Avram Pilch: "A truly superior product is definitely worth spending more. Unfortunately, sometimes tech companies think too much of their wares and too little of your intelligence." [Gizmodo]

  • http://daniel.friesen.name/ Daniel Friesen

    Looks like a pretty bad read to me…

    • Stooge

      Having just read it I’d say you’ve massively over-estimated its quality.

      • http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

        Really?

        I thought it was worth a glance (single page, not slide show) as an interesting reminder of some of the “ahead of their time” gadgets that were nifty, and sometimes groundbreaking, but completely obsolete 18 months later.

        Most illustrated the handicap of being first to market.

        Clearing out my old storage I recently ran across a box of various “special issue on the 21st century” magazines I had saved back in 1999… they are full of similar products, and mostly vastly underestimated the accelerating advances and spread of information tech. I guess my saving the paper versions not realizing they would all be freely cached on the web kind of illustrates the same thinking.

        On the other hand, watching some reruns of Star Trek TNG last night it looked like everyone had iPads.

  • Isaac Marx

    The Surface?  Really?  I guess $120 is a lot to spend on a cover, but it doesn’t seem that much more exorbitant to me than a $40 iPad Smart Cover.  Seems like a pretty minor offender compared to some of the other items on this list. 

    • http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

       I had the opposite reaction, after reading that the $120 accessory cost $16 to make.

    • http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

      I guess the point is that, with the Surface, that keyboard/cover is constantly shown as being essential to using the Surface, and not really an option. So, it really should be included with the thing, and not sold as a $120 add-on.

      The iPad Smart Cover, on the other hand, isn’t necessary at all to the functioning of the thing. It’s a true optional accessory.

      • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

        There are however, two different surface covers manufactured by Microsoft, and no doubt some 3rd parties will be developing their own covers down the line (or have already, I’m unsure). So whilst I agree a cover of some sort is essentially necessary, it makes sense for Microsoft not to bundle. 

        Also, “Starting from $499″ is better marketing than “Starting from $629″ or whatever it would cost with the cover.

  • http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

    So, it’s just a list of Apple products?

    • Box of Cotton Swabs

      No, but there’s three on there. The Lisa, the Mac G4 Cube, and the Newton MessagePad 2100.

  • Jonathan Badger

    It’s a very strange list to be described as “The 15 Most Overpriced Gadgets of All Time”. I would think “All Time” would cover centuries of history — this is mostly things from the past decade, with one or two things from the 1980s.