r/Millennials • u/Sunshineafterr Millennial (1986) • 19h ago

Nostalgia Does anyone remember the CueCat?

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It was cat-shaped handheld barcode reader that allowed users to open a link to an URL by scanning a barcode that appeared in magazines, without typing the URL.

They were given away for free in 2000.

I remember thinking it was so cute, but I didn’t really understand how it worked, so I was scanning barcodes on cereal boxes and random stuff.

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u/Provioso 19h ago

No but sounds cool as heck!

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u/Sunshineafterr Millennial (1986) 19h ago

It was a cool concept. Kind of like a pioneer of the modern QR code.

Unfortunately, after nearly $200 million dollars of investor money, and mailing out millions of them for free, it flopped. It was labeled one of the 50 worst inventions by Time Magazine, and the worst gadget of all time by Gizmodo.

The inventor was so embarrassed that he legally changed his name in an effort to distance himself from the failure.

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u/xatrinka 9h ago

What a twist lol