10 Useful Products that Got the Axe, Will Be Sorely Missed (Or Not)

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 02 Nov 2016

Vine, the short-form video sharing service that Twitter acquired back in 2012, is going the way of the dodo. Twitter recently announced that it will discontinue the Vine mobile app in the "coming months."

The Vine app and website remain online for now, with Twitter promising that it will notify the users well in advance of any changes to the app or website.

Vine getting the axe comes amid massive layoffs at Twitter. The company is working on cutting down costs, which unfortunately means laying off 350 people, 9% of its staff.

Vine got the axe and there’s nothing you can do about it. Perhaps you’ll feel better when you find out that 9 other products shared its fate.

The iPhone 4 is officially obsolete



On October 31st, Apple added all iPhone 4 models to its list of vintage and obsolete products. The smartphone is listed as vintage in the US and obsolete in the rest of the world.

Apple uses the term "vintage" when referring to devices that have not been manufactured for more than 5 and less than 7 years ago. And it uses the term "obsolete" when referring to products that were discontinued more than 7 years ago.

Alongside the iPhone 4, Apple added the late 2010 13-inch MacBook Air, third-generation AirPort Extreme, and mid 2009 AirPort Time Capsule to its vintage and obsolete products list.


HTC ends support for its Android browser, HTC Internet




HTC, Google’s official manufacturing partner for the Pixel smartphone, will no longer support its Android web browser, HTC Internet. Come November 30, the browser will be discontinued and pulled from the Play Store.

HTC advises customers to export their bookmarks and switch to another web browser because after November 30, the browser won’t get any more updates.


Windows Essentials 2012 is close to reaching end of life



The Windows Essentials 2012 suite of programs is on its last leg. Microsoft will stop supporting the suite come January 10, 2017. The suite will no longer be available for download and will not get any updates after that date.

You can continue to use Windows Essentials 2012 after it reaches end of life; already installed applications will continue to work. But you need to know that there’s an increased security risk associated with use of unsupported products past their end of support date.


Goodbye Google Cast, hello Google Home



The Google Cast app for iOS and Android has been rebranded as Google Home. Not to be confused with the small, white, voice-activated speaker that Google unveiled at I/O 2016, which is also called Google Home.

This isn’t the first time that the app gets rebranded. Before being known as Google Cast, it was known as Chromecast.


Microsoft killed the Lumia Offers app



The Lumia Offers app for Windows Phone 8.1 (or newer) has been removed from the Store. Users who open the app are greeted with a message that says "we’ve integrated our offers and promotions right in the Windows Store."


Going free wasn’t enough to keep Evolve alive



This summer, Turtle Rock Studios tried to breathe some new life into Evolve, its first-person shooter video game, by making it free-to-play. It didn’t work out, because Turtle Rock recently announced that it no longer plans to support the game.

"Seems like the greater things you aspire to, the more time it takes. We had huge aspirations for Evolve, and while we got to spend five and a half awesome years on planet Shear with a ragtag group of Planet Tamers and fearsome Monsters, it still doesn’t feel like enough - we were hungry for more but unfortunately today is the last day that Turtle Rock Studios can work on Evolve," said Turtle Rock Studios co-founder Chris Ashton.


Google Fiber is taking a break, won’t roll out to new cities



If you were excited that Google Giber was coming to your city and you’d get super-fast internet access, I have some bad news for you. Things aren’t going well for Google Fiber. CEO Craig Barratt stepped down, Google acknowledged there would be job cuts, and all operations in potential Fiber cities have been halted.

"We’re ever grateful to these cities for their ongoing partnership and patience, and we’re confident we’ll have an opportunity to resume our partnership discussions once we’ve advanced our technologies and solutions,” said Craig Barratt.


Verizon buys and shuts down former Hulu CEO’s startup, Vessel



Vessel, a video subscription service created by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, has been bought by Verizon. Verizon is interested in the Vessel technology and product, but not the Vessel service. Consequently, the Vesel service has been sunset.


Upgrade your OS to keep using the Google Drive desktop app



Because Microsoft is no longer actively supporting Windows XP, Vista, and Server 2003, Google has decided to stop supporting them as well.

Come January 1, 2017, the Google Drive desktop app will no longer be supported on these Windows editions. The app will continue to work, but it will not be actively tested and maintained.



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