PC World's 100 Best Products of 2005

insensitive clod writes "PC World published its top 100 best products of 2005. These include Firefox(1), GMail(2), OSX 10.4(3), Alienware Aurora 5500(6), Seagate USB 2.0 Pocket Drive(7), Skype(8), PalmOne Treo 650(10), Google(16), PSP(19), GeForce6600GT(20), Ubuntu(26), iTunes(34), Half-Life 2(38), Wikipedia(60), ThinkPad X41(67), Mac Mini(75), Acronis True Image(83), Opera(88). Surprisingly, iPod only has IPod Photo at 78."

Comments

surprisingly?

[cryptoz]

There *are* better things out there than the iPod. How is this surprising? And when you have such a generalized list...well, you will always get strange results. What was the criteria for determining a product that would make the list?

Re:Surprisingly?

[Epsillon]

Posted at the same time, I imagine. Apparently, there are two of us who can see through the hype and recognise this set of devices for exactly what they are: Marketing tools.

Re:surprisingly?

[1u3hr]

There *are* better things out there than the iPod. How is this surprising?

Especially since it's about products of 2005; the iPod debuted in 2001.

Re:surprisingly?

[jZnat]

Well, it's still 2001 technology; it's not like the iPod has gotten much better other than slimming down and featuring more space. The iPod Photo is a step forward towards catching up with established players like the iRiver, but it's no longer "the best" as Apple has lagged behind in the feature support like decent battery life, audio formats, the ability to turn the screen and/or player off when not in use, and other internals. Back in 2001, sure, I'd place it in the top 100 (probably even top 10), but now it's outdated technology.

Re:surprisingly?

[node 3]

There *are* better things out there than the iPod. How is this surprising?

It's surprising given that the iPod usually takes a couple of slots in the top ten on lists like these.

And when you have such a generalized list...well, you will always get strange results. What was the criteria for determining a product that would make the list?

Yeah, that's just it. Why would the iPod fare lower than a hard drive? Or a Rio mp3 player?

I mean, if I were going to bet on whether an iPod or a Rio would rate higher on a "best products" list, I'd bet on the iPod. This isn't a earth-shattering surprise or anything, just a "huh, didn't expect that" sort of surprise.

Re:surprisingly?

[BasilBrush]

Which would matter if it wasn't for the fact that the other players have lagged behind in controller technology, ease of use, and integration with computer and music store. i.e. the important stuff.

Re:surprisingly?

[KanSer]

Mod me down and I will become stronger than you ever imagined.

The iPod is JUST A FUCKING MP3 PLAYER.

I'm suprised at the wide variety of products.

[keeleysam]

Over the years, PC World has becaome very toned down, and I see them only reviewing full PC's, never individual components.

To see products like:
NVidia GeForce 6600 GT Graphics Board
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ Internal Hard Drive
Plextor PX-716UF Rewritable DVD Drive
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard

That was a nice suprise, and even though I may not agree with the list, it was still interesting to see what they picked.

2005, really?

[Thantos_42]

Are we to believe that all those things came about in 2005? The wikipedia article on wikipedia, for instance, mentions that "Wikipedia began as a complement to the expert-written Nupedia on January 15, 2001. "

Re:2005, really?

[gmuslera]

Probably the date means "we wrote a review about this in 2005", maybe before 2005 they had no clue about what is the Wikipedia. You know, for them no product exist before they write a review about it.

And, of course, "best" in this case means "between all we reviewed, this is what we remember to like most", that could or not coincide with your or the rest of the world opinion or an hypotetical, objective truth.

ads

[minus_273]

why do some of these products just seem like ads? Its hard not to laugh when you come up on something like this :

"Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 Media Player" . I have no idea how media player is the best media player. The article cant explain it either. hmmm

Re:ads

[Dylan Zimmerman]

Please note that iTunes at number 34 is also marked as a Media Player. Thus, the words after the link just describe what the product is rather than saying "This is the best _______".

Also, Windows Media Player 10 is much better than some of the previous ones with respect to interface. And compatibility, too.

Goodness it's hard to say that with a straight face. I mean, come on. QuickTime 7 beats it hands down in quite a few respects (Mmm. Decent H.264), and even then, QT7 isn't the best media player out there for everything.

Product Inflation

[Mulletproof]

Um, GMail? Now I know we love google and all, but its web-based email. Admittedly, it has more storage than its competitor, but I'm still missing the part that makes it thesecond best product of 2005. Are we that hard up for products? Of course when it comes to "Top Ten" lists such as these opinions are like armpits, but web-based email? I wouldn't have put it in the top 20, to be honest with you, but that's just IMFreakinO. Number two???? Sigh.

Re:Product Inflation

[David Horn]

Sorry, I agree with the article. Gmail is the best web-based mail package hands down. I forward all my email to my Gmail account now.

Re:Product Inflation

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe I have gmail to thank for massively increased quotas on my school servers, and of course Yahoo! and Hotmail store lots more stuff now too

Raw list??

[backslashdot]

I actually clicked the link to RTFA for once. And then all I see is a list! Surely they should specify what the ranking is based on? For me, security and reliability is important. For some people, it's ease of use. And for others, it's whether the icons use cartoon characters. Free advice to PC World: put some context as to what the ranking is based on! What were the criteria? And, if the criterias didnt weigh equally let us know that too?

Re:Avant browser is better

[Maven-X]

avant?... sorry never heard of it.

i dont have time to scour the web looking for cult browsers. my point is that for mainstream browsers - part of which firefox has now become - it is clearly a crowd pleaser.

"crowd pleasing" = doesnt use gay looking icons to enable lusers to click on the correct button in the toolbar (read: internet explorer's BIG gold star favorites button, and the hugely fashionable history button with a big arrow pointing in a counter-clockwise fashion, just so people remember history means in the past).

frankly, this list sucks

[js3]

seriously, gmail #2? firefox #1? We are talking about products here, not services or stuff you like. I would have liked to see more tangible things I didn't know about like.. you know real products.

Alienware??

[Jugalator]

Why's an Alienware computer ranked so highly, even above Google?

God, that must be a hell of a computer... Or a hell of a sponsoring.