As 2008 draws to a close I’m going to take time out to look back at some of the best gadgets that the year had to give us. Without a doubt it was the year of the iPhone. The Smartphone from Apple was the most talked about device in 2008. I wonder what Apple have in store for us in 2009? We’ll find out soon enough because Macworld is just around the corner (I expect updates to the Mac Mini and the iMac range). There were other great gadgets in 2008 too, so let us take a look back.

Apple iPhone.
The must have gadget that had everyone talking. Apple introduced touch screen technology to the masses with the innovative iPhone. With it came the mobile iTunes and App stores. Access to thousands of albums and applications were a finger tap away. No doubt Apple has changed people’s expectations of what a mobile device should be.

Twitter
Not a gadget, but a micro-blogging and social networking website. Twitter really took off in 2008 allowing people to blog about what they were doing in 140 characters. Why 140? It’s to do with the amount of character that can fit in a single SMS message. It’s even got the starts twittering. Look out for Stephen Fry, Robert Llewelyn and John Cleese.

Netbooks.
Maybe one of the more surprising gadgets of 2008 were the netbooks that appeared. Sure they were around at the back end of 2007, but these nifty portable and small computers could be carried anywhere without much bother. Their ultra cheap price made sure that they would be popular with people wanting internet access wherever they were.

Blu-Ray.
The battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray finally came to an end with Blu-Ray becoming the champion. But will it be a success? There are already services that allow us to download high definition movies straight to our computers bypassing the need for a disc all together. Is it too late for Blu-Ray to even get off the ground?

There were many innovations during 2008 and I look forward to seeing what the big technology companies have to offer us in 2009. Thinner LCD TV’s will be big I think as well as the Nokia N97 (A possible rival to both the iPhone and G1).

My favourite gadget of 2008 has to be the iPod touch that I got. It’s been absolutely everywhere with me. A truly great gadget. I have nothing more to say to you this year. We’ll start the year off with a look at some exciting upcoming gadgets. Until then, I wish you all a Happy New Year!

I know I said I was going to write about some great sales items today, but I saw this and just had to give it a mention here. The Acer Aspire One is a great little gadget to have. With an 8.9-inch Widescreen, the Acer Aspire One notebook is an ideal solution for portable, on the go, internet browsing.

Featuring the Linpus Linux Lite Version operating system and an Intel Atom 1.60 GHz Processor, the Acer Aspire One is not a lightweight machine by a long shot. It also has a range of other great specs:

• 512 MB onboard SDRAM - upgradeable to a maximum of 1.5Gb
• Intel 945GME Express integrated graphics
• 8Gb SSD HDD
• 5 in 1 card reader
• High Definition Audio
• Integrated Webcam
• WiFi

I bought a laptop a few months back, but would seriously consider getting one of the Acer Aspire One notebooks, simply because of the portability. Recently I had to go to Bolton on the train and decided to take the laptop with me. I wish I hadn’t bothered to be honest. The amount of trouble we had with the trains was unbelievable and getting any work done was nigh on impossible. An Acer Aspire One notebook would have been a much better option because of its small, portable size; it measures 24.9 x 17 x 2.9 cm. Not only is it small and portable, it also boasts a good range of expansion possibilities with its 3 high speed USB ports.

At under £200, you have to seriously consider getting an Acer Aspire One if only for using whilst travelling.

Today was the day that Apple revealed their line up of new notebooks. I have to say that I was highly impressed with the new features that they have introduced, but disappointed on the whole with the actual event. It didn’t make me want to get my credit card out and max it to the limit.

So, they introduced four new items earlier on today, as it says in the title; new MacBooks, New MacBook Pro, New MacBook Air and a new 24″ Cinema display.

The cinema display has a really cool feature in the form of an extra cable. But this is no ordinary cable, oh no, it has three plugs on the end; a MagSafe connector, a USB cable and a Mini DisplayPort connector. These allow you to use the new MacBooks with the new display. When you’ve hooked your MacBook up to the new display you will be able to power it directly from the cinema display. How cool is that.

The event seemed to focus more on the way that Apple have gone about engineering their new MacBooks from a single slab of aluminium to help them reduce weight and create more strength, and I have to say, the video they showed during the event was interesting. They were also showing that Apple as a company were seriously commited to reducing their carbon footprint as well as making these the greenest MacBooks ever.

No matter how you feel about Apple and Steve Jobs, you’ve got to admire them for creating such great hype about their new products. Twitter has been a frenzy of Apple activity for most of the day.
I can’t wait to get my hands on one of the new MacBooks so that I can write a review of it here for you guys. Alternatively, if someone wants to donate one, I’d be more than willing to take it from your hands.

As always, PriceGrabber has a huge range of Apple MacBook products available on their website. So your first port of call should be there.

Some of you might be aware that Apple are hosting a special event today (Tuesday) at their Cupertino headquarters in California. The purpose of the even it to show off the new redesigned MacBook and MacBook Pro.

No doubt there will be other surprises too during the event. Apple are great at creating a buzz about their new products by giving away very little about these special events. Sure, there are people out there who have a guess as to what will be unveiled on the day, but Steve Jobs and the gang really know how to work the rumour mill.

