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The Great CES Swindle: Five Years of Flaunting and Failing

by Jon Chase on January 10, 2010 at 12:30 PM

Since long before Switched was even a twinkle in the Internet's eye, we've been making the annual January pilgrimage to Sin City to pay homage to the tech gods. And every year -- sometimes days, sometimes weeks, or sometimes months after the fact -- we realize that we done got played. We inevitably find that, at some point, amid the hustle and bustle, the lights and music and product pitches, we swallowed a bunch of propaganda about at least one product or trend that was going to "change the world" yet turned out to be a castle made of sand. We'd apologize for these mistakes if we didn't know that they were just part of a venerable, decades-old journalistic tradition. (Hit this link for a mind-blowing CES recap from 1978.) What can we say? We're human, and so sometimes fall prey to wishful thinking.

As recompense for our past sins, we've collected what we think are the past five years' most overly hyped and eventually doomed gadgets and trends. To start, here's our pick for the most over-hyped and probably doomed trend from CES 2010: 3-D TV. Yeah, we said it. Can you picture yourself sitting in your living room with a bunch of friends, wearing pricey goggles, more than once in a blue moon? Like, will you have to buy extra pairs, or will you just tell your guests, "BYOG?" We could go on and on, but we shouldn't have to do so. Proceed for more stories of CES swindles.

Tags: 3d tv, 3dTv, blu-ray, ces, hd dvd, HdDvd, helix, hype, inno, netbook, philips, pico projector, PicoProjector, tmio, viiv, vista, wimax, wmce, xstreamhd

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