Dueling "Ugly Gadgets" compendia battle for supremacy
Switched has produced an contemporary selection of the world's ugliest gadgets. Will it topple CrunchGear's classic revue?
Their roundup is about more than mere ugliness, too: it hooks into the way poor taste is subtly internalized in technology marketing. For example, it starts with the Xboxes, arguably examples of unusual and innovative design until you just step back and look at them, for Christ's sake.
And as much as it hurts to say so, it's right about the Psion Organizer, whose charm inheres entirely from the era it came from. What we like about it is embodied in much greater style by stuff like this.
Also, they hate Swarovski. Bravo!
World's Most Hideous Gadgets [Switched]
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I inherited one of the Psion Organisers pictured - from my grandfather! It runs on a 9v battery, and is probably the computer that the cockroaches will use when we've all died from bird flu. At which point, nobody will care what it looks like.
A PDA you could program! Still have one somewhere (my Dad was given one at work and had no use for it) and yep, last time I checked it still worked! Just be sure to switch that battery out quickly when it fails...
But the Psions that I will always remember are the 3 series, and the 5mx. Which were gorgeous, had qwerty screens, ran on AA batteries (with a backup 2032 button cell).
I even used my 5mx to browse the internet and send/recieve email via infra-red with mobile phone.
And is just me, or are the CAPTCHAs now nearly impossible to read
Anon @#3: No it's not you. I'm finding them harder as well. Especially when they throw weird shades of red in there.... makes my color vision go squonk!