2010: 7 Things We’d Rather Forget

Every time about this year, the technology sites around the Internet tend to put together lists that create intentional deja vu. After all, it’s fun to look back and give a nod to the formative features that happened in each year. But what about those things that happened that we’d rather forget? For us, it’s a chance to give you a tongue-in-cheek look at the worst in tech.

iTunes Ping

Sure, the idea is cool. We all love music, and we like to talk about it. But for the company that seems to turn everything into gold, Apple has ended up with a giant lump of coal. The problems with the service are numerous, and no amount of Twitter integration will fix them. Apple should simply apply the reality filter here and make us forget that Ping ever happened.

Eventually, Apple will figure out the magic of social. When it does happen, it’ll likely be huge and we’ll love it. But Ping? Ping just isn’t the answer.

F8 and the Social Graph

Oh Mark, your intentions are probably good. We understand that. But many people in the world simply won’t. While we do appreciate the things that the Social Graph provided, we’d rather not have to remember the amount of privacy that we’ve chosen to give up in order to have them.

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Let’s face it — When other sites have to give entire posts to explain your privacy controls, things aren’t good. When an infographic can be made to show the dramatic, year-to-year decline of your users’ privacy, that’s just plain bad.

Microsoft KIN

They were small, they were cheap and they were ugly. Then, in only a few short weeks, they disappeared. Apparently Microsoft decided that it would rather forget about the KIN 1 and KIN 2 after abysmally bad sales numbers. How bad? Bad enough that Steve Ballmer would likely rather forget about them as well, after his bonus was slashed due in part to poor KIN sales numbers.

Strangely, as if by some deeply-seeded masochistic force, the KIN came back from the dead. Headed to Verizon back in November, we’ve not heard a peep about sales numbers. Would anyone like to provide a guess as to why?

Antennagate

Maybe you’ve already forgotten, but we’re betting that you’ll remember the very next time that you drop a call on your iPhone 4. Maybe you have a bumper case, maybe you have managed to stop “holding it wrong”, but nothing really takes away the fact that the iPhone 4 has a pretty glaring design flaw where form absolutely ruled over function.

The Valuation Bubble

500 million! 6 billion! Can somebody loan us a few bucks to drink away our memories of massively-overvalued startups? Granted, it’s difficult to place a value on some things that have come under question this past year, but it seems as if valuations are coming from a random huge number generator rather than study and experience.

But really, when you’re on night 26 of no sleep, grinding away on code, maybe the “bubble” is a good thing. It provides motivation, even if the numbers are way higher than we’d ever have guessed.

TV Networks

Truth be told, we’d love to be able to sing the praises of Google TV. It should have been an amazing competitor to Apple’s newest offering and it could have been great. However, TV networks have decided that they are suddenly able to decide how much their product is worth. As such, since the networks don’t feel that we’re paying enough for the content, we’re just not allowed to watch it.

Oh sure, the Apple TV has recently-aired shows, but so do many other sites. If there was one damper in this entire year for next-generation home entertainment, it was the networks. Maybe someday we’ll be able to convince a TV network that we’re really willing to pay for first-run content, but they simply don’t get to name whatever price comes to mind.

Samsung Fascinate

Now before you go screaming about the merits of the Galaxy S line of phones, please note that this section is only talking about one. The Fascinate was a bit like the bastard child of the Galaxy S group. While every other Galaxy S phone that we tested felt exactly the same and was a pleasure to use, the Fascinate did the unthinkable — Removing Google from an Android phone.

If you don’t care about Google, then the Fascinate is still a great device. However, many of us who love our Android phones love them because of how tightly-knit they are with Google services. Removing Google from an Android phone is a bit like eating a fried chicken salad. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Anything Else?

What’s on your list of forgettable events from 2010? See that big comments box? You should put it to use and let us know.