Apple has had an awesome 10 , revolutionizing industries as various as music , moving picture , telecoms , and software with its iPod / iTunes / iPhone products and ruling the OS Wars with its much - copied Mac OS X.
Apple chief operating officer Steve Jobs win personal computer Advisor’sPerson Of The Decade . Fortune magazine named him chief operating officer Of The Decade .
Could the man do no wrong ?
Oh , yes he could do wrong . Very wrong .
Here ’s our list of ten product — in no particular ordering of badness — that Apple and Steve Jobs probably bid had never seen the spark of day .
Power Mac G4 Cube: Too cool for tool
orchard apple tree
A completely spherical ComputerBall that you could roll between workgroups ? Something that face like a Pisces ?
No , it hold back until 2002 ’s crazy anglepoise iMac for its next doolally designing . Did it go mad on the colour and uncover something truly hideous ? No , you ’re suppose of 2001 ’s Flower Power iMac .
What Apple did was quite the inverse of the cute , friendly iMac . It designed the über - cool Power Mac G4 Cube , distil all the big businessman of the onetime tower - base Power Mac into a clear , eight - inch perspex cube .
Where the iMacs were fat , sport and colourful the G4 Cube was sleek and neutral — surely this was a rightful Steve Jobs product .
It looked so good that it was immediately installed in New York ’s Museum Of Modern Art .
While undoubtedly a remarkable feat of applied science , the G4 Cube did n’t last long — product was suspend less than a year after launch ( August 2000 ) . Instead of being embraced for saving desk space the Cube was stave off because it was so small and too cool for its own good . And bally expensive .
Apple was knock for provide too much out — PCI expansion , interior audio input signal and output — but peradventure it was just too radical for a beige - bound diligence still reeling from the chubby iMac .
Nice try , but scarcely a roar success .
iPod 3G: Button it
The original 5 GB iPod ( October 2001 ) is a figure classic , and most of its later versions — all the way to today ’s iPod classic — enhanced its minimalist beauty . But Apple had a very other pip with the third generation ( bring out April 2003 ) . Unlike with the G4 Cube , which had Steve Jobs ’ hands all over it , this product upgrade looked like it slip right past his government agency while he was out .
While thinner and light than the original iPod ( with up to eight time the content ) this new iPod ruined the classic reductivism by adding a words of four indented , backlit buttons above the curlicue wheel .
It was ugly , and made us dread that the next iPod would have even more buttons and end up looking like every other MP3 player on the market place . bad , it might have morph into something resembling a portable certificate of deposit player .
A twelvemonth later Apple ditched the stupid buttons for a solid - body politic click wheel , back to the smell of the simple original .
iPod nano v3: naNO!
The original iPod nano ( September 2005 ) was a silklike beauty . translation 2 ( September 2006 ) was a very dull variation of it , but version 3 ( September 2007 ) was quite the reverse . Gone was the long , skinny body in favour of something , well , stubby . It cursorily got nickname “ Fat Boy”—possibly in court to the other nuke , so horribly did it stain the nano ’s former good looks . A class later it was plump , and the boney nano was back .
Apple TV: Brains turned off
Steve Jobs once put down the television as uninteresting : “ We think basically you watch television to ferment your brain off , and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on . ”
But along came Apple TV , a product that even today still feels half loved .
It was first announced in September 2006 as iTV — a product name that instantly imprecate it in the eyes of the Britsh , where home television receiver post ITV is far-famed for its lame dramatic event , dire comedy , and even pay heed !
Its name also clashed with a Mac accoutrement , Elgato ’s EyeTV . Everything about this ware began to face a bit rush along and ill - thought out .
iTV / Apple TV was a telly - recoil version of Apple ’s Front Row media centre Mac software . It got another reference the following January at Macworld Expo and it started embark a couple of months later .
I ’m always suspicious of Apple product announced well before of schedule , and the whim of Apple TV as a bluff new product had for sure waned by the time of its release .
While our homes have welcomed DVRs such as the TiVo or Sky+ the Apple TV is likely found only in Mac journalists ’ dens . It lacks a boob tube tuner , which honestly cripples it from the off .
