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DigitalConvergence CueCat (2000)
What is the single dumbest gadget ever conceived? The Digital Convergence Cue Cat wins paws down. This feline-shaped bar code scanner (#20 in PC World's list of "25 Worst Products of All Time" was supposed to make it easier for magazine and newspaper readers to find advertisers' Web sites.
The idea was that you'd plug the Cat's "tail" into your PC, scan the bar code listed in an ad in a newspaper or a magazine, and be magically whisked away to the product's Web site. If there has ever been a more complicated way to Web surf, we don't want to know about it.
Fortunately, the CueCat was neutered in 2001 before it could reproduce...
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Contributing Editor Dan Tynan actually owned some of these products. Follow him on Twitter @Tynan_on_Tech--if you dare.
