It happens every year: the hype, the commercials, the anticipation building until finally, the day is upon us. No, we're not talking about Christmas. We're talking about product release dates, which like Christmas often involve a heady rush of excitement - and sometimes involve a heartbreaking let down worse than a gift of socks.
Perhaps it's particularly bad for tech writers because we're on the front lines, thrilled to have something new to handle and review and write about. Perhaps it's worse for consumers, who shell out their hard-earned cash to wind up with a dud. So, we've chosen twenty-one things to avoid, lest you wind up with a shoddy build, user experience or product. It's our gift to you, a no BS take on the things that crossed our desks, the things that didn't live up to our expectations, and the things that just plain shouldn't see the light of day (SOPA, we're looking at you).
As always, feel free to chime in with your picks in the comments section!
Google TV should have changed the way we enjoy television, but misplaced priorities and inept execution doomed the ambitious initiative before it ever got off the ground. The boondoggle cost Google some prestige, but little cash. Logitech, on the other hand, took it right in the shorts. In July 2011, Logitech reported that returns of its Revue set-top box were outpacing sales. CEO Guerrino De Luca would later tell analysts that the company’s decision introduce a $299 product based on software that was "definitely not complete" was a “gigantic” mistake. If you still want one, Logitech is blowing them out at $99 each.
Apple pissed off disappointed a lot of folks when it shipped the iPhone 4S sans 4G-network support, but we’re in Apple’s corner on this one. The company should have quelled rumors to the contrary, but the fact remains that none of the so-called 4G networks on the market reach the international 4G standard for performance. ITU IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Communications Standard—Advanced) states that a 4G device will operate on an IP-based packet-switching network that delivers nominal data throughput of 100Mb/s for mobile communications (client devices in planes, trains, and cars), and speeds of 1Gb/s for relatively stationary clients. Today’s LTE networks don’t come close.
Just how little does Microsoft care about Windows Home Server 2011? When we contacted the company’s PR firm about getting a copy of the OS for the balls-out Build It story in the Holiday 2011 issue of Maximum PC, they told us to download the free trial—we could hear the yawn right through the email. Microsoft’s decision to excise its Drive Extender technology, which made the original version so popular with hard-core consumers, made building a fault-tolerant system too expensive. You can’t even buy an OEM box today, and it’s damn shame because the software is rock solid.
“Don’t worry,” say the ISPs, “download caps will only affect the top two percent of our customers.” That might have been true before online services such as Netflix, HBO, Vudu, and others began streaming video; or before Apple, Amazon, Google, and others set up their cloud operations; or before Pandora, Slacker, and Rdo started streaming music; or… well, you get the picture. The ISPs know where the trends are headed, and they intend to soak us for all they can. How long will be before you count yourself in that “two percent?”
As the first really big redesign for AMD on its high-end chip, the FX aka Bulldozer proved to be both a disappointment and heartbreaker for many.
It’s been an awfully long time since the glory days of the Athlon, Athlon XP and Athlon 64. Many hoped AMD’s redesigned Bulldozer would finally put it back in contention with Intel’s parts but when the “eight” BD core hit, it didn’t exactly fire any shots over the bow of Intel’s own six-core chips. Hell, it didn’t even put a dent in the Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge chip, much less the new Sandy Bridge-E processors. Sure, there are issues with the scheduler in Windows 7 (similar problems occurred with Intel’s original Hyper- Threading chips too) that look to add a bit more pep to the chip but be that as it may, Bulldozer is still disappointing.
USB 3.0 has been around for nearly two years now but still hasn’t made it into wide adoption by chipset makers.
We like integration of such vital I/O as USB 3.0 because it eliminates one more driver to install during a build. It also eliminates an extra part on the board (potentially making it cheaper) and integrated USB could potentially be faster and more reliable than discrete USB 3.0 vhipd. Of course, none of that really happened in 2011. Oh, sure AMD included it on one or two of its Llano chipsets but for the most part, native support for USB 3.0 didn’t show up for the party this year. Intel pushed out at least three chipsets for consumers and none had it. AMD’s top-end 900 chipsets also skipped out on USB 3.0 support. So what the frak is wrong?!? Are the conspiracy nuts right that Intel is sandbagging to favor Thunderbolt? We were actually starting to believe the paranoia but there is a glimmer of hope. Intel says it has received USB 3.0 certification for its upcoming chipsets but, frankly, we’ll believe it when we see it.
