“Antennagate” and Apple’s Ping are among CNN’s biggest “tech fails of 2010” (http://macte.ch/e82Fv), a list of the low points in the tech world.
“Antennagate” was the popular term used for reported glitches with iPhone 4 call reception. Ping, introduced with iTunes 10, is a new social network for music designed to let users follow their favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading. You can check out photos and videos your favorite artists have posted, see their tour dates and read comments about other artists and albums they’re listening to. In addition, you can post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes and the concerts you plan to attend.
Here’s what “CNN” had to say about Antennagate: “Apple drama — nothing brings out the diehard fans and Cupertino haters quite like this one. The newest iteration of the wildly popular smartphone was released in June. By all standards, it’s been a huge success. All standards except one. Some people couldn’t actually use it for phone calls.
“OK, maybe that’s an overstatement. But the Grip of Death (caused when users covered part of the antenna in a band around the phone’s edge) was real — and a big glitch in the device’s rollout. First Apple said the problem didn’t exist. Then they said it was a software issue. Then they kind-of admitted it existed and gave away free cases to help. Then, they said it doesn’t really exist anymore and stopped giving away the bumpers.
“Months later, the problem is all but forgotten and the phones show no sign of dipping in popularity. So ‘fail,’ in this case, is a pretty relative term.”
And here’s what “CNN” had to say about Ping: “There’s a whole social network set up in Apple’s iTunes store now. Didn’t know that? Well, there you go. Not all musical artists are on there. And it doesn’t integrate with Facebook. (Although Ping and Twitter just linked up). And, a lot of the time, it simply pushes you to buy music. Needless to say, Ping hasn’t really caught on.”
Other items on the “tech fail” list are: 3D TV, Microsoft’s Kin phone, the Nexus One, Facebook privacy, Google Buzz, Gawker media sites being hacked, content farms, and the Digg relaunch.
