Gadgetory

this past year we saw plenty of cool new technology there were smartwatches 4k televisions and Google glass but we also saw the death of many gadgets and services I'm Bridget Carey and in this special edition of CNET update we look back at some of the tech that we lost in 2013 Google is quick to try new things and it's also quick to kill products that don't work in July Google shut down reader it was a web-based RSS feed reader that launched in 2005 and people used it to keep up with news from their favorite websites but when it closed sites like Digg and feebly rushed in to fill the hole it left behind this was also the final year for iGoogle it also debuted in 2005 and it lit users customized their home page with widgets but it met its end in November many bloggers were upset with the death of Posterous the service that challenged tumblr it was shut down April 30th after being acquired by Twitter a year earlier Posterous first launched in 2008 Microsoft hotmail was moved over to outlook calm over the summer those with a hotmail email address could keep their name but everything was just moved to Outlook com this was the year where Microsoft admitted defeat and killed the tag it was its own alternative to the black and white QR code this box of colorful triangles was used by many advertisers and magazines but scanning codes with a special app never took off with the public this summer Yahoo shut down one of the oldest search engines AltaVista it launched in 1995 and yahoo ended up acquiring Alta Vista in 2003 most folks were surprised yahoo kept it alive all this time we lost an old friend in Winamp the multimedia player that was the first software many people used to play mp3s it was huge in the 90s a well owned it and decided it wasn't worth keeping around anymore many folks thought otherwise and started a petition on Safeway navcom we're seeing the evolution of digital media and 3d TV is not working out ESPN dropped its 3d sports channel and now it's focusing on new tech like 4k resolution one of the most unexpected losses this year was from Apple it killed the one-year-old iPhone 5 and replaced it with the 5c usually Apple keeps old models around and just lowers the price but the biggest loss for technology this year is the panasonic plasma TV the company announced it is no longer making plasmid and that's unfortunate because Panasonic's plasmas are the favorite television of the seen it review steam these TVs hit the sweet spot of value and performance but plasma has been losing market share to LCDs and looking ahead to 2014 let's see if blackberry can make it out alive from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey