# Gadgets You SO Wanted, That Later Disappointed **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765 "2010-07-15T12:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/21 "2010-07-15T20:06:06Z")
George Foreman Grill Burgers are just as good cooked in a skillet. Skillet is much easier to wash. The grill will get donated to Goodwill soon. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/22 "2010-07-15T20:14:03Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > But does it make julienne fries? Surprisingly, Sea Monkeys are not noted for their skills as sous-chefs … excellent dish washers though! 😃 CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/23 "2010-07-15T20:18:43Z")
> [@Jules\_Andre](#): > > For me it was my first smart phone. At the time the phone I had was special because it had a color screen(!) and was even able to sorta access the internet! Oh yeah! I had that phone for like two years and it was still running strong. But I needed more function, I wanted to do more stuff. So I got a smart phone. You know what it could do? > > It had a full slide out keyboard! Under a touch screen! I could put tons of music on it, and take pictures, and put my documents on it! I could check my email and even surf the web! Wanna know what else it had?! > > Windows Fucking Mobile. Within a month I had to restart the phone every couple hours or it would lock up. Sometimes it would lock up while just sitting in my pocket, and if I didn’t happen to notice right away, I’d miss every call and text sent to me. After two months the phone would lock up whenever I got a text message or phone call. Can you imagine having to restart your phone every time you get a call or text, just to find out after the fact who called? It was the world’s shittiest and most expensive pager, Fucking thing! Sucks! > > I got so frustrated I terminated my contract so I could get an iPhone because I desperately needed something that “just works.” Luckily the hype was justified in that case. A year and a half later and I’ve had to restart my iPhone maybe four times, which was a half a day’s number of restarts on that first smart phone. Oh, you had a T-Mobile Wing too? What a pile of shit that was. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/24 "2010-07-15T20:32:28Z")
The first ball-point pen that came to this country. And I was the first in my class to have one. It smeared my fingers, blotched the pages. And I paid a lot of money for it. I really got ripped off. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/25 "2010-07-15T20:37:13Z")
Despite being in the tech business, I rarely buy any new tech. I wait and wait and once I’m \*sure \*it will be cool, I go buy it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/26 "2010-07-15T20:45:11Z")
Kind of the same as the OP . Calculator watches were just the awesomest thing when iwas a junior nerd. I wanted one so bad. But they were like 60 bucks. I tried to earn the money,but it took forever.then my archenemies a couple nerfds with showy parents got 200 dollar watches, and it spoiled the whole thing. Hehe but fate had my back. The watch was so big one of them got it caught in a closing car door,and the other had the buttons jam with dirt so it didn’t work, then had it ripped off by a fence while riding his bike. I wonder if I knew the word schadenfreude back then. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/27 "2010-07-15T21:14:24Z")
My DVD-R. Celtling has a great many movies and TV shows which must be watched 80-100 times before she is finished with them. And I never know which ones she will ask for again three months later. But if she should ask, and I have the right one on hand, I can get 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted housecleaning time, which is like a full ounce of Californium in both worth and scarcity. So the DVD-R sounded like a Godsend, I could clean out the DVR, and maybe make room for a show or two I wanted to watch, and still always have the show she wanted on hand. Except you can’t download anything to it. You have to play the show, and record it while it plays. You can’t even turn the TV off once you get it started, and it negates the DVRs ability to record anythign else while this operation takes place. Then, once you get the show on there, there’s no way to lable the name of the show - it gets assigned a random serial number which I would then have to write down and keep a list of. IOW, useless. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/28 "2010-07-15T22:46:39Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Never managed to buy one in my younger days - did they cut out “naughty” words, shorten them to pack more songs onto an album, or what? What K-Tel would do is short the music part. Let’s say the song had a 15 second music only intro. They would cut this out so it was now only like 3 seconds of intro. Let’s say at the end of the song the chorus was repeated 2 times then on the third time the chorus repeated it would fade away. Well K-Tel would simply fade it out at the end the first time the chorus was played, thus eliminated the second and third repeats of the chorus. The words were left alone but the beginnings and ends were chopped off. Much in the way you hear people complain of DJs on the radio talking over the beginning and ending of songs. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/29 "2010-07-15T22:48:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > When LCD watches came out, there was a TV commercial that had two Sumo wrestlers fighting with swords (overkill). in the middle of the fight, one asks the other the time, and he has to put down his sword to push the button, and suddenly realizes that he’s screwed. Should had an LCD watch. I had forgetten that commercial. Wow what memories. After I bought the push in the button on the LED watch, they came out with a new kind of LED watch where instead of pushing a button you turned your wrist and the LED popped on. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/30 "2010-07-15T23:44:34Z")
