We felt compelled to assemble this article after PCWorld put together their list of the biggest tech disappointments of 2007. What they claimed to be the worst products of the year were things like Office 2007, iPhone, Yahoo!, and even Vista. Needless to say they were way off the mark, and I lost some respect for them because of their poor decisions.
We managed to come up with three different products that we had high hopes for when originally released, but most turned out to be nothing more than a fad. The 2007 CyberNet Award for Worst Tech Product goes too…
–3rd Place: Apple TV–
Steve Jobs called the Apple TV a hobby earlier this year when he was being interviewed alongside Bill Gates. I was in an Apple store the other day, and saw the “hobby” first hand huddled in the corner. There was only one Apple TV unit hooked up, and at first glance I didn’t even realize what it was. Compared to the mass numbers of Macbooks, iPhones, and iPods it’s a miracle that people would even be able to see the darn thing.
I’ve yet to see or even hear about someone I know purchasing one of these things, and since it’s just a “hobby” I thought it earned a place on the list.
–2nd Place: Joost–
When Joost first came out there was a lot of excitement surrounding the release, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it as well. Invitations blanketed the web, and it was such an ordeal that the invites were even selling on eBay.
As of October 1st anyone can participate in the Beta, but the application itself has only been opened on my computer a handful of times despite having had it installed for several months. Some of the content on there is decent, but it won’t really serve a useful purpose for me until they get some of the major television networks on board.
So the idea is good, but it’s the content (or lack thereof) that made me put it at 2nd place.
–1st Place: Vista Ultimate Extras–
I have four computers running Windows Vista right now, but only one of them has Vista Ultimate on it. The operating system itself is great, but the “Ultimate Extras” that have been promised to us leave a lot to be desired. In a year’s time all we’ve seen is DreamScene, language packs, and an encryption utility.
Come on Microsoft! People are paying nearly $150 more for the Ultimate version over Home Premium, and the advantages are minimal. I would never recommend that anyone, even power users, spend the extra money on Ultimate when the Ultimate Extras are so disappointing.
I was one of those who were so excited about Joost. I had my sister invite me, then I installed it on my own PC. After browsing a few shows, or “shows”, I quickly forgot about it. I just uninstalled it yesterday after opening it just twice after installation.
Gosh, you’ve shown Microsoft a fair bit of mercy regarding Ultimate Extras. They need to be torn a new a-hole over that criminal scam.
Same here Re: Joost. I was pumped to watch the MLB playoff games only to find the games were a couple days old, impossible to find, and even harder to get smooth streaming on a ADLS2+ connection. Huge disappointment for me.
Joost or the Vista Ultimate Extras.
Yeah, Ultimate Extras don’t even deserve this. They deserve worse treatment than IE bashing. They deserve worst treatment than Linux fanboys bashing MS and Windows.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one disappointed with the Joost and Ultimate Extras. I had such high hopes for both when they were first released, and it seems as though both had promised that “great things are to come”. Yeah, that never happened.
[Enters cliché mode]
The folks at Joost have been promising a Linux version for ages and I’m still waiting for an alpha version to be released! You know what? I don’t even care anymore.
Yep, I know they mentioned back in May that it was in the works. *sigh*