Here at CNET, we're always looking ahead to the next technology, the next in gadget, the next app.
We don't waste a lot of time getting sentimental about last year's tech or even that thing that was crazy hot just a month ago.
But at some point, you have to turn around and marvel at all the technologies that our lives used to revolve around that are now obsolete.
And I guess you're wondering about what gadgets we use today that our kids will only read about in the history books.
So, they may still have history books.
I'm Donald Bell, and in this Top 5, I'll be counting down the five technologies we use now that will soon be obsolete.
Starting off at number five, the home printer.
Now, maybe, this is just wishful thinking because I seriously hate these things.
You plug them in over USB and spend the next 20 minutes chasing down the driver.
You try to set them up over protected Wi-Fi network and it's like defusing a bomb.
As we move away from conventional computers and towards a life where there's an always-connected screen in our pockets all the time,
the compulsion to print something out at home will disappear and that flashing low ink indicator will just go unheated until you mercifully pull the plug.
Coming in at number four, keyboards.
You laugh now, but take a look around.
Today's kids are growing up with iPads as their first computers and not only are they totally at home on a touchscreen, but features like predictive text and auto-correct are as expected as Caps Lock.
Also, has anyone noticed how dictation software has become really good in the past
few years and is now part of both Android and iOS?
Now, you have to pry my crusty keyboard from my cold dead hands, but I won't change the fact that the computer keyboard, as we know it, is going away with the typewriter that you throw the mouse in there with it.
At number three, hard drives, at least hard disk drives, those spinning and roaring hard drives that are still found in the majority of computers these days.
Now, you can buy a 1-terabyte hard drive right now for under $80, but who cares?
Your music collection is out on Spotify.
Your photos are on Flickr and your documents are all on Google drive.
For everything else, solid-state drives are quickly becoming the norm.
They're fast and they're silent like the hard disk was taken out by a ninja, but at least, there will be a relatively painless death compared to this next guy, who I think is still in denial.
At number two, the pocket camera.
Now, it is almost impossible to buy a cellphone that isn't a smartphone.
Everyone suddenly has a decent
camera on them at all times and they don't really need another one.
Now, sure, the lens may not be as great and the storage may not be much, but it's always on you and you can always use it to blast out an Instagram of your lunch and the time it takes you to pick up your fork.
What's sad is that there's actually some amazing compact cameras out there right now, but unless something happens that suddenly kill off the smartphone, the pocket camera is going in the way of the dodo bird.
Now, before we get to the number one soon-to-be obsolete technology on this list, let's take a
moment of silence for the gadgets that have recently fallen into obscurity.
I still miss my zoom.
All right.
And now, the number one technology we live with today but will soon disappear sooner than you think, obstacle disks, DVDs, CDs, video games, even Blu-Rays, not only are we streaming and downloading most things these days, but the big media companies would be all too happy to stop manufacturing a re-saleable disk that they can't wrap their DRM around.
On the plus side, these things weren't such a great format to begin with.
I mean, how many movie nights had been ruined by a hairline scratch caused by just putting the DVD on a table?
It's enough to make you yearn for the days of VHS.
So there you go, five technologies you'll be telling your grand kids about, so we can get them to take off their Google goggles and pay attention to your old boring stories for more than five minutes.
More ways to waste everyone's time, head over to Top-5.cnet.com.
I'm Donald Bell.
Thanks for watching.