Moon shoes were not the anti-gravity boots that the box made them appear to be. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/31 "2010-07-16T00:27:07Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > The words were left alone but the beginnings and ends were chopped off. Much in the way you hear people complain of DJs on the radio talking over the beginning and ending of songs. I thought they were covers recorded by very nondescript session musicians… ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/32 "2010-07-16T00:32:36Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Synthesizer keyboard. Finally got mine from Radio Shack when I was about 10. After playing The Young & The Restlesss theme over a tinny bossa nova beat 20 times in a row, I was over the thing. THIS! I wanted that thing so bad. I was gonna be a star! I couldn’t even get the Y & R theme down. I spent most of my time sitting on the back of the car playing the sample music and pretending it was really me playing. The other kids were less than impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Acantha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@Acantha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acantha)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/33 "2010-07-16T00:41:43Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > George Foreman Grill > > Burgers are just as good cooked in a skillet. Skillet is much easier to wash. > > The grill will get donated to Goodwill soon. OMG, I loathe that POS. My husband loves it though, go figger. I have hated nearly every cell phone I’ve ever purchased also. Is it really so hard to make one that works after the trade in period expires, or do I just keep choosing the worst ones? ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/34 "2010-07-16T00:47:59Z")
Several: 1. An am/fm radio/cassette player Walkman: these were actually rare back in the 90’s. As the Walkman age was ending, you could either get an am/fm player, or a cassette player with AM, but not both. And, it’s impossible to get a Walkman with radio, cassette, and the ability to record. I have two separate ones, one for recording and one for am/fm/cassette. And then, it’s even rare to find the recording one with stereo jacks for earphones. When I finally found an am/fm/cassette, I was so happy, but after I had it for a while, I realized how much the reception sucked. Walkmen don’t have antennas, so the only way to get good reception is to move it around until it works then leave it there without moving it, which totally defeated the purpose. 2. My first laptop I bought used in 1996. It had an 80286 processor or something crap like that (it was new in 1992 or something.) I had visions of traveling the world with my laptop, or at the very least, doing my homework at some remote location. Alas, the battery lasted maybe 1 hour, and it didn’t have the minimum requirements to run Windows '98, so I was stuck with 3.2. 3. I’m sure everybody wanted their own car when they got their driver’s license. However, I got a hand-me-down POS 1982 Datsun 210 from my sister. That bitch purposely didn’t finish fixing the car the second she found out I was getting it. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/35 "2010-07-16T00:58:29Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > The first ball-point pen that came to this country. And I was the first in my class to have one. It smeared my fingers, blotched the pages. > > And I paid a lot of money for it. I really got ripped off. Ditto the Fisher Space Pen. I didn’t pay for it, it was a birthday gift, but a disappointment nonetheless. It looked great, but leaked amazingly easily. Maybe it was just my pen playing up, but I didn’t feel like seeking a replacement cartridge. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/36 "2010-07-16T02:02:28Z")
X-Ray Specs. Around which the eleven-year-old Master Mustard invented the phrase, WTF??? mmm ---
**Author:** ![Cadence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Cadence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cadence)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/37 "2010-07-16T03:17:56Z")
Pedi-paws, supposed to let you grind down the dog’s nails at home. (and the cat’s but I can’t afford plastic surgery on my face) I got the gadget at Walgreen’s and the dog and I settled down expectantly to do her nails. The problem is it doesn’t grind hard enough and her nails kept getting caught under the guard and pulled until she finally said “stop this farce before I bite you hard.” We were both disappointed. So I still have to take her to Petsmart and have them done for $1 a nail. I snip the sharp ends off of kitty’s with my nail clippers; it’s our quality time. Edited to add: And Sea Monkeys. Damn those things. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/38 "2010-07-16T03:44:27Z")
A [Spaceball](http://www.learnaboutrobots.com/images/spaceBall.gif). It’s a 3D mouse - sort of. A rubbery ball with force sensors to translate pulling, pushing and twisting the ball in different directions into 3D motion in a computer graphics system. I planned to use it for camera motion in 3D Studio, but there was never any situation where I needed to fly a camera around randomly. It sits gathering dust. But I was thinking about it yesterday, and it should work perfectly if I ever build that SkyCam I’ve been thinking about. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/39 "2010-07-16T04:00:51Z")
A couple of things ordered from ads in the back of Boy’s Life (IIRC) magazine. One was a CB base station, another was a mini spy camera. Crappy & disappointing, both. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765/40 "2010-07-16T05:03:05Z")
Computer Battleships! With real missile sounds! What I didn’t realise is you have to tediously key in the code of the position of all of your pieces, which took around 20 minutes. And you couldn’t both do it at the same time, so it took 40 minutes. Then the game was over in ten minutes, and resetting took another 40 minutes. While when you do it on paper it can begin in about 2 minutes. Ugh. I imagine modern versions are somewhat better, though I wouldn’t count on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gadgets-you-so-wanted-that-later-disappointed/546765.md?page=3)