Gadgets galore

The year 2008 was a memorable one for techies as many outstanding products officially made it to our shores, with a few notable exceptions.

Possibly one of the most highly anticipated tech products in the market, the Apple iPhone was released in 2007 and quickly became one of the fastest selling smartphones in the United States.

The iPhone features one of the most interesting and intuitive interfaces for any touch-enabled device, offering something Apple calls “multi touch,” a multi-finger aware screen that recognises a user’s gestures and allows for ­navigation the likes of which have only been seen in science-fiction movies like Minority Report.

Last year, Apple followed up with the iPhone 3G, a redesigned iPhone with support for 3G networks, with the added bonus of built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) and mapping services.

Unfortunately for Malaysians, the iPhone is not yet available, but ­luckily, if you want some of that ­multi touch love, you can get the Apple iPod touch, which is ­essentially the same product, but without the phone features built in.

The iPod touch, like the iPhone, comes with WiFi for connection to wireless networks, and a mobile web browser that is second to none in terms of usability.

Of course, being an iPod, the device is also a great music and movie player, and even comes with the ability to install more applications to extend its functionality.

Game consoles

This year is quite a milestone for the Sony PlayStation3 and the Nintendo Wii, two of the most highly-­anticipated videogame consoles on the market (the other being the Microsoft Xbox 360).

Being the number one selling console globally, the Wii was the first system to be released in the Malaysian market.

Though it doesn’t feature high-definition graphics nor even DVD movie playback, the Wii is popular for the simple reason that it offers an exciting and original new way of controlling games using a Wiimote and a Nanchuk, a two-part ­controller with motion and position sensors built in.

Doesn’t sound interesting? Well, Nintendo’s bundled game, Wii Sports, showed just how powerful and innovative the controllers can be — the bowling game, for example, allows a player to hold the Wiimote and swing it as if actually holding a bowling ball, while the golf game has the player holding the controller and swinging it like a real golf club.

This level of interactivity

has caught the world by storm — the Wii is the bestselling console by a wide margin in many countries, including the United States and Japan, and has proved popular with casual gamers of all ages.

In fact, the Wii’s style of ­interactive gameplay is also being used in some hospitals as a ­physiotherapy aid that’s not only effective but also fun.

These games and a much lower price than any other game console in the market, have made the Wii a bestseller.

Coming in second in the console wars is the PlayStation3 and the reason it’s popular is twofold — for one thing, it’s truly a next-generation game console that supports high-definition graphics which look phenomenal on the latest HDTVs.

Second, it comes with a Blu-ray drive capable of playing back the latest high-definition movies and it’s still one of the cheapest Blu-ray players available in the market.

Netbooks

About two years ago, if you wanted to buy a small, portable notebook computer with a 12in screen or smaller, you’d actually have to be prepared to pay upwards of RM4,000 for one.

Well, that was until Taiwan company Asus introduced the Eee PC, a small ultra-portable notebook computer with a 7in screen capable of performing most common computing tasks.

The amazing thing about the original Eee PC was not the specifications, however — what made it an immediate hit was that it cost only RM1,299.

The Eee PC eventually went on to sell over a million units worldwide and most importantly, launched a whole new category of notebooks, called the mini notebook or netbook.

In 2008, the entire netbook category was in full swing, with all the major players launching a version of the netbook — Hewlett-Packard, Acer, MSI and Lenovo, just to name a few, all at sub-RM2,000 prices.

Of course, Asus being the ­innovator, did not sit on its laurels, and launched a plethora of Eee-branded products in a variety of form factors — from 9in and 10in screen notebooks to the Eee Box, a compact desktop computer which is so small it can be ­mounted on the back of a monitor or HDTV.

Today, thanks to Asus and its competitors in the netbook market, almost anyone who wants a ­notebook for less demanding tasks like web surfing and word ­processing can buy one, at a price that won’t break the bank.