Whats the most useless piece of technolagy that you ever bought?

AMKC

I will start for me it was a Sony minidisk player. This is going ay back to the early 00s. I new a lad who had got one and he said it was great seemed to be easy to use and looked good too. I decided to buy one for myself. Do you think I could get the fecking thing to work no not a hope. As it turns out they were not around very long anyway before being replaced by other technology.

So what useless piece of technology have you bought?

smash

It's a toss up between my waffle maker and my remote control dinosaur.

Mr. CooL ICE

Back in the day, I bought a hybrid digital camera and MP3 player with non-removable storage. It could fit approx 30 photos or two songs of 128bit encoding.

jester77

AMKC wrote: »

I will start for me it was a Sony minidisk player. This is going ay back to the early 00s. I new a lad who had got one and he said it was great seemed to be easy to use and looked good too. I decided to buy one for myself. Do you think I could get the fecking thing to work no not a hope. As it turns out they were not around very long anyway before being replaced by other technology.

So what useless piece of technology have you bought?

I had a few of these and thought they were great, much better than portable CD players and less skipping. Def one of the better products before digital music was available.

I am toying with ordering the most useless thing ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xCd55oSgO4

lego rocks

Frynge

I bought a vibrating rubber dogs' chew toy. Not sure why because the dog seems scared of it and anytime I try to use it to play fetch when we have guests over they always seem to get very uncomfortable for a minute or two before leaving.

smash

Frynge wrote: »

I bought a vibrating rubber dogs' chew toy.

suuuurre it was...

TerrorFirmer

A candy floss maker.

I've made about two teaspoons of sugar worth in the past six years so I'd say I'm still somewhat far away from recouping my investment.

Gatling

Ps 1 motion sensitive glove it was the future that didn't happen until recently

Baron Kurtz

I'm finding smart watches might fall suitably into this bracket. Update to Marshmallow and half of the concept they're renown for - email notifications - suddenly becomes redundant.

12Phase

AMKC wrote: »

I will start for me it was a Sony minidisk player. This is going ay back to the early 00s. I new a lad who had got one and he said it was great seemed to be easy to use and looked good too. I decided to buy one for myself. Do you think I could get the fecking thing to work no not a hope. As it turns out they were not around very long anyway before being replaced by other technology.

So what useless piece of technology have you bought?

They were VERY useful if you were a journalist or musician who needed to record, but for consumers they were totally pointless.

Baron Kurtz wrote: »

I'm finding smart watches might fall suitably into this bracket. Update to Marshmallow and half of the concept they're renown for - email notifications - suddenly becomes redundant.

Actually finding my smartwatch useful as a remote control for Spotify mostly and a bit of fitness tracking.

Mesrine65

Nokia N-Gage

12Phase

For me it's mostly various kitchen gadgets that I buy and then use once and store in a kind of cupboard for lost appliances.

Things like smoothie makers and food processor type things.

All you need in a kitchen is a good cooker, sharp knives, pots and a few chopping boards.

Duggy747

I thought the minidisk was very handy when I was working in radio years ago for recording interviews and music.

Alf Stewart.

My underwater sandwich toaster.

I reckoned it would be great for toasting cheese and ham sangers whilst on a dive. Just makes the bread real soggy, and then I gotta surface to try and eat em anyway. :mad:

Penn

A USB fingerprint scanner for my laptop. Always took longer taking the thing out and plugging it in and scanning my fingerprint than just typing in my password.

SEPT 23 1989

A glass hammer

12Phase

Duggy747 wrote: »

I thought the minidisk was very handy when I was working in radio years ago for recording interviews and music.

Yeah, they were very handy as the first truly portable recorder that you could access tracks on in a non-linear way and move things around. Before that I think they used analogue tape and DAT (digital tape) which was really difficult to edit.

MD was common enough in radio news until maybe 2004 or 5. It only got replaced with solid state recorders when they dropped in price and improved in functionality.

The only thing that was totally daft though was you were recording on MD digitally and then usually moving it from MD to a computer via an analogue audio connection on a sound desk and basically re-recording it before editing...

MD really arrived too late to be useful. MP3 players arrived very shortly after it had become widely affordable.

poa

A landline telephone.

the evasion_kid

Mr.frosty

poa

Gillette Fusion Power razor.

12Phase

Magnetic collar controlled cat flap!

