The Best of '05

A bantam ballad for some products that stood out and stood tall.

There are no birds in last year’s nests. 2005 is consigned to memory. And technological evolution lumbers on… Looming large over the coming year are 64-bit computing, Windows Vista, Voice over Internet Protocol, Web 2.0 and more wirelessness. Yet, even as we plunge ahead, it is time to take a bow and belt out a bantam ballad for some products that stood out and stood tall.


Apple Video iPod
The most eye-popping introduction with the biggest WOW factor in recent memory has been the Apple iPod. Okay, to be specific there’s the iPod Shuffle, there’s the Nano, and there’s the Video iPod. First it did music. Then it did photos. Then came podcasts. And finally video. Hailed worldwide as a triumph of design and functionality, the king of ring video iPod can cram almost 15,000 songs, 25,000 full-colour photos, and hold-your-breath 150 hours of video into its petite, 60 GB frame.

It holds enough juice to strut its stuff for 20 hours without dying out on you. Apart from carrying your music, it can serve as a mobile library of audio books, audio and video podcasts, and music videos. You can also consult your calendar and check the time in another part of the world. And even clock how late your boy/girl friend shows up for a stare-long-and-deep-into-your-eyes-kinda-date.
www.apple.com


Nokia N90
It has been one of the hottest wanna-haves of year. It is one of the highest-quality camera phones on the Blue Planet with a 2-megapixel CMOS digital camera with flash and 8X digital zoom, MPEG-4 video-capture capabilities, and separate lens and display swivels. It is EDGE capable and it has an RS-MMC external memory slot. Plus, it features an MP3 player, is PictBridge compatible, Bluetooth-ready, and offers USB connectivity. And oh, it also does e-mail. Meet the Nokia N90.

After the initial elation settles you find it a tad big and heavy to lug, low on integrated memory, sans stereo speakers and short on gab time capabilities. And then, at Rs.35,000 this clam shell sure pinches your piggy bank’s butt. But its still the hottest wanna-have. Psst, wait till you see the N91…
www.nokia-asia.com


Google Earth
If you ain’t seen this, you’ve missed something. Beautifully designed, informative, powerful, awesome satellite imagery. For free. Google Earth literally brings this planet's to your desktop by letting you fly from space to anywhere on the planet. You can view virtually any places on this Dharti—the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall, India Gate, even your old school and your current house! The cockpit controls give you an impression of flying over the earth’s terrain. You can zoom in/out, tilt, turn, bookmark specific locations on the map, and even “drive“ along the road at will... Google Earth is a 3D app that needs a lot of RAM. So if you comp can’t run it, upgrade. For you’ll be smitten.


MailNation
Mama told me, don't be talking to no strangers, but dil ko chura ke le gaya ek ajnabee... While we were still feeling smug and smirky about our 3GB Gmail accounts, newbie MailNation has crept sliently out of the woodwork to offer a whopping 1,000 GB of FREE e-mail space! That's right, one bloody terabyte of ad-free Web/POP3/IMAP e-mail—replete with all the usual bells and whistles that Hotmail and Yahoo! offer. Account mangta kya? Go www.mailglobal.net and say mama mia!

Catchya next year!