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

AMKC · 27-04-2016 02:38PM #1

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 · 27-04-2016 02:41PM

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

Mr. CooL ICE · 27-04-2016 02:42PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:45PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:46PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:47PM

Frynge wrote: »

I bought a vibrating rubber dogs' chew toy.

suuuurre it was...

TerrorFirmer · 27-04-2016 02:48PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:49PM

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

Baron Kurtz · 27-04-2016 02:49PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:50PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:50PM

Nokia N-Gage

12Phase · 27-04-2016 02:52PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:53PM

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

Alf Stewart. · 27-04-2016 02:54PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:55PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:56PM

A glass hammer

12Phase · 27-04-2016 02:57PM

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 · 27-04-2016 02:59PM

A landline telephone.

the evasion_kid · 27-04-2016 02:59PM

Mr.frosty

poa · 27-04-2016 03:00PM

Gillette Fusion Power razor.

12Phase · 27-04-2016 03:02PM

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 · 27-04-2016 03:04PM

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 · 27-04-2016 03:04PM

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 · 27-04-2016 03:05PM

Panini toaster.

draiochtanois · 27-04-2016 03:07PM

This post has been deleted.

fancy pigeon · 27-04-2016 03:08PM

CD data destroyer. This one

There was more fun smashing them and far cheaper too

poa · 27-04-2016 03:09PM

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 · 27-04-2016 03:18PM

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 · 27-04-2016 03:19PM

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 · 27-04-2016 03:29PM

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 · 27-04-2016 03:46PM

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.

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

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