As 2009 winds down and we try to come up with new and clever ways of referring to the early years of this century, there’s really only one thing left to do: declare our ten favorite gadgets of the aughts and show them off in chronological order. It’s arguable that if this wasn’t the decade of gadgets, it was certainly a decade shaped by gadgets — one which saw the birth of a new kind of connectedness. In just ten years time, gadgets have touched almost every aspect of our daily lives, and personal technology has come into its own in a way never before seen. It’s a decade that’s been marked the ubiquity of the internet, the downfall of the desktop, and the series finale of Friends, but we’ve boiled it down to the ten devices we’ve loved the most and worked the hardest over the past ten years. We even had some of our friends in the tech community chime in with their picks on what they thought was the gadget or tech of the decade — so join us for a look back at the best (gadget) years ever!

Continue reading Ten gadgets that defined the decade

Ten gadgets that defined the decade originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And what do we have here? HTC’s Russian contingent has been rather forthcoming with its Windows Mobile 7 plans this morning, which will please HD2 owners but disappoint many others. The good news is that HTC’s flagship WinMo handset is assured of getting Microsoft’s finest when it comes out, but the bad news is that the rest of the line will remain stuck at version 6.5 or below. Here’s the tweet in the Queen’s own tongue:

For Diamond 2 firmware is not planned. Of the existing communicators on the market, only the HD2 firmware to get WM7.

Keep in mind it’s still possible, though not altogether probable, that this statement refers only to the Russian market. In either case, if you were holding out hope for your Touch Pro 2 or Snap to keep updating all the way to 7, it seems the odds are now officially stacked against you.

HTC Russia says HD2 will get Windows Mobile 7 upgrade, but other ‘communicators’ won’t originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Having only recently marked its return to the handheld computing space with the iPAQ Glisten, HP seems intent on forging ahead with more hardware in the coming year. The above trademark applications — filed in September and October 2009 — mark out some very broad categories, but we can narrow them down a little with the help of some context. Given all the industry excitement over tablet devices, the Zeen could well be the name of a forthcoming slate-shaped machine and accompanying software, while Airlife seems to be planted firmly in the smartphone arena. The moniker suggests a software ecosystem rather than actual hardware, but that would make little sense with just one handset out there; if we were the betting type (and believe us, we aren’t), we’d probably expect to see more mobiles coming from the computing giant in order to take advantage. Of course, companies don’t always follow through on trademark applications, but it sure seems as if HP is casting a wary eye over the burgeoning handheld market (and / or planning to not get left behind in the months ahead).

HP files for ‘Zeen’ and ‘Airlife’ trademarks for handheld devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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