From wired earphones to the Nintendo 3DS, a look at the tech of the internet’s “last good year” and why it still resonates todayFrom wired earphones to the Nintendo 3DS, a look at the tech of the internet’s “last good year” and why it still resonates today

The gadgets that defined 2016–and what replaced them

2026/01/22 09:42

Here’s what’s gone meta on the internet lately: younger millennials and Gen Z are calling 2016 the “last good year.” Why? Life, according to the internet, felt lighter back then. This was a time before politics polarized timelines, before algorithms dictated feeds, before the pandemic reshaped everything. Social media actually felt social.

2016 was when former President Rodrigo Duterte had just taken office, and Donald Trump was still on his way into the White House. TikTok hadn’t yet gone global and was confined within China as Douyin, Vine was still making us laugh with janky clips, and YouTube videos weren’t polished productions. Wireless wearables were only beginning to escape Silicon Valley labs, and neither AI slop nor brainrot was a thing.

Technology in 2016 felt simpler, more human. Many of the gadgets that defined the year have since been discontinued, but the trends they sparked live on. Here’s a look back at some of the devices we carried everywhere – and the modern equivalents that replaced them.

When phones still had buttons (and jacks)

In 2016, home buttons still defined phones and tablets. The iPhone 6S Plus had just won over the hearts of smartphone users when Apple introduced the iPhone 7 line, which eliminated the headphone jack because the tech brand also introduced the first iteration of the AirPods earlier that year. Since then, iPhones have shed bezels and home buttons, with the 2022-released iPhone SE being the last to have them. That shift set the template for nearly every smartphone design today.

Most phones these days have followed a similar trend, but there are a few that reintroduced QWERTY keyboards (like the ones that Blackberry popularized in the early to mid-2010s) as well as “dumber” form factors. Here’s a list of these phones and why they’re effective ways to avoid doom scrolling.

Wired earphones

AirPods may have been introduced in 2016, but they were seen as an unnecessary luxury. They were hella expensive and easy to lose. Sure, the wireless earbud is more affordable and mainstream now, but it took a while for people to adopt.

Until then, people depended on the ol’ reliable: the wired earphones. They were cheap (hello, P100-wired earphones from CDR-King, anyone?), and you can get decent sound quality at decent price points too! 

Wired earphones were never phased out, but wireless earbuds did take over the market for a while. Now, wired earphones are staging a comeback as a fashion statement and a nod to nostalgia. BLACKPINK’s Rosé has said in past interviews that she prefers wired earphones, and even Jennie has been spotted wearing them when she’s not performing.

If you want a pair, Apple EarPods are still available. Just make sure you buy the right plug (3.5 mm, Lightning, or USB-C). But, if you’re part of Team Wireless now, the Apple AirPods Pro 3rd Generation was released just a couple of months ago and packs serious noise-cancellation tech, workout features, and better-fitting tips.

Apple Watches and fitness trackers

2015–2017 was a pivotal era for Apple. In late 2015, the Apple Watch was first introduced. This marked a pivotal moment for watches and fitness trackers as smarter features were slowly being introduced into wearable devices.

People had mixed reactions to the first Apple Watch; some argued you might as well buy a traditional watch. Today, of course, the Apple Watch is a huge success and has undoubtedly influenced other tech brands and even watchmakers to make their own.

At the same time, Fitbit was at its peak. Devices like the Charge 2 and Blaze turned step counting into a cultural obsession, with leaderboards and challenges that made fitness social.

While Apple Watches also eventually absorbed those features, Fitbit’s influence is clear as today’s smartwatches all come with health tracking baked in. Today, Fitbit lives inside Google’s Pixel Watch, while Apple Watch Ultra and Garmin dominate the fitness space.

Pre-Nintendo Switch and VR headsets era

Before the Nintendo Switch, we had the Nintendo 3DS. This was also the year the first Oculus Rift was introduced.

Today’s handhelds – the Switch 2, Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally – pack powerful specs and render console‑quality graphics. Meanwhile, alternative handheld gaming consoles like Anbernic are bringing back the retro vibe through familiar-looking form factors and vintage games.

And when it comes to headsets, while the Oculus Rift has since been discontinued, newer iterations like the Meta Quest headsets and the Apple Vision Pro are now available. Not quite a VR headset, but smarter eyewear like Ray-Ban Meta is starting to make waves in this decade, too.

The timeless Kindle
Screenshot from Reddit/Kindle

If there’s one piece of tech that has remained largely unchanged, that would be e-readers like the Kindle. Sure, the Kindle has, over the years, been upgraded with more storage, memory, and quality of life improvements, but the essence of the device remains intact. Newer Kindles and e-readers have introduced styluses and colored e-ink screens over the years. But honestly, the Kindle back then feels strikingly familiar beside the new Kindle devices.

2016 tech in 2026?

