Most Embarrassing Tech Fails of 2016

Funny, embarrassing or tragic? You decide.

By Prajith

| Updated: Thursday, December 29, 2016, 13:44 [IST]

Life without technology is inconceivable. And with each passing day, people’s dependence on technology is increasing. This growing trust can be attributed to people’s belief that they can’t do things by themselves or just the fact that technology makes lives easier, but that is an argument for another day as one thing’s for sure. We make mistakes as we are humans, duh! And with the help of technology, chances are we make fewer mistakes, if not any, right? Wrong!

Why?

“Technology Makes Lives Easier,” that’s true, but it’s only one side of the story. What if things fail and fail drastically? (Oh wait, now you know where this is heading towards). And we are pretty sure that as soon as you read 'fails,’ Samsung Galaxy Note 7 popped into your mind. But, let us break it to you, it’s not the only tech fail we’ve come across in the year 2016. In fact, there were many, and most of them came from some of the biggies in the industry.

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Let’s take a look at the most embarrassing ones and how people reacted to them on social media sites.

Note: We don’t intend to belittle any of the products or respective companies listed below.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 explodes

Just when things seemed to have going well for the South Korean giant, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 units started blowing and you know rest of the story. Take a look at these funny tweets.

As it turns out, using it underwater is the only safe way to use a Galaxy Note 7. pic.twitter.com/CXW81TvAaI
— Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) September 2, 2016

How to safely charge your Galaxy Note7 😂😂😂 #note7 #Samsung #galaxy #samsunggalaxy pic.twitter.com/VKlsH4FnHG
— Richard Cranium (@LIGHT_SP33D) September 2, 2016

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GoPro Karma drone crashes in mid air

They say Karma comes back, but GoPro’s Karma never did. Don’t believe us? Watch this!

Rip audio jack!

So, it’s all about courage now.

R.I.P 💀 AUX cord... You will be missed. #AirPods #Appleevent pic.twitter.com/r5OVsGaBlr
— Alex Fost (@D8Alexander) September 7, 2016

*secret iPhone team meeting*
"When we kill the headphone jack, women will lose their earbuds constantly and be forced to talk to us."
— Kashana (@kashanacauley) September 7, 2016

Only 90's kids will remember #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/uHk5Gz7O42
— Shafeeq Younus (@Y2SHAF) September 7, 2016

Missing ports on MacBook and touch bar that no one wanted

After killing the headphone jack on iPhone 7, Apple jettisoned the USB ports, added the Touch Bar, revealed the price and people couldn’t stop criticizing. Look at this!

so all they did was add an emoji bar to the #MacBookPro ? nah not enough for me to buy a new one lol. pic.twitter.com/HDVDlIqDHV
— Sept 4th (@DubOnDaBeatz) October 27, 2016

Then they tell you the price. #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/5rm7YPYkTa
— AJ Joshi (@AJ) October 27, 2016

Online Polls/Fake News

When misleading online polls and fake news resulted in Trump’s victory.

Politics aside this @538politics poll is really eye opening. pic.twitter.com/qObKs3Vpi7
— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) October 12, 2016

Bots that don’t connect the dots

In April, Facebook announced the introduction of Bots on Messenger. These 'Bots’ are nothing but automated assistants that help people tackle their everyday problems (at least that’s what Facebook promised). But, do they really help tackle problems? Why don’t you see the below conversation (by the folks at Gizmodo) and decide it for yourself!

Google Home

Speaking of bots and personal assistants, Google introduced the Google Home — “a voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant,” earlier this year to give a tough competition to Amazon’s Alexa. But, when it couldn’t even answer some of the basic questions despite having access to Google’s Knowledge Graph.

Check out how Google Home responded to a few questions here.

Freedom 251

Earlier this year, Ringing Bells, a Noida-based company announced the world’s most affordable 3G smartphone and Indian’s couldn’t be happier until they found out its a scam. No wonder, Twitter’s full of funny posts.