The Movies “ hunt ” feature article search only iTunes Store movies . iTunes picture show rentals can be transferred to any TV - enabled iPod , iPhone or Apple TV for performing , but any movie lease on Apple TV must be watched on Apple TV .
To copy a movie purchase on Apple TV to a video - enabled iPod or iPhone , the movie must first be transport to an iTunes - enabled computer on the web . Apple TV / iTunes is “ not design ” to sync or flow content from networked drives to Apple TV .
Content that can be synchronise or pour to Apple TV has to be on the local driving or an external driving force directly connected to the iTunes - enabled computer .
mayhap Apple had its brainiac turn off when it was have in mind to be cause this a great intersection . honestly I ’d rather watch ITV .
MobileMe: MobileMess of a Launch
Apple started the X with the release of some ace , free online services , called iTools . A year after it had changed this name to .Mac , and it was n’t barren any more . In 2008 Apple alter its name again — never a great sign for a production ’s integrity or foresightful - term prospects — this time to MobileMe . .Mac was never going to invoke to Windows exploiter , although I ’m not sure that MobileMe will either .
MobileMe was launched as the “ Microsoft Exchange for the relaxation of us”—it was n’t Apple Marketing ’s groovy hr either , was it ?
change a product ’s name is clumsy , but when that name is also part of your e-mail address it becomes maddeningly stunned .
You could still habituate your @mac.com address at the same time as your young @me.com address , so at least there ’s some change delay built in . But it mix up current users greatly — as did the removal of preferred military service such as the sport and favorable iCards and tremendous HomePage World Wide Web publishing .
The free trial of MobileMe inadvertently charged some Australian and European customers ’ quotation cards , extend Apple to issue refunds and stretch the complimentary trial to four months .
It got so uncollectible that even Apple eventually admit it was a prodigious cock up . Steve Jobs near said sorry .
In an home einsteinium - postal service mail to Apple employees on August 4 , 2008 Jobs admitted that MobileMe was launch too hurriedly and “ not up to Apple ’s standards ” .
He wrote that “ it was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3 G , iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store ” .
In a word , shambles .
Mac OS X 10.4 Spotlight: Stop or I’ll shoot!
Mac OS X has to be one of the smashing tech Cartesian product of the decade , spawning such hopeful offshoots as Windows 7 , for instance . Each variation is name after a true cat . How cute ! Microsoft appears to randomly piece names for its OSs , and Linux versions all seem to fare from a language that make Finnish auditory sensation comprehendible .
Before OS X Mac drug user used to find thing on their hard drives using something call Find .
Such intuitive naming is below the amazingness that is OS X. All of its creature ’ epithet must be subtle puns on standard functions so Apple ’s software designer can sculpt beautiful ikon for them .
Find was lose , but with Mac OS X 10.4 Spotlight was switched on . When I call up of spotlights it ’s not the microscope stage that leaping to mind but WW2 prison camps , daring escapes and evil nazi . Maybe that ’s just me , but it straight off made me suspicious of Spotlight ’s intentions .
This was n’t helped by Apple trying to cram too many symbols and smug wordplay into its software program . OK , I ’ll grudgingly accept the term Spotlight , but why is its icon a magnifying glass ? Why not call it Detective or insect collector ? Or how about Sherlock . That ’s witty and smart , and , oh …
That does n’t make Spotlight a dud , but what did — peculiarly in Mac OS X 10.4 — was its sub - glacial amphetamine and ability to find out tens of thousands of email document with obviously no coition to what I ’m depend for , but not the elementary PDF that I misplace .
ROKR: What a SHOKR
Motorola
Before the terrific iPhone make out Apple ’s first Mobile River — the ROKR , made with Motorola . Perhaps we can blame Motorola , then , for one of the ugliest fluid phones ever publish .
It was the first phone to play music from iTunes and operate pretty like an iPod . Other than that it was junk .
To stop it cannibalizing iPod gross sales it was restricted to holding a mere 100 songs . It was very sluggish to synchronize , too – even with just 100 songs to send down the non - fast USB link .
