If you ever wondered if we really needed technology, 2020 was the year that proved it. Between the pandemic, working and schooling from home, and the ability to stay in touch for just about everything else, there were a lot of big wins that came from the tech world. But there were also a lot of fails that happened too. Here are a few of the biggest technology “oops” we saw for both programs and practices in 2020 that we’re glad have moved on.

Quibi

A star-studded debut followed by a spectacular flop was Quibi – Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s answer to creating a new kind of social media to compete with TikTok, YouTube and most meme creators out there. Promoting Quibi as a way to create and share “quick bites that tell big stories,” Quibi used big names to promote it including Steven Spielberg and Crissy Teigen. Unfortunately, even those big names couldn’t save Quibi, and it folded a mere 6 months after its debut.

There’s an old saying, “Bad guys love bad times,” and the truth of this is shown in the proliferation of covid-related scams. Criminals know that we’re stressed out and distracted, and are trying to take advantage when our guard is down. There are the usual scams via email, robocalls, and smishing (phishing via phone texts). But there are a lot more that have gotten very creative, from roadside billboards to student loans and stimulus checks.

Here’s a list of some of the top scams to watch for that might pop up on your radar here in California. Needless to say, all of these contained links or other methods of contact that should never be used.

Remember: When in doubt, don’t click.

There’s a new form of phishing spam causing trouble lately and it’s coming in the form of text messages about package deliveries. Over the holidays there was a record amount of people shopping online while adhering to pandemic stay-at-home orders. Many companies offered the option of sending updates about packages by text, while big shipping companies such as Amazon, UPS, USPS, and FedEx, also would send texts (if you opted in) to let you know the package status, even providing links to track the package progress.

Over the past few months, new variants of the coronavirus have started to emerge from the U.K. to South Africa and Brazil. A new strain recently discovered in California might be behind why our state experienced such a dramatic surge in numbers over the holiday season. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, researchers found the new strain while looking for signs that a highly transmissible variant from the United Kingdom had established itself here. Instead, they found a new branch of the virus’ family tree with distinctive mutations that may have helped it to spread faster.

Scientists are still studying what the differences are in these mutations, and how they affect us, the general consensus is that while none of the new variants have been associated with new or different symptoms, the differences may be seen in the way they spread, making it very important to stick to protocols set up to help stop the spread.  

If you’re used to checking your phone every morning to see what the weather is, that might change in the future due to bandwidth issues, according to the National Weather Service. In a recent statement, the NWS shared that as their data budget is hitting a ceiling, and demand for access continues to grow, they may have to consider throttling the amount of users who can access their essential forecast data.

According to their statement: “As demand for data continues to grow across NCEP websites, we are proposing to put new limits into place to safeguard our web services. The frequency of how often these websites are accessed by the public has created limitations and infrastructure constraints.”

For the past decade, the National Weather Service has been struggling to find the best and most efficient ways to disseminate critical forecast and warning information. According to an in-depth look at this problem by the Washington Post, the combination of increased data collection and demand for access from private companies and hobbyists has created a bottleneck that at times has crashed NWS websites.