It’s time once again for a final look back at the technology that said farewell in 2025.
From stalwarts like Skype to Facebook Fact-checking, here are some of the most notable tech devices and services that PCMag reports have gone the way of the DoDo Bird this year. Don’t know what a DoDo Bird is? Exactly.
Apple Clips and Maps Flyover 3D
Apple released its Clips video editing and sharing app in 2017. In PCMag’s review, they noted that the biggest drawback was the added friction of having to open another app before posting a quick video to social media. These days, most social apps have built-in video editing, so Apple is putting its focus elsewhere; Clips shut down on Oct. 10.
In the Apple Maps 3D Flyover view, which combines satellite imagery with 3D models to create impressive views of major cities, reviewers called it “absolutely stunning.” But this year Apple unceremoniously yanked the feature from its mapping app. It was available within iOS 18, but Apple’s iOS 26 documentation removed all mention of it.
AOL Dial-Up
Can you hear that? It’s the sound of your mother yelling at you to get off the internet because she needs to use the phone. That was reality for those of us who lived with AOL dial-up, which screeched its way into our homes for a first taste of email, chat rooms, and AIM. You’d be forgiven for thinking it had died long ago, but it was still kicking—until Sept. 30, 2025, when the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser were discontinued.
Facebook Fact-Checking
Mark Zuckerberg kicked off 2025 by ditching Meta’s formal fact-checking program, which was put in place to counter the fake news that hit the site during the 2016 US presidential election cycle. Almost a decade later, however, Zuckerberg said Facebook would take a page from X and adopt a community notes approach. “This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content,” he said at the time. This came shortly before the second inauguration of Donald Trump, who once threatened to put the Meta CEO in prison for perceived misdeeds during the 2020 election.
Federal EV Tax Credit and Ford F-150 Lightning
President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill killed the $7,500 EV tax credit, effective Sept. 30. Supporters argued that it gave EVs an unfair advantage over their gas-powered counterparts, but the program also incentivized companies to build their cars in the US so their customers could take advantage of the credit.
Perhaps the end of the tax credit is why, following rumors in early November, Ford recently confirmed that it had ended production of the F-150 Lightning, and plans to relaunch the electric pickup truck as an “extended range electric vehicle” (EREV), a mix between a traditional hybrid and a full EV. “We’ll share timing and more details closer to launch,” a company spokesperson has stated.
Meta Quest Pro
A little more than two years after it hit the market, Meta discontinued its $1,500 Quest Pro headset and stopped selling it in January. In our review, we found that it was “aimed at professionals as much as enthusiasts, with a high price that reflects its impressive feature set.” However, Meta’s more affordable follow-up, the Quest 3, earned our Editors’ Choice award thanks to its swift processor, high resolution, and color pass-through cameras that enable high-quality augmented reality.
Micron’s Consumer Business
AI giants like OpenAI, Meta, and Google are shoveling billions into data centers that keep the AI slop flowing—and hoarding GPUs in the process. That’s bad news for consumers looking to get their hands on a graphics card or some extra memory for a PC build. RAM prices have skyrocketed as a result, and one key player is throwing in the towel. In early December, US-based Micron said it would stop producing consumer memory products sold under the Crucial brand by February 2026 so it could focus on supplying memory for AI data centers.
Microsoft Editor, Publisher, Lens and Mesh
Microsoft has tried a number of tricks to get you to use Edge over Chrome and on Oct. 31, it removed Microsoft Editor, a text-editing extension for Chrome (and Edge), so it could build functionality directly into its Edge browser. “Users will get enhanced AI-powered grammar and style suggestions directly in Edge without needing extensions,” the company said at the time, but that left Chrome users out of luck.
Also on the chopping block from Redmond in September was its mobile document scanner, which helped users turn their paper documents into readable digital copies like PDFs or Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files. Microsoft encouraged people to try the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, which offers similar functionality to Lens.
After 34 years, Microsoft said goodbye to Publisher this year, noting that Word and PowerPoint offer many of the same features, including creating professionally branded templates, printing envelopes and labels, and producing customized calendars, business cards, and programs.
Microsoft Mesh emerged in 2021, shortly after Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of his company from Facebook to Meta and went all-in on the metaverse. Rivals quickly followed, and Microsoft’s solution was Mesh, which allowed you to turn yourself into a metaverse avatar for meetings in Teams. Earlier this month, however, Microsoft shut down Mesh in favor of “Immersive events,” which lets you to host other users in a 3D space (sans legs, it looks like).
