Like many other readers, I’m mostly happy to see 2008 become nothing but a memory, at leat parts of 2008, but this year really did produce some excellent consumer electronics products, some of which are likely remain all-time favorites of mine. We’ve just released out annual Editors’ Choice Top 40 list and Product of the Year, where you’ll find some of the coolest things we toyed with in 2008.
A few of those 2008 gadgets I’m still enjoying and finding even more to like. Near the top of that list is Logitech’s Squeezebox Boom, the boombox style streaming audio player that works with Internet radio stations. I set it up to work with my Pandora and Slacker accounts. It’s better than satellite radio because you can configure the station to your tastes–and the services are free. By the way, I hope to see Pandora and Slacker on more products in 2009. At CES I’ve been promised a chance to try out a Slacker portable player–looking forward to that too.
Sticking with the portable music theme, I love the Monster iSoniCast . It’s a simple, fairly inexpensive, device to integrate your iPod with your stereo or home theater receiver. There are hundreds of custom iPod integration solutions, but if you’ve already got a stereo system or audio receiver you like, then the iSoniCast is a good way to connect your iPod to it. Of course an even simpler, and cheaper, way is to just connect the player to your audio system with a headphone jack cable, but then you can’t control it from the couch.
Another digital music gadget is the Audio-Technica USB turntable. It enabled me to resurrect decades of music I’d abandoned to dusty bins of LPs. The process of moving my vinyl collection onto my iPod is a little time-consuming, but it gives me time to relive the days when I had hair and could shake it to the music.
As a movie lover, I like Blu-ray for the exceptional picture quality it offers, but the LG BB300 Blu-ray/Netflix player also solves the issue of not having any new discs on hand to watch. Now that LG has upgraded it to allow high definition Netflix streaming (as well as CinemaNow and Youtube), the deck is even better. I expect to see more hardware alliances with streaming content services in 2009.
By far, one of my favorite things from 2008 has been Chumby. Chumby is difficult to classify, but it’s a wonder to enjoy. Aside form Internet radio–and Pandora–I use it to show my Facebook slideshows, display time from different countries, supply me with news feeds and new jokes. I’d like to see a larger version in 2009 or Chumby offered as an application on other products such as digital picture frames or flat screen TVs.
Please feel free to tell us about your favorite tech toys from 2008 and what you’d like to see in 2009. Resolutions anyone?
In 2008 I got a Roomba Robot, GOD, I was impressed… Then, I got a CHUMBY, and OH MY GOD!
I Agree with Grant G., so far, Chumby is one of the best gadgets I have.
Guess what, I found a blog that teaches you how to hack Chumby and Roomba and use it all together.
When are they going to invent the time machine, or the tele-transporter… ????