The best gagets of the decade

1. 2000: Sony Playstation 2
2. 2001: Apple iPod (Gadget of the Decade)
3. 2002: Microsoft XBox
4. 2004: NintendoDS
5. 2004: Palm Treo 650
6. 2005: Motorola Razr
7. 2006: Apple Macbook
8. 2007: Apple iPhone
9. 2008: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
10. 2009: Amazon Kindle 2

1. 2001: Apple iPod – Using an MP3 Player was finally easy and stylish to use. It was accompanied by iTunes for outstanding support.
2. 2002: Apple Powerbook/Macbook (Titanium (G4) and in 2006, Intel) – Apple introduced a product that has been noticed by anyone seriously looking at laptops. This was a serious working laptop, was powerful enough to actually be used as a desktop machine, and it captured the imagination with a level of design unmatched by the competition. It did the job, had OS X under the hood as well. If you wanted a laptop that just “Did what I asked it to do” then you’ve got it. Other manufacturers have had to rush out competitive solutions — none of which really ever found a way to effectively compete or dominate. Whine all you want that Dell has the Adamo. Whatever.
3. 2004: NintendoDS – I have to agree this was an instant hit and if you were a kid (or an adult) who wanted to take your game with you, it became easy to do so. Finally, real arcade games that fit in your hand.
4. 2004: Palm Treo 650 – Once this got beyond Sprint to the other carriers, it became mainstream — but the Handspring/Palm software made this the tool you needed to get through your workday and have a quite nearly desktop experience with a personal organizer. A huge community got behind this product, which while Blackberry is a cult hit, it has always chased Palm’s cut and dry simplicity and ability to expand. Palm’s cult was just bigger, and while Blackberry was great at getting you your email, Palm’s overall solution as a whole was what everyone aspired to for most of the decade.
5. 2005: One Laptop Per Child Project – This project changed the game and set off a chain reaction that put ideas like the Psion netbook into the history pages. Say what you want about the project. Anyone who paid any attention to it at all wondered about the possibility of getting a compact $100 laptop that did the basics. You want to surf the net? Get access to knowledge? Learn? Forget children, you had the ears of adults perking up at this one. The result spawned a competition — build a notebook for less than $100, and  Companies like Asus (who were on the map for system boards and some video cards in the clone market) suddenly hit the big time with their EEE Netbooks. For about $300, an adult (or child) in the mainstream could have their very own Netbook. Acer and Hewlett Packard also jumped in the frey. Now the big three netbook makers are having it out for the best products. The race was on to put the cheapest components possible in these netbooks and provide incredible battery life. It’s forced Apple to consider solutions to lower prices and be competitive.
6. 2006: Nikon D40 – What? You thought Canon EOS of any kind was the best? Think again. $2700 is still way too much more anyone to care about. You’ll sell 1 of those for every 400 of the Nikon D40. The Nikon D40 and D40x sets the standard of this decade for a pro camera in an affordable consumer range. This camera turns any of us regular folk into someone that can take a fantastic, rich, color picture. And for all people whine about 6 megapixels not being enough, enough for what, enough so that it filled up my SD Card too fast with pixels I won’t need as I’m a regular consumer wanting to print something that looked good enough for 4×6′s or 8×10′s? This camera outlasts everyone and is light enough to make people go back to it despite having purchased something in the higher megapixels too. And, it was easy to use.
7. 2006: Flip Video – I’m sorry, Canon EOS/Rebel who? Who cares if a $2700 camera can do HD video, the general public can’t afford it, and it was never really on the radar. I can get a camera for under $200 that I can carry with me in my pocket without holding an equipment bag and it takes great personal video. In 2007 it went mainstream, but this addictive little camera boosted YouTube as well as put an incredibly easy to use, affordable, reusable, simplistic video camera, with good built-in transfer/management software to boot. Instant standard and to think it made Apple change it’s footprint for the iPod, where Apple realized a camera was necessary on a small device you kept in your pocket.
8. 2006: Nintendo Wii – Nintendo saw a lot of people sitting down to play video games. They knew it wasn’t healthy,  and injuries from repetitive stress notwithstanding, people needed to get moving. Nintendo was looking for a game changer, and it found one by encouraging people to break down the walls imposed by typical controllers. Sure, gaming gloves had been built but nothing really did what the Wii does. Suddenly sports of all kinds can be played indoors. People are getting in shape and moving their entire bodies. It could be argued that the dance pad for Dance Dance Revolution was the game changer at a mass level, but in my opinion it was the Wii. The Wii was responsible for moving your whole body and getting everyone excited about it. It’s made Microsoft (and others) consider full-body interaction without controllers at all. Just a camera (or cameras) watching your movements. The game has changed.
9. 2007: Apple iPhone – For me,  this was the product of the decade. This device is not only the hottest selling of all phones ever, but it takes seconds for people to fall in love with it. It’s a tremendous all around product, perhaps only limited by the fact that the first two versions couldn’t do video. At least in the 3Gs it does now. However, The level of support is fantastic in comparison to other services as far as providing consumable content — iTunes and the App store take care of that. The following this product has is rabid and once you’ve ditched your old phone, you’ll probably set your iPod aside as well in favor of this.
10. 2007: Amazon Kindle – Amazon really wasn’t capitalizing on a new idea. The idea of reading a book on a digital device has been around for a long time. Other companies and products out there innovated on that front. What Amazon did was put all the pieces together, following in the iPod and iPhone’s footprint, the goal being to develop a device that would be as ubiquitous for books as the iPod was for music, and the iPhone is for media of all kinds on the go. The reality is while they fell short right away (and continue to follow) on color, they make up for that in terms of innovation by attaching wireless networks to the product — and you didn’t have to purchase a wireless contract to use it. Like magic, the Kindle rules the roost of the written word. For now.

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