Nintendo Vouchers program and My Nintendo Gold Points
For $99, this program allowed gamers to buy vouchers that could be exchanged for two games from the Switch catalogue. However, in July, Nintendo said it would stop selling vouchers, effective Jan. 30, 2026. If you still have vouchers (or buy any before Jan. 30), you can use them until Jan. 30, 2027.
The My Nintendo Gold Points program started in 2018 and allowed customers to earn points by buying Switch games—5% of the amount they paid for a digital copy or 1% for physical ones. Nintendo stopped awarding Gold Points on March 24.
Nest Thermostats Support (for older models), Nest Smoke Detector and Yale Smart Lock
Effective Oct. 25, Google cut off support for first- and second-gen Nest Learning Thermostat and the second-gen Europe version of the Nest Learning Thermostat. You can still use them to adjust the temperature, but they no longer connect to Google’s app to control them remotely or get notifications.
The Nest Protect smoke detector debuted over a decade ago, while the Nest x Yale smart lock launched in 2018. That’s a long time in the tech world, so Google (which acquired Nest in 2014), discontinued both devices in March. It then announced a partnership with home safety firm First Alert to launch a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm that integrates with existing Nest Protect devices and is accessible from the Google Home app. The Nest x Yale lock was replaced by the Yale Smart Lock with Matter.
OpenAI’s GPT-4
ChatGPT and other chatbots are only as good as the models they run, and in 2025, OpenAI retired GPT-4, one of its most well-known models, to make room for GPT-4o and GPT-5. Effective April 30, GPT-4 was removed from the drop-down menu known as the “model picker” for ChatGPT Plus users, though it remained an option in the API. “GPT‑4 marked a pivotal moment in ChatGPT’s evolution,” OpenAI said earlier this year. “We’re grateful for the breakthroughs it enabled and for the feedback that helped shape its successor.”
Passwords?
One thing that hasn’t quite died yet is passwords, but it’s not for lack of trying. Big tech companies are pushing passkeys, and in 2025, Microsoft nudged us toward them even more by making them the default way to log in to new accounts. Passwords are still accepted on existing accounts, but if you create a new Microsoft account, it will be “passwordless by default,” the company says.
Also this summer, we saw Dropbox announce it was getting out of the password manager game. The official reason was so Dropbox could “focus on enhancing other features in our core product,” but the market was already pretty crowded, with top-rated password managers offering similar features, including 1Password, NordPass, and Proton Pass. The shutdown started in late August, and things went dark on Oct. 28.
PlayStation Stars Loyalty Program
Sony’s membership program allowed players to collect rewards, loyalty points, or digital collectibles for playing specific titles and completing certain in-game tasks. But only three years after its launch, Sony decided to “refocus its efforts” and shut down the PlayStation Stars Loyalty Program, effective Nov. 2.
Skype
The rise of Zoom and Google Meet was bad news for Microsoft’s pioneering video-conferencing service this year. In early May, Skype completed its final video call, a move Microsoft said was intended to “streamline our free consumer communications offerings so we can more easily adapt to customer needs.” It urged people to use Microsoft Teams instead.
Steam for Chromebooks
For those sticking with ChromeOS, the operating system will no longer work with Valve’s Steam come Jan. 1, 2026. Google added ChromeOS support for the PC game store as a beta in 2022, and it’s remained in that state ever since. But Google’s gaming efforts have been rocky (RIP Stadia), and when the new year starts, “games installed as part of the Beta will no longer be available to play on your device,” Google says.
TiVo Boxes
TiVo’s DVRs debuted more than 25 years ago, allowing people to record and watch shows later, and—more importantly—fast forward through commercials. Over the years, however, paid TV providers added DVRs as part of their packages, while others cut the cord to rely on streaming services with on-demand content. TiVo’s relevance slowly faded, and as of Oct. 1, the company stopped selling physical DVR products, including hardware and accessories.
Windows 10
Windows 10 arrived in 2015, and Microsoft formally ended support for it on Oct. 14, 2025. Without that support, the OS doesn’t get new features or critical security patches, making PCs running it vulnerable to cyberattacks. The problem: Windows 11 has stricter hardware requirements than its predecessor, so many PC users have remained on Windows 10. Microsoft is allowing people to remain on Windows 10 for an extra year if they sign up for its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, but it’s been pushing Windows to upgrade or get a new PC.
Zelle App
Zelle debuted in 2017 with a few dozen banking partners. But that number soon topped 2,200, with most people conducting transactions inside their own banking apps via the integrated Zelle functionality. “We now see just ~2% of transactions on the standalone app,” Zelle said last year. As a result, Zelle shut down the standalone app on April 1, and encouraged people to use its service through their banking apps.
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