The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

[AlwayzMarel]

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time Dan Tynan
Fri May 26, 4:00 AM ET

At PC World, we spend most of our time talking about products that make your life easier or your work more productive. But it's the lousy ones that linger in our memory long after their shrinkwrap has shriveled, and that make tech editors cry out, "What have I done to deserve this?"

Still, even the worst products deserve recognition (or deprecation). So as we put together our list of World Class winners for 2006, we decided also to spotlight the 25 worst tech products that have been released since PC World began publishing nearly a quarter-century ago.

Picking our list wasn't exactly rocket science; it was more like group therapy. PC World staffers and contributors nominated their candidates and then gave each one the sniff test. We sought the worst of the worst--operating systems that operated badly, hardware that never should have left the factory, applications that spied on us and fed our data to shifty marketers, and products that left a legacy of poor performance and bad behavior.

And because one person's dog can be another's dish, we also devised a (Dis)Honorable Mention list for products that didn't quite achieve universal opprobrium.

Of course, most truly awful ideas never make it out of somebody's garage. Our bottom 25 designees are all relatively well-known items, and many had multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns behind them. In other words, they were made by people who should have known better. In fact, three of the ten worst were made by Microsoft. Coincidence? We think not.

The first entry in our Hall of Shame: The ISP that everyone loves to hate...

In this story:
The Worst Five (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,2,00.asp)
Numbers 6 to 10 (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,3,00.asp)
Numbers 11 to 15 (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,4,00.asp)
Numbers 16 to 20 (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,5,00.asp)
Numbers 20 to 25 (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,6,00.asp)
(Dis)Honorable Mention (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,7,00.asp)
The Complete List of the Worst 25 (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,8,00.asp)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060526/tc_pcworld/125772

[Markel]

I'm not so familiar with Syncronys SoftRAM, but the other 4 in the top 5 list are definite "winners". AOL at number 1! :heh:

[AlwayzMarel]

Does anyone use AOL anymore? lol

[Cubsfan]

I had an IBM PCjr. I liked it a lot! :)

[Airencracken]

Great list! real player is t3h sux.

[johnnymk]

What was wrong with the Zip drive? For awhile, it was the best method of transferring files greater than a floppy to another computer.

The Cuecat was definitely a loser, though.

[GilbertsGrape]

The Cuecat was definitely a loser, though


Yea but hackable to catalog your dvd's and cd's

[bachviet]

I'm not surprised that AOL got #1. :P

I have actually used these: #2 - RealPlayer, #4 - Windows ME, #8 - IE6, #15 - Zip Drive, and #18 - IBM Deathstar 75GXP. :eek:

[eSDee]

What was wrong with the Zip drive? For awhile, it was the best method of transferring files greater than a floppy to another computer.


I agree. The Zip drive is still widely used in my department. It is the most convenient way to transfer large chunks of data from non-networked computers. Perhaps it just took time for its' strengths to be fully realized.

[IrishSS]

Yea but hackable to catalog your dvd's and cd's

That alone should make it one of the 25 greatest... I wish I hadn't lost my damn CueCat... :(

[GilbertsGrape]

That alone should make it one of the 25 greatest... I wish I hadn't lost my damn CueCat... :(


get a new one

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=cuecat&category0=

[_=DeltaForce=_]

ZIP drives were used for a while and I kinda like em

[Memo]

I agree. The Zip drive is still widely used in my department. It is the most convenient way to transfer large chunks of data from non-networked computers. Perhaps it just took time for its' strengths to be fully realized.

USB Memory Stick?

[ShawnLee]

Ah, that list brings back some memories. Some horrible horrible memories.

[redcolours]

What was wrong with the Zip drive? ....

the all-too-common Click Of Death.

i still have that cue cat though - the app that came with it was the loser, but it rocks as a bar code scanner for DVD and CD cataloguing!

[dsuds]

Glad to see MS Bob made the top ten. Everything about that product SUCKED!. To open a word processing document took 27 mouse clicks. The product took over a minute to launch.... on hardware 5 years newer than when Bob was released.

But we still see the remnants in Office every day withthat damned annoying Clippy, and in WinXP with the "Search Dog". Ahh the things Bill Gates will do for love.... his (future) wife Melinda was one of the top people responsible for Bob.

