Cell Phone Is The Most Hated Invention

Romeo Elias Cabrera writes "The most hated invention in America -although also one of the most used- is the cell phone, according a recent survey. The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, an annual survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that among adults asked what invention they hate most but can't live without, 30 percent said the cell phone."

Comments

Re:Still don't have a cell phone...

[MBCook]

I understand what you say. I have a cell phone, but I keep it off, ALL THE TIME. I don't tell other people the number. I can use it if I get into a wreck (and I have), or if something else very important comes up. But I refuse to keep it on all the time. I can't even go one class in college now (even 45 minute ones with only a handfull of people) without a cell phone going off. And in my largest class (~1000 people) you could hear 3 or 4 if you listened every day. If people would just stop leaving the damn things on and answering every call even when they don't feel like it, they might not hate 'em so much.

Alarm Clock UI sucks

[Ilan Volow]

It's not only the beeping of alarm clocks, or the fact that they wake you up in the middle of your threesome with Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Alarm clocks have some of the worst human interfaces around. Many make it far too easy to set the wrong time (the AM/PM dot hell), and many are a true pain in the ass to set, forcing one to take up to a minute just to cycle to the time you want.

Given that your typical alarm clock possesses a fraction of the technology of a simple PDA and designing the technology of one shouldn't be that complex, it's kind of pathetic that after all these years the design of your typical alarm lock user interface still sucks.

Sure, some people will probably laugh and blow off this criticism mere nitpicking, but I wouldn't be surprised if employees' difficulty setting alarm clocks has cost businesses as much per year as the common cold .