Channel Five’s Gadget Show has recently launched a poll to find out the best gadget of the decade. The poll is split into five categories (computer, entertainment, photography, music and phone gadget) with a place for the overall best of the best too.
The poll is now open to votes, comprising of the best in tech such as Facebook, Macbook, YouTube, Wikipedia, iPod, Spotify, Blu-ray, Nintendo Wii, Singstar, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia’s 3310, the USB and World of Warcraft amongst a cavalcade of others.
I now throw down the gauntlet to Gaj-it bloggers, and tech bloggers across the globe, to name their five favourites as I have below.
Best computer gadget of the decade: MacBook
In the list provided I was torn between this and Facebook. I have had my MacBook for only one fifth of the last decade- a present for birthday number 18.
In the relatively short space I’ve had it I have been converted from a PC to a Mac with such ease it’s impossible to describe. My primary computer (or computers if I ever manage to get myself more than one) will never again be a PC.
I always wanted one of those bubble back Apple Macs when I was younger and just find the aesthetics and ergonomics of Apple to be far superior to any other offering on the computer/laptop/notebook market- hands down.
Best photography gadget of the decade: Flickr
Unfortunately for me, I have had very little hands-on experience of most of the products in the photography category.
Flickr, however, I can be sure, has revolutionised the way photography is shared and distributed.
Critics of digital photography will tell you that the art of the photo is dying, with people more likely to take bad pictures and less likely to print out hard copies.
Flickr has built one of, if not the biggest community of photographers in the world- amateur and professional alike- and has evened the playing field across the spectrum.
Best entertainment gadget of the decade: Sky+
This was a harder choice but is one that I now feel resolved about and fully confident in saying.
I do not have Sky+ and have no love for Rupert Murdoch or his questionable media empire, except perhaps the Times (and even then it’s hit and miss). As a V+ user, however, I still find myself instructing family members to ‘Sky+’ programmes. The word has become a part of language and therefore deserves its place in gadget history.
I shiver as Rupert Murdoch wins a small victory, in my head anyway. Maybe I should have stuck with blu-ray or PS2 as originally planned? (how odd that they’re both Sony products)
Best music gadget of the decade: iPod Nano
Rupert Murdoch nearly won again, as MySpace music is (though he didn’t own it at the time) one of the defining web-based music platforms of the 2000s, launching the careers of Arctic Monkeys and several other artists.
The winner, however, lays in my beloved family of Apples. Perhaps the first generation of iPod deserves the title for doing to music what Sky+ did to TV? I never owned a first gen iPod, to my shame, though. So Nano will have to do.
Long live Apple.
Best phone gadget of the decade: Nokia 3310
Though seemingly only recently getting back to their previous sucesses, Nokia ruled the mobile phone roost for a long time.
At the age of 12 I knew Nokia was the best of the best when it came to mobile phones. I knew this with my £30, no-frills Motorola mobile purchased from Morrisons.
Why did I know this? Because at sports day, when all my Nokia-clad peers had their phones stolen, my sim card was removed and the unwanted handset placed carefully back in position.
I wanted a 3310 for so long but, in the end, it paid monetary dividends, if not social ones, not to have one when it came to high-theft areas.
THE BIG ONE: Gadget of the decade
Obviously one of the hardest decisions to make, I will have to stand by the trusty iPod.
With this one, Apple has revolutionised music forever. Brand-name MP3 players are referred to as iPods, even if they bare no resemblance. More than Sky+ it has passed over from being an everyday gadget to a part of language, which has given it the longevity necessary to continue its growth into the next decade.
That scroller navigation has become pretty iconic too.
The next generation, we have been told, come complete with video cameras. What ever next?
To have your say, leave a comment below if you agree or disagree with my choices. Don’t forget to get your vote in for all six categories too.