My top ten products I bought/services used/etc… this year in no particular order:
Not really new for this year but with the death of her 4 year old PC the last of my family desktop PCs became a Macintosh. While I don’t hate Windows I find that MacOS sucks less. I spend less time maintaining machines and my time is money. Almost all applications use a copy install, restoring a screwed up OS install (which does happen, MacOS is not magical) is much simpler, and the default application suite + NeoOffice accomplishes 90-95% of what my family wants/needs to do.
On the downside if the hardware goes tits up you’re pretty much locked in to the vendor for repairs. However, since over 50% of new PC sales are now laptops the Windows side has the same problem except for desktop.
I’ll continue running Windows on my work/gaming rigs and will continue playing with Linux but my preferred desktop/front end/media center OS is currently MacOS until something better comes along.
Open Office but with Mac touch. Does everything that I need from Microsoft office but is donationware. I’m told that its Open Office core is really buggy but I have not seen this for the things I do. This year I transferred the last of my MS Office tasks (mailing lists) to Neo/Open Office. I’ll continue to happily use Microsoft Office for work since it’s required and will happily switch back when they do something to justify the $150 (home)-$500 (full) price tag.
It appears that I’m one of the only people who thinks Apple got this one right. Part of this is because before getting it I had already standardized on MP4 as my video format of choice since it has good support on Windows/MacOS/Linux and MP3/4 for audio for the same reasons. If I change my mind later since I own my media I can rip to any future format I want. Since I was running FrontRow on a mac mini for our media center downstairs hooking up the AppleTV to our upstairs TV was a snap.
The big surprise for me was that it streams video so well. It even chapter skips and fast forwards reasonably well. I thought I’d have to treat the thing like an iPod and have to sync movies locally but it streams them so well I just leave them on the server.
Most importantly this solution passes the coveted “wife test”. She feels that it’s easier to use than the DVD system we previously had.
Makes DVD ripping even more simple. Like it should be.
Lets me keep those plastic discs as archive media only. I realize this is violating the DCMA but if watching movies you have bought on your media center is not fair use I don’t know what is.
The first “real” mobile phone I’ve owned (I previously had a GoPhone). I swore I would not buy one but after looking at the prices to get a second phone line put into my house I found that the monthly charges were less. 12 hours after the launch my will crumbled; I walked into the Apple Store and bought one.
Call me weak.
It’s by far the best phone I’ve ever had. The killer app for me is the Google maps integration. I used it on our summer vacation to Wisconsin and it made the trip so much easier. I love it for the incidental uses. We were having a picnic lunch with my mother in law. She forgot the time of her doctor’s appointment. I asked for her doctor’s name, typed it into Google, it found the office and the number, I clicked on it and handed the phone to her. Problem solved in about 30 seconds.
I also really dig being able do things like looking up recipes at the grocery store when I find a good special or that I have to replan on the fly when one of my main ingredients is out of stock.
Best Desktop Linux Ever. Detected my hardware raid controller out of the box, gave me read-write access to the local NTFS disks, and more. It’s still Linux so if you go off the beaten path you can get into trouble quickly but for free it’s a great experience.
At least one company remembered that the majority of the population are more casual gamers and that the reason we buy these things are to have fun.
Between the DS and the Wii they’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Portal / Half Life 2: Episode 2
Best and most original game of the year coupled with one of the best sequels of the year. Win all away around. Extra points for having one of the best game endings ever.
Imagine bringing your camera home, turning it on, and having all of your photos automatically uploaded to your computer and most of the popular photo services. Eye-Fi is a wireless 802.11g transmitter in a 2Gig SD memory card. Makes virtually all digital cameras into wireless digital cameras. The really strange thing its that the wireless uploading is faster than the wired (USB 2) uploading for my particular camera (Kodak P880). So for me it’s a big win.
Amazon does DRM free right. Good iTunes/Windows Media Player integration is the way to go. Bonus points for not deciding to launch their own media center with this thing. Betting on both sides of the fence. Smart move.
Honorable mention:
Got it as a gift and it works as advertised. Open infuriatingly sealed plastic containers without resorting to a 40 Megawatt laser.
Not a product but my favorite new TV show. Feels like the Coen brothers jumped to TV. I cannot believe this lasted a season. Hopefully ABC will pick it up after the writer’s strike.
The Coen brothers are back to their roots in the movie theater.
And the point of error codes are...? Black Site Area-51 callout
