KEY POINTS:
The major tech publications are currently listing their picks for the best gadgets of 2007 and there's a good deal of consensus in the results. But what of the gadgets that hit the local market this year? Here's my top ten list:
1. Sony Playstation 3 (yep, it only arrived
in March)
2. Dell XPS M1330
3. Canon EOS 1D Mark III
4. Nokia N95
5. HTC Touch
6. Asus Eee PC
7. Philips Aurea (42 inch LCD TV with ambient lighting)
8. Microsoft 0ffice 2007
9. Apple iPod Touch
10. Samsung F8 (46-inch 1080p LCD TV)
It's interesting to see that Wired put the new version of Microsoft's Zune in its top 10, as well as Amazon's Kindle.
"Defiantly decent on first look, Microsoft's second outing kills the iPod Classic up close, and we're not afraid to say it. Sure, Apple's moved on with the iPod Touch, but with only 16 GB of flash storage, it's more of a minor leaguer compared to other players. This year, the devil rules our roost," notes Wired of the Zune.
Funnily enough, the Kindle also makes it into Wired's top 10 heartbreakers of 2007 obviously some differing tastes in the editorial department there.
PC World wraps up the best in mobiles - the N95, HTC Touch and LG Voyager (named the Prada here), make the list.
PC Authority voted the Xbox 360 Elite console the most popular gadget of 2007, according to its website traffic statistics. I really like the Elite for the HDMI connector and larger hard drive, but I wish Microsoft had bitten the bullet and put an HD-DVD drive in it.
Yahoo Tech has the Kindle, iPhone and Asus Eee PC at the top of its top 10 list.
Time magazine, which recently voted the iPhone the invention of the year, puts the phone on the top of its list, following it with the Nikon CoolPix digital camera and the NetGear Wi-fi Skype phone, which I have to agree is a sensational product for Skype users.
Apple makes it onto Popular Mechanics' worst of 2007 list with the patchy Apple TV.
Apple TV, Palm's cancelled Foleo and Windows Vista come in for the most criticism in the worst-of lists floating around the web. I'm feeling fairly neutral on Vista after my second crack at it with a more powerful PC (I was previously trying to run its on a "Vista-capable"machine that was anything but, and was caught in the Vista drivers black hole early in the year. I've had few issues with my current PC, touch wood.
Social networking plug-ins to web browsers feature large in CNet's list of the most popular software downloads of 2007.