The Worst Gadgets of All Time

Worst. Tech. Products. Ever.


Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.
Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.
Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.
Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.
17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.
Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."
Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?
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Denon AVR-4306 (black)
Incredibly well-featured 7.1-channel receiver; excellent sound quality; three HDMI inputs; converts analog video to HDMI output; upconverts analog video to 720p/1080i HD resolution; iPod and USB MP3 player connectivity; Internet radio and MP3/WMA streaming audio via built-in Ethernet port; XM Satellite Radio compatible; touch-screen remote; multizone, multisource operation; browser-based control via home network; accurate autocalibration routine. Full Review
KEF KHT3005 (black)
The KEF KHT-3005 is one compact, beautifully designed speaker package with solid aluminum satellites that feature unique driver technology to produce incredible clarity. Meanwhile, the equally astounding dual 10-inch, 250-watt powered subwoofer delivers ultradeep bass. Full Review
KEF KHT3005 (silver)
The KEF KHT-3005 is one compact, beautifully designed speaker package with solid aluminum satellites that feature unique driver technology to produce incredible clarity. Meanwhile, the equally astounding dual 10-inch, 250-watt powered subwoofer delivers ultradeep bass. Full Review
Wi-Ex zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL cell phone signal extender
The Wi-Ex zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL significantly boosts your cell phone reception and is easy to operate. Also, it uses a wireless connection to your phone. Full Review
Turbo Charge Tc2 portable cell phone charger
The Turbo Charge Tc2 portable cell phone charger successfully delivers emergency power to your cell phone. It's easy to use and comes with a couple of surprising features. Full Review
LG VX6000 (Verizon Wireless)
Compact and stylish; impressive battery life; solid audio quality; sharp color screen; built-in camera; USB ready; affordable. Full Review
Canon EOS 1D Mark III
Extremely fast, 10-megapixel continuous shooting; very low noise; highly customizable; well-designed body with weather sealing; 3-inch LCD; abundant optional accessories. Full Review
Nikon D3 (body only)
Full-frame sensor; well designed, pro-level weather-sealed body; very low noise, even at extremely high ISOs; fast. Full Review
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
Very low noise, high quality images; 21.1 megapixels; live view shooting; pro-level build-quality and performance. Full Review
Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)
A minor specification update results in some significant performance gains; graphics upgrade an option on this 24-inch model; sleek, polished design didn't receive an update, but we won't start clamoring for a new design until the current one is at least 12 months old. Full Review
Velocity Raptor Signature Edition Gaming PC
One of the fastest PCs we've tested; a PCI Express RAID card helps media encoding performance; typically immaculate Velocity Micro assembly; strong, three-year warranty. Full Review
Dell Studio Desktop Computer (Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200, 750GB HDD, 6GB)
Best performance in its class; dedicated graphics card; large hard drive. Full Review
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Will H. said 2:38AM on 8-13-2008
Windows ME is most certainly the worst invention ever, if you can even call it that.
On the other hand, suicide doors are awesome.
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DarkLight said 4:10AM on 8-13-2008
Yeah, I love suicide doors. Nothing wrong with them.. (If you activate the child-proof lock, or however it's called in english)
And I never used ME, went straight from 98 to XP... Lucky me
hungry foe said 1:21PM on 8-13-2008
man talk about uncompatibility, windows vista home and home premium should have been considered for this list. talk about bloatware, it may not be as bad as ME but its still horible for gamers or anyone who likes tweaking their computers, totaly un userfreidly if there ever was a user freildly OS. ill just stick to my windows XP pro until heir gates decides to give us a decent OS for people who can actualy use a computer.
heil microsoft.
lol
Jon said 7:30AM on 8-13-2008
Lincoln Continentals with suicide doors are awesome, I don't know what this guy is talking about.
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Jon said 7:31AM on 8-13-2008
Lincoln Continentals with suicide doors are awesome, I don't know
what this guy is talking about.
