iTunes 7: A Top 5 Worst Tech Story Of Q3, ‘06?

What’s on the list of worst technologies for the most recent quarter of 2006? What would you guess?

It’s a bang up list with exploding batteries, HP cloak and dagger news, and Apple in the Top 5. Why? iTunes.

Apple’s new iTunes 7 comes in at Number 5 on the list of Worst Technology Stories in Q3 of 2006.

Who’s the list maker? None other than our friends at CNET, always ready to mix fact and fiction with fable.

There’s plenty to like about the Top 10 List, except that Apple made it to the Top 5.

There’s the exploding Sony laptop notebook batteries. Millions of them make for heady headlines, right?

That’s at Number One, followed closely by Amazon’s new online movie service, Unbox.

Think about it. Let’s say you work at Amazon and your new product, an online movie download service, is ranked right beside Sony’s flaming battery recall.

Not surprising to be on the list is Alaska Senator Ted Stevens’ explanation of the internet.

I listened to it on The Daily Show. There was some political drivel about tubes, and trucks—my ears started hurting so I stopped listening.

See? No surprises at all. Number Four is a pair of headphones from Sennheiser. The phones hang over the ear. Why? That’s how products make lists like CNET’s list.

Number 5? Shockingly, it’s Apple’s ubiquitous media player, iTunes 7. It’s on the list because the first version of iTunes 7 was buggy (mine worked fine) and stole features from Windows Media Player 11.

Let’s see. iTunes 7, WMP 11. Bigger is better. iTunes bad. M u s t p u t o n b a d l i s t. That was the directive from a CNET editor to a writer with too much time on his hands.

Amazingly, Sennheiser headphones come in higher on the list of bad tech stories than the boardroom hijinx from highly paid HP execs.

Heads rolled, eyes rolled, headlines rolled, and the HP fiasco one didn’t even make the Top 5.

Rounding out the Top Ten after HP at six is the worst game, the worst bling, the worst use of an iPod, and the worst joke on Firefox.

The real joke is on CNET’s readers; folks like you and me, sufficiently foolish to read through all 10 pages. One paragraph of rubbish stretched into 10 pages.

What a great use of 10 pages of ads for CNET. I feel sooooo used.

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