10 GADGETS THAT DESERVED TO DIE

10 Gadgets That Deserved to Die
By Allison T. McCann, Popular Mechanics, 12 December 2012.

Some of the devices that litter the gadget graveyard had their glorious day in the sun before they were replaced by simply better tech. They're the kinds of gadgets you feel nostalgia for. But then there are the devices that never should have seen the light of day - or that you simply couldn't wait to be rid of.

1. Microwave Bank

The fact that "microwave" and "bank" were in the same name of a gadget should tip you off as to why it never made it past the prototype stage. Back in 1998 global technology company NCR announced plans for the Microwave Bank, a device complete with a touchscreen front door that would let you send emails, check bank statements, and do a host of other things no one does while nuking leftovers. Around the same time came the Screenfridge, a device similar in idea to the Microwave Bank but for a refrigerator door (one that LG is still desperately trying to sell). Let's face it: The best kitchen gadgets are ones for making food.

2. Microsoft Zune

PM called the Zune the iPod's ugly cousin when it debuted in 2006, an insult drawn from the device's inferior sound, poor aesthetics, and confusing points-based "Marketplace" for purchasing music. Despite Bill Gates's sentiment at the time that the Zune was "a vision that will carry us forward for years," it always lagged badly behind Apple's player (by 2010 the iPod controlled 76 percent of the digital music industry). Microsoft pulled the plug on the awkward Zune in 2011, and Xbox Music took over.

3. Digiscents iSmell

Smell-O-Vision was one of those ideas best left to sci-fi. So, too, was Smell-O-Web. The strange, nostril-shaped iSmell was set to debut in 2001, carrying 128 various odours that supposedly could mix together to match the smell of the site you were currently browsing. Perhaps iSmell would have survived if it had appeared in the age of Pinterest and its unending torrent of recipes and perfumes; we can also understand the appeal of smelling oil and grease while you peruse PopMech. But some sites just don't need an odour component, and iSmell never made it past the prototype stage.

4. Garmin Phones

In 2008 Garmin decided to enter the tantalizing smartphone arena, presumably thinking it would have an edge based on the company's solid success in the GPS world. In 2009 Garmin partnered with Asus to bring about the nüvifone G60. But the company didn't anticipate just how good smartphone-based GPS and direction systems would become. The iPhone, with its once-friendly relationship with Google Maps, and other modern smartphones blew away Garmin's offering, which was really just a good navigation system on an otherwise-average phone.

5. Twitter Peek

Even today, when Twitter has a user base numbering nearly half a billion, a Twitter-only phone is a ridiculous idea. But back in 2009, when the microblogging service was in its infancy, someone thought a US$200 "lifetime" phone that only - ONLY - works with Twitter was something we needed. You can still buy this awful device on Amazon for discounted price of US$183, never mind the free Twitter app.

6. Watches That Aren't Watches

Watches are for keeping track of time and looking nice, but for years people have been trying to cram much more into the simple wrist companion. Some of these ideas aren't terrible: take the Nike+ SportWatches that track your running times. But there are plenty of low lights. That includes the Microsoft SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology) watches that doubled as mini computers, with stock quotes, game scores, and the weather; and the Swatch Talk that doubled as a phone; and the Swatch .beat watch that displayed the current Internet time; and Samsung's SPH-S100, an overhyped watch-as-phone that never made it to market.

7. Wearable Personal Computers

Putting a computer in your watch might be silly, but at least it's slightly more dignified than some of these gadgets. In the early 2000s wearable PCs seemed on the rise. Xybernaut Corporation designed a head-mounted, voice-activated personal computer complete with an inflatable neck cushion; and ViA, Inc., announced plans for its own wearable PC - a sort of glorified fanny pack with awkward headset. Xybernaut went bankrupt and ViA's never saw the light of day, thankfully.

8. Netbooks

Netbooks came on the scene around 2007 and were praised for their low-cost, low-power, highly portable abilities. But the cheap and chunky laptop computers made popular by companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell have been suffering a slow and painful death, not only because of their failures but also because of bad timing. Netbooks sales have been sharply declining since 2009, when they were eclipsed by their skinnier cousin - the tablet. By the end of last year Dell decided to stop making its consumer Inspiron Mini Netbook altogether while HP shifted its focus on netbooks, marketing them for educational purposes.

9. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

The palm-pilot pioneers behind Handspring ended production of their popular Visor and Treo PDAs by 2003. Yet these clunky, often stylus-clad devices maintained a devoted business-person following for a surprisingly long time. The original PDAs were big, clunky, and came with an awkward stylus - and they couldn't even make phone calls. Since then a new era of PDA phones has been born, though it's only a matter of time before all PDAs are dead.

10. Nexus Q

The little bomb-shaped media streamer from Google died quietly before it even had a chance to become a living-room curiosity. The cloud-connected Nexus Q was Google's big announcement this summer; it was an Android computer for your home that could stream music and movies through Google Play. But Google postponed pre-orders of the weird black orb this summer, and by November there was no mention of the Q anywhere, likely because of a lack of interest in Google's media ecosystem and a price tag of US$299.

Related Links:

• How Google's Ad Power Forced Microsoft to Bid on Yahoo!
• This Year’s Top New Gadgets : Live Previews from CES 2011
• Citizen Science: How Smartphones Can Aid Scientific Research
• 6 Gadgets That Didn't Make It in 2010 (But We Kind of Wish Did)
• 8 Gadgets You Own That Are Already Watching You
• Top 19 Gadgets at CES 2011: Editors Choice Awards
• iPhone Nano, GPS Are More Important to Apple Than 3G: Analysis
• Tech Briefs: Microsoft Finds Gmail Bug, Chinese Surveillance Update, Wearable Air Guitar
• Top 10 Web-Shaking Google Breakthroughs From Its First 10 Years
• The Top Gadgets of CES 2012: Editors' Choice Awards

[Source: Popular Mechanics. Edited.]