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Charles said 9:04AM on 8-13-2008
I would have to say that the worst gadget ever made was the guy that made this list. Suicide doors were just about the coolest thing ever seen on a car.
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Michael said 9:48AM on 8-13-2008
Nope....gull wing doors were about the coolest thing ever seen on a car. Although suicide doors not only WERE cool, they still ARE cool on extended cab chevy pickup trucks. Which essentially are the old suicide doors with an overlap so you can't open them until the front door is opened first.
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Jeannie Walter said 10:06AM on 8-13-2008
The worst gadget ever? WINDOWS VISTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a worthless example of that thief Bill Gate's pathetic ego. And the idiots at computer companies like Dell (who REFUSE to let Americans talk to understandable English speaking phone techs on the subject) tout this garbage program as something special--are they trying to blow smoke up Billy boy's butt to make his ego even bigger? Windows Vista sucks, people--if you haven't already been screwed by it, BEWARE! Computer companies are ripping buyers off by putting Vista in all new computers, thus destroying your chance of having a computer that actually works.
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Crissy said 2:24PM on 8-13-2008
Just so you know....for an additional $40.00 you can pay for an upgraded service plan with dell....all this means is you get to talk to someone based in the US when you call.....So like Sally Struthers and her pennies a day to feed an African rice....for only $40 a computer you can keep jobs in the US.... What is this country coming to!!!!
dplcurve said 2:49PM on 8-13-2008
haha
whatever.
windows vista works great for me,
and i play WoW.
Amy said 10:49AM on 8-13-2008
Hey I remember MS Bob! We had this when I was a teenager. You had to actually open this program manually, so it wasn’t like an operating system. It didn’t do anything that you couldn’t already do, except it may have had some games like chess or something…I can’t remember. Anyway, I mainly used it to pass the time when I was bored. You could add and “decorate” your rooms like a primitive version of “The Sims” without any people in it. I was probably supposed to be doing homework or something. Oh well!
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Dustin said 11:35AM on 8-13-2008
Windows ME also know as........My ENEMY! Yah i'd say overly ridiculous and worst gadget.
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Genesta Keys said 12:22PM on 8-13-2008
Has anyone heard of Spyware 2009 by windows. If not some one is trying to get into your computer. So don't down load this product.
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John G said 1:05PM on 8-13-2008
What about the Coleco Adam computer? The Tomy Tuter computer?
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Di said 1:09PM on 8-13-2008
Genesta...what? I'm sorry can you say that again?
Oh, and Brad...Paris Hilton scandal? Really???? Gee, and I thought she was such a nice girl....GIVE IT UP!!!
The worst gadget is obviously the internet judging by some (okay, mostly ALL) of the comments made on message boards.
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jules parker said 1:12PM on 8-13-2008
you know. there had to be something we needed to improve upon. i think back on something i developed and thought later, how dumb was that. but at least i didn't try to sell something not quite thought out. let the inventors continue and in ten years, re-evaluate.
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retro77 said 1:30PM on 8-13-2008
Why do you keep on including software as gadgets? gay
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jphwki82 said 1:31PM on 8-13-2008
what about MiniDisc players that came out right before the first gen. Ipod. Those were worthless, I thought those would have made the list for sure.
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stephen said 8:13PM on 9-02-2008
Those minidisc players are huge over in japan though. Everyone has them and the steroes that play them go for hundreds. they even have the players in their cars. mp3 isnt as big as it is here.
boardincali82 said 3:00PM on 8-13-2008
I remember the Mini Disc players way back, they were expensive too! and they looked all bulky and primitive, even then! Well one of the newer products that came out that's blown me away is the Motorokr it has a lot of features like Crystal Talk, built in FM radio, full HTML browser, and an airplane mode. What i like most about it is that you can switch between the cell phone and MP3 modes with the touch of a button. Mobile technology is booming!
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