Saturday, July 29, 2006

TWQ: Gadgets

For the TWQ (The Weekend Question), we look at gadgets; those items we have bought that seemed useful around the house.

What gadgets have you had later turned out to be completely useless?

My answer is:

I had a water purifier that still remains in the box; it was a gift, but something we never really wanted to use. The same happened with a ground coffee maker we were given. I did buy a mobile phone for myself, but have rarely used it. Still, it's there for emergencies.

Now it's over to you...

33 comments:

phoenix said...

Hi from Michele!

You should go to that website where you can trade your useless gadjet for something that you really want. Now I can't remember the site address... but I bet someone will know it that comes by!

craziequeen said...

Same here, jl - a water purifier....it was SO much easier to turn on the tap.....

um........scanner.......mixer....oh - tons of stuff is stored away on our loft!

cq

The Aunt said...

A sort of plastic circle with blades and a plunger that allegedly chopped onions.

It didn't.

Susan said...

Having children and being out of land line contact I've lived on my mobile phone over the past few years.

Gadgets, well we got a fondu set as a present - thank goodness it was from Marks and Spencers!

carmilevy said...

Pretty much everything my in-laws have ever bought me. They mean well, but they have no clue what I need.

Popped by from Michele's today. It's always a pleasure to visit you, Captain!

Professor Xavier said...

I hate buying things that turn out to go totally unused. I had bought a music maker program thinking I would put together original music for some video projects. The thing was so complicated that I gave up on it.

I had also bought a mini-digital audio recorder for jotting down notes but it had some things I didn't like so I bought an upgrade which was a lot better. Now the old one just sits there.

Florence Forrest said...

The most stupid thing I ever bought was a supposed beauty item from a catalogue called a Facial Disk, it turned out to be sandpaper fixed in a metal ring!! I use it in my studio now as a way of getting an edge on my pencils. So not all bad, I guess:/

Anonymous said...

Hi from Michele's.
Nice to know I'm not the only one that does this!
Hmmm, lets see...I have so many "gadgets" collecting dust, where do I begin? But I'll say, probably my Sony Walkman....just didn't/don't use it as much as I thought I would. And the new ice coffee machine is climbing to the top of that list also, from lack of use.

Michelle said...

Hi, Michele sent me!

merlyn said...

hmmm an mp3 player ( 1st generation tiny things that hold about 15 songs. never use it)

An electric orange juicer. We've used it about 5 times in 5 years...

we actually don't buy a lot of toys like that though...

Unknown said...

how about any mobile phone I used while I lived in Europe. They aren't on the same frequency here so they don't work. I don't use them much but now I hate the one I have (It's so mega ancient I don't even know how to use it except to dial and on and off.)

HRH Courtney, Queen of Everything said...

A garlic press that's supposed to make slices. Just makes mush.
Here via Michele.

kenju said...

20 some years ago, a good friend gave un an Italian ice cream make called "Il Gelataio". It made wonderful ice cream, but it was not user-friendly and was very hard to clean. We kept it until last spring, when I sold it at a garage sale, but it had not been used more than 3 times.

Michele sent me, Jean-Luc. Have a good weekend!

Renee said...

I bought a coffe grinder too and don't use it. I was talked into buying a mobile phone. The battery is dead, the pre paid minutes are used up and it is sitting at the bottom of a drawer somewhere. Being almost 40 years old and raised at a time when mobile phones didn't even exist, they really don't seem too important to me. My husband would totally disagree with that though!

dragonflyfilly said...

hi there jean-luc, nice to see you over at Flamingo's Hideaway again, you know you are one of my faves!!! thank you for visiting MY blog.

GADGETS....i luvvvvv gadgets, but cannot think of any useless ones right now....i love my cell phone because i do not like having to look for a phone box when i am runing late (and i am usually running late!) --i love my coffee grinder because there is nothing like freshly ground coffee first thing in the morning, the smell...ahhhhh....i would like a cell phone that can take pictures, just because...and i also want a digital camera...i suppose this has a lot to do with "instant gratification" but i don't care, i think at my age i deserve some instant gratification...enuf said

luv and light to all,
pj

Ballpoint Wren said...

