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COPYRIGHT 2006 IDG Communications Pty. Ltd - Australia
You know how many new-product pitches we get every year? Thousands, each declaring that the item is the best in its category. Though many of the companies making these claims are clearly delusional, some creations do stand as superbly designed top performers in their field--and you'll find all of them right here in our roster of the 100 best products of the year.
We rated each candidate on its design, performance and specifications. We generally did not consider price in our evaluations; instead, we looked for products that represent the cream of the crop. But in compiling our list, some products were such great bargains that we couldn't ignore them. Of course, ranking notebooks and Linux distributions in one place is tricky, but we assessed them as consistently as we could.
We've also identified a few of the year's most noteworthy companies, including our pick for the loser of the year.
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
1 INTEL CORE DUO notebook/desktop CPU ($350 and up) Intel's Core Duo provides multitasking power never before possible on a portable PC, and yet it supports astounding battery life for mobile devices. The Core Duo processor is so good that it's the CPU of choice not only for Windows notebooks but also for Apple's Windows-capable notebook and for desktop Macs.
In today's mobile world, Core Duo gives Intel a leg up. AMD's Athlon 64 X2 dual-core (#2) is astoundingly good, but AMD hasn't yet captured that power in a mobile version; and its notebook processors aren't nearly as potent or as battery-efficient as Intel's. www.intel.com.au
2 AMD ATHLON 64 X2 dual-core desktop CPU ($280 and up) The most powerful desktop CPU ever made had a dual-core design first. If you need full power for increasingly demanding applications and you're tied to a desk, X2 is for you. www.amd.com
3 APPLE IPOD NANO digital audio player ($219 to $359) You get up to 4GB of capacity in a tiny device that nevertheless has room for a crisp colour display. It's scratch-prone, but it's still cool. www.apple.com.au
4 GOOGLE EARTH satellite imagery (free) News channels use Google Earth to zoom in on Iraq; you can use it to focus on neighbouring houses, or to explore the rest of the world from your desktop, www. google.com
5 ADOBE PREMIERE ELEMENTS 2 video editor ($172) This strong, stable video editing application costs about one-eighth as much as Premiere Pro, Adobe's professional video editor. And it's so good you may not notice the difference. www.adobe.com.au
6 CANON EOS 30D digital SLR camera ($2299) An 8.2-megapixel shooter, the EOS 30D makes many of the pro-level features from Canon's EOS 5D available at a friendlier price. It also earned extremely high marks in our image-quality tests. www.canon.com.au
7 YOUTUBE.COM video-sharing site (free) Enjoy watching videos of every kind at this massive community of amateur videographers, and upload your own productions--at no cost. www.youtube.com
8 APPLE BOOT CAMP Mac dual-booter (free) Astonishingly, Apple has finally given its blessing to running Windows on a Mac with this utility. Next up: running the Mac OS on a Windows box--or pigs flying through the sky. www.apple.com.au
9 ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 4 image editor ($164) The latest version of Elements is the most elegant and powerful image-editing and -organising application available for under $1493 (the price of Adobe's pro-level Photoshop CS2). www.adobe.com.au
10 MOZILLA FIREFOX 1.5 Web browser (free) The 2005 product of the year continues to improve, with a better set of features and stronger security than Microsoft's Internet Explorer offers. www.mozilla.com
11 ENGADGET.COM gadget blog (free) Even if Engadget decided to devote itself to game shows and golf, we'd probably still read it, just because the blog's writing is so snarky and entertaining. www.engadget.com
12 TOSHIBA QOSMIO G30 power notebook computer ($4299) The jazzy Qosmio notebook line got even better this year. In fact, the G30 is the best media centre desktop replacement we've ever seen. Toshiba has also just released a version that comes with an HD DVD-ROM drive. www.isd.toshiba.com.au
13 NVIDIA GEFORCE 7600GT graphics card ($350) Our list doesn't focus on outstanding values, but how could we overlook...
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