Things that you tho...
 

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[Closed] Things that you thought would never catch on, but did...

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I can remember about 25 years ago when mobile phones first started appearing on the scene and having a chat with my step-father and saying that they would never become popular because everyone had a phone at home and did not need to have a mobile...

How wrong I was!!!


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:15 am
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iPads, I described them as a solution looking for a problem...


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:17 am
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29ers. 🙂


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:17 am
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Internet forums. 😕


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:19 am
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Posts about clever logos.

😯


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:19 am
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That rash...


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:21 am
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not eating processed carbs


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:22 am
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Twitter
Facebook
JLS
Skinny Jeans
High protein lifestyles


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:26 am
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Mountain biking, in a country without any proper mountains (no shut up cos they're just big hills don't try kidding yourself).

Camelbaks.

London Cycle Hire Scheme.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:29 am
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Mountain biking... 😆

A few mates got mtbs in the mid-late 80s, but mainly rode them on the road (due to absence of much in the way of trail network - legal or otherwise).

Couldn't see the point - paying more money for a Muddy Fox (or whatever...), heavy frame made of scaffold bars, inefficient upright riding position and horrible draggy tractor tyres...

... pahhh, mountain biking - that'll never catch on 😳


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:30 am
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Text messages. Worked in a phone shop in the early days of mobile phones. When the 'new' digital handsets came in with "short message service" as a selling feature, couldn't work out why anyone wouldn't just phone instead. How wrong I was....


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:30 am
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oh, and diesel cars


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:33 am
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iPhones

still don't understand how they caught on now!


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:33 am
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iPads, I described them as a solution looking for a problem...

So did I, and I stand by it.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:36 am
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JLS

Seriously? Are you 'king crazy?! As soon as I saw little Aston's face I knew big tings a gwaaan.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:36 am
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So did I, and I stand by it.

A company I did some work for out in Sweden had used them to replace pen and paper as note taking devices in meetings. For people who don't require a laptop for number crunching they're perfect, small, fast and simple to use.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:39 am
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Snorting vodka.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:41 am
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Tablet computers

( as other brands of solutions looking for problems are available 🙂 )

Facebook/Myspace/Tw*tter/blogs.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:45 am
 nbt
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A company I did some work for out in Sweden had used them to replace pen and paper as note taking devices in meetings. For people who don't require a laptop for number crunching they're perfect, small, fast and simple to use

Pad & pen = £2.50 ish?
IPAD = £500 (guessing here)

you;d have to be taking an [i]AWFUL[/i] lot of notes and getting though serious amounts of ink and paper to justify an ipad as anything more than a toy in that situation


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:45 am
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Seriously? Are you 'king crazy?! As soon as I saw little Aston's face I knew big tings a gwaaan
(further) off-topic
Was in LA airport the other day, going through security when these 2 geezers, all tats, vest and backwards caps came down the posh people's lane. We'd arrived at the desk at the same time and the 2 lads waved us (family of 4) through before them. The security guy was having none of it & told us to wait for the 1st class poshos to pass. Cap / tats geezer apologised & wandered through with his mate.

... Was only little Aston and one of his other chums ! 😯
(apparently - HTF should I know ?. Wife wasn't sure & kids didn't dare ask them. Shame, no screaming crowds, I reckon it'd have been nice if they'd at least said hello to him 🙁 )


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:49 am
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iPads, I described them as a solution looking for a problem...

I tend to agree with this still. However, you have to hand it to Apple that either they have had a genius idea (and execution) and saw what none of us could see or they got quite lucky and their "brand" saw people adopting it as a device without really thinking about what they were going to use it for vs how much they were paying.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:50 am
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Pad & pen = £2.50 ish?
IPAD = £500 (guessing here)

you;d have to be taking an AWFUL lot of notes and getting though serious amounts of ink and paper to justify an ipad as anything more than a toy in that situation

10 people, billing at ~£50/hour, one meetings already cost you £500. Minutes sent instantly after the meeting, not 2 weeks later when someone types up a half remembered version. We take our important notes on a laptop/PC as the chairman might be on £1000/day so you don't want to have to run the meeting twice!

Can't see the benifit over a £200 netbook though.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 9:54 am
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Thongs.
Bit tight, bit cutting, bit itchy.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:01 am
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Blu-rays. I didn't think they were different enough from DVDs.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:08 am
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I totally "get" iPads. Sure, they may not be as versatile as a good laptop, but if they do what you need them to do there is no nicer way to do it. I'd love one, but recognise it is a luxury. Oh, and to qualify, this is all in my humble opinion 🙂

Back to the OP, may I suggest Love Film? I've tried 3 times to make the most of this service, but find it inconvenient and expensive. The online on-demand service is the way to go if only they had some more recent titles.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:13 am
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suspension on bikes

oh yes and 'anyone' being able to buy stuff on line (i.e. not just computer geeks like me)


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:14 am
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Blu-rays. I didn't think they were different enough from DVDs.

Good one. Blu Ray disks don't offer enough over a DVD to get me excited, but Blu Ray players are infinitely more versatile than a DVD player. Best value gadget I've bought in years.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:14 am
 timc
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nbt - Member

Pad & pen = £2.50 ish?
IPAD = £500 (guessing here)

you;d have to be taking an AWFUL lot of notes and getting though serious amounts of ink and paper to justify an ipad as anything more than a toy in that situation

How short sighted...

