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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from CNET Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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10 Black Sheep of tech
By CNET Asia staff
25/07/2007 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/pcperipherals/0,39051168,62029383,00.htm From Silence of the Lambs to Violence of the Lambs, Black Sheep is one of those killer B-grade movies running amok with flesh-eating mutton chops. Watching them make mincemeat of the Kiwi population would put animal rights activists right out of a job. From green grazing fields to the tech landscape, we have our Black Sheep, too. Though the list is by no means exhaustive, here are 10 baaad candidates who've caused many a consumer to bleat bemusedly: Whatever were they thinking?
The Serene looks real fine, until you realize it's not a piece of modern speaker art, but a portable phone. Here's where the flaws start showing up. You'll need a special screwdriver each time to access the battery and SIM card compartment. There's a camera. But wait, it's located at one end, which makes aligning snapshots via the viewfinder display somewhat of a challenge. Did we mention that it's S$2,500 for something that's more pretty than practical?
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Remember the "taco phone"? Yeah, that's right--the Nokia N-Gage. It had a clever name, but forgot the lessons of Design 101. So users ended up holding the device sideways to their ear. Not a smart move to impress the gals. After two iterations since its debut in 2003, the N-Gage fell out of grace with gamers and mobile users.
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With all the buzz surrounding the recent iPhone launch, who would have remembered a time when Apple wasn't always that handhelds savvy. Enter the Newton MessagePad back in the 1990s. While most people regarded it as revolutionary for its time, the Newton didn't fall far from the Apple tree and failed to spark a revolution. Could it have been the expensive price tag (which peaked at US$1,000)? Or could it have been the shaky handwriting recognition software? Talk about arrested development.
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Its pivoting neck was supposed to make computing in economy seats a comforting experience. But at S$4,099, it was probably cheaper going to the chiropractor instead. That the FlyBook Vm was based on a last-generation chipset and had a small keyboard probably contributed to the fact that it sat on Singapore retail shelves for only a couple of months.
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More efficient than QWERTY? Maybe. But the flock mentality was hard to overcome. With generations of secretaries and computer users brought up on the QWERTY keyboard, abKey, despite being shortlisted as a finalist for the Red Herring 100 Asia Award in 2006, never quite keyed in to the success it anticipated.
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The Gizmondo will probably go down in history as one of the biggest flops (or, more appropriately, con jobs) in the handhelds space. Talk about fleecing the consumer. It first created a lot of hype at CeBIT 2004 with its then impressive range of onboard features which included music and video playback, dedicated Nvidia GPU, 2.8-inch QVGA display, 400MHz processor, VGA resolution camera and its supplied GPS module. But controversies surrounding the company's excessive spendings and links with the Swedish mafia, plus a lack of games and distribution channels, soon overshadowed the product itself. Ultimately, the product not only did poorly in sales, but was discontinued one year after launch when the company was forced into bankruptcy. Ouch!
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Like the standard DVD, the disposable DVD, or DVD-D, is made of polycarbonate. But an extra layer of coating reacts to an oxidisation process which begins as soon as the disc is exposed to air. In short, it self-destructs after a few hours. It certainly looked cool exploding in Mission Impossible 3, and big film studios were interested enough in the format. Unfortunately, the consuming public was less than enamored and retail chains soon stopped carrying the discs.
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Everytime we hear about a new MP3 player, it's either an iPod knockoff in some way or it's sold as the magic bullet that will end the iPod dynasty once and for all. The Zune's debut came with plenty of fanfare, chief of which was its Wi-Fi song-sharing feature. It's incredibly geeky and probably as cool as exchanging business cards via the Palm Pilot's infrared port. Unfortunately, this debutante from Microsoft fell flat on her face when her hero feature turned out to be in dire need of rescue. Early adopters soon realized there weren't enough people to share songs with. And by the time there were a million Zune users, the 100 millionth iPod had just been sold. Today, Microsoft is still touting the Zune on its site. So we guess it ain't over till the fat lady sings, or loses her Wi-Fi connection.
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Airheads notwithstanding, Toshiba's concept omni-directional helmet display is certainly a well-rounded product. Announced in 2006, the Japanese company claimed that the 40cm screen within the helmet will allow the user to interact within an immersive virtual environment. Yet at 2.7kg, that's plenty of load on the shoulders. And given the immersive success of Nintendo's Wii gameplay, we're anticipating that Toshiba's Bubble Helmet might just go the way of the video goggles.
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Last but not least, here's the biggest black sheep of all. Literally. The Titanic. Repesenting a pinnacle in naval architecture and technological achievement when she set sail on her ill-fated voyage in 1912, The Shipbuilder magazine wrote that she was "practically unsinkable". Unfortunately, that proved to be so wrong. On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, resulting in a reported 1,517 loss in lives.
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