“Apple’s iPhone 3G has won a public vote to find the year’s best gadget, beating strong competition from three games consoles, a budget laptop and a balloon-shaped iPod speaker system,” Peter Griffiths reports for Reuters.
“The latest version of the mobile that combines a phone with a music and video player was chosen by readers of Stuff magazine in its annual Gadget of the Year awards,” Griffiths reports.
“The magazine described the iPhone 3G as ‘a faster, cleverer version of an already remarkable phone.’ The phone’s first incarnation, launched in Britain last year, won the coolest gadget prize at last year’s ceremony,” Griffiths reports.
“The magazine’s own gadget of the year prize, chosen by its editorial staff, went to the Asus Eee PC, a no-frills laptop that costs less than 300 pounds [US$535],” Griffiths reports. “The judges said it had made more of an impact than any other device and marked the start of a ‘laptop for everyone’ era.”
Full article here.
That’s all well and good, but Stuff’s esteemed editorial staff seems to have totally missed the fact – despite having their readers thrust it directly in their faces – that Apple’s iPhone is actually the device that made more of an impact than any other device and truly marked the start of a ‘laptop for everyone’ era. Where people have never had computers before, their first computers will be $199 Apple iPhones [or iPod touches], not stripped-down mythical “$100 laptops” or $535 Asus Eee PCs.
Does anyone even own an Eee PC?
I know a few people…. I keep asking when they can make calls and if its touch screen..
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No one I know. I saw them in Currys (UK) for £149.99 and I still wasn’t interested. Looks too cheap.
Wow I’ve been so wrong about who is the leading innovator in personal computers. I’m giving away my MacBook Pro and iMac to the kid down the street and buyin me one o them EEE PC 4G Surfs. Woweeee.
Nope not really. I still like my Macs. Stuff hasn’t changed my mind. They did give the Design Award to the Air though.
I have an EeePC.
For something so cheap it’s pretty solidly built and if all you want is something to chuck in your bag to do email and web surfing on holiday, it’s great. And I think it is beyond dispute that the Asus has kicked started a whole new sector of the PC market.
I don’t have an iPhone, much as I’d love one, because it’s not available on my network and the cost of canceling my contract is prohibitive.
Stuff? Hahah. They don’t have objectivity at all. They probably put it at the top cause ASUS sent pictures of boobies in the box.
O)(O
It would seem that poor Peter Griffiths lived a childhood deprived of clowns, circuses, birthday parties, and balloons. Otherwise, he’d know that the B&W;iPod speaker looks NOTHING like a balloon. A zeppelin… yes. Balloon? No.
Sizewise the Eee is great – Apple: yes please!
Otherwise I agree with the readers’ opinion.
And btw a Zeppelin is not a balloon – it’s a dirigible airship. The B&W;version sounds terrific, though I’d still like a pair of satellites (now they could be balloons!) to spread out the stereo for a bigger, wider, nicer effect.
@ MDN – Where people have never had computers before, their first computers will be $199 Apple iPhones [or iPod touches].
Can you use iPhones without owing computers? I thought you needed a computer to run features on the iPhone, like iTunes for music, videos, and software updates?
JAYGEE,
The world is not a static place. People who think statically are the problem, not the solution. MDN is obviously correct. And iPhone can access and install apps all by itself. Try to keep up, okay?
@ steve
Can you install software updates, install music, without a computer?
Asus stole the idea from OLPC and then sold the idea to Linux hardcores and then turned around and pushed for a XP model. A laptop for everyone (in the Western world) is already pretty much fact even before Eee came out. Stuff editors need to wake up from 1990s. Windows XP – gadget of the year? ‘Nough said.
JAYGEE,
Static thinkers think nothing changes, but iPhones change all the time. Even 1st-gen iPhones can do much more today than they could upon release.
Do you really think that iPhones will always require computers? If so, you haven’t been paying attention at all.
MDN is correct. You are wrong and seem to have zero imagination.
@ steve
And you haven’t yet answered my question
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iPhones may not need computers in the future, but they do now.
Nice!
( @ )( @ )
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yeah, but do computers need iphones?
i think so.. if not, who would they sync the music and movies to? and what portable device would they update?
the computer NEEDS the iphone…
@ JAYGEE
WOOOO YEAH!
Why did they drop the W from the end of the model name?
Oh yeah, and . . .
(*) (*)
As futuristic as MDN’s take is, it just isn’t relevant. The Stuff magazine has made a decision for this year; not for some year in the future. Today, neither iPhone, not iPod Touch can exist withouth having been hooked up to a personal computer first. Even if they don’t want to sync their music, get their updates or backup the data, they still MUST be connected to some computer before they can begin to work. To say that they will be the first computing device for many who haven’t had one is simply not true today. Possibly in the future; however, we can’t know what kind of iPod/iPhone it will be. By then, the product may be entirely different. And by then, EeePC will also have evolved/gone extinct (one way or the other). At this moment, neither of the two Apple mobiile devices can properly work without at least having been connected once to a computer.
JAYGEE is right; Steve is wrong.
@macuser_e7
“I don’t have an iPhone, much as I’d love one, because it’s not available on my network and the cost of canceling my contract is prohibitive.”
Do what I did. Put an ad in Craigslist for my LG phone and take over my 1 year remaining family plan contract with AllTel. Only my ad offered to give them the LG and a RAZR and pay their 1st month’s basic rate ($70 I think it was). “Sold” in 1 day. Beats paying $400 to escape my contract.
There are several sites out there that allow you to transfer unused part of your contract to someone else who may want a free or cheap phone with a short contract. They help people find each other and take some symbolic commission for the service. A 10-second Google search yileded this:
http://www.cellswapper.com/
http://www.celltradeusa.com/
I’m sure there are others. Basically, a contract lock-in is not an excuse for not getting an iPhone.
WTF is an Eee Pee Cee?
Never heard of it.
So much for impact LOL
You have to recognise that Stuff magazine is one of the most lightweight publications available. Their editorial staff are of a very low quality and the most generous description of their approach to product coverage is … superficial and childish. If you wanted to read a magazine that gave you hard, product information that was useful and trustworthy, Stuff is the last place to look. This is a magazine that has truly childish copy and its staff are unashamed whores entirely devoted to the advertising buck rather than editorial integrity and serving its readers reasonable expectations. I have never bought a copy after looking through one at an airport bookstall. My view is that anyone who reads it is by definition a gullible fool with zero expectations of a quality read.
So you expected good judgement? I deduce that you do not read it either. Well done. I look forward to the day that internet news sources such as your site put rags like Stuff out of business. It is landfill before it ever goes on sale.
Chano, tells us how you <u>really</u> feel!