I am hoping that they will reveal more than just a redesign though. I would like to see the MacBook and MacBook Pro ranges being offered cheaper to us, the consumers. It would also be great news if Apple were to introduce faster models too.
I would love to be present at an Apple event some day. Whenever I hear that there’s going to be a special event, I always make sure to make a note of it in my planner and diary, in triplicate. I am also wondering if they will be announcing any upgrades to their MacBook Air, the thinnest laptop available. It is definitely exciting times.

We can but wait to see what will goodies the guys over at Apple have for us. Be sure to come back tomorrow to read about what exactly happened at the event.

Obviously, PriceGrabber have MacBooks and MacBook Pros available for you to buy at great prices, so why not go and have a look?

I made the plunge on Friday and ordered a new laptop for myself. The one I went for was a Hewlett Packard 6735s and chose to have it delivered yesterday (Saturday). The laptop I had previously had decided to stop working properly and no matter what I tried it simply wouldn’t charge at all. This is very infuriating when you need your laptop to work on a daily basis in different locations. I simply couldn’t do without one because I’m usually to be found at 3 different places around the UK. Being able to work on a given project at any one time is essential for me.

The old laptop had served me well for close enough to four years when it finally decided to head up to laptop heaven. So it wasn’t a difficult decision to make to get a new one.

The Hewlett Packard 6735s that I got has quite a few improvements over the old laptop. It has 4Gb of memory, 250Gb of hard disk space, built-in Webcam, LightScribe DVD Re-Writer and Bluetooth connectivity. Quite an impressive list in my opinion. It won’t surprise you to know that I am writing this blog with the Hewlett Packard 6735s laptop.

The keys have a wonderful feel to them when writing and the touchpad is very responsive. The buttons on the touchpad are a bit of a let down though, as they feel a bit old fashioned to us. They seem to pivot rather that press if that makes any sense. Battery life is excellent too with up to four and a half hours of useage. It does, as most laptops do these days, come with WiFi connectivity too, and it’s what I use most to access the network and internet at home.

I did forget to order a bag for the laptop though, so tomorrow I’ll be on the hunt for one of those. I’m not looking for your traditional carry case though, I want something that’s a bit funky.

There are a selection of Hewlett Packard 6735s laptops available on PriceGrabber if you fancy getting yourself a new one. Not too pricey either.

The Eco Button is one of those gadgets that you never knew existed. It’s a simple way of helping you save energy, and better still, save money. And we all want to save money these days with the credit crunch.

The Eco Button is simple to install and use too, all you have to do is plug it in to an available USB port, download the software and you’re ready to go. It is a clever gadget too. The Eco Button will make sure that your computer only uses the power it needs, which can be as little as 1.8 watts. That’s pretty amazing. It does that by intelligently closing down functions that don’t need to be running.

Costing under £15.00, the Eco Button is really a gadget that people who normally put their machines into stand-by mode often really do need. For your initial investment the Eco Button can save you up to £50 a year. It’ll pay for itself in the first year.

The Eco Button will work on any PC with a free USB port, a minimum of 256Kb of memory, and 5Mb of free disk space.

Efficient, green and a money saver - you can’t go wrong. Get yours now.

On Friday, Nintendo’s new exercise based game, Wii Fit, was released in the UK and they have been flying off the shelves over the course of the weekend. For a game that is not even really targeted at the gamer it may come as a bit of a shock that sales are through the roof but what is even more surprising to me is that us, “Europes Fattest Nation”, seems to have taken to Wii Fit more than any other nation. Why? Maybe we have finally gotten sick of topping every “Europes Worst” list that has been created and decided to do something about it but it’s most probably down to that Nintendo have given us the option of getting ourselves fitter without having to leave the house. Which is great! I mean, going jogging outside isn’t everyones cup of tea, especially in this country where the majority of the time it is either freezing or raining and all these fancy health clubs we have are quite expensive.

With Wii Fit, you have it sitting in your living room or bedroom and you can exercise anytime you want, before work, after work, before bed, hell, you can do it all day if you wanted to and you won’t ever see a bill from a monthly subscription health club or pay for yoga classes or whatever. So what is the point i am trying make with all this rambling then? I guess what i am trying to say is, Wii Fit is so in demand in the UK because we all want to get fit but we are too lazy to go out and do it and Wii Fit is the lazy way to get fit that we have been looking for. If that doesn’t appeal to you then nothing will.

You can find out more on Wii Fit by reading our Mario Kart And Wii Fit post and our Wii Fit Update post or if you’ve heard enough and want to try it out for yourself, Wii Fit is available to purchase here.

So once again the interweb was full of stories of the last few days about potential updates to the range of Apple products available. Would it be updates to the Macbooks, the iMac or how about something completely different. Well it turns out it was the turn of the Macbook to get a boost with both the standard and the Pro getting attention.

The main change is that both models now will have the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, more memory and the latest nVidia graphics chipset. Support for 2GB of memory as standard completes the picture, meaning the complete package is small, beautiful and powerful. I’m actually in Sydney at the moment, and I reckon this town is full of big Apple fans, as a lot were carrying the current generation of Macbook and Macbook Pros around with them - I hope they heard about the updates.

