Kart 8 sold 8mil copies on the WiiU, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 42mil on the switch. And for Mario 3D world, the slowest character in the switch port is faster than the fastest character in the WiU version, and it got a whole new mode!

[@geared4war]

Eat Up Martha. Oddly, I still have never watched a full episode of the Sampsons.

[@TetraSky]

I had a zune. It was ok. I just didn't like the software on the PC. It took the worst part of the ipod, in the way it NEEDED a software to put music on the device. It should've been as easy as drag and drop. But NOPE. Needed that stupid software that half worked and took forever to push the music on the zune.

[@rb1042]

the wii u you has an ibm power chip inside a ibm power chip. so it's still a wii and has a decent back catalog in that sense. very underrated console.

[@muneerfaizal7997]

My childhood in one video, i felt nostalgic watching this😂

[@aaronmiller6390]

You forgot the hddvd player for the 360 and HD dvds

[@sydneys207]

I've gotten to use a Newton before, they were actually... pretty cool for the time.

[@limelegacy5018]

they should do a review on the HyperScan

[@urk5204]

It's a shame the Zune failed, almost everyone who owned loved it, including myself. I had the Zune 2, and it was better than the iPod in every way. Shame it took a nasty fall onto a stone floor and died years after they were discontinued, or I'd still be using it!

[@slob5041]

When Steve Jobs was given the zune for the first time he immediately flung it in disgust at the design

[@kanedaku]

I had a Firephone! After six or seven years, it had only left my house twice, so I took it to my local CeX (English store) to sell and the young guy behind the counter had never heard of it 🙂 I never even took a 3D selfie, as I would have wanted to take it outdoors, and just never did.

[@morph8326]

worst tech Fails = Austin Evan LMFAO

[@JoshuaWilkesR]

Hey hey I want that ten minute conversation about betamx sirs lol

[@trevorbernd7699]

LTT put out a great video on D-VHS recently, it was really interesting

[@WillPlaysGames1993]

i still have my alienware alpha with windows 8.1 (has windows 10) it was the i3-4130t 8gbs of ram 500gb hdd and 860m 2gb its still a great little gaming pc for lite games or aaa games till 2014-16

[@CoMmAnDrX]

I had a Toshiba Gigabeat F40, loved it and was 10x better than the iPod.

[@INFINIEON1]

I always think back to the failed Apple wireless charging pad for the watch,iPhone and AirPods…sucks they never figured it out

[@dotapark]

Apple Hockey Puck mouse is so notorious, I kind of wanna use it tbh.

[@nouieg667]

A tech that needs to be revisited? The samsung pebble lol

[@SuperWaddle_dee756]

fact the zune was a rebatched I forgot if it was a creative player but they worked with a company and the design was the same that’s why it was a dpad though Microsoft did use new software but still it was rushed

[@JBPlaysGames1]

I'll never forget the Note 7, simply because it birthed my favorite GTA 5 mod ever. Iykyk.

[@jimmehrabbit]

I really enjoyed the fire phone. I still have mine. I still use it from time to time with wifi

[@smoothallday]

I’m definitely one of the odd ducks that actually liked the hockey puck mouse. I found it quite comfortable to use.

[@I_am_Allan]

ALSO ... Newton came out in 1998. Palm Pilot in 1997. The IBM Simon in 1994. So, it was technically the 3rd company to release a PDA.