Apple may now adjudicate to pretend that this was just a Motorola production that it had nothing to do with , but why then was it unveiled at a special Apple effect in September 2005 ?
iPod Hi-Fi: White elephant
No one can make a music player as well as Apple , but why did the fellowship resolve to attack its accessory market place head on with the unthinking iPod Hi - Fi ?
All the best audio boffins created iPod utterer scheme , but as usual Apple remember it make love best . It did n’t .
free in February 2006 the iPod Hi - Fi had small going for it except the Apple logo .
It was super expensive ( £ 249 , $ 349 ) , especially for a system that lacked a radio set and even a video - out embrasure . Even the Bose SoundDock was cheaper .
The iPod baby-sit on top of the unit of measurement , making it vulnerable to being knock off or crushed .
The remote command could only skip between tracks within the take play list . The fare button could n’t even assume the function of the menu button on the docked iPod itself .
Not all iPod were compatible with it , which at least meant that a good proportion of iPod users did n’t even have to think this snowy elephant . The scheme also lacked a USB embrasure for connecting a dock iPod to a computer for synchronise .
new iPod models and the iPhone 3G/3GS ca n’t be saddle on the Hi - Fi because they require a lower voltage — the iPod Hi - Fi supply 12v ( FireWire ) while the newer devices expect 5v ( USB ) .
As for sound quality the iPod Hi - Fi got canned . It did n’t help that Apple boasted of its “ audiophile lineament sound ” . As we wrote at the time : “ the Apple iPod Hi - Fi lack upper treble detail , which , combined with slightly raise midrange levels , make the very eminent frequencies difficult to make out at times . The Hi - Fi ’s other limit is that it ca n’t really overcome its one - piece design to leave heroic soundstage and precise stereo imaging . ”
After a year and a one-half Apple quiet discontinued the iPod Hi - Fi , handing the market back to hoi polloi who actually knew something about design audio recording product .
iPod socks: Smelly feat
But Apple was n’t end up scaring its iPod appurtenance maker . There are M of iPod cases out there — some officially indorse , the majority not — but none was as hideous as the iPod Sock . This knitwear absurdity was cogitate to be joke on launching ( December 2004 ) but its realness does at least suggest that some decision - maker at Apple still take the occasional drug or three .
iPod Socks come in mob of six — either in compositor’s case you have six iPod or your iPod sweats like a jogger ’s foot . Apple still sells these things . Where in Steve Jobs ’ design aesthetic did these things saltation from ?
Mighty Mouse: Dirty rat
Apple is notable for inventing the human beings ’s worst shiner — the original iMac ’s so - called Hockey Puck mouse , which was small and pear-shaped and crap .
And the company has a quite a little of premature in the odd stimulant department . While everyone else summate a 2d button or seven plus a handy scroll wheel for add functionality and easiness of use , Apple stick doggedly to its one - release , two - snap philosophy . Result : anyone sane went and bought a shiner from Microsoft or Logitech .
Apple finally relented and design some decent mice . The Pro Mouse ( July 2000 ) even had enshroud multiple click functions . But we waitress years before Apple added a scroll cycle .
The Mighty Mouse ( August 2005 ) had a little gyre ball that looked just great . You could even scroll diagonally ! But after a few weeks of get it on it , the Mighty Mouse ricochet its tight surprisal – the roll musket ball stop working .
Either Up or Down just froze because it got constipate up with dirt . OK , that shit was off our handwriting but the fact that it stopped doing what it was supposed to do at the most annoying moment before long spelt Apple Dud .
You ’re really not meant to have to blow , poke or spitting at your tech , but it was a two - way matter . We bollocks . It sucked .
[ Simon Jary has cover Apple for ages , including a long least sandpiper as the editor in chief in chief of Macworld UK . He ’s currently a Macworld UK columnist and contributor . ]
[ Updated 10:30 a.m. 1/2/10 to elucidate some point and eliminate a few pointed personal consultation . It is Macworld ’s policy not to make personal attacks when criticizing any society ’s products . ]
