The 12 Best Gadgets You Didn’t Buy
Sep 28, 2012 06:06 PM EDT by Somewhere in an alternate universe, the Earth 2 version of me is typing this article on a brand new Commodore Amiga sipping from a can of Crystal Pepsi when his Palm Pre 4 buzzes with a new CU-SeeMe video call. Unfortunately, in this universe, the best products don’t always win.
My infant son is going to grow up in the same world where cruel consumers chose VHS over Betamax and Blu-ray over HD-DVD. He’ll never know the joy of backing up his files to an Iomega Jaz drive or an Avatar Shark 250, because when most of you voted with your wallets, you voted for the wrong candidates.
To finally give some credit where it’s long overdue, here’s the 12 most-terrific technologies you didn’t buy. Thanks a lot everyone, you’ve ruined it for . . . everyone.
Viliv N5 and Other UMPCs
Sure, you love your smartphone, but can it run the full version of Microsoft Office or Photoshop? Toward the end of the last decade, a few intrepid manufacturers sold tiny 4- and 5-inch notebooks that weren’t much bigger than today’s supersized handsets. The best of these so-called UMPCs – short for Ultramobile PCs -- was 2010’s Viliv N5, which ran Windows 7 on its 1.3-GHz CPU and 4.8-inch, 1024 x 600 screen.
With the 1-pound N5 in your pocket, you could write real programs, build websites, or edit docments, all on a clamshell device that fits in your pocket and sports a generously-sized QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, consumers focused their affections on shallow slates like the iPad. No more coding while standing on the subway for me, thanks to you.
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September 28th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
But this particular piece of tech ( Lapdock) has inspired the next gen of tablet + keyboard = netbook combo … the Asus transformer line up, the new upcoming windows 8 tabs with docks ..
September 29th, 2012 at 12:09 am
Oh UMPC, how I miss you. I still remember a few years back how everyone tried to take a good glance at my awesome Vilive S5 UMPC at Starbucks, while they were stuck with using their netbooks.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Well, that inspires me to watch a marathon of “Back To The Future” films on my Pioneer Laserdisc Player.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Oh man, if my contract would not end in 2013, The Kyrocera Echo would be mine! Maybe im the reason it stopped selling. :O
October 2nd, 2012 at 11:32 am
lol i did buy most of those things. I have viliv n5 (and s5), beos 4 retail box, kyocera echo, atrix with lapdock, and a dreamcast with network adapter and keyboard. My dad has a palm pre he got from working at HP, and he used to have the jornada and omnibook.
October 4th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
I miss my palm pre! Two android phones and one iphone 4s have not been good enough to make me forget my web OS wonder…
October 10th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Amigas were special. I miss that era of computing.
October 27th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Like some others here I have a Viliv S5, N5, and also an S7. These are great UMPCs that I use every day. It’s too bad that Viliv went under because they were really on the right track. The N5 affords me a full Windows 7 device with a keyboard, SD slot, USB, hours of use on battery power, and slips easily into a pocket. My S5 has 3G, 128GB SSD, GPS and all day battery. Awesome stuff. Also have a couple of Raon Digital Everuns and an OQO. All are/were unique devices but price doomed UMPCs to the beta/laserdisk/DAT club. Even in the age of the iPad I get “wow that’s cool” responses.