Many computer products are very good, but along with those good products come products that are just gimmicks and useless in real world situations. To honor, or dishonor for that matter, these useless gimmicks, I compiled a list 10 recent computer gimmicks everyone should be careful not to fall for.

This post was linked to by USA Today on July 18, 2007. See what they had to say about it here.

1. ADM-520 MicMouse
Who would want a microphone on their mouse? It might be useful for gamers or VOIP users, but who would give up their favorite mouse just because it didn’t have a microphone? There’s no way I would give up a $50 gaming mouse for one of these. Not to mention a mouse is the worst possible place to put a microphone. Not only does it face away from your mouth, but will probably also be covered by your hand.

2. USB Flash Drive Pen
If you’re like most people, pens tend to get easily misplaced and are often taken by others. No one cares if a cheap ball point pen is lost, but you would care if you lost a 512 MB flash drive with all your data! I don’t see lugging around a 2 oz. flash drive along with a pen as being a burden.

3. Card Keeper
In all my days of moving computers, I have never seen a PCI, AGP, or PCI-E card become dislodged that was installed properly. In the rare event a card does become dislodged, one can just open the case and push it back in. Furthermore, system manufacturers would install these cards in their computers if a good majority of their tech support calls were caused by dislodged cards. Guess what, they aren’t! I have yet to hear of anyone who had expansion cards dislodge from their slots on a regular basis.

4. AOL
AOL is probably the worst computer gimmick of all time. Not only does it suck, but it is overpriced, too. With their genius marketing schemes and hassle-full cancellation procedure, millions of people have been swindeled into using their excuse for Internet service.

5. Nexus Prolong
Whether this really extends your hardware life or not, I don’t know. What I do know is by the time you get to enjoy any of the extended life this thing could possibly provide, your hardware will be so old it will be worth just as much as the Nexus Prolong cost you ten years earlier. With technology being replaced so often, no one really cares if a CPU that normally lasts 10 years can live for 11.

6. O&O Linux Defrag
This makes me sick! Everyone knows there is no need to defragment Linux. With this product, O&O is trying to rip off unsuspecting Linux newbies and corporate administrators with too much buying power in the IT department. Thankfully O&O has dropped the product and its product page no longer exists.

7. Canned Air
While very useful, I would never pay for air. If you want to clean a computer component, either A.) blow on it or B.) take it outside and shake it. You can even buy a vacuum for the same price of two or three cans of canned air that is great for cleaning computer components.

8. Bigfoot Killer Network Interface Card
This is useless for most gamers. In online gaming, your speed is mostly limited by of your Internet connection, not your network card. Many gamers use Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet also, making this product useless for them. I’ll admit this product looks pretty cool, but it’s a huge waste of money.

9. Geek Squad
Who would pay $129 to have their computer dusted? Geek Squad overcharges its customers and some of their ethics are questionable. If you want your computer dusted or a virus removed, save yourself money in the long run and learn how to do it yourself or pay some teenager $40 to do it.

10. Anti-Static Wrist Strap
I have never seen an experienced computer technician use one of these. As long as you touch the computer case or power supply every once and a while when working on a computer, you’ll be fine. There’s no need to chain your arm to a computer to discharge static electricity. In fact, it’s pretty stupid.