The 100 Best Products of 2008

This year's tech gems—including the iPhone, Eye-Fi, Flock and Facebook—will leave you more productive, connected, and entertained.

By Mark Sullivan

PAGE 2

The 100 Best Products, Numbers 2 through 10

Apple iPhone

2. Apple iPhone (smart phone, $400 with two-year AT&T wireless contract) Rarely have handsome industrial design and breakthrough technology (including the supercool multitouch interface and visual voicemail) mated so happily as in the iPhone—and the rest is history. Review | Check prices

Facebook

3. Facebook (online social network, free) Facebook is a very popular way to stay in touch your friends' status, photos, plans, events, and more. But it lands at number 3 on our list because the application development platform it created last year is beginning to spawn some truly useful third-party-developed tools. Site

Windows XP

4. Microsoft Windows XP (operating system, not sold separately) It has been discontinued except as an option for certain low-end PCs, but XP is leaner, meaner, and less bloated than Vista. Despite the outcry from users, however, at press time Microsoft still planned to retire the OS on June 30, 2008. Review | Check prices

Lenovo ThinkPad X300

5. Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (ultraportable laptop, $2500) As everyone swooned over Apple's hot Air, Lenovo snuck in the back door with a business-centric notebook that answers most of the Air's shortcomings. It has processing power to burn, plenty of ports—and a paper-thin optical drive. Stick that in your manila envelope, Steve. Review | Check prices

Flock

6. Flock (browser, free) Sick of having to surf to all your favorite sites and services? Flock integrates Facebook updates, Twitter feeds, YouTube videos, Flickr photo streams, Gmail and Yahoo Mail, and blogging tools into a single navigation (and browsing) interface. Review | Download

Eye-Fi

7. Eye-Fi (wireless camera memory card, $100) The 2GB Eye-Fi card converts any digital camera's Secure Digital slot into a Wi-Fi-enabled device, so you can upload photos directly from your camera to your PC or to sites like Flickr. Review | Check prices

Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1
Photograph: Marc Simon

8. Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 (digital camera, $1000) The 6-megapixel EX-F1 captures video at up to 1200 frames per second at its lowest image-quality setting and shoots full-resolution (1920-by-1080-pixel) images at 60 fps. Video review

Rock Band

9. Harmonix Rock Band (game bundle, $170) All you need is your PS3, Xbox 360, or Wii to get the band back together. Really, Rock Band is Guitar Hero times four: It puts you on tour as a guitarist, singer, or drummer. Video review | Check prices

wikipedia

10. Wikipedia (open-source encyclopedia, free) This online trove of information has more than 1.6 million volunteer-contributed articles on everything from Britney to biochemistry. It becomes more credible and reliable as more people check and edit the entries. Site

products

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Mobile MarketSpace
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Check out this research note from IDC for guidance. Learn more »
The Continued Evolution of Wireless Mobility
Learn about the two leading 4G technologies, the current status of deployed 4G networks, and how to manage long-term 4G costs Learn more »
Thinking About Deploying Mobile Broadband?
Explore lessons and best practices experienced by companies that have deployed mobile broadband to their workforce. Learn more »
Improving Healthcare Delivery with Role-Enabled Communications
Today, more healthcare IT organizations than ever are interested in implementing UC applications in a planned, cost effective manner. In order to meet their tremendous potential for improved healthcare delivery requires far more than UC; it requires role-enabled communications. Learn more »
Mobility Enables True Unified Communications
Deploying UC in conjunction with a mobility solution can increase employee productivity and improve customer service enabling workers to more easily collaborate from disparate locations. Learn more »
Making Consumer TwoFactor Authentication Cost-Effective
Offering your customers the security of two-factor authentication can help you boost your online business. Learn more »
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Get a high level of security with minimal user impact. Learn more »
 
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