The Biggest Flops of 2011, So Far

The First Six Months Were Busy

The year is only a little more than half over, but a lot has happened in the technology world since January.

Much of IT has been good: Apple in March launched the iPad 2, a successful review to the company's original tablet device. Intel discharged Light-haired Bridge, a muscular new generation of Core chips. Virago came out with an online music player and computer storage service. And Google unleashed Google+, its red-hot social network.

The rest of 2011 looks even more sexy with rumors of a new iPhone, more previews of Windows 8 expected, and Apple's OS X Leo just dead.

Merely 2011 has had its divvy up of lows, disappointments, and outright failures, too. An unreleased smartphone is connected the windy track to nowhere, a PlayBook tablet came out missing a a few pages, and a long-awaited video game finally arrived–to widespread derision. Here's a review at the most dismal tech events of 2011 so far.

Dell Stripe 7 Pill (January)

Dell's follow-awake to the oddly tiny 5-inch Streak was a step smart, but the 7-inch Dell Streak got dinged for buggy software, a poor user interface, and a low-resolution sort. The main matter that this twist has going for it is its Price: You tin pay back it for $199 with a two-twelvemonth service contract OR $350 for the Wisconsin-Fi-only version.

Facebook Home Address (January)

On January 14, Facebook released a notice connected its developer blog that Facebook apps would be able-bodied to asking the home savoir-faire and cellular phone number of users who included it in their profiles.

The news show sparked criticism from security and concealment critics about rascal apps that might use this data to commit identity larceny surgery mesh in other malicious behavior. Several days future, Facebook reversed itself and halted the plan; however, the fellowship says that it plans to re-introduce the feature at a afterwards date.

Windows Phone 7 (January Through June)

Tech journalists have praised Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 OS for its responsiveness, progressive Metro UI design, and Xbox integration, but in so far the public isn't buying. Market analyst firm Gartner says that Microsoft sold-out 1.6 million Windows Phones in the ordinal cardinal months of 2011, and metrics firm ComScore recently reported that Microsoft mobile devices account for 5.8 percent of U.S. smartphone users–down from 13.2 per centum the year previous.

Windows Phone 7 has also been plagued by update delays to ameliorate its functionality. In May, Microsoft announced that the next major upgrade, code-named Mango, would go far in the fall and feature multitasking, a early Vane browser, and a unified e-mail inbox.

The iPad Noncompetition (January Through and through June)

Despite a flood of iPad competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab (right), the Motorola Xoom (top), and the LG Optimus Dramatize (unexhausted), Android tablets have yet to put much of a dent in the iPad's supremacy. Apple is selling its tablet to millions, while Mechanical man tablets have been selling to thousands.

In February, Google demonstrated Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), a pad of paper-specific mobile Operating system, on the Motorola Xoom, hoping to touch off a flood of capable iPad competitors. But so far, the new Oculus sinister hasn't altered the market much. Android testament hold trying, but the solitary tablet that virtually people are concerned in at the moment is Orchard apple tree's pad.

Twitter's Quick Bar (March)

In Twitter's drive to generate more revenue, the company inserted an hostile-conceived publicizing bar called the Quickbar in its native iPhone app. Whenever users refreshed their Twitter stream, a bar (shown at left outlined in red) would appear across the screen, displaying a promoted trending topic from the microblogging service.

Users hated it, critics panned it, and things got worsened when blogger St. John the Apostle Gruber dubbed information technology the "Dickbar"–in honor, He said, of new Twitter CEO Hawkshaw Costolo. Eventually Twitter dropped some of the more than annoying features of the master Quickbar in its updated iOS app.

Flange BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet (April)

Search in Motility's low tablet offering was one of the few bright spots in the company's recent net income bid. RIM shipped 500,000 PlayBooks during the first fiscal quarter the tablet was available.

Alas, the lozenge elicited yawns from critics for its unburnished, buggy software and for the number of software updates required out of the box. The tablet also lacks a native email client (it's collect this summer) flush though Brim's stallion business was built happening celestial body email products.

