I might be the only one, but there are some things that I really miss that were replaced by new technology or trends.

Phones with keyboards

I loved my Sidekick 3 in high school. Also had an HTC G1 Android phone with a physical keyboard.

Translucent plastic designs

Whether it was N64s or iMacs, there was such a fun element to some products with the colored plastic. A lot of stuff today feels almost too utilitarian/sleek/minimal.

Zune

Probably the least relatable to most people, but I miss my Zune. Maybe others had a favorite MP3 player. Now we just have our phones.

Curious to hear if anyone else has any tech or tech trends they miss!

I miss my phone with the pull out keyboard!! They should make it to where you can use two phones on one number because I'd totally rock an old phone too. I had a Samsung intensity (not sure which model) and I could type so fast on that thing. I hope "retro" becomes cool soon because i'd love a smart phone with a pull out keyboard.

You and I have the same misses :)

I also really miss phones with keyboards.

I loved the Dreamcast's VMU and wish that was still a thing. Especially as I loved StreetPass on the 3DS and I feel it could work well with a similar feature for Switch.

I also miss MSN Messenger, honestly...

I pretty much always carry a Game Boy and iPod with me. I've been doing that for about seven years now. (My favorite was when I attended a book conference several years ago in NYC. I was playing Pokémon Yellow as I was standing in lines waiting to meet authors. Three people came up to me—they had brought their own Game Boys and were all playing Pokémon too!)

I also had a Creative Zen mp3 player that I loved. It was the credit card sized model. Looking back on it, not the best mp3 player in the world but I loved how sleek it was and spent hours customizing the wallpaper.

Also loved my Palm Pilot lol. I wanted to write stories in the car on that thing but spent most of my time playing games, drawing pictures, and trying to upload as many movies as possible on it because I dreamed of a day when I could have access to my favorite movies on a pocketable device.

Oekaki boards.

Does Twitter count?

On 3/26/2025 at 9:16 AM, pokejungle said:

Translucent plastic designs

Whether it was N64s or iMacs, there was such a fun element to some products with the colored plastic. A lot of stuff today feels almost too utilitarian/sleek/minimal.

100% this.

On 4/6/2025 at 12:53 PM, Sakuramei said:

I also miss MSN Messenger, honestly...

MSN Messenger came to mind for me too haha. Even AIM was fun, but never as sleek looking as MSN.

On the topic of MSN/AIM, I remember using those programs that let you have all your messaging apps in one lol. I remember using Trillian for awhile, which apparently still exists as a messaging app https://www.trillian.im/