Post by aquamac on May 28, 2006 12:56:28 GMT
Well everyone gets a bum idea sometimes:
PC World magazine on Friday published its list of the 25 worst tech products ever, placing Apple's 1989 Macintosh Portable at number 17 and the company's ill-fated 1996 videogame console Pippin in the number 22 slot. AOL, RealPlayer, Sycronysys' SoftRAM Windows utility, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, and Sony BMG's rootkit-riddled music CDs occupied the top five spots on the list.
The editors had this to say about Apple's Macintosh Portable: "A 4-inch-thick, 16-pound beast that severely strained the definition of 'laptop'--and the aching backs of its porters. Huge lead-acid batteries contributed to its weight and bulk; the batteries were especially important because Portable wouldn't run on AC power. Some computers are affordable, too; the Portable met that description only if you had $6500 of extra cash on hand."
Of Pippin, which was part of a joint development deal with Bandai, PC World said: "This game console was slower than a worm through a Granny Smith ... It ran on a weak PowerPC processor and came with a puny 14.4-kbps modem, so it was stupendously slow offline and online.
"Then, too, it was based on the Mac OS, so almost no games were available for it. And it cost nearly $600--nearly twice as much as other, far more powerful game consoles. Underpowered, overpriced, and underutilized--that pretty much describes everything that came out of Apple in the mid-90s."
Other notables on the list include Microsoft Bob and Internet Explorer 6, IBM PCjr., Gateway 20th Anniversary PC, Iomega Zip Drive, and DigiScents iSmell.
The magazine also offered ten products that made its dishonorable mention list, which included the Apple Newton MessagePad, Apple's "hockey puck" mouse, the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, and the iTunes-enabled Motorola Rokr E1 cell phone.
Of the Newton, PC World acknowledged: "Yes, we know that the Apple Newton also happens to be number 28 on our list of the 50 greatest gadgets (so no letters, please). But while Apple's innovative concept won kudos, the Newton's execution was lacking, especially in its first version. Aside from its famously awful handwriting recognition, the Newton was too bulky and too expensive for all but Apple acolytes." ;D
PC World magazine on Friday published its list of the 25 worst tech products ever, placing Apple's 1989 Macintosh Portable at number 17 and the company's ill-fated 1996 videogame console Pippin in the number 22 slot. AOL, RealPlayer, Sycronysys' SoftRAM Windows utility, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, and Sony BMG's rootkit-riddled music CDs occupied the top five spots on the list.
The editors had this to say about Apple's Macintosh Portable: "A 4-inch-thick, 16-pound beast that severely strained the definition of 'laptop'--and the aching backs of its porters. Huge lead-acid batteries contributed to its weight and bulk; the batteries were especially important because Portable wouldn't run on AC power. Some computers are affordable, too; the Portable met that description only if you had $6500 of extra cash on hand."
Of Pippin, which was part of a joint development deal with Bandai, PC World said: "This game console was slower than a worm through a Granny Smith ... It ran on a weak PowerPC processor and came with a puny 14.4-kbps modem, so it was stupendously slow offline and online.
"Then, too, it was based on the Mac OS, so almost no games were available for it. And it cost nearly $600--nearly twice as much as other, far more powerful game consoles. Underpowered, overpriced, and underutilized--that pretty much describes everything that came out of Apple in the mid-90s."
Other notables on the list include Microsoft Bob and Internet Explorer 6, IBM PCjr., Gateway 20th Anniversary PC, Iomega Zip Drive, and DigiScents iSmell.
The magazine also offered ten products that made its dishonorable mention list, which included the Apple Newton MessagePad, Apple's "hockey puck" mouse, the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, and the iTunes-enabled Motorola Rokr E1 cell phone.
Of the Newton, PC World acknowledged: "Yes, we know that the Apple Newton also happens to be number 28 on our list of the 50 greatest gadgets (so no letters, please). But while Apple's innovative concept won kudos, the Newton's execution was lacking, especially in its first version. Aside from its famously awful handwriting recognition, the Newton was too bulky and too expensive for all but Apple acolytes." ;D