Here is one small example for you, as soon a meeting is done, everyone in the company around the world can have the notes in their inbox.

Gods sake, do you still use an abacus in work 🙄


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:17 am
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dubstep


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:17 am
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WRT the iPad,

I don't disagree that it's a shiny, desirable piece of kit, or that it's very good at what it does, or that there are niche applications where it is the best tool for the job.

My point was solely in the spirit of the thread topic; to wit, I'm surprised that it's as popular as it is amongst the great unwashed.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:17 am
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Rock n Roll.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:21 am
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iPad

Agree entirely on this. Made no sense to me. Stupid pointless big iPhones with no phone potential. Just couldn't see the point.

Then I used one and instantly changed my stupid, closed mind. They're brilliant.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 10:33 am
 Ewan
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The point of an iPad is that you can use it to surf the net whilst watching telly. As far as I can make out anyway. I want one...


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 11:09 am
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The point of an iPad is that you can use it to surf the net whilst watching telly. As far as I can make out anyway. I want one...

?????

cant you do that on a laptop or have i missed something? (not meaning to sound sarcastic!)


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 11:36 am
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Alan Sugar once said that iPod's would never catch on!


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 11:46 am
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everyone had a phone at home and did not need to have a mobile

nobody 'needs' a mobile


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 11:49 am
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Beyond a roof over your head, food in your stomach and a fire on the go, nobody [i]needs[/i] anything.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 11:52 am
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dubstep

yep, still baffles me to this day.....


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:05 pm
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10 people, billing at ~£50/hour, one meetings already cost you £500. Minutes sent instantly after the meeting, not 2 weeks later when someone types up a half remembered version. We take our important notes on a laptop/PC as the chairman might be on £1000/day so you don't want to have to run the meeting twice!

no body needs that money why not make the world a better place by beating his brains out with the Ipad..


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:05 pm
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no body needs that money why not make the world a better place by beating his brains out with the Ipad..

Sometimes brains can be a bit difficult to locate though, don't you think?


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:07 pm
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Beyond a roof over your head, food in your stomach and a fire on the go, nobody needs anything.

Isn't 'information' i.e. broadband/internet now considered to be a human right or something?


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:08 pm
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muller fruit corner. they took the fruit out, so you have to put it in yourself and they charge you for it.

bonkers.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:11 pm
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google+

oh wait...


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:12 pm
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Ipads....is it not just a laptop in pretty Apple packaging?.....or am I not Hipster enough to 'get it'....

Dubstep......pure shite.....I'm old enough to remember the late 80s and the emergence of house music, I've passionately defended all genres of dance music and still love house, early rave stuff, Techno and drum & bass....but dubstep is truly awful.

Skinny jeans on men.....no no No!....you instantly look like a bender.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:17 pm
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Beyond a roof over your head, food in your stomach and a fire on the go, nobody needs anything.

Clothes? Just think about that heffalump 52 stone woman naked, feel sick now (and not in a perverted way).


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:19 pm
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Clothes? Just think about that heffalump 52 stone woman naked, feel sick now (and not in a perverted way).

This puts a different slant on things. She doesn't need to wear clothes to survive, WE need that she wears clothes. 😕


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:22 pm
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CDs. Remember boldly saying that hmv were mistaken moving all the vinyl upstairs to allow CDs to take prime space.'who the he'll is going to replace all of their collections'.
Doh!


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 12:58 pm
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muller fruit corner. they took the fruit out, so you have to put it in yourself and they charge you for it.

bonkers.

NO! It's a great idea, in the same way I like to put custard on my crumble rather than have a messy crumble-custard amalgam 🙂


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 1:30 pm
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650b.

Oh wait..


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 1:33 pm
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Ipads....is it not just a laptop in pretty Apple packaging

Not really, no.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 1:35 pm
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The Euro..


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 1:36 pm
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CDs. Remember boldly saying that hmv were mistaken moving all the vinyl upstairs to allow CDs to take prime space.'who the he'll is going to replace all of their collections'.
Doh!

I thought buying music online would never catch on. Stumping up £8-£10 for an album and not have anything physical to show for it? No thanks.

😆 Five or six years later and i wouldn't dream of buying a CD.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 1:41 pm
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Five or six years later and i wouldn't dream of buying a CD.

My issue with it is you havent bought an album for five or six years either.

Burried deep in Apples user agreement is a clause that says you never actualy own anything, just the right to listen to it. Whereas with CD's you were buying a limited ammount of copyright to make copies for personal use etc and so it's not just the lack of physical ownership that gets me, it's the lack of owning anything!


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 2:11 pm
 LsD
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Casual sodomy...


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 3:08 pm
 mos
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LsD,
that still hasn't caught on up my street 🙄


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 3:13 pm
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I remember 30 years ago, when I was young, my dad said 'no one will ever buy water in a bottle, you get it free out of the tap' 😆


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 3:16 pm
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My wife to my ebay-buying habits.

Hrrrummpf.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 3:26 pm
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The point of an iPad is that you can use it to surf the net whilst watching telly

Like I do with a laptop every evening, you mean 🙂

Tbh I'd rather have a laptop for that even if I had some other use for an iPad. It sits on my lap easily and because it folds in half I can type with my hands in a neutral position, see the screen and the tv over the top of it.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 3:32 pm
 emsz
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Animal print.

Definitely should've stayed on the catwalk.


 
Posted : 19/08/2011 4:36 pm

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