Intel’s Thunderbolt looked magical when released but lack of support from PC makers and lack of optical cabling is disappointing to say the least.
Is Thunderbolt shaping up to be the next-generation external I/O of the future or a sequel to the dying Firewire interface? That’s the ten thousand megabit question. One things for sure, Thunderbolt has been person incognito on the PC to date. Sure, Sony has it on a couple of notebooks but the top OEMs haven’t rushed to put the Intel/Apple standard in their rigs yet. Between the lack of ports in systems, exorbitant prices on the devices (if you can even find them) Thunderbolt has been nothing but a big bucket of disappointment for us all thus far and is quickly looking like a detour to dudesville.
Comments are closed on this article
dogdud8
January 04, 2012 at 10:20pm
If hard drives were made in America there wouldn't be a problem.
compmix
January 06, 2012 at 1:08am
That's true, since it would be higher than the current prices year-round.
EV42TMAN
January 04, 2012 at 11:00am
I'm tired of hearing "on oh there isn't drive extender anymore" i'm just going to say this and i don't care who gets angry. Any one who manages there data with drive extender(or ZFS) also is the type of person who takes thier computers to geek squad to get them fixed. i know most people don't use ZFS but the mindset of putting a random assortment of drives together to act as one and thinking its a good idea is the same as using/reling on drive extender. Instead of "oh no" it should be "thank god microsoft took away the overall bad way to manage data". It isn't that hard to copy data from one drive to another.
Also i'm my faith in Maximum PC is unfornatly steddly dropping because in the past they would say their opinion and i may agree or disagree but it would be a valid point. But now it seems like they just half ass somethings and jump on the band wagon so to speek.
Also everyone complains there isn't any drive extender, but no one points out that technically you get the same functionallity out of libraries.
Heres how:
1. add all your miss matched hard drives with the random data each one to the WHS
2. add the assocated folders/hard drives to the proper library
3. share the library
There is how you can use drive extender on WHS 2011 without calling it drive extender
I agree with microsoft on this one because when the first WHS came out the largest hard drive you could get was a 250gig. So they need something since raid cards are expensive. but now you can buy 4TB hard drives and most home users won't fill up 4TB
aarcane
January 03, 2012 at 12:27pm
If you miss drive extender, look into ZFS. Used in conjunction with Solaris, Linux, or BSD, ZFS is an awsome solution for data integrity. It might not be able to maintain raid6 while adding a SINGLE drive at a time, but it certainly lowers the cost of admission into the raid market, and provides a high performing raid solution that anyone can use for free.
ApathyCurve
January 03, 2012 at 7:48am
"a sequel to the dying Firewire interface"
"Dying"? Last I checked, Firewire was deader than Jimmy Hoffa.
DDRDiesel
January 03, 2012 at 7:12am
I would like to speak with you about X79. The lack of SATA ports, to be honest, isn't that big of a deal. It's an enthusiast board, and in all practicality, does not need more than two SATA III ports. If someone wanted to call themselves an enthusiast, that means they would be intelligent enough to know that two SATA III ports is more than enough for a high-end system. They can be used in tandem for two SSD's in either RAID 0 or RAID 1. The other four SATA ports, in conjunction with modern hard drives going up to 3TB (And higher in the near future), is more than enough for anyone's storage capacity needs (especially in a RAID configuration across the four ports). If a storage enthusiast should so desire, they can simply add a PCI-Express card for the added 2-4 ports. After all, high-capacity storage doesn't need SATA III speeds to be successfully implemented
thechipper
January 03, 2012 at 9:15am
The point he is trying to get across isn't that there isn't enough storage options really. It's that they said they were going to give us 10 high end SSD capable SATA 3 ports. Sure I could go buy a PCI-E expansion card but then what would I do with all that lost bandwidth for my 3x GTX 580's since the boards are actually kind of shady about 3.0 support :s
crc32
January 03, 2012 at 7:02am
I anxiously waited and hoped for the noteslate. It was the perfect companion I needed for my setup. Simple and inexpensive like a kindle, but with input. Its was the perfect balance. But that tiny fear of vapor status I had at the beginning, came to be. R.I.P. NoteSlate 2011
andrewc513
January 02, 2012 at 11:57pm
1. My 30+Mbps down bandwidth on my Thunderbolt would like to have a talk with you....
2. WHS server is great in its own respect, but I'd just as soon use the Media Center extender and Homegroups in Windows 7.