Gadget Queen checking in, and I can honestly say I never met a gadget I didn't like. One that turned out to be completely useless, though, was a garlic peeler. So much easier to whack the dang clove with the flat side of a knife!

Chris W. said...

Ok, you may think this is just sad. The most expensive, but ultimately useless, thing I had bought is a Palm Tungsten PDA. It really is a great gadget, compatible with Mac OS :D. I bought it mainly to keep organized at work, but also to show off pictures and artwork and carry mp3's around.

I soon realized three things wrong with this. 1) as far as work goes, my to-do's were better and more quickly organized with a simple pad and pen, rather than whipping out the PDA and scanning thru it. (I don't have to check any email at work except inter-company). 2) If I need to show off pictures, I can just direct people to my websites. 3) An iPod is sooooo much less hassle than the mp3 players you have to install and work with on a PDA, not to mention greater capacity!

Even the last thing I used it for, tracking expenses, got to be too much of a hassle synching with Quicken on the computer. Simply not that many expenses to justify having trouble tracking it all; I don't own a business, after all!

Ok, rant done :D

Unknown said...

Hey Captain - We rarely use the VCR/TV we bought for the car. Our son prefers conversation to the videos.

Trucker Pete said...

Coffee grinder? Dude! I hear those are great for, you know, "herbs"!

Jean-Luc Picard said...

So many useless things that have been bought just to gather dust in a drawer. Interesting to note there are some real gadget experts out there!

rashbre said...

Its not the gadgets, its the gadget power supplies that I find irritating. They are usually all different and the gets run down too fast. So there is a recharging ritual for a lot of gadgets, accompanied by brickette sized carting of transformers.

However, a really useful recent gadget was the £5 quick release for my bike saddle seatpost.

And hiya, Michele's gadget sent me today!

rashbre

Leah said...

sent to you by Michele

David Edward said...

i dont know
I built a 50 caliber black poder rifle, and never had the guts to shoot it , does that count? and ai wrote a new post for today so its safe to come back...

aprilbapryll said...

I love gadgets, but I usually use them, even if not but for every once in awhile. I have a ridiculous amount of kitchen gadgets ... but it's nice to always have a specific gadget to do a specific thing.

Although I do think I have a web cam still in the packaging that I bought 3-4 years ago.

Michele sent me!

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Permission to come aboard Captain
- first time visit -
(Spied ya at "flamingo's hideaway")

Nice set up you have going here!


Useless Gadget?
Stuff given... earlier this year: three tiny and ugly little rattan baskets!
I must admit, did not hide my annoyance and displeasure with such distasteful gesture….

Karen said...

How ironic that you ask! I was just in the basement trying to clean it out a bit and came across LOTS and LOTS of things that we never use...namely exercise equipment like the infamous Nordic
Trak!

Hope you're having a great day. Sorry it took me so long to get here today! Michele sent me...

Panthergirl said...

I love gadgets... it's hereditary. But my bluetooth hands free ear thingie for my blackberry has turned out to be pretty useless. It falls off my ear!

My Monster cable for my iPod turned out to be useless because my new car has an mp3 jack.

:D

Paperback Writer said...

Hmmm...I don't seem to have useless gadgets laying around. Oh, wait. There's the PSP that I bought for Loki...it's nice, but we've gotten our money's worth out our DS's...

-tnchick- said...

I can't think of anything off the top of my head but I know I have at least ONE useless thing LOL

Meow (aka Connie) said...

I'd have to say exercise equipment ... bike, treadmill, etc. I buy them with good intentions, use them religiously for awhile, then put them away, never to see the light of day again. Oh well, maybe I wasn't meant to exercise !!
Take care, Meow

Jaime said...

An exercise ball. The pictures make them look sooooo easy, but in reality, it'd be easier to nail jell-o to a tree than balance on one of those things, to say nothing of exercising on one.

Anonymous said...

This TV Tuner I got for the computer, I'm afraid. I had to battle and battle to get it to work, but the recordings it makes are of such size as to be essentially useless...

Abner said...

I believe one and all must glance at it.
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