Wired, Tired, Expired for 2012: From Stellar to Suck
Michael Calore
2012-12-24
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/12/wired-tired-expired/?pid=4182&viewall=true...
Longtime readers will be familiar with Wired/Tired/Expired, our snarky cultural scorecard that began appearing in the magazine way back at the dawn of Wired. (Actually, it started as Wired/Tired, and Expired was added in 2002.)
Not content to let a good idea sit on the shelf, we've asked product reviews editor Michael Calore, the office's most opinionated loudmouth, to weigh in on the topics most deserving of this year's honors. Actually, on second thought, maybe we should have let this sleeping dog lie.
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Payments
WIRED Venmo
It's a simple tool for sending money to your friends. Venmo is mobile-centric, so it's built to work over SMS. There are also simple apps for iOS, Android, and the web. Best of all, if you tie it to your regular debit card, there are no fees involved. Once you establish a tit-for-tat friend relationship with somebody, you can send them money just by typing a quick text. Venmo is simple, elegant and awesome. This year, I used it to pay a $5 bar tab, split a $32 charge for a pizza delivery, and buy a $1,000 bass guitar from a friend. And did I mention there are no fees?
TIRED PayPal
PayPal is getting long in the tooth, and it needs to innovate. Better systems for mobile micro-payments between consenting adults have emerged. Also, NFC-based credit systems like Google Wallet and POS systems like Square are planting flags in PayPal's potential growth areas. It's still popular on Craigslist, eBay (duh) and other near-anonymous person-to-person markets, but PayPal needs to unlock the social component of swapping cash if it's going to avoid getting passed.
EXPIRED Bitcoin
At the height of its popularity, Bitcoin was trumpeted as a viable alternative currency for the internet age, a monetary system engineered to prevent theft, gaming, and criminalization. Then came the malware, the black market, the legal ambiguities and The Man. Today, you can't even use it to buy Facebook stock.
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Note that iTunes also got an 'Expired' - so there's no point complaining to the author that Bitcoin still exists and is running fine. He knows - but just doesn't care.
that sucks. 
Wired: Vice. They stole the few marketable bits of Wired and added gobs of Gawker style snark. That's why they're still growing and selling ad space. 
Tired: Newsweek. They've living been on borrowed time (and oligarch money) since 1998, when Drudge scooped their embargoed Lewinsky bombshell.
Expired: Wired. Long past irrelevant, their 1996 highwater mark was Bruce Sterling reporting on mud-covered hippies and fun-loving Maker types at Burning Man.