3. Agree with everything else on the list.
grorc
January 02, 2012 at 9:25pm
All those who supported Net Neutrality got exactly what they deserved.
aarcane
January 03, 2012 at 12:23pm
Only half of net neutrality supporters got what we deserved. The wireless half is still left hanging.
limitbreaker
January 02, 2012 at 9:04pm
the only great thing about siri is that so far it's the best software (that i know of) at recognizing your words but it is quite useless as it stands right now. one day maybe we'll have a computer like the one in star trek (not original lol) but that day is far from here. Maybe when that cognitive CPU finally gets invented by IBM we'll finally start having pc pals that can have intelligent answers to our questions instead of a big list of answers to key words typed up by a bunch of apple heads.
ABouman
January 03, 2012 at 11:33am
Well, it sorta recognizes words. People with accents have reported problems, and I haven't had much luck getting her to understand me (me: "Siri, pause music." Siri: Play all songs. me: "SIRI, PAUSE MUSIC" Siri: Play all songs. me: aaaaaaaaarggggggggghhhh!).
i agree, it might be one of the better voice recognition softwares availalbe now, but... that's kinda like being the smartest kid in the remedial class, you know?
once it's developed enough to work smoothly, it has tremendous potential - especially for users who aren't able-bodied or able to type with their fingers.
PC Friendly
January 02, 2012 at 5:28pm
Windows 8 - It isn't even released yet and it's already a disappointment as far as I'm concerned. Full of bells and whistles designed to emulate tablet systems with no actual content. I'll stick with Windows 7 until they can actually release a "real" upgrade.
Brechan
January 03, 2012 at 1:41am
Agreed!!
If I wanted my PC to look like a tablet; then I'd buy a tablet, maybe I'm too "old school" when I say that I want my PC to look like a PC.
I like the fact that the desktop has the appearance of either Windows/ Linux or Apple; let the smartphones and tablets have their own versions of whatever O/S, but leave them all completely separate.
philipa25
January 02, 2012 at 4:02pm
I'll add some
1) Galaxy Nexus - Too many cut corners and intentional gimping for a flagship phone
2) Galaxy note - intentionally cutting off T-mobile support even though the chipset supports it. I want to import it now, not wait 7+ months to possibly get a bloated or gimped version that might work on the network.
Cregan89
January 03, 2012 at 12:36pm
I have the Galaxy Nexus and it is without a doubt the best smart phone right now.
Everybody always makes the mistake of calling the Nexus line the "Flagship" android phone. Google has never claimed that any Nexus phone is a "Flagship". It's their development baseline. The Android developers have a list of specific features that they want to build into each new iteration of Android, and then they have a manufacturer (Samsung in the case of the Galaxy Nexus) create a high-end, but not necesarily top-of-the-line, hardware baseline for the new version of Android to be built around. The hardware specs for the Galaxy Nexus would have been decided on a long time ago. This provides the Android developers with the time required to create a whole new OS version specifically for that hardware. And this is why some other smart phones that were released before the Galaxy Nexus actually had more powerful hardware. But this is also the reason the ICS has been on the Galaxy Nexus for a couple months now while it still hasn't been completely ported to any other device yet.
It's also intended to be the "pure Google experience", which is why it only has 16GB of storage and no SD slot (Google is a cloud computer company after all). The 0 shutter lag and greatly improved camera software were obviously a big selling point for ICS so it would make sense that they had to use a 5MP camera instead of an 8MP. Not to mention, everybody know's that not all MP's are equal when it comes to digital camera's.
athlon11
January 02, 2012 at 10:12pm
What the fuck are you talking about? How did the Galaxy Nexus cut corners? It has as good of specs as any phone on the market plus ICS. Also what did they gimp on it? As far as I can tell nothing. I really don't think you know what the fuck you're talking about.
