The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

PC WORLD.com ^

[Recovering_Democrat]

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)

[lormand]

I once thought of not hiring a guy because his resume was a PDF.

I hate them because they take so freakin' long to load, and by default, will constantly nag you to upgrade it. While it loads, you get to see all of the important developers who made the POS on the loading screen.

[IronJack]

I remember coding some extensive applications in dBaseII. By time III came out, it was starting to decline, and then Oracle came on like gangbusters and it was all over.

It's interesting to see the evolutionary ebbs and flows in the software industry. For example, CP/M was THE operating system in the early days. If your machine couldn't run CP/M, it was junk. Needless to say, THAT died pretty fast.

But what about products like VisiCalc? Or Lotus 1-2-3? Or pds:File? WordPerfect? In their day, they were industry contenders, yet they all dwindled away to oblivion. And I don't think that in every case it's because something better came along. The software biz is just really fickle, I guess.

[FreedomCalls]

I think I have CueCat in a drawer somewhere.

Actually they make a cheap (free!) bar code reader. Just load some open source (free!) software and you can scan all kinds of bar codes to see what they say -- driver's licenses, UPC codes, Book ISBNs, Blockbuster membership cards, etc.

[Defiant]

How about Wired Magazine?

Wireless headphones--they never work.

Early Sprint Clamshell phones.

Globalstar Satellite Phones.

[mylife]

Technical stuff was only invented in 1984?

[mylife]

I have to say Dbase was a great tool back in the day

[FreedomCalls]

They forgot about the Circuit City/Divx debacle.

Nope, it's there in the (dis)honorable mentions at the end.

[Republicus2001]

dBASEIV is still better than MS Accesswhat about Filemaker Pro? any thoughts before I buy?

[InvisibleChurch]

I don't see Air America on this list.

[Republicus2001]

I actually thought they were superior to cassetes in some ways.no doubt - wider tape = better high end

[discostu]

It's in the dishonorable mentions.

[mylife]

heck, im sure there are terrible techy things going back to edison and teslas day

[Paddlefish]

Real Player locks up my system every time, no matter what the MS platform or the program. I hate it passionately.

[Clemenza]

Disney The Lion King CD-ROM (1994)

Good kiddies, take off their clothes!

Whoops, wrong movie (that was Aladdin, I think). Lion King had SEX/SFX spelled in the stars.

[spinestein]

My friend in high school bought a ZX-81 (out of his own hard earned cash) and we used to hang out at his place after school and practice writing programs in BASIC.

Holy crap! I just realized I'm a NERD!

[TET1968]

Since I made three million bucks on AOL, I have a different perspective:

Windows 98
Syquest
GCC
The company that bought Deneba's Canvas, then retired it.

[Republicus2001]

I don't dispute that these products are terrible, but the earliest one is 1989? I don't believe that. There has to be terrible tech products from the '60s and '70s that are worthy for the list.

Back in my stereo sales days I remember Pioneer came out with a product designed to be installed in the seat of your car and was made to blast low bass out of the seat and through your a$$ to your ears...we called it the Pioneer Whoopee Cushion - of course we never sold any...

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

For that matter, Internet Explorer 2 and 3 were beyond awful.

[spinestein]

[I once thought of not hiring a guy because his resume was a PDF.]





You would be justified if his resume was that he DESIGNED PDF.

[TexasTransplant]

>>>>"what about Filemaker Pro? any thoughts before I buy?"<<<<

Don't know, but Access is Painful

TT