The Worst Products of CES 2010 214
loose electron submitted a (sigh) slideshow page documenting 10 of the worst products from CES this year. Includes a baseball hat with a TV in the brim, vibrating earbuds, an Android powered microwave, and what appears to be the next generation of Teddy Ruxpin.
Re:Smart Microwave (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Krave (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah that's what I thought it was for, I seem to remember hearing that part of the reason its hard to quit is because in addition to the nicotine there's also the habit and comfort of actually hold a cigarette.
Back in the day they had candy cigarettes and people would switch to them to help them quit smoking they would just hold them and pretend they were smoking.
Re:A matter of opinion (Score:1, Interesting)
I think the reviewer compiler just has issues with bidets. The Japanese have had robotic bidets for some time now. Chalk it up to "weird Japan" if you must. The android powered microwave is flawed because it's in a microwave, not in a stove. I love to cook, but there are occasions when I want, or need to consult my computer-- email, recipes, perhaps a podcast. But I don't want to get spattering spaghetti sauce on my electronics. A computer, built for the kitchen environment would be valuable.
I love to cook, too. If the recipe is complicated I print it out - no worries about splatter. Most recipe sites have a print option that removes all the ads and everything allowing it to print with the least amount of toner or ink.
I see no justification for that microwave or stove with Android or any other computer non-sense except as an excuse to charge more for the item. It's amazing how just adding a few dollars of electronics boosts the retail price of an item by hundreds. And people scoop'em up!
Dishwasher Safe Keyboards (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd rather see dishwasher safe keyboards than yet another cleaning thing for computers.
Re:Krave (Score:3, Interesting)
For those of us who do not smoke, at first glance the "Krave" looks amazingly stupid. Add the hot chick in the ad and it looks like a pathetic marketing attempt to sell a lame product.
However, after thinking about it for a few moments, the point becomes clearer... it's an attempt to sell a nicotine delivery system that provides the nicotine that a smoker craves (hence the trademarkable name "Krave") without the dangerous second-hand smoke and the obnoxious smell that bother other non-smokers.
They're finding a way to create a new market - smokers who want to be less offensive to non-smokers. I'm sure these people exist, but there was no viable way for them to do it before the Krave.
Good luck to them! I hope this works.
Given the hot babe in the "Krave" ad, I find it amusing that the captcha for this post is "escort".
It's finally time for the Honeywell 316! (Score:5, Interesting)
A computer, built for the kitchen environment would be valuable.
...and here it is [wikipedia.org]!
I think the terminal can also be used as an island. It looks like it's got room for use as a cutting board or for rolling out pastry too! What more could you ask for?
Re:Krave (Score:2, Interesting)
Haha, welcome from the land of zion (or the Zion Curtain to some)
Re:Synthetic Snot (Score:2, Interesting)
For those of you who missed the Fabulous Fifties, this goo is reminiscient of a product we had back then called wallpaper cleaner. It was essentially a big handful of dark green goop that was supposed to smell fresh and piney but actually smelled more like sawdust. The idea was to smush it against a stain on your wallpaper then refold the ball so as to mix the stain into the rest of the goop; removing the green stain that replaced the original was up to your ingenuity. AFAIK, the only good it did was to hasten the invention of washable wallpaper.
The goop, minus the green piney stuff, next materialized as a grey ball designed to clean the ink off your typewriter keys. It usually resulted in a major pile-up of stuck-together keys, which you carefully unstuck, leaving the ink from them all over your hands and shirt. I predict that this latest incarnation may have the ability to exceed its predecessors in causing more of a probelm than they did.
Re:Sick of the 'culture of fail.' (Score:3, Interesting)
My microwave is my main clock that I check in my kitchen. Why bother with a wall clock when the microwave is sitting right here?
And while I don't look atit as often as the microwave for just general time checking (because the display is much, much smaller), my coffee maker has a clock and I certainly use it for automatic turn on (typically I am in a hurry in the morning so it's nice to get up, take a shower, and have the coffee already ready).
The stove also has a clock on it - which is new for me as I just had an older unit (with no clock) replaced about 2 months ago, but I'm really enjoying the digital controls on that too. Previously my old oven for example had regular knob controls. They worked fine for what I used them for, but that stove was over 25 years old. On the new one, I can hit bake, type in a target temperature to pre-heat to and hit start. It'll beep once it makes it to that temperature. Pop in something, type in a time, and hit start, and it'll bake it for that long and then turn off. It works a heck of a lot like a microwave now, and I'm loving it. While I haven't used the clock on that unit much (other than setting it - as a rule I don't like clocks in my house that aren't set), it's basically free to add since all that electric circuitry is there anyways.
My only concern on the new stove (which is theoretical, not actually confirmed yet) is one of longevity. Like I said the old one was 25+ years old. It still worked fine. Two of the knobs on the top to control the burners had become stuck and the shaft snapped on them (the two back burners), but the front burners still worked, as did the oven, and technically the back burners still WORKED - you just had to use pliers to turn the little piece of a shaft that was left. That thing was built like a tank. With the heat and such that a stove is subject to, I'm not sure that the little computer controls on the new stove will still be going in 25 years.
Overall though, I think appliances with clocks on them is a good thing.
Re:I have one. (Score:3, Interesting)