philipa25
January 03, 2012 at 6:31am
Ok, it's like the 3rd or 4th most powerful Samsung phone let alone all android phones. It's got a very average camera compared to again other Samsung phones that were already out. What's gimped on it? How about the storage as there is no sd card slot and some versions are stuck with only 16gb of storage. I won't even go with the mess they made with the exclusive deal with Verizon. I know you're not supposed to say anything Negative because it's Google's phone, but I'd rather have a better phone that will get ICS in a few months or that I can load on myself.
athlon11
January 03, 2012 at 10:25am
At worst its Samsung's second most powerful phone after the Exynos GSII line on benchmarks. In actual use it feels faster. The camera isn't the greatest but it is not bad at all either. I also have to think there was probably some technical reason for using a 5MP sensor, more than likely it is because of the 0 shutter lag, the camera is probably streaming 5MP images constantly and the phone just grabs one when you take a picture, 8MP probably required too high of a data rate or too much processing power to allow it. Also, I will take the bigger, much higher resolution screen over having the "fastest" phone anyday.
I don't see an issue with storage since the iPhone has no SD slot AND REQUIRES you to store your music on teh device whereas on the GN you can use Google Music and stream your music. Seriously, cloud services are making the SD slot unnecessary. And what Verizon mess? I know the phone was "delayed" a couple of times, even though no official release date other than by the end of 2011 was ever given. The only other Verizon mess I can see is them putting 2 apps on the phone, which to me, wasn't a big deal since My Verizon is useful and you can disable the other one.
philipa25
January 04, 2012 at 7:22am
You're the first person I've heard say that the nexus is faster than the Exynos phones. I don't care about it being 5mp, mp's don't mean that much, but it's not that great of a 5mp camera.
I agree with the screen resolution, that why I'm pining for the Note. Great screen and much better phone than the nexus.
Just because you are ok with cloud services doesn't mean everyone is. Not everyone is willing to risk overage charges or throttling just to listen to music, watch videos, or listen to music. I could care less what the iphone has. When did we start talking about iphones?
Verizon mess? Beyond the delays, how about all the people who don't have Verizon? For a company that wants things to be open and available, locking it down to one carrier is counter productive don't you think? Especially when that carrier tries to bury it.
rruscio
January 02, 2012 at 3:27pm
You were doing good until Amazon Prime. I cover the cost in shipping 3x over the year. Then they threw in a poor selection of free videos. Ok, but I like it for what it was. Now, it's just fat.
As for G+, for me, it's like twitter on steroids and meth. More images, interesting people, content per post, and just a whole slag of stuff to look at. If that's a ghost town, please send me there ...
rr
philipa25
January 02, 2012 at 4:05pm
If you buy from Amazon on any kind of regular basis you are right, Prime is awesome. If you look at it as a streaming service, they are right it sucks so far. It should be looked at as a bonus so far, and to be honest all the streaming services kind of suck.
btdog
January 02, 2012 at 3:20pm
Thanks, MPC! This is a very good list. I agree with almost everything. Especially WHS, 4G and Bulldozer; particularly, Bulldozer - I was so looking forward to building a nice AMD CPU system. I didn't even need it to beat (or even meet) the best intel CPU - just be in the same fight. Alas, no such luck.
Maybe it's me, but I disagree with the thrashing of Amazon Prime. It was originally a memebership for shipping discounts; heck, I've been a customer for about 4 years now and it just added streaming in 2011. So to pit it against Netflix in an all-out streaming video fight is a wee-bit unfair. I think of it as a shipping membership that has added some limited streaming, not a video streaming membership that also offers free two day shipping.
brettofamerica
January 02, 2012 at 3:17pm
"The two great hopes for Android tablets, Ice Cream Sandwich (which unifies the Android OS for smartphones and tablets) and Asus' Transformer Prime"
You say that as if the original Transformer wasn't good! Last I checked the original Transformer doesn't have a locked bootloader so :P
Jongalt26
January 02, 2012 at 3:10pm
The Saitek RAT 7 mouse....
It would get stuck in an X or Y position frequently....
Wervenyt
January 02, 2012 at 3:47pm
I wouldn't call that a fail. All high-DPI mice have that issues. The lens is uber sensitive to dust.
Jongalt26
January 03, 2012 at 9:46am
I replaced it with a g500 last month and haven't had the issue since. It also hasn't happened to my G5, 518, copperhead etc. Anyways, i use my rat at work now and still love it, just not for gaming lol.
