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This article was published on December 23, 2009

The Next Web’s favorite gadgets and software of 2009!


The Next Web’s favorite gadgets and software of 2009!

funny-santa-posey-graphicIt’s that time of the year again!

So, you’re running out of everything; time, patience, money and traffic isn’t helping. You’ve tried Amazon and now you’re on ebay following some last minute items for yourself or your fellow geek family member. Despair no more, the elves at TheNextWeb Xmas warehouse, have put together valuable information to help you out on this last-minute-you’re-doomed quest. It’s not only gadgets, it’s what we think it’s cool to have this Xmas and it could be even software.

List after the jump!

zune_hdHere’s the list of (nearly all) The Next Web writers favorite stuff of 2009, enjohy.

  • Alex Willhelm: Zune HD, an amazing device, and by far the best PMP that has ever existed. It’s firmware, heft, and weight are stunning. A must buy for the holidays.
  • spotify1James Glick: Spotify for Mobile/Desktop. With the ability not only to sync playlists across a range of mobile devices and platforms, you can also make use of the useful offline mode which completes it as a music service for all environments and situations. It’s replaced iTunes for me and Spotify Premium is a must have this Christmas.
  • sonosFawzi Rahal: Sonos audio system, the best multi-room audio solution by far. Great audio quality and great features. Controllable from anywhere.. iPhone, Mac, PC, Blackberry… No wires, no hassle. Streams digital audio and radio, live input and even Audible files. And it works great with huge libraries!
  • Regina Walton: DOTS Gloves – not an app but a product. Basically, a pair of gloves for people with touch dots_glovesdevices like smart phones. You can control the device and keep your DOT gloves on. This is HUGE if you live in a cold climate like NYC, where I am, or Seoul, where i used to live.
  • Zee: Hypermac. External battery for the mac. While it’s bullshit that it lasts 16+ hours, ithypermac does last around 7 hours if used as described and that makes it possible for me to literally work from wherever I please rather than the corner of some coffee shop because that’s the only place that has an adaptor.
  • Martin Bryant: It’s got to be the Kodak Zi8. So much better than the hyped Flip family. The Zi8 has a replaceable, rechargeable battery and takes SDHC cards meaning you’ll kodak_zi8never run out of battery life and storage space as long as you take spares. Creating high-quality 720p HD video that can be uploaded straight to Youtube, this is the best pocket HD cam I’ve tried.
  • Kristin: Pixelmator. Hands down the best image editor for Mac, aside from Photoshop. At just $60 per license you get the world’s first GPU-powered image editor – so it allows you better multi-tasking. It also has graphics drawing tablet support and harnesses the full power of OS X, including Core Image and Automator.
  • Lucas Englehardt: Skitch for Mac – My favorite program for screen shots and sharing images. Amazing how often I use something so simple. Has a unique UI skitchthat’s easy to use and just the basic features you need. Best of all it’s free as it’s still in beta.
  • Aleks Grynis: Uncommon Capsule Cases – Fully customizable iPhone cases; $40 – won’t harm ur wallet
  • Tim Difford: I’d like to go for the Mikey from Blue. It’s an integrated stereo speaker/microphone for iPods, but it also works with the iPhone. The speaker isn’t up to much but the microphone comes into its own when partnered with AudioBoo. I was struggling to capture undistorted sound at gigs using AudioBoo. Following mikey_from_blueAudioBoo CEO @markrock ‘s recommendation I picked up a Mikey which has three settings so that you can be assured of clear, quality audio in ordinary situations, very noisy environments (e.g. gigs), or very quiet environments (e.g. lectures). I love it.
  • Vitor Domingos: MiFi to end all 3G dongles. “The world’s first Intelligent Mobile Hotspot”
  • Picture 7Vidyesh Modey: Drobo S – The easiest way to add extra hard drives without disturbing your default arrnagement making it easy to add storage. In addition to fast eSATA, Drobo S features enhanced FireWire 800 performance and USB 2.0 connectivity. And ofcourse Sonos audio system posted by Fawzi. A must have.
  • Mike Bracco: Omnifocus for Mac and iPhone. A great app built by The Omni Group, one of the Mac’s most popular developers. The app manages my projects and tasks with ease and syncs seamlessly between my Mac and iPhone. It’s a little pricey but it packs a ton of features based on the GTD method of time management. An app I could truly not live without.
  • Picture 8Ralf Rottmann: Livescribe Pulse SmartPen. If you (have to) attend lots of meetings the Pulse SmartPen is a fantastic tool to keep track of everything that’s been said and magically keep it in sync with your meeting minutes. The hand writing recognition works like a charm (even with German notes) and provides a full text index to your hand written notes!
  • Picture 10Jamie Riddell:  My one is the Amazon UK app for iPhone. As a regular shopper on Amazon, this app enables me to search and buy from wherever I am. Particularly handy is the one click purchase on the app which enables me to spend far too much on impulse purchases. The killer function though, is the reminders function. Harnessing the iPhone camera, the reminders function allows you to take a picture of anything and everything and it will try and match it with the same or similar product on the Amazon database.


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