[MikeD]

I agree. The Zip drive is still widely used in my department. It is the most convenient way to transfer large chunks of data from non-networked computers. Perhaps it just took time for its' strengths to be fully realized.

Ehh, not feeling that SD. I know they can be useful, but now you've got usb drives and even CD's that can be burned pretty quickly.

Besides, network those bad boys! Aren't you the sysadmin there? ;)

[Markel]

I agree. The Zip drive is still widely used in my department. It is the most convenient way to transfer large chunks of data from non-networked computers. Perhaps it just took time for its' strengths to be fully realized.
The problem with the Zip was the huge numbers of the drives that developed the "click of death" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=zip+click+of+death&btnG=Google+Search) - I think the drive took out the media it was working on when it went south, too.

[gwilks98]

I dunno. I used Zip drives and I thought they were no less reliable than the 1.44" floppies. I never had the click of death problem.



USB Memory Stick?

How old are you memo? Those weren't around then. Burners weren't even around then, or at least affordable.

I'd love to add a few to the list:



I agree with the first comment on the site's board. Quicktime is an abomination. 100% proprietary. 100% annoying. bundled with other crap I don't want. All the unfriendliness of the Mac interface that I hate. Yay!

CDRW media. Used it once. Thought it was pointless. Too expensive per disc. Only machines with burners (at the time I used them) could read them. Zip 250 was out there so I used it. Then came the CHEAP cdr media, followed by the wonderful flash drive memory.

5.25 floppy. The B drive. The real floppy. Easily bendable. Easily erasable. Slow and small. OK for King's Quest, but not much else.

Laser disc. I feel sorry for all you saps out there who wasted boatloads of money converting your movie colllection to those enormous frisbees. I'm sure someone will say the same to me when DVD goes to the extinct list.

This site (http://www.gotapex.com/deals) So many wasted so much time that could have been otherwise spent doing something meaningful. Like bitching about politics face to face.

AllAdvantage and other pay to surf programs: I remember when Apex was posting his monthly checks from them here. What a pain it was to have 3 different adbars up while I was surfing. Then the marketing companies got smart and figured out they could sneak ads onto your computer via pop-ups and spyware. Those pay to surf programs were the ramping technology to all the spyware we know and love.

NetBEUI protocol. Blech. Wins. Blech. Microsoft's poor attempt at replacing a standard.

Cell phone antenna boosters link (http://cellphones.about.com/od/thecellularfaq/f/cf_antenna_boos.htm) Man I'm glad I bought mine at the dollar store. Piece of trash.

[eSDee]

Ehh, not feeling that SD. I know they can be useful, but now you've got usb drives and even CD's that can be burned pretty quickly.

Besides, network those bad boys! Aren't you the sysadmin there? ;)

Here are two examples of where the Zip drive shines:

http://www.sdlocals.com/images/GA/zipcomps.JPG

The two computers on the right are connected to a specular microscope ($$$) which works great, with the middle computer running Windows 3.1 and the right computer running Windows 98. When images are captured using these computers they are dumped onto zip drive from their hard drives, then transferred to the Windows XP computer on the left. From there, further analysis can be done. Currently, transferring data from one comp to the next is very quick using the Zip drive. Networking the Windows 98 machine would suck because it would probably get hacked in seconds, and the Windows 3.1 machine doesn't even know what the Internet is (just kidding, but you know what I mean).

My point is that the zip drive came out too late to be used right away with these computers when they were first built, but now in a large-file format world, having a zip drive connected to these guys still makes them a valuable resource despite their old operating systems.

[gwilks98]

Here are two examples of where the Zip drive shines:

Networking the Windows 98 machine would suck because it would probably get hacked in seconds, and the Windows 3.1 machine doesn't even know what the Internet is (just kidding, but you know what I mean).

Not if you use a private lan. Go get yourself a 4 port wired switch.
Pretty creative, but man, I'd go nuts if I didn't pony up $50 for a copy of Win2K or $100 for WinXP. Does your microscope have compatibility problems with newer os's?

[Airencracken]

I dunno. I used Zip drives and I thought they were no less reliable than the 1.44" floppies. I never had the click of death problem.


