Macintosh Portable, Pippen make PCWorld Worst tech list

It's really harsh to put the Pippen there... no wonder there were no titles for it, iirc it never made it to production apart from a few units in Japan.

The name of the product was Pippin and not Pippen. It's visible on the photo.

Read the E3 review of the Pippen; I didn't know anyone could be just so wrong. He thought most people wouldn't want to use the internet because 50% of Americans are functionally illiterate. Yeah, like THAT's stopped anybody.

ANyway, here are the two things he said that I reckon he would most like to take back:

Seventh, the name for the device ("Pippin @World") is silly. Many non-computer literate people don't know what an "@" is.
Eighth, (and most importantly) Bandai has not studied the extent to which Americans are functionally illiterate. According to a 1993 study by the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 46-51% of the adults resident in the U.S. are considered functionally illiterate. Astounding but true. What this all means is that while a Pippin could be used as an ultra-expensive (in relative terms) game console device by these folks, they aren't about to do any serious Internet surfing.

The round mouse was noted in the appendix of products that didn't quite make the cut of Worst Products Ever. What also wasn't mentioned at all was the Performa 6200. It was just a plain bad machine - cheaply made, underpowered, a drag to use. I should know - I used one for seven years.
A side note: I happen to have a developer's version of the Pippin, including a CD with the requisite OS on it, but no controllers. Does anyone know the pinouts of the connectors, in hopes that I could hack together an ADB/Pippin crossover cable?

What about the round mouse? THAT has got to be on the list!!

No, the controllers are not USB. They are ADB.

The Portable seems an odd choice to me. It was a very reliable machine. I'd expect to see the PowerBook 5300 on there (sent mine back no fewer than 6 times, 4 of which were logic board replacements, 1 display replacement).

And where's the Apple III? I think any machine for which routine diagnostics include picking it up and dropping it onto a hard surface ought to quality as some of the world's worst technology. Unquestionably Apple's worst machine ever.

Are the controller connectors USB?

I've always wanted to try one of those, they look like so much fun.

The Mac Portable DID run on AC power. It's just that it wouldn't run *directly* off of AC power. In other words, you had to have a battery installed in order for the computer to run. But as long as the battery was installed and working, the computer would run off of AC more or less as you would expect.