Most overhyped Apple II product???

[ug0a@rzstud1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Alexander Siegfried)]

Hm, looking back at the early 90s, when System 6.0 had just been
released, I remember one company that got quite infamous for
over-hyping software and producing vaporware, and also for letting
customers pay for features that weren+t present in the actual
programs: Econ Technologies.

They started with a HD utility software, Universe Master. No match
for ProSel 16, but anyway they charged $99 for it. The promised and
advertised HD optimizer wasn't included (a dimmed menu item - how
nice!).

After releasing AutoArk, Econ announced a couple of exclusive
Apple IIGS products (both soft- and hardware), and it seemed they
were about to close the gap that Applied Engineering had left.

They announced the SoundMeister and SoundMeister Pro stereo &
digitizer cards, along with "the premium waveform editing
software for the GS", Digital Session. Well, the SoundMeister turned
out to be a less than average stereo card, and the software was
completely unusable - unfinished (again a number of those nice
dimmed menu items) and extremely buggy. And the SoundMeister Pro,
the hardware everybody was waiting for, never saw the light of day...

Meanwhile, Econ's ad section in GS+ Magazine was getting
bigger and bigger, up to one entire page. Unfortunately, many
of the advertised products ended as vaporware. Among these
were PaperFree (a preview printer driver) and a new line of
storage mediums (HDs?!).

 -- Clue / Ninjaforce