The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

[clean]

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

The Complete List of Losers

1. America Online (1989-2006)
2. RealNetworks RealPlayer (1999)
3. Syncronys SoftRAM (1995)
4. Microsoft Windows Millennium (2000)
5. Sony BMG Music CDs (2005)
6. Disney The Lion King CD-ROM (1994)
7. Microsoft Bob (1995)
8. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (2001)
9. Pressplay and Musicnet (2002)
10. dBASE IV (1988)
11. Priceline Groceries and Gas (2000)
12. PointCast (1996)
13. IBM PCjr. (1984)
14. Gateway 2000 10th Anniversary PC (1995)
15. Iomega Zip Drive (1998)
16. Comet Cursor (1997)
17. Apple Macintosh Portable (1989)
18. IBM Deskstar 75GXP (2000)
19. OQO Model 1 (2004)
20. CueCat (2000)
21. Eyetop Wearable DVD Player (2004)
22. Apple Pippin @World (1996)
23. Free PCs (1999)
24. DigiScents iSmell (2001)
25. Sharp RD3D Notebook (2004)

* (Dis)Honorable Mention

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...72,pg,8,00.asp

[Kaylore]

That's a pretty solid list right there.

[Wes Mantooth]

It is a good list, but I see no mention of Microsoft's Bob product. What a joke.

[Bob's your Information Minister]

The cuecat...such a huge bust....I instantly thought of it when I saw this thread title.

[Florida_Bronco]

Originally Posted by yoakum3

It is a good list, but I see no mention of Microsoft's Bob product. What a joke.

It's there...#7

[watermock]

M Player
Palm personal devices
Global Crossing
World Com...

Oh,,,tech busts...I was discussing my portfolio from 2000.

[WABronco]

I HATE REAL PLAYER! I can't turn it off from opening when I plug in my I-pod...it lags my whole comp.

[ClevelandBronco]

Originally Posted by Bob's your Information Minister

The cuecat...such a huge bust....I instantly thought of it when I saw this thread title.

I don't even want to know what you use that for, you freak.

[Bob's your Information Minister]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

I don't even want to know what you use that for, you freak.

[Moon§hiner]

Originally Posted by WABronco

I HATE REAL PLAYER! I can't turn it off from opening when I plug in my I-pod...it lags my whole comp.

Uninstall Real Player and try this...works for me.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...lternative.htm

[-Slap-]

Originally Posted by Bob's your Information Minister

That's sick!!!!!!!

[watermock]

I always forget what I did and have to start all over, but certain things are formatted in Real Player. Uninstall it and re-install it but don't let it be your default media player! I don't know WTF is with DenverBroncos.com why they insist on real player, it sucks. Anyway, go to add remove programs and put in the newest Real Player but make sure you don't make it the default player. The puter should go right to real player if it's in that format only.

[clean]

I always hated when that stupid paper clip appeared.

"No list of the worst of the worst would be complete without Windows' idiot cousin, Bob. Designed as a "social" interface for Windows 3.1, Bob featured a living room filled with clickable objects, and a series of cartoon "helpers" like Chaos the Cat and Scuzz the Rat that walked you through a small suite of applications. Fortunately, Bob was soon buried in the avalanche of hype surrounding Windows 95, though some of the cartoons lived on to annoy users of Microsoft Office and Windows XP (Clippy the animated paper clip, anyone?).

Mostly, Bob raised more questions than it answered. Like, had anyone at Microsoft actually used Bob? Did they think anyone else would? And did they deliberately make Bob's smiley face logo look like Bill Gates, or was that just an accident?"






http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iar...t/metaphor.htm

[-Slap-]

Originally Posted by clean

http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iar...t/metaphor.htm

I thought the paper clip looked vaguely sinister.

[clean]

"No list of the worst of the worst would be complete without Crazyhorse's idiot cousin, Bob's your Information Minister."

[Paladin]

Neither of those losers are high tech. They are the technological and conversational equivalent gum under the theatre seats.

[RhymesayersDU]

I don't get why AOL made the list... Well I mean I get why, because the really technologically advanced people look down on it and those who use it. I'd agree, I'm not an AOL fan, but still, for what it is, and the millions who use it, I wouldn't call it the worst tech product of all time. Easy e-mail, connects people, etc.

[DomCasual]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

I don't get why AOL made the list... Well I mean I get why, because the really technologically advanced people look down on it and those who use it. I'd agree, I'm not an AOL fan, but still, for what it is, and the millions who use it, I wouldn't call it the worst tech product of all time. Easy e-mail, connects people, etc.

I totally disagree. AOL is as evil as Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Hillary Duff, and Ashley Simpson.

[RhymesayersDU]

Originally Posted by DomCasual

I totally disagree. AOL is as evil as Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Hillary Duff, and Ashley Simpson.

Care to enlighten me as to why?

I mean, am I missing something?

[DomCasual]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

Care to enlighten me as to why?

I mean, am I missing something?

I can't really tell you why I think Barney, Hillary, and Ashley are evil.

Sometimes, Rhymes, evilness is like good art - you just know it when you see it.

[RhymesayersDU]

Originally Posted by DomCasual

I can't really tell you why I think Barney, Hillary, and Ashley are evil.

Sometimes, Rhymes, evilness is like good art - you just know it when you see it.

Well... You usually have good takes, so count me in on the "AOL Is Evil!" bandwagon.

F AOL!

[hades]

Originally Posted by Bob's your Information Minister

The cuecat...such a huge bust....I instantly thought of it when I saw this thread title.

LMAO, A friend of mine left a great job at SMU's computer dept. to go work for them.

"Ground floor opportunity, I'll get all sorts of stock options, etc... "

Well, it went boobies up and his stock options were worth about as much that coin the US Mint makes with Abe Lincoln on it.

[DomCasual]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

Well... You usually have good takes, so count me in on the "AOL Is Evil!" bandwagon.

F AOL!

Yeah, F 'em and the horse they rode in on, is what I say!

[-Slap-]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

Care to enlighten me as to why?

I mean, am I missing something?

These were the reasons given by the article linked here.

1. America Online (1989-2006)

How do we loathe AOL? Let us count the ways. Since America Online emerged from the belly of a BBS called Quantum "PC-Link" in 1989, users have suffered through awful software, inaccessible dial-up numbers, rapacious marketing, in-your-face advertising, questionable billing practices, inexcusably poor customer service, and enough spam to last a lifetime. And all the while, AOL remained more expensive than its major competitors. This lethal combination earned the world's biggest ISP the top spot on our list of bottom feeders.

AOL succeeded initially by targeting newbies, using brute-force marketing techniques. In the 90s you couldn't open a magazine (PC World included) or your mailbox without an AOL disk falling out of it. This carpet-bombing technique yielded big numbers: At its peak, AOL claimed 34 million subscribers worldwide, though it never revealed how many were just using up their free hours.

Once AOL had you in its clutches, escaping was notoriously difficult. Several states sued the service, claiming that it continued to bill customers after they had requested cancellation of their subscriptions. In August 2005, AOL paid a $1.25 million fine to the state of New York and agreed to change its cancellation policies--but the agreement covered only people in New York.

Ultimately the Net itself--which AOL subscribers were finally able to access in 1995-- made the service's shortcomings painfully obvious. Prior to that, though AOL offered plenty of its own online content, it walled off the greater Internet. Once people realized what content was available elsewhere on the Net, they started wondering why they were paying AOL. And as America moved to broadband, many left their sluggish AOL accounts behind. AOL is now busy rebranding itself as a content provider, not an access service.

Though America Online has shown some improvement lately--with better browsers and e-mail tools, fewer obnoxious ads, scads of broadband content, and innovative features such as parental controls--it has never overcome the stigma of being the online service for people who don't know any better.