Dropbox (April and June)

In 2010, tech users gave Dropbox a big thumbs-up because it provided an easy mode to store documents online and to access them easily from a dedicated desktop pamphlet. But that changed in 2011 succeeding accusations that Dropbox wasn't living equal to its promise to encrypt data and make it inaccessible even to Dropbox employees. A user later filed a ailment with the Federal Trade Commission argumen that Dropbox's claims were deliberately deceptive.

Then in June, Dropbox accidentally turned off word protection for its users for about 4 hours. During that period, anyone could have logged in to any account with any successful-ascending countersign. Dropbox blamed the flaw happening a pester found in a recent system update.

Sony Security Issues (April, May, and June)

Sony site security department became a running joke since April 20 when the companionship took down the PlayStation Meshwork. The company's various sites around the ma have been broken into more than 20 times since then, according to HasSonyBeenHackedThisWeek.com.

It all started in late April when an online intrusion brought downwardly Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service for more than troika weeks. Since then, hackers made incursions into Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Pictures, a Sony-owned ISP in Japan, and numerous Sony Music sites.

Duke Nukem Everlastingly (June)

After 15 years of development, ownership changes, and spurious starts, Duke Nukem Forever, the highly anticipated reexamination to the 1996 game Duke Nukem 3D, launched in June. Critics immediately panned the spirited for being misogynistic, juvenile, and poorly designed.

PCWorld's sister internet site GamePro called it "a dud"; other reviewers were less giving. Ars Technica, for instance, deemed Duke Nukem Forever "barely playable" and "wild assaultive."

Nokia N9 Smartphone (June)

By every last accounts the Nokia N9 is a fabulous smartphone. It has a beautiful industrial design; a slick, responsive interface; and great specs, including a 3.9-inch AMOLED reveal, an 8-megapixel camera, a 1GHz processor, and 1GB of RAM. The device International Relations and Security Network't cargo ships heretofore, but its main problem is that it is based on MeeGo, an open-source chopine partnership between Nokia and Intel.

The Finnish headphone Jehovah announced in February that information technology would not be producing any more MeeGo phones, opting instead for Windows Phone 7. This has prompted many critics, developers and Nokia fans to expect, what's the head in purchasing into a ring chopine that has no more future?

Final Cut away Pro X Software (June)

Film-editing pros are up in blazonry terminated Apple's new video editing entourage Final Cut Pro X, which many a say no longer meets the needs of professionals. Orchard apple tree faithful have adoptive a "wait-and-see" near, reasonably expecting Final Cut Pro X to improve over time as Apple adds new features. Others hope that Apple volition lay out Final Cut to Pro 7 back up for sale until the new platform completes the changeover into something more than feature-everlasting.

So far, nonetheless, professional film editors are perplexed with a tough choice: Keep Net Trim Pro 7, even though you stool't legally buy many copies of the program; apply a new app that doesn't take on your needs; or ascertain an alternative from rival vendors so much A Adobe.

New York Post Paywall (June)

If you've tried to call the New York State Post's internet site from an iPad recently, you were probably shocked to discover that the site was out of use for you. Not plugged for masses browse the Network; not blocked to nonsubscribers; fair-minded blocked for iPad owners. Instead of permitting you to learn the New York rag's stories via Apple's Safari browser, the paper forces you to buy up its iPad app and subscribe.

The strategy appears to be percentage of News Corp. chairman and CEO Keith Rupert Murdoch's mission in biography to reinvigorate the newsprint clientele model. The media top executive has also stand paywalls for News Corp. properties so much as The Wall Street Journal and The Sunday Multiplication of London, and he has introduced a unaccustomed iPad-only paid subscription newspaper titled The Daily.

Relate with Ian Paul ( @ianpaul ) and Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest technical school news show and analysis.

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• Events
• Video Games
• Social Networking Apps
• Productivity Software
• Security
• Smartphones
• Gadgets
• Tablets
• Operating Systems
• Mobile Apps
• Sony
• Dell

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/481237/biggest_flops_of_2011_so_far.html

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