I must admit I myself was hoping that the iMac range would get a boost, given that I’m very close to buying one, but I just I will just have to wait on this, especially as the various technology commentators are suggesting that Apple could be set to release new products, or at the very least upgrade current ranges, every Tuesday in 2008 - that’s 52 product launches ! This is based on the fact that in one of Steve Jobs recent talks, he mentioned the fact that there was 52 weeks in a year. Can Apple actually manage to stick to 52 new product releases in 2008? That would be pretty amazing.

I guess one disappointment from todays announcement is that the much awaited SDK for the iPhone was not officially released. I guess given that Apple could be set to do releases every Tuesday may mean that we don’t need to wait too long for this.

As I said earlier I’m also over in Sydney at the moment and it was kinda weird watching the Apple updates this morning (really early) given that before I started thinking about getting myself an iMac I really could not have cared less. Perhaps I’m starting to become an Apple FanBoy !

So I had a few minutes to spare yesterday, well around a couple of hours as the other half was in getting her hair cut, so I decided to spend it wisely - that’s right gadget hunting. I headed into a few gadget shops, doing the usual clawing over technology such as laptops, desktops, networking bits and bobs as well as a host of LCD and Plasma TVs. As I say, the usual gadgets treats for me. Oh before I go any further I had my first play with the Asus EEE PC, the ultra mobile laptop that costs considerably less than the usual ultra mobile devices. It’s a pretty cool little laptop which provides the perfect companion for a person on the road who needs to stay in touch !

Anyway I digress so let’s move on. Just then I rounded the corner and entered a place I sometimes feel quite uncomfortable in. Yes it looks beautiful, pristine almost, but I know the technology in this area goes against some of my in depth pre conceptions about how technology should be. Yes I know they make some of the most beautiful technology out there, and they have a vast and very loyal following. It’s just I’ve always been someone who didn’t quite get it, always saw the flaws in the technology, the stuff that was missing, instead as it were to turn out I should have been accepting those flaws, as I do with my current gadgets, and instead being focused on the technology in front of my face. You see I was in the Apple area in this store and was staring down a white aisle full of some of the sexiest kit on the planet. There were laptops, iPods and all types of accessories, all looking like they had been built by the gods. At the end of the row was the daddy of them all, the 24″ iMac. So I sat down behind it and stared to play.

Now I’ve played with these beasts before, but all of a sudden another thought popped into my head. I have already said on this blog that I’m in the process of looking for a replacement for my current desktop PC. I have been through the idea of another powerful gaming rig, or perhaps a laptop, but all of a sudden I thought to myself, perhaps my next home system should be a Mac !

For the next hour I was won over, the ease of the technology, which to be fair I already knew, but this combined with my own actual requirements and it all started to make sense. The iMac would be the perfect companion for me, who spends a lot of time in the media based world these days (music, video and photography) I find myself playing less and less games on the desktop PC, and to be honest those which I do play, mainly World of Warcraft, are actually available for a Mac.

So that’s it. I think in that short space of time I had been won over and once I get back from my travels I’ll be a Mac owner, and possibly convert. Ssssh, just don’t say it too loud in case my desktop PC gets the hump and decides to die on me !

As I’ve said in previous posts I’m seriously considering moving from a desktop PC at home over to the laptop world. My thoughts on full size laptops will have to keep, today I want to talk about ultra small laptops, or to give them their official name, UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC).

When many think of a UMPC their minds go back to the viral marketing campaign run by some vendors supporting Project Origami, which had us all guessing  as to what this could possibly be.  This project, a joint effort between the likes of Microsoft, Intel and Samsung, was to come up with s semi-standard specification for small form factor, tablet PCs. One of the main boxes you had to tick to call yourself a UMPC was a 7″ or smaller touch sensitive screen with a minimum resolution of 800×400.

One of the issues I had with these early designs was the high price, given that the specifications, in terms of computing power, were pretty low - especially in comparison with some of the workhorse style laptops you can get today. Of course this didn’t bother many, as the form factor was the main selling point. Today, however, I’m pleased to see the UMPC world has come a long way, and we now have much better specifications, without too much of a price increase.

A new breed of UMPC has also sprung up in recent months - the low cost UMPC, from the likes of  Asus . A friend of mine recently picked one of these up, specifically for his trip to New Zealand, and he has not stopped gushing about it ever since. The ultra portability, along with respectable specifications, easy to use operating system and very low cost, make this a very loveable laptop. I don’t even think it has to be reserved for the jet-setter, as I can see this type of machine being the perfect system to sit on a coffee table as a pure internet device, or perhaps one for the parents to keep in touch.

The current model comes with  a 900Mhz chip, 512MB of RAM and a 4GB solid state drive. Some will say the resolution of 800×480 will make browsing some web sites pretty painful, but then again remember this system has a specific purpose and doesn’t ever profess to be a replacement for that 24″ 1600×1200 LCD sitting in your office.

I can’t wait to see what the 2nd generation of this model has to show, especially as it is reported to come with the addition of WiMAX !