The editors of PCWorld have ranked the best PCs, HDTVs, components, sites, and services of 2007 and listed the products they’re looking forward to in ‘08. Here are the top 10:

1. Google Apps Premier Edition. I wasn’t surprised - hosting core applications on Google’s servers rather than on users’ makes sense, and the number of initial clients shows that it’s likely to enjoy continued acceptance.

2. Intel Core 2 Duo. Again, no surprise here. Intel is producing some great “new generation” chip sets these days and the things lined up for introduction are amazing.

3. Nintendo Wii. I haven’t used one of these but the ads make it look fun!

4. Verizon FiOS.

5. RIM Blackberry 8800. Great smartphone with peripherals.

6. Parallels Desktop. Allows Mac users to run - not emulate - Windows. Works better than on PCs in some cases!

7. Pioneer Elite 1080p PRO-FHD1.

8. Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV.

9. Apple Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”. A great operating system made even better with the latest release.

10. Adobe Premiere Elements 3. Long missing from the landscape, Premiere has reestablished itself as a player in video production.

Two things I found particularly telling after reading the list: First, no where is there any mention of Microsoft’s premiere operating system, Windows Vista! Apple’s OSX Tiger and the Canonical Ubuntu 7.04 operating systems came in at numbers 9 and 16 respectively, but Vista failed to make the cut! I’m sure Vista fans will cry foul, but PCWorld is highly respected in the industry…

And second, that Google Apps Premier Edition won the “Product of the Year” crown. Microsoft may still be the ten-ton hippo of office applications, but for the majority of us that rarely require such a bloated, albeit feature rich, office suite, Google Apps is looking like a no-brainer.

This nifty demo runs through the basics of My Location, a new service from Google now officially in Beta. Announced yesterday, it allows you to use Google Maps without having to type in your present location. If you have GPS, it immediately identifies your position. No GPS on your cell phone? Google triangulates your location based on nearby cell towers. This is a cool tool given that fewer than twenty percent of mobile phones have GPS (including Apple’s present iPhone!)

Or week? We’ve all had them, some worse than others. But it’s how we handle them that separates the ass-kissers from the “I’m not going to take it anymore” ass-kickers who would apparently prefer unemployment and maybe a little hard time to putting up with… Well, give this compilation a watch. You’ve probably seen some of the clips, but together, they’re a work of art.

There. Feel better?

Pittsburgh blogger Justine Ezarik received her first iPhone bill from AT&T — all 300 pages of it — delivered in a box. So she made a video and posted it on YouTube and a few other video posting sites. Almost immediately, the video “went viral” with more than 200,000 views…

Like many others, I suspect, I was alarmed; I didn’t think we’d received our AT&T iPhone bill and wondered if we should expect a similar surprise-in-a-box. Well, after seeing Justine interviewed on TV (yes, her video landed her an interview) I think we’re safe. Turns out she’s a heavy text messager, with 30,000 texts on AT&T alone. And she receives cellphone billing detail which accounts for all the pages. In AT&T’s defense, customers can request billing without detail, and there’s even an option to receive e-bills (pdf files via email) instead. But since most adults use text messaging more sparingly, I think the video is much ado about nothing, although it’s certainly garnered Ms. Ezarik a lot of media buzz.

Billed as the ultimate anti-theft device for your iPod or iPhone, Hide-a-Pod is a modified Zune case, gutted and hinged in order to conceal your iGadgets.

Welcome to the Anti-Social

You made a smart choice in choosing an iPod. And now you can protect it from theft and still enjoy using it in public with the new Hide-a-Pod anti-theft case.

It’s really very simple. Just tell us what iPod model you want to protect and we provide a gutted and hinged Zune with our custom molded iPod casing adapter. We also include a custom cable from the Zune’s controls (see FAQ) and audio output jack that you simply plug into your iPod. No iPod modifications are necessary.

The idea isn’t entirely a new one. People have used ugly “covers” for years to disguise their fashionable leather luggage and protect it from would-be thieves in airports. I’ve used them myself. So it was only a matter of time before someone provided a way to keep sticky hands from your iPods and iPhones — by making them look like Zunes!

Okay, let me come clean; there isn’t really such a product. It’s just another “joke” website aimed at poking a little fun at Microsoft, the idea being that, while iPods are thief-magnets, the Zune is a big brown box which nobody wants. Had ya’ going for a minute, though, didn’t I? It’s a working site with some pretty funny sections. Go ahead and explore.

