The 21st century has already brought us a whole slew of truly amazing new technology (hybrid cars, invisibility cloaks and the Nintento Wii all come to mind), but like any other era there have been some massive flops. These three hilariously awful inventions of the 21st century were just never meant to become household names.

In what is possibly the most honest gadget review ever written, CNET brutally panned the Squircle (so named for its rounded square shape) – and with good reason. This ridiculous contraption was advertised as an MP3 player but could more accurately be described as a card reader…sort of. It took roughly four to five times as long to transfer data as other card readers, and the horrible sound quality made it almost completely useless as an MP3 player. According to CNET, one of the positive aspects of the Squircle was that it “skims across a lake nicely.” Among the negatives: “that it exists.” Ouch.

If there is one thing missing from just about every Taser gun experience, it’s some catchy music to drown out the cries of “Don’t Tase me, bro!” Well, that’s apparently what Taser thought in 2008 when they revealed this terrible, terrible idea: a stun gun holster MP3 player. What’s even more baffling is that the new line Tasers that go with the holsters come in designer colors – even a leopard-print one. Apparently the company wants their products to become as ubiquitous as cell phones and iPods. Hey, Taser: how about you stick to what you know so Apple won’t feel pressured to start adding stun guns to their products.

Believe it or not, this monstrosity won the Editor’s Choice Award from Popular Mechanics in 2002. Yep, even when mobile computing was on the very near horizon, doomed tech start-up Xybernaut thought it would be an awesome idea to build a bulky, ugly, sort of dangerous (if you’re walking around with it) computer that you strap on to your head and arm. And a publication known for spotting great technology agreed. With wires poking out everywhere and a truly unsightly design, the Poma wearable computer looks a lot more like a failed Snow Crash Halloween costume than an actual consumer product.

The post Three Most Awful Gadgets of the 21st Century (So Far) first appeared on Gajitz.

Everything is coming up Apple lately. The iPad is surpassing expectations, the newly-announced next-gen iPhone is creating a stir, and Apple recently overtook Microsoft as the world’s most valuable tech company. But not everything Apple touches turns to gold. They’ve seen their fair share of flops over the company’s long history. The above Macintosh Portable was Apple’s first attempt at a portable, fully-featured, battery-powered computer. At 16 pounds, its portability could be debated; the battery power was laughable and the thing couldn’t even boot if the battery was unable to hold a charge. The Mac Portable was discontinued just a year after its introduction.

The Apple MessagePad – often mistakenly called the Newton (which was actually the name of the OS) – is one of Apple’s most famous flops. To be fair, the device was not a terrible failure and still boasts a very large base of devoted fans. The most logical explanation for its commercial failure and quick discontinuation is that the MessagePad was a bit ahead of its time. The handwriting recognition was weak, the battery life was severely limited, and the original version lacked desktop connectivity. Still, CNET UK compared the MessagePad to the iPhone in 2009 and declared the Newton device superior to its “grandchild” because of its innovation at the time of its release.

The Twentieth Anniversary Mac was one of the most aesthetically beautiful Apple computers ever. Its sleek, modern form was unlike anything the world had seen when it was released in March of 1997. Unfortunately, it was widely thought that Apple had put way too much thought into its form and not nearly enough into its function. The original price of $7,499 was shocking, even though the price had originally been predicted at $9,000 (including a direct-to-door concierge delivery and setup service). Later, following widespread criticism of its high price and limited function, the price dropped as low as $1,995 – below the cost of production. Despite being technically disappointing, the extreme scarcity and attractive appearance of the TAM has made it a sought-after collectible for Apple enthusiasts.

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The handheld gadget market is a tricky one. The gadget-buying public is finicky, only latching on to certain products and letting others fail miserably. Cheering on the success of certain gadgets isn’t that fun, but looking at the biggest flops of the past decade sure is.

This bizarre-looking device is, believe it or not, just as powerful as most desktop PCs and only a little bigger than a smartphone. It’s called an OQO, and the company that made it was both a little before its time and a little overconfident in its product. The first model of OQO was introduced in 2004, following a much-hyped build-up of several years. Just when eager would-be buyers started to wonder if it would ever appear, the Oqo finally materialized. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it’s the world’s smallest full-powered, full-featured personal computer. And to be honest, it’s pretty amazing – but the $3000 price tag put most consumers off of it, and the company went out of business in 2009.

As far as handheld devices go, the Pepper Pad was kind of cool. It was equipped with WiFi and Bluetooth and had a split QWERTY keyboard, a microphone, video camera, speakers and IR receiver/transmitter along with a 7-inch LCD touch screen and a host of other cool features. So why have most people never heard of it? Well, it was expensive, for one: for the same $800 you could get a much-easier-to-use laptop. And the design is, shall we say, less than attractive. The split keyboard probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but typing on it was weird and awkward. Pepper ceased production and support of its devices in September 2009.

Palm just wasn’t able to catch a break for the longest time. Their PDAs were once the “it” gadget that all well-appointed geeks proudly carried. As soon as smartphones came out, everyone stopped needing PDAs – so Palm came back with the Pre, which is doing pretty well. But before that, they tried to market this little gadget, which they called the Palm LifeDrive. It was designed to handle your music, pictures, documents, email and schedule, and it was equipped to browse the Web. It even had a 4 GB hard drive, which was pretty impressive back in 2005 when it launched. But timing killed this device, as it came out just when the best of the smartphones were hitting the market for the first time. And at $500, buyers decided they’d rather have the far geekier – and more useful – iPhone. The LifeDrive was discontinued in January 2007.

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