Worst in Tech for 2010

Microsoft Kin

The Kin was once dubbed as the cousin to Windows Phone 7.  That might be true if that cousin is comatose.  Consumers who bought this device were blessed with no apps or games, a forced data plan by Verizon used for real smart phones, and quite possibly the worst UI ever invented.  Let's not forget all those cloud hosting issues they experienced randomly.  Lost contacts anyone?

The Kin was killed off after an impressive 6 weeks on the market.


AT&T 3G MicroCell

We all know that AT&T has the worst cellular network known to man.  It drops calls, data, runs slow, and has a natural ability to piss people off daily.  The MicroCell unit is their solution to fix all of this, at least in your home.  In theory it's great, except for the forced $150 price tag that goes along with it.

Here is a better idea long term.  Just fix your horrible network.


The TV Hat

Now this is the perfect gift, if your sole purpose if simply to piss someone off and make them hate you.  One thing we have learned since the inception of the iPod is that any random company will make some stupid accessory to try and cash in.  The TV Hat was designed to allow the user watch media on their iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPod Classic with no glare.  It even has a 2.5x magnification screen that "helps give you a movie theater experience".

We better all jump to get this as it's a steal at $30.  Just don't go outdoors with it, as you may have find new friends with the people that wear foil hats.


Shake Weight

I have nothing against integrating technology into our daily lives and routines, but I don't think any of us believe this thing was invented to get your average Joe into shape.  It may have been innocent, but the Shake Weight has quickly become the butt of sexual jokes of everyone.

And yes, I still laugh uncontrollably when I see the commercials.  And thank you YouTube for your wonderful parody videos.


USB 3.0

It came, it saw, and it fell harder than a fat man in a slide at the water park.  USB 3.0 was supposed to be the magnificent replacement to current standards, offering 10x the speed of 2.0 and giving us a world of new high speed peripherals.  Someone forgot to send this memo to Intel and AMD, as they never integrated this technology natively, and only a small amount of devices support it.


Google Wave

This was supposed to be Google's solution to Facebook, or so they thought.  The biggest problem that Wave faced was, well, everything about it.  No one knew how to take advantage of the thing beyond logging in, and it ran so horribly that it became almost worthless.  We tried it here on the beta and it lasted for oh, a week at best and we gave up.  Wave has now been formally killed off, although Google as said they plan to integrate parts of it into other services.


QIK

One thing that Android users want is a quality app for live video streaming and chat like FaceTime on the iPhone 4.  What many of us were stuck with what QIK.  All it offered us in return was performance including choppy framerates, grainy images and frequently dropped connections over 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi.  Thankfully, we have Skype coming out hopefully soon with their video chat update and a possible addition to Google Talk.