15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007

[Lemur]

An amusing read. I agree wholeheartedly with #1 (Windows Vista) and #2 (high-def format war). Not so sure about Yahoo! and Facebook, since I use neither. And I've never even touched an iPhone, so I'm not qualified to comment on that.

Thoughts?

[Beirut]

Good stuff.

Do you know if anyone got keel-hauled for Vista? Did Bill Gates fire half the staff when it became apparent they spent bazillions of company money to create something that didn't/doesn't work as it should and is the laughing stock of the tech industry?

[Lemur]

A little Googling doesn't reveal much, but that could just show how weak my Google-fu is. I did find this interesting article at Microsoft Watch: What Went Wrong with Windows Vista?

-edit-

I note that in the linked article, the author mentions that the entire management team for Vista has been "replaced." I'm not sure if that will satisfy geek bloodlust, but it doesn't sound good for the managers.

[Ramses II CP]

Vista by far gets my vote as well. I thought XP was pretty bad when it came out, but Vista is an absolute scandal. It makes you question the competence of MS as a whole that they can't scrape their new OS into a functional form and make at least some gains with it.

Add Office 2k7 on top, and it's been a bad year for MS's software division.

[Xiahou]

Pretty good list.
Gotta admit though, I hadn't heard about all the Leopard problems til now.

[R'as al Ghul]

First report about Upgrade from Vista to XP

Conclusion:
To be honest there is only one conclusion to be made; Microsoft has really outdone themselves in delivering a brand new operating system that really excels in all the areas where Vista was sub-optimal. From my testing, discussions with friends and colleagues, and a review of the material out there on the web there seems to be no doubt whatsoever that that upgrade to XP is well worth the money. Microsoft can really pat themselves on the back for a job well done, delivering an operating system which is much faster and far more reliable than its predecessor. Anyone who thinks there are problems in the Microsoft Windows team need only point to this fantastic release and scoff loudly.

Well done Microsoft!

[edyzmedieval]

Ha, so true about iPhone and Facebook. iPhone is a total bust. To think I even wanted to buy one.

[Husar]

I hope my Vista PC is already zombified and sending tons of spam to all those XP infidels.

Now let me go buy an iPhone and dual boot Apple Leopard 10.5 since I heard my Vista is bad.

Then I'm going to watch a movie from Amazon and all of my Facebook friends can see it.

I'm also connected via broadband which usually works fine here in socialist laland by the way since we have a whole lot of competition. If it doesn't one can obviously choose another ISP from the "hundreds"(not really) we have here.

[DukeofSerbia]

#13. Web 2 Woe: Social Networks

Don't use.

#9. Sorry, We Already Gave: Office 2007

New interface in Office programs sucks!

#6. Un-Neutral: The Broadband Industry

Broadband sucks in Serbia.

#5. The Great, The Bad, The Ugly: Apple iPhone

Owners of iPhone are some kind of fetishists. If Nokia made crap of phone like that everybody would start FUD on Nokia!

#2. What Is It Good For: The High-Def Format War

Don't care.

#1. No Wow, No How: Windows Vista

Friend has on his laptop. 1 GB of RAM is just not enough...

#0. AMD (not on list)

As great AMD fan I would just say: idiot is CEO!

[Husar]

Now that you say it, the R600 got so much hype as the GrForce 8 killer last year but somehow didn't make it onto the list.

[Banquo's Ghost]

#5. The Great, The Bad, The Ugly: Apple iPhone

Owners of iPhone are some kind of fetishists. If Nokia made crap of phone like that everybody would start FUD on Nokia!

The iPhone is by no means a piece of... well, poor. It is quite amazing as a design, and believe me Nokia and others have been trying to design something remotely comparable.

The article hits exactly the right spot - Apple blew a lot of goodwill by locking people into just one telecom and then with the price drop. Stupid, stupid, and they've tried the same plan in Europe, but the iPhones are not selling. Why - in Europe, we don't expect to pay up front for a phone and they are charging an arm and a leg, along with a lock-in to one telecom. For example, I'm their prime customer - big Apple fan, love new tech, and WANT one. Not going to happen, it's way too expensive and I want to choose my telecom provider. I'd rather spend the same on an iPod touch (everything but the phone part and no lock in for 18 months). Maybe in six months when they drop the price...

I think they've sold three in three months.

(Oh, and Leopard is fantastic - can't see what the problem is. It's just great! )

[Blodrast]

(Oh, and Leopard is fantastic - can't see what the problem is. It's just great! )

FYI, these are some of the problems with Leopard:

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl.../11/30/0142216

"There's an interesting rant from Oliver Rist up on the PC Magazine site. He compares the catastrophe that is Vista to the recently released OS X Leopard. While clearly one is a lion and the other a cub, there do appear to be some frustrating similarities. From the article: 'A month of using Leopard with the same software I had under Tiger and the OS has dumped six times. That's six cold reboots for Oliver. Apple isn't even honest enough to admit that Leopard is crashing: The OS just grays out my desktop and pops up a dialog box telling me I've got to reboot. Like the whole thing is my fault. I even snapped a picture of it. After all, I HAD PLENTY OF CHANCES!'"

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/15/2135204

"ZDNet is reporting that Apple has fessed up to at least three serious design weaknesses in the new application-based firewall that ships with Mac OS X Leopard. The acknowledgment comes less than a month after independent researchers threw cold water on Apple's claim that Leopard's firewall can block all incoming connections. The firewall patches come 24 hours after a Mac OS X update that provided cover for at least 41 security vulnerabilities."