How old are you memo? Those weren't around then. Burners weren't even around then, or at least affordable.

I'd love to add a few to the list:



I agree with the first comment on the site's board. Quicktime is an abomination. 100% proprietary. 100% annoying. bundled with other crap I don't want. All the unfriendliness of the Mac interface that I hate. Yay!

CDRW media. Used it once. Thought it was pointless. Too expensive per disc. Only machines with burners (at the time I used them) could read them. Zip 250 was out there so I used it. Then came the CHEAP cdr media, followed by the wonderful flash drive memory.

5.25 floppy. The B drive. The real floppy. Easily bendable. Easily erasable. Slow and small. OK for King's Quest, but not much else.

Laser disc. I feel sorry for all you saps out there who wasted boatloads of money converting your movie colllection to those enormous frisbees. I'm sure someone will say the same to me when DVD goes to the extinct list.

This site (http://www.gotapex.com/deals) So many wasted so much time that could have been otherwise spent doing something meaningful. Like bitching about politics face to face.

AllAdvantage and other pay to surf programs: I remember when Apex was posting his monthly checks from them here. What a pain it was to have 3 different adbars up while I was surfing. Then the marketing companies got smart and figured out they could sneak ads onto your computer via pop-ups and spyware. Those pay to surf programs were the ramping technology to all the spyware we know and love.

NetBEUI protocol. Blech. Wins. Blech. Microsoft's poor attempt at replacing a standard.

Cell phone antenna boosters link (http://cellphones.about.com/od/thecellularfaq/f/cf_antenna_boos.htm) Man I'm glad I bought mine at the dollar store. Piece of trash.


Hey step off the Laserdisc. I love my player.


Here are two examples of where the Zip drive shines:

The two computers on the right are connected to a specular microscope ($$$) which works great, with the middle computer running Windows 3.1 and the right computer running Windows 98. When images are captured using these computers they are dumped onto zip drive from their hard drives, then transferred to the Windows XP computer on the left. From there, further analysis can be done. Currently, transferring data from one comp to the next is very quick using the Zip drive. Networking the Windows 98 machine would suck because it would probably get hacked in seconds, and the Windows 3.1 machine doesn't even know what the Internet is (just kidding, but you know what I mean).

My point is that the zip drive came out too late to be used right away with these computers when they were first built, but now in a large-file format world, having a zip drive connected to these guys still makes them a valuable resource despite their old operating systems.

What is this windows 3.1?

j/k

My first compy was an IBM PCjr. and my second was an awful Packard Bell with win 3.11.

[eSDee]

Not if you use a private lan. Go get yourself a 4 port wired switch.
Pretty creative, but man, I'd go nuts if I didn't pony up $50 for a copy of Win2K or $100 for WinXP. Does your microscope have compatibility problems with newer os's?

Exactly. The applications will only work on newer versions of Windows if we upgrade the specular microscope, which will cost at least 30 grand. So we do the best with what we got, and at this point, the zip drive is the best.

[Markel]

Exactly. The applications will only work on newer versions of Windows if we upgrade the specular microscope, which will cost at least 30 grand. So we do the best with what we got, and at this point, the zip drive is the best.
I've got customers that are still limping along on the Windows 3.1 version of our machines/software. They're sitting on a time bomb, thoughk, because when the computer fails, there's little chance of getting a replacement.

I was helping a guy in Mexico a couple of weeks ago. Was he EVER happy when I got his system working again.

[Jeffbx]

EsDee, as much a gwilks thinks it sucks, what you want to do is fire up the good 'ol NetBEUI protocol on those old boxes. Use that, not TCP/IP to communicate between them & the XP box. They won't be hacked because 1) it's not a routable protocol and 2) no one cares about it anymore.

It'll be much safer & faster than the Zip disk.

[gwilks98]

EsDee, as much a gwilks thinks it sucks, what you want to do is fire up the good 'ol NetBEUI protocol on those old boxes. Use that, not TCP/IP to communicate between them & the XP box. They won't be hacked because 1) it's not a routable protocol and 2) no one cares about it anymore.

It'll be much safer & faster than the Zip disk.


