Tech FAILS. What was yours?

Forums › Off topic › Tech FAILS. What was yours?

crackrdbycracku

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

Topic # 112157 28-Nov-2012 10:27
I was reading the article below and it got me thinking of my early adoptions fails. The best/worst one was mini-disk. I spent just over $1000 in 1998 to own a mini-system with a mini-disk recorder function and a bundled Walkman mini-disk player. Yep, just before MP3s took off. What was yours? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/27/ten_technology_fails/ Didn't anybody tell you I was a hacker?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

1205 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Reply # 724049 28-Nov-2012 10:57
i bought a zune www.reven.co.nz

NonprayingMantis

3738 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 724053 28-Nov-2012 11:03
I was pressured into buying a chinese android tablet just as the ipad craze started. Bought it in HK whenon holiday. The spec sounded great but I couldn't really test it properly in store. It was priced the same as the ipad. (around $800 NZD) got it back to the hotel and found it was a peice of junk, no camera (which I was assured it had) and no android market. very unresponsive, slow, just generally rubbish. by that point it was too late to take it back, not that I could have done anyway because there is no CGA or anything like that in HK even worse, when I got back to NZ I found dozens of identical tablets selling on trademe for $250. so not only had a bought a peice of junk, I had overpaid by more than 200%

mattRSK

804 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 724071 28-Nov-2012 11:19
I bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner once. They are not very solid and seem to have very intricate plastic parts that tend to break.

mattgreen

80 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 724081 28-Nov-2012 11:34
reven: i bought a zune People don't normally admit that ;)

freitasm

BDFL
44251 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Subscriber

Reply # 724084 28-Nov-2012 11:38
That list is pretty good, except PDAs don't really belong there. They weren't a failure and actually developed into a whole new class of products - the touch smartphones. Everything else is pretty much bad and died ad well deserved death. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

muppet

1145 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Reply # 724089 28-Nov-2012 11:40
HP Touchpad! Though I did get it in the firesale, so I knew it wasn't going to live on. Once I can get it away from my lovely wife I'm going to put Cyanogenmod on it. I too was a big minidisc fan - I had two different portable players.

Poll

187 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 724098 28-Nov-2012 11:47
Two of those early mp3 players, the usb flash drive sized ones with a tiny lcd and incomprehensible menu, 128 meg and 256 meg, terrible.

crackrdbycracku

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 724099 28-Nov-2012 11:47
muppet: I too was a big minidisc fan - I had two different portable players. Yeah, I sold the mini-system/player to someone in 2001 (a bigger fool then me?), kept a few discs and went to Japan, to teach English, where the mini-disc actually lived on. Ended up buying a portable recorder/player, renting CDs (yet, legally available at the video store) and copying them to mini-disc on my PS2. Didn't anybody tell you I was a hacker?

dclegg

941 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Reply # 724101 28-Nov-2012 11:47
Well, I am a PS Vita owner. But I'm not sure that counts as a fail, as it was a prize in a competition.

wellygary

1263 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 724135 28-Nov-2012 12:25
crackrdbycracku: muppet: I too was a big minidisc fan - I had two different portable players. Yeah, I sold the mini-system/player to someone in 2001 (a bigger fool then me?), kept a few discs and went to Japan, to teach English, where the mini-disc actually lived on. Ended up buying a portable recorder/player, renting CDs (yet, legally available at the video store) and copying them to mini-disc on my PS2. FYI: There was a specific tax on Minidisc devices that had the record function, the tax was paid into some Japanese music industry slush fund - that's why it was legal to rent and copy CDs

DarthKermit

557 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

Reply # 724277 28-Nov-2012 16:20
One that springs to mind is a Palm III. What a piece of crap that was. It ran on two AAA batteries and had volatile memory. If the batteries died, you lost all your data. Clever huh? I think I paid $700 for it back in 1999.

freitasm

BDFL
44251 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Subscriber

Reply # 724279 28-Nov-2012 16:22
But the Palm wasn't a fail. As a product it defined a entire new generation of products, made PDAs popular, introduced new ways of doing things. It was a success. Every PDA and Smartphone today has its roots in the PalmPilot. I got my first PalmPilot 1000 in 1997 when first released. It was still US Robotics back then. Did you know PayPal came out on a Palm first so you could transfer money to your friends, then put the PDA in its cradle, press the Hotsync button and have the money sent out? Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

CYaBro

1816 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 724280 28-Nov-2012 16:25
Poll: Two of those early mp3 players, the usb flash drive sized ones with a tiny lcd and incomprehensible menu, 128 meg and 256 meg, terrible. I got one of these for my wife a few years ago and we love it. I use it all the time when mowing the lawns and she uses it when going for a walk or run. It's a Samsung 1GB version so can fit quite a bit of music on it and the battery lasts for ages. Computer Repairs Whangarei Remote Support

Behodar

3013 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

Reply # 724286 28-Nov-2012 16:32
I have an HD DVD player, which most people would class as a fail, although I think that picking up ~50 clearance movies at $1-2 each was a good deal overall :)

sleepy

156 posts

Master Geek

Subscriber

Reply # 724290 28-Nov-2012 16:41
Buying a new desktop pc for work with XP on it then paying extra $75 for vista upgrade when released - never installed cant think why

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5