I have been thinking back through the various technology news stories, gadgets, and industry events that have occurred in 2008 - trying to make sense of what had the most impact on me personally.
In no particular order, these seem to be the main events for me;
I acquired an iPhone, and have begun to depend on it far more than any phone I have owned previously. Much of the dependence was based on the many hours I spent commuting in 2008 - it remains to be seen how my use of it may chance now that is no longer the case.
I acquired an ASUS 701 EEE PC. The little 7C/3 screen model, with tiny keyboard. Intended to assist me in mobile commuting aboard packed trains, it’s pathetic battery life crippled it - and consigned it to a life living on worktops around the house.
Later in the year I acquired an ASUS 1000H EEE PC. Virtually every failing of it’s smaller forebears were resolved, and it rapidly became my main emailing, twittering, blogging, and web surfing platform. The battery life (thanks to the atom processor) slaughtered everything except the mighty Macbook.
Our Macbook - stalwart of my other half’s online existence at Etsy, Knitty and Ravelry - began to fall apart in 2008, and is due a visit to the Apple Store to be renewed courtesy of Apple Care some time soon. The case is cracked in several places, and the battery is as dead as a doornail. Contrary to popular belief, Leopard is slowing on it too.
A Nintendo Wii finally arrived in our home, and has been played with endlessly by our children, and sworn at endlessly by their Dad who still cannot figure out how to reliably score strikes in the bowling game.
The Nintendo DS that lives in my bag continued to work faultlessly. Built like a tank, it lasts ages on a charge, and shows no signs of fatigue at all. Tetris got played more than any other game all year.
I purchased several external hard drives in order to backup the gargantuan amounts of data we now hold. The falling prices of external storage made multiple drives a realistic proposition this year - helped hugely by Acronis True Image.
So which item do I choose as the most significant of the year? Probably the ASUS EEE 1000H. It has performed faultlessly all year, and has been hammered. The surprise on colleagues faces when they see Windows Server 2003 running within VMWare Player on it is entertaining to say the least.
It should come as no surprise that this blog post was written on the EEE PC either.
What gadget, website, or technology news made the most impact on you this year?