Uh...XP doesn't come with NetBEUI. And it may be fine for small old school jobs, but sticking with a technology that is rapidly disappearing is a very scary thought. Hardware fails. Software becomes less and less compatible. Why not run the program on a newer box in compatibility mode? PM me if you don't know how to do this, I need to stop hijacking the thread.

[zero2dash]

I'd love to add a few to the list:

I agree with the first comment on the site's board. Quicktime is an abomination. 100% proprietary. 100% annoying. bundled with other crap I don't want. All the unfriendliness of the Mac interface that I hate. Yay!


I hate Quicktime also, but truthfully I don't find the interface all that unfriendly. Hell I don't really find any Mac interface "unfriendly", but that's just me. Considering that Apple pretty much has a kung fu grip on movie trailers being in Quicktime format, well if you want to watch movie trailers online, you're stuck with Quicktime.


CDRW media. Used it once. Thought it was pointless. Too expensive per disc. Only machines with burners (at the time I used them) could read them. Zip 250 was out there so I used it. Then came the CHEAP cdr media, followed by the wonderful flash drive memory.

Agreed, but my main CDRW complaint is a lack of speed. Takes too long to write the discs, too long to erase the discs, and high speed discs cost too much.


AllAdvantage and other pay to surf programs: I remember when Apex was posting his monthly checks from them here. What a pain it was to have 3 different adbars up while I was surfing. Then the marketing companies got smart and figured out they could sneak ads onto your computer via pop-ups and spyware. Those pay to surf programs were the ramping technology to all the spyware we know and love.

While I do freely admit that it sucked seeing Apex get these huge checks, it wasn't too horrendous - if you had trembler and ran AA while you were sleeping with trembler running (which essentially moved the mouse cursor around for you). I think I got 3 $25 checks from AA and then I gave up on it before it really got bad. +$75 ain't too bad for someone with 0 referrals and no wasted time spent. :heh:

I still use a Zip 100 drive; at Kinkos we always used Zip disks to transfer things from one computer to another, and I have a lot of old work on Zips (including some portfolio work). I eventually wound up scoring a free USB (clear blue one) Zip 100 a few years ago to use at home. I've never seen the click of death, but I have seen Zip 250 drives have a million problems reading a Zip 100 disk (even though they're supposed to be able to, and CAN, usually the 250 drive takes a lot longer to read the 100 disk than a Zip 100 drive would - which is why I wanted a Zip 100 myself).

AOL as #1...priceless. Now if only their userbase realized how horrible their software is. :shrug:

[Jeffbx]

Uh...XP doesn't come with NetBEUI.

Not in the default installation, but you can easily add it. (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301041&sd=tech)


And it may be fine for small old school jobs, but sticking with a technology that is rapidly disappearing is a very scary thought. Hardware fails. Software becomes less and less compatible. Why not run the program on a newer box in compatibility mode?

Compatibility mode is another option, but then you need to install whatever interface software is on those old machines. I'd be willing to bet no one remembers how to install it or knows where the CDs are (yes, been there done that).

[eSDee]

EsDee, as much a gwilks thinks it sucks, what you want to do is fire up the good 'ol NetBEUI protocol on those old boxes. Use that, not TCP/IP to communicate between them & the XP box. They won't be hacked because 1) it's not a routable protocol and 2) no one cares about it anymore.

It'll be much safer & faster than the Zip disk.

Faster maybe but not safer. The thing is that it works great right now, and there's no reason to change it. Adding network to these old boxes adds a security issue, since the XP box is networked and therefore if someone hacks it they have access to the other comps. While I haven't had a computer hacked in over 3 years, it's still not worth the HIPAA (http://www.hipaa-101.com/) risk. Using a Zip drive is the best balance of all possible solutions I think.

[Jeffbx]

Yeah, I should have qualified that -

Safer from the risk of data loss on the zip drive, not safer as in more secure transfer of data.

[eSDee]

I hear you Jeff, and I appreciate your thoughts :thumb:

[gwilks98]

Compatibility mode is another option, but then you need to install whatever interface software is on those old machines. I'd be willing to bet no one remembers how to install it or knows where the CDs are (yes, been there done that).

Good point. Although after I posted, I noticed there's no Win 3.1 compatibility mode. (the farthest winxp goes back is 95.)