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/2328259

"Leopard's Finder has a glaring bug in its directory-moving code, leading to horrendous data loss if a destination volume disappears while a move operation is in progress. This author first came across it when Samba crashed while he was moving a directory from his desktop over to a Samba mount on his FreeBSD server."

There may be more issues, this was just a superficial search, Apple-related stuff doesn't even figure on my list of interests, but I was aware there were issues because I ran into them online (/. and other places).

[Lemur]

As far as Leopard goes, my upgrade was a nightmare. I haven't had that kind of fun since I tried to get Ubuntu up and fully functional on my laptop.

Let's just say I had a sweaty 24 hours before I could recover everything, which sucked, since most of my real work resides on the Mac.

Once it's running, however, it's dreamy. I can only imagine how nice it is on an Intel Mac.

[Husar]

Lately I saw an exhibited iPhone in a store and I have to say the speed and fluency of the whole thing impressed me, a click on weather seemed to download the weather data in a matter of a second or so, no waiting times or loading stuff, probably WLAN or UMTS, my phone has only GPRS but I found it quite impressive, felt very fast whatever you opened. Of course they only offer it for about 400€ up front with some mobile plan that costs 40€+ a month so I think I'm sticking to my old SDA and my 7,50€ student tariff for now.

I also think with UMTS one should get an unlimited data flatrate or else it becomes even more expensive. Would love to have that though.

[Banquo's Ghost]

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek about Leopard. I have read about the issues and waited to upgrade for a while. But my upgrade went beautifully, so at least from this user's perspective, it's fine. I just never want to have to upgrade a Windows PC again, and I will die a happy man.

[Geoffrey S]

Some nice ones there. Personally I'd have moved Leopard down the list (it's working fine for me, the issues aren't exactly regular). As for the iPhone, I'd say the tech wasn't necessarily disappointing but the marketing and network deal was; what was more disappointing though was how many saps fell for the hype and went out to spend their 600 bucks.

[DukeofSerbia]

The iPhone is by no means a piece of... well, poor. It is quite amazing as a design, and believe me Nokia and others have been trying to design something remotely comparable.

The article hits exactly the right spot - Apple blew a lot of goodwill by locking people into just one telecom and then with the price drop. Stupid, stupid, and they've tried the same plan in Europe, but the iPhones are not selling. Why - in Europe, we don't expect to pay up front for a phone and they are charging an arm and a leg, along with a lock-in to one telecom. For example, I'm their prime customer - big Apple fan, love new tech, and WANT one. Not going to happen, it's way too expensive and I want to choose my telecom provider. I'd rather spend the same on an iPod touch (everything but the phone part and no lock in for 18 months). Maybe in six months when they drop the price...

I think they've sold three in three months.

Read this: iPhone as a phone – probing the main function

[Banquo's Ghost]

Read this: iPhone as a phone – probing the main function

Thanks, but I got the reviewer's prejudice the moment I read the Homo iPhonus jibe.

[Husar]

Thanks, but I got the reviewer's prejudice the moment I read the Homo iPhonus jibe.

I noticed that but it does list some big flaws, you can't even contact other devices or send/receive contacts to/from other devices. Neither can you view contacts from your SIM card or copy them onto it. I don't know but about some parts I got the feeling that my 3 year old windows smartphone does them better.

[Lemur]

Supposedly Apple hos sold 5 million of those iPhones in six months. Does anyone know if that is good, middling or pathetic? I steer clear of the cellphone industry, so I haven't a clue.

[Xiahou]

I noticed that but it does list some big flaws, you can't even contact other devices or send/receive contacts to/from other devices. Neither can you view contacts from your SIM card or copy them onto it. I don't know but about some parts I got the feeling that my 3 year old windows smartphone does them better.

No SMS and no voice dialing would disqualify it for me if it's large price tag already didn't. As they describe it, the thing really does sound inconvenient to use as a phone- which is what it's supposed to be.

Supposedly Apple hos sold 5 million of those iPhones in six months. Does anyone know if that is good, middling or pathetic? I steer clear of the cellphone industry, so I haven't a clue.

I dont know either. But, remember that being popular doesn't necessarily make something good. Just look at the Daily Show.

[Lemur]

Who's arguing that it's good? I was just noting that it's selling.

[Xiahou]

Who's arguing that it's good? I was just noting that it's selling.

Try thinking of me as adding to your comment rather than disagreeing with it....

[DukeofSerbia]

I noticed that but it does list some big flaws, you can't even contact other devices or send/receive contacts to/from other devices. Neither can you view contacts from your SIM card or copy them onto it. I don't know but about some parts I got the feeling that my 3 year old windows smartphone does them better.

I think every expensive Symbian based Nokia is better than iPhone.

Btw, you can buy iPhone in Serbia [unlocked]. I just checked, no more officially in stocks at major 'retailers' but wait when Serbian Diaspora come from Western Europe and USA on New Year's and Christmas holiday. The price was as I remember between 600-800 euros.

[Papewaio]

Office 2007 is a different interface... I think it is more intuitive, prettier, nicer and more iconic so it is less dependent on verbal inferences...and would be an easier one to start with if you have just got off a desert island and never seen the previous products... the problem is virtually everyone has used prior versions... mind you, a classic view is available... but I'm finding after awhile (3 months or so) that the ribbon is actually a better format as long as you have a large enough screen... my 19" pivots so I can have an A4 at 1:1 scale... but I would prefer a larger monitor to have when doing visio diagrams...