1) The cat nearly choked on the bloody collar.
2) The cat then couldn't get in so broke the cat flap!

Samaris

My first computer. I saved up for about a year when I was 13 or so (I think, it's a long time ago, but I was saving for a very long time) and went and got this thing. Windows...2000 I think.

Well, this damn thing was a lemon if ever there was one. I think it was made from random parts squished into a box. It spent more time being brought in to be repaired than it spent at home. The last tech we brought it to sighed when he saw it again and suggested an exorcist because there were things wrong with it that weren't technically even possible.

Boom_Bap

I had a mini disc player and it was great. It ended up being used on a tour around Ireland and a mini tour of the US including SXSW as a backup device.

The most useless thing I bout was the Bazooka/Scope thing for the SNES.

12Phase

Panini toaster.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

fancy pigeon

CD data destroyer. This one

There was more fun smashing them and far cheaper too

poa

Windows 10.
I wish I had stayed on Windows 7, much better.
10 fights a constant battle Edge v Google Chrome.
And don't get me started on Taskbar glitches.
It basically ignores my settings and does what it likes.
Free upgrade? Yes, free for a reason. Its ****e.

poa

I downloaded Skype. Then went out and bought a headset with mic.
One day I forgot to plug in one of the mini jack plugs, and wondered how the caller could still hear me speaking.
That's right, my laptop has a built in mic. I didn't need a headset to make Skype calls at all.
I think I used it for a day before realising.

bnt

About 12 years ago I bought a MP3 player at one of those organised computer sales in London. It never worked as well as I hoped with the supplied headphones ... then I found that it the headphone connector was one size smaller than standard (2.5mm instead of the standard 3.5mm).

AMKC

Mesrine65 wrote: »

Nokia N-Gage

No way would have loved one of them back in the day. I remember they sold the last ones for 90euro I think but only heard about it the next day a bit late then. Would have bought one had I off known.

on_my_oe

Acre Iconia tablet - €490 sodding euro. Two months after purchase the next version of android got released, but Acer decided not to roll it out to European consumers - only people in the US, Asia, Australia etc could update. So then the apps wouldn't work any longer with the old version of android. I even got as far as a complaint to Consumer Protection, but they only got back to me 11mths later, by which time I'd brought an iPad. I only brought the android device not wanting to be an Apple fanboy.

I'll never buy an Android device again in my life.

CorkMan_

For me it's a camera. Bought a Samsung Digital one two years ago, then got a HTC One and use it ever since. I can't remember the last time I used the camera.

KeithTS

jester77 wrote: »

I had a few of these and thought they were great, much better than portable CD players and less skipping. Def one of the better products before digital music was available.

I am toying with ordering the most useless thing ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xCd55oSgO4

lego rocks

you know MiniDisc and CD's are digital music right....
Also loved my MD player though, best piece of kit ever, you could edit songs to a 28 frame per second accuracy which was a nice selling point

neris

a "Jordan F1" steering wheel for my PS1 at the end of the last century.

RobbingBandit

A gizmondo, who wants to touch me!!!

Dyr

Technolagy?
Technolageee?

Sky plus of course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QINzmRPfMCU

Ruu

SD Card picture viewer, plug into telly to look at photos.

Mesrine65 wrote: »

Nokia N-Gage

I still have mine but my brother ended up getting a virus on it, so it is just a brick now. Sims Bustin' Out, FIFA, all great games!

TerrorFirmer

AMKC wrote: »

No way would have loved one of them back in the day. I remember they sold the last ones for 90euro I think but only heard about it the next day a bit late then. Would have bought one had I off known.

I had the original and the QD, they were actually pretty sound from a tech point of view with some great 'Ngage' games and access to hundreds of games, emulators, movie players, etc due to the popular symbian platform. Just crap as phones - disaster trying to market a device like that as a phone as well.

I got fantastic use out of mine though. Would call it a flop, yes, but doesn't make the console itself useless. It could do so much more than any other handheld console could.

jayo26

Ngage was a great phone it was just about 6 years too early i loved mine and fell in love with the sims on Ngage.