Looking back, 2016’s gadgets remind us of a time when tech felt lighter, simpler, and more human. Many of those devices are gone, but the habits they sparked, like streaming, scrolling, gaming on the go, and tracking our health, still define how we interact with our devices today.

The difference? Everything’s sleeker, smarter, and powered by AI. Is that good progress or not? Only time will tell. – Rappler.com

Note: This article contains affiliate links. We earn a small commission every time you shop through these links.

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Summarize Any Stock’s Earnings Call in Seconds Using FMP API

Summarize Any Stock’s Earnings Call in Seconds Using FMP API

Turn lengthy earnings call transcripts into one-page insights using the Financial Modeling Prep APIPhoto by Bich Tran Earnings calls are packed with insights. They tell you how a company performed, what management expects in the future, and what analysts are worried about. The challenge is that these transcripts often stretch across dozens of pages, making it tough to separate the key takeaways from the noise. With the right tools, you don’t need to spend hours reading every line. By combining the Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) API with Groq’s lightning-fast LLMs, you can transform any earnings call into a concise summary in seconds. The FMP API provides reliable access to complete transcripts, while Groq handles the heavy lifting of distilling them into clear, actionable highlights. In this article, we’ll build a Python workflow that brings these two together. You’ll see how to fetch transcripts for any stock, prepare the text, and instantly generate a one-page summary. Whether you’re tracking Apple, NVIDIA, or your favorite growth stock, the process works the same — fast, accurate, and ready whenever you are. Fetching Earnings Transcripts with FMP API The first step is to pull the raw transcript data. FMP makes this simple with dedicated endpoints for earnings calls. If you want the latest transcripts across the market, you can use the stable endpoint /stable/earning-call-transcript-latest. For a specific stock, the v3 endpoint lets you request transcripts by symbol, quarter, and year using the pattern: https://financialmodelingprep.com/api/v3/earning_call_transcript/{symbol}?quarter={q}&year={y}&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY here’s how you can fetch NVIDIA’s transcript for a given quarter: import requestsAPI_KEY = "your_api_key"symbol = "NVDA"quarter = 2year = 2024url = f"https://financialmodelingprep.com/api/v3/earning_call_transcript/{symbol}?quarter={quarter}&year={year}&apikey={API_KEY}"response = requests.get(url)data = response.json()# Inspect the keysprint(data.keys())# Access transcript contentif "content" in data[0]: transcript_text = data[0]["content"] print(transcript_text[:500]) # preview first 500 characters The response typically includes details like the company symbol, quarter, year, and the full transcript text. If you aren’t sure which quarter to query, the “latest transcripts” endpoint is the quickest way to always stay up to date. Cleaning and Preparing Transcript Data Raw transcripts from the API often include long paragraphs, speaker tags, and formatting artifacts. Before sending them to an LLM, it helps to organize the text into a cleaner structure. Most transcripts follow a pattern: prepared remarks from executives first, followed by a Q&A session with analysts. Separating these sections gives better control when prompting the model. In Python, you can parse the transcript and strip out unnecessary characters. A simple way is to split by markers such as “Operator” or “Question-and-Answer.” Once separated, you can create two blocks — Prepared Remarks and Q&A — that will later be summarized independently. This ensures the model handles each section within context and avoids missing important details. Here’s a small example of how you might start preparing the data: import re# Example: using the transcript_text we fetched earliertext = transcript_text# Remove extra spaces and line breaksclean_text = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', text).strip()# Split sections (this is a heuristic; real-world transcripts vary slightly)if "Question-and-Answer" in clean_text: prepared, qna = clean_text.split("Question-and-Answer", 1)else: prepared, qna = clean_text, ""print("Prepared Remarks Preview:\n", prepared[:500])print("\nQ&A Preview:\n", qna[:500]) With the transcript cleaned and divided, you’re ready to feed it into Groq’s LLM. Chunking may be necessary if the text is very long. A good approach is to break it into segments of a few thousand tokens, summarize each part, and then merge the summaries in a final pass. Summarizing with Groq LLM Now that the transcript is clean and split into Prepared Remarks and Q&A, we’ll use Groq to generate a crisp one-pager. The idea is simple: summarize each section separately (for focus and accuracy), then synthesize a final brief. Prompt design (concise and factual) Use a short, repeatable template that pushes for neutral, investor-ready language: You are an equity research analyst. Summarize the following earnings call sectionfor {symbol} ({quarter} {year}). Be factual and concise.Return:1) TL;DR (3–5 bullets)2) Results vs. guidance (what improved/worsened)3) Forward outlook (specific statements)4) Risks / watch-outs5) Q&A takeaways (if present)Text:<<<{section_text}>>> Python: calling Groq and getting a clean summary Groq provides an OpenAI-compatible API. Set your GROQ_API_KEY and pick a fast, high-quality model (e.g., a Llama-3.1 70B variant). We’ll write a helper to summarize any text block, then run it for both sections and merge. import osimport textwrapimport requestsGROQ_API_KEY = os.environ.get("GROQ_API_KEY") or "your_groq_api_key"GROQ_BASE_URL = "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1" # OpenAI-compatibleMODEL = "llama-3.1-70b" # choose your preferred Groq modeldef call_groq(prompt, temperature=0.2, max_tokens=1200): url = f"{GROQ_BASE_URL}/chat/completions" headers = { "Authorization": f"Bearer {GROQ_API_KEY}", "Content-Type": "application/json", } payload = { "model": MODEL, "messages": [ {"role": "system", "content": "You are a precise, neutral equity research analyst."}, {"role": "user", "content": prompt}, ], "temperature": temperature, "max_tokens": max_tokens, } r = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=payload, timeout=60) r.raise_for_status() return r.json()["choices"][0]["message"]["content"].strip()def build_prompt(section_text, symbol, quarter, year): template = """ You are an equity research analyst. Summarize the following earnings call section for {symbol} ({quarter} {year}). Be factual and concise. Return: 1) TL;DR (3–5 bullets) 2) Results vs. guidance (what improved/worsened) 3) Forward outlook (specific statements) 4) Risks / watch-outs 5) Q&A takeaways (if present) Text: <<< {section_text} >>> """ return textwrap.dedent(template).format( symbol=symbol, quarter=quarter, year=year, section_text=section_text )def summarize_section(section_text, symbol="NVDA", quarter="Q2", year="2024"): if not section_text or section_text.strip() == "": return "(No content found for this section.)" prompt = build_prompt(section_text, symbol, quarter, year) return call_groq(prompt)# Example usage with the cleaned splits from Section 3prepared_summary = summarize_section(prepared, symbol="NVDA", quarter="Q2", year="2024")qna_summary = summarize_section(qna, symbol="NVDA", quarter="Q2", year="2024")final_one_pager = f"""# {symbol} Earnings One-Pager — {quarter} {year}## Prepared Remarks — Key Points{prepared_summary}## Q&A Highlights{qna_summary}""".strip()print(final_one_pager[:1200]) # preview Tips that keep quality high: Keep temperature low (≈0.2) for factual tone. If a section is extremely long, chunk at ~5–8k tokens, summarize each chunk with the same prompt, then ask the model to merge chunk summaries into one section summary before producing the final one-pager. If you also fetched headline numbers (EPS/revenue, guidance) earlier, prepend them to the prompt as brief context to help the model anchor on the right outcomes. Building the End-to-End Pipeline At this point, we have all the building blocks: the FMP API to fetch transcripts, a cleaning step to structure the data, and Groq LLM to generate concise summaries. The final step is to connect everything into a single workflow that can take any ticker and return a one-page earnings call summary. The flow looks like this: Input a stock ticker (for example, NVDA). Use FMP to fetch the latest transcript. Clean and split the text into Prepared Remarks and Q&A. Send each section to Groq for summarization. Merge the outputs into a neatly formatted earnings one-pager. Here’s how it comes together in Python: def summarize_earnings_call(symbol, quarter, year, api_key, groq_key): # Step 1: Fetch transcript from FMP url = f"https://financialmodelingprep.com/api/v3/earning_call_transcript/{symbol}?quarter={quarter}&year={year}&apikey={api_key}" resp = requests.get(url) resp.raise_for_status() data = resp.json() if not data or "content" not in data[0]: return f"No transcript found for {symbol} {quarter} {year}" text = data[0]["content"] # Step 2: Clean and split clean_text = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', text).strip() if "Question-and-Answer" in clean_text: prepared, qna = clean_text.split("Question-and-Answer", 1) else: prepared, qna = clean_text, "" # Step 3: Summarize with Groq prepared_summary = summarize_section(prepared, symbol, quarter, year) qna_summary = summarize_section(qna, symbol, quarter, year) # Step 4: Merge into final one-pager return f"""# {symbol} Earnings One-Pager — {quarter} {year}## Prepared Remarks{prepared_summary}## Q&A Highlights{qna_summary}""".strip()# Example runprint(summarize_earnings_call("NVDA", 2, 2024, API_KEY, GROQ_API_KEY)) With this setup, generating a summary becomes as simple as calling one function with a ticker and date. You can run it inside a notebook, integrate it into a research workflow, or even schedule it to trigger after each new earnings release. Free Stock Market API and Financial Statements API... Conclusion Earnings calls no longer need to feel overwhelming. With the Financial Modeling Prep API, you can instantly access any company’s transcript, and with Groq LLM, you can turn that raw text into a sharp, actionable summary in seconds. This pipeline saves hours of reading and ensures you never miss the key results, guidance, or risks hidden in lengthy remarks. Whether you track tech giants like NVIDIA or smaller growth stocks, the process is the same — fast, reliable, and powered by the flexibility of FMP’s data. Summarize Any Stock’s Earnings Call in Seconds Using FMP API was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story
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Medium2025/09/18 14:40