The Biggest Technology Failures of 2016
From algorithms that spread fake news to glowing plants that don’t glow, here are our picks for the worst technologies of the year.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Samsung’s smartphones caught on fire this year. And not in a good way. After about 35 reports of phones overheating (one smoking phone caused the evacuation a Southwest Airlines flight), Samsung told anyone with a Galaxy Note 7 to “power it down immediately” and return it. When some replacements also ignited, Samsung decided to stop manufacturing the phablet-sized phone altogether and recall 2.5 million of the devices. The company blamed assembly defects that caused the phone’s lithium-ion battery to overheat.