The first one was a bummer having to take battery out to change the game but second one was brilliant.

smash

fancy pigeon wrote: »

CD data destroyer. This one

There was more fun smashing them and far cheaper too

At least you didn't fall for the DVD rewinder!

major bill

Spent big money on an Apple Watch, dont think it's quite useless but as costs go it is definate something I bought that I simply cannot justify

when asked ''what does it do'' I can't give an answer

StillThinking

poa wrote:

Windows 10. I wish I had stayed on Windows 7, much better. 10 fights a constant battle Edge v Google Chrome. And don't get me started on Taskbar glitches. It basically ignores my settings and does what it likes. Free upgrade? Yes, free for a reason. Its ****e.

After months of fighting with windows 10 and cortana and start bar not working and having to google a million and one fixes I finally had enough and wiped my laptop. I'm not that tech savy but done a bit of research and downloaded zorin for my laptop, best thing I ever done.

As for useless tech I would say my spiralizer was the worse, only really works with courgettes and I don't like them, after it sitting in the cupboard for a month after its one and only use I chucked it in the bin

Dyr

The cowon q5w, it was an attempt at a tablet type device before we had tablets. Ran windows CE on an ARM chip (shudder) the wireless card could'nt handle 90% of the wifi connections out there so it was basically useless. Even funnier, it had an old fashioned radio style aerial to help with the wifi signal so you could look like a complete tool and still not get internet access

It was basically a very nice media player that was the size of a brick and cost the guts of 400 quid

Olishi4

Probably one of those digital photo frames. I hardly ever turn it on.

Wibbs

major bill wrote: »

Spent big money on an Apple Watch, dont think it's quite useless but as costs go it is definate something I bought that I simply cannot justify

when asked ''what does it do'' I can't give an answer

I think they're a cool bit of tech MB, but ultimately pretty useless. A solution looking for a problem that doesn't quite exist. Now I will buy one in a few years time when they're dirt cheap and wear it just as a watch with all the other features off. I think they're a very pretty and very well made design. I've held a few smart watches and the quality of them and their bracelets really stood out among the rest. The daftest is the TAG Heuer one. Pointless.

Most of the tech stuff I've bought has been generally OK TBH. I wouldn't be an early adopter type so that likely helps. I wait to hear others saying yay or nay. The only thing I can think of is a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Utterly shíte IMH. I suppose it would be grand in some swanky floor boarded loft, but a three dollar hooker has more suction power. Beyond useless on carpet, it just pushes most of the dust around. The handheld is not much better though handy for the car. At a pinch.

Penn

Oh yeah, in an effort to lose weight, I also bought a juicer for making vegetable juices.

I'd have been better off doing a Homer Simpson and just squeezing them against my head. The amount of veg you need to get even a little bit of juice is an even greater waste of money. Not to mention the amount of cleaning the thing needed.

Vegetable Juice... who the f*ck thought that'd be a good idea? How did I fall for that? Vegetables don't f*cking have any juice.

Mr. CooL ICE

Penn wrote: »

Oh yeah, in an effort to lose weight, I also bought a juicer for making vegetable juices.

I'd have been better off doing a Homer Simpson and just squeezing them against my head. The amount of veg you need to get even a little bit of juice is an even greater waste of money. Not to mention the amount of cleaning the thing needed.

Vegetable Juice... who the f*ck thought that'd be a good idea? How did I fall for that? Vegetables don't f*cking have any juice.

"Barman: Here you are, sir. One prolytic digestive enzyme shake.
James Bond: Do me a favor, will you? Throw that down the toilet. Cut out the middleman."

-Spectre

esforum

3d blu ray player for my father for Christmas, still in the ****ing box and that was 3 years ago.

esforum

Penn wrote: »

Oh yeah, in an effort to lose weight, I also bought a juicer for making vegetable juices.

I'd have been better off doing a Homer Simpson and just squeezing them against my head. The amount of veg you need to get even a little bit of juice is an even greater waste of money. Not to mention the amount of cleaning the thing needed.

Vegetable Juice... who the f*ck thought that'd be a good idea? How did I fall for that? Vegetables don't f*cking have any juice.

also juicing isnt good for losing weight, sorry

Graham

It would be a close tie between a Psion MC400 and an Apple Newton

Cee-Jay-Cee

I had a beer gut in my late 20's and so in an effort to lose it without having to reduce my beer intake I bought one of those ab-toner belts. I used it once for about 15 minutes, noticed no difference afterwards (as if one 15 minute session would have made a difference) and threw it in a drawer, where it sat for about 6 years till I threw it in the bin.

I also bought a top of the range mini disc player in 2003/2004, never used it and clogged it on eBay for half nothing a few months later.