My Top Picks for 2009

It's becoming something of a tradition now for me to list my top picks for the year gone by. In 2007 I listed the Kindle and the Centro amongst others. In 2008 my list included gems like the Macbook Air and the Blackberry Bold (how prophetic!). This year, it was really hard to narrow down my list to just 10 items. After much internal debate, here's what I've got:


1. Twilight

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This has been the year of the Vampire with everything from True Blood to Vampire Diaries cashing in. And the trend begins and ends with Twilight.

2. Snuggie


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Who knew so many people needed to keep warm but also keep their arms free? Well, there you go. Its a Snuggie.

3. The Palm Pre


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The actual success of the Palm Pre is debatable, but what is undeniable is that Palm has thrown everything they have into this last ditch effort to salvage their company. Will it work? Only time- and more apps- will tell.

4. Cloud Computing

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Because of- or in spite of- the Sidekick mishap of this fall, almost everyone has some awareness of the concept of keeping data in the cloud. And as data speeds continue to increase, more data will be stored in more accessible ways.

5. Twitter

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What was once an underground uber-geeky way to communicate has now become the new Facebook. Everyone is on it, and its now accepted as a relatively trustworthy news source. Just about every mobile device has an app for it, and its become a standard feature to list.



6. Netbooks

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Perhaps because of the runaway success of Cloud computing (or as the cause of it), the netbook has taken us by storm. This year it seems like every manufacturer released one, and many households bought one.

7. Modern Warfare 2


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Controversial, immersive, and on just about every gamer's wishlist this year.

8. (An)Droid

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Talk about a stealth attack! This time last year we were tittering at the Tmobile G1 (and rightfully so- that hardware is fug!) and now there are more Android phones than I can name in one sitting (Droid, Hero, MyTouch, to name a few). Android brings the freshness WM is lacking, the multi-tasking the iPhone doesn't and the cool factor that has ever eluded RIM, its no wonder this platform is taking off.

9. Gestures

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If you had a touchscreen device this year- then you were gesturing: pinch to zoom , swipe, shake to shuffle....and don't even get me started on the Wii motions! I predict this will only get worse in the next year, leading to the release of Microsoft's project Natale.

10. B&N Nook


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Although only a small percent of the population actually has it yet, the Nook has been one of the most interesting devices in a long time. An Ereader that runs Android, could potentially run a Twitter app, that uses Gestures on its touchscreen, and you could use while Snuggie-d up on the couch? Epic Win!

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