The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

[TechZ]

It had to be AOL at #1

The Complete List of Losers

America Online (1989-2006)
RealNetworks RealPlayer (1999)
Syncronys SoftRAM (1995)
Microsoft Windows Millennium (2000)
Sony BMG Music CDs (2005)
Disney The Lion King CD-ROM (1994)
Microsoft Bob (1995)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (2001)
Pressplay and Musicnet (2002)
dBASE IV (1988)
Priceline Groceries and Gas (2000)
PointCast (1996)
IBM PCjr. (1984)
Gateway 2000 10th Anniversary PC (1995)
Iomega Zip Drive (1998)
Comet Cursor (1997)
Apple Macintosh Portable (1989)
IBM Deskstar 75GXP (2000)
OQO Model 1 (2004)
CueCat (2000)
Eyetop Wearable DVD Player (2004)
Apple Pippin @World (1996)
Free PCs (1999)
DigiScents iSmell (2001)
Sharp RD3D Notebook (2004)

Source: PCWorld

[jeffy777]

I would say Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition could be a bit higher on the list

[flyingfridge]

Yeah, I just read that. Such a fitting list. Very well done.

[jensked]

Originally Posted by TechZ

Now that was a piece of garbage.

[No Boss]

Originally Posted by jensked

Now that was a piece of garbage.

[jeffy777]

^^^ heeheheheee

I think this one had a lot of potential:

DigiScents iSmell (2001)

Few products literally stink, but this one did--or at least it would have, had it progressed beyond the prototype stage.

In 2001, DigiScents unveiled the iSmell, a shark-fin-shaped gizmo that plugged into your PC's USB port and wafted appropriate scents as you surfed smell-enabled Web sites--say, perfume as you were browsing Chanel.com, or cheese doodles at Frito-Lay.com. But skeptical users turned up their noses at the idea, making the iSmell the ultimate in vaporware.

[BlaRo]

Hey! I liked the Zip drive!

Good call on AOL and IE6 especially. Even Microsoft has to use their own "Stupid IE hack" on their website.

[jeffy777]

Originally Posted by BlaRo

Hey! I liked the Zip drive!

Yeah, even during my last year in college (spring 2003) every one of the university owned computers had one, but they were on their way out then.

[CyberMonkey]

Zip drive was a good product but I guess it lacked the market penetration... We had one in our old IBM pc too, and I quite liked it at that time. CD burners were expensive, slow and unpractical, usb sticks didn't exist, diskettes were too small and the zip with its 100 MB could be quite practical sometimes.

[RoamingGnome]

Mostly agree with entries and order. I would only add NetZero to the bunch. I still rememeber their ridiculous commercials "Free Internet for all!". I'm pretty sure they actually implemented iSmell technology because whenever those commercials came on there was a distinct smell of shit in my livingroom.

[CyberMonkey]

Heh, weird they didn't include Philips' CD-I? It was a nice product, but a commercial flop nontheless.

[Overheat]

I liked the RD3D Notebook - really wanted one

[AarheadC]

I was totally thinking about the CueCat when i read this post title! lol that thing was a joke, but then again, its pobably still not as bad as Microsoft ME

[Cobol74]

The Brits can weigh in with the Sinclair C5, not on the list and not a computer but utter utter nonsense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

[Magnet]

Ah yes the IBM Deskstar. The worst Hard drive ever produced. I had three of those in three different computers, and all of them developed that horrible grinding noise before completely dying, taking all of my data with them

[sandor_]

Originally Posted by BlaRo

Hey! I liked the Zip drive!

three words:


"Click Of Death"

[Peter3hg]

Whats wrong with a zip drive, they were a revelation at the time. Had a 100mb for 7 years before it broke. My dad used iomega zips and jazz drives for years professionally at a printing firm and never had problems. The only problem really was they cost about £10 for a 100mb disk in 1999 and tbh as soon as they came in they were on their way out with CD-R's

[AxlxA]

i disagree with zip drive, AOL, and realplayer.

These were revolutionary stuff back then. The zip drive allowed larger storage than the weak 3.5" floppy disk for 1.44mb. I didn't want to buy one but it came with the compaq i bought in 1999. I used it to store porn pictures hehe.

Secondly, AOL was a hit! It was how many people were introduced to the internet. With AOL's integrated everything and locking you within so much junk, they forced people to learn about IM, chatrooms, and malicious attacks by other users(punting!) I learned a lot on my AOL days, espcially with the mass emails as a way to serve files. It seriously pushed many of American public into using the internet, we didn't have to set up anything, everything was already in one program, and we had a lot of information via aol keywords. Granted I hated the beast when i was using it but still, I have to give credit to AOL for its mass advertisements and their free floppy disks.

Thirdly, Realplayer was the first program i used to start watching videos online. I thought it was the shit! being able to watch porn through the web was awesome.

These technologies had a huge impact on today's software/internet. Everyone makes fun of AOL now but back then, they were king of the internet in the states. steve jobs probably made a load of cash off of that.

Anyways, I dont know why i decided to write all this, maybe i'm just bored. But these are my thoughts. This is only one man's opinion, no need to flame me over it.

[hokiethang]

Originally Posted by AxlxA

i disagree with zip drive, AOL, and realplayer.

These were revolutionary stuff back then. The zip drive allowed larger storage than the weak 3.5" floppy disk for 1.44mb. I didn't want to buy one but it came with the compaq i bought in 1999. I used it to store porn pictures hehe.

Secondly, AOL was a hit! It was how many people were introduced to the internet. With AOL's integrated everything and locking you within so much junk, they forced people to learn about IM, chatrooms, and malicious attacks by other users(punting!) I learned a lot on my AOL days, espcially with the mass emails as a way to serve files. It seriously pushed many of American public into using the internet, we didn't have to set up anything, everything was already in one program, and we had a lot of information via aol keywords. Granted I hated the beast when i was using it but still, I have to give credit to AOL for its mass advertisements and their free floppy disks.

Thirdly, Realplayer was the first program i used to start watching videos online. I thought it was the shit! being able to watch porn through the web was awesome.

These technologies had a huge impact on today's software/internet. Everyone makes fun of AOL now but back then, they were king of the internet in the states. steve jobs probably made a load of cash off of that.

Anyways, I dont know why i decided to write all this, maybe i'm just bored. But these are my thoughts. This is only one man's opinion, no need to flame me over it.

Steve Jobs was never part of AOL. It was Steve Case. Link

Personally I agree with the list, Real networks could never get it right. Even today they still suffer from the "Buffering" problem. AOL tried to be too much to too many people. It did make the internet more popular, I will give it that, but it definitely went about it the wrong way.

I'm torn on the zip drive. I had a couple of zip drives and disks back when they first released, and they were useful for the time (as a cheaper alternative to the "write once" CDs that cost $5 a disc).

[AxlxA]

sorry i meant steve case. it was one of those typical steve names with a stupid last name.