This year's Gadget Zone Christmas Countdown Gadget of the Year Awards ceremony certainly lived up to the hype. Yes, just me, my laptop and a mug of decaff!
In the year in which we bade a sad farewell to Steve Jobs it seems fitting that even in the conservative world of accountancy, where no-one was ever fired for buying a Windows PC, voters have come out in favour of the Apple iPad 2 as the most popular gadget of 2011. Elsewhere on this site we have been having trouble finding enough serious business software for the iPad - none of use were really convinced by its ability on the spreadsheet front, for example. In the meantime John Stokdyk discovered Garageband for IOS though, which makes the whole thing worthwhile. Sort of.
Other mobile platforms haven't excelled in 2011 but we're looking forward to seeing what the growing Android community comes up with in 2012. WIll it knock the iPhone off the top spot at last? Meanwhile, as Henry pointed out, Nokia is fighting a valiant rear guard action to keep Windows Phone 7 alive and well. Maybe 2012 will be Microsoft's year?
Runners up this year are very much in the After Hours department:
- Nigel Hughes nominated the Sonos WiFi HiFi system that distributes your digital media all round your house, albeit at a cost. Maybe not ideal for the professional office.
- Anne Fairpo echoes my own sentiments in previous blog posts - e-publishing seems to have come of age in 2011 with the iPad and Kindle devices. The Newsstand feature recently added to Apple IOS devices is a brilliant way to subscribe to a lot of magazines and newspapers, hopefully more will be available in 2012.
- Apparently gadgets are not just for couch potatoes. Fitness apps such as Up by Jawbone introduce some new and practical uses to personal entertainment devices.
- Sad Gadget of the Year award goes to regular contributor David Forbes for nominating the iRobot, a robot vacuum cleaner! Now don't get me wrong, I have seen these in action and they are good, if not a bit scary as they bustle around your feet efficiently hoovering up dog hair and sundry detritus before finding their way back to their docking station and dozing off again.
Have a great Christmas, I hope you find the gadget you're looking for under the tree, whether it's an i-something or simply a bottle of single malt. Enjoy!