10 All-Time Gadget Rip-Offs

Sean Fallon — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:40:57 EST

Wired has put together a list of ten gadgets that have done little more than separate the gullible from their hard earned money. There are some classics on there, including: the harmony chip, MPion MP3 Player, the Philip Stein Teslar Watch, and my all-time personal favorite —the "ionized" Q-Ray bracelet. Seriously, every time I saw that commercial a little bit of my faith in humanity died. What little faith I had left was dashed when I learned that $200 piece of metal garbage managed to generate $87 million. Unbelievable. Hit the link for the full list. [Wired]

$8,000 Media Server Could Probably Be Built for Under $1,500

Adam Frucci — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:30:00 EDT

Fusion Research's new Genesis Server is a home theater server that's designed to store all your music and movies in one place so you can sort through them easily with a remote control. It comes in 1TB and 2TB varieties, and the menus are customizable, so you can get it to go with your decor. OK, that sounds pretty neat, if not the most original thing in the world.

The problem arises when they give you the price: $8,000 for the 1TB version and $9,500 for the 2TB version. Wha-wha-whaaaat?!

Where do they get off charging this much for a server with a fancy interface? How can they justify charging $1,500 for an extra 1TB of storage when just yesterday we saw an external (not even an internal!) 1TB drive for $290? How does a company so out of touch with the current marketplace exist and stay afloat? Who is spending this kind of money on this crap?

The only explanation I can think of is that rich, lazy people who don't want to do the research see the price tag and, as it's so insanely expensive, figure it's got to be the best. Stupid rich people. Do your research. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via BornRich]

Gizmodo: Rip-offs

10 All-Time Gadget Rip-Offs

$8,000 Media Server Could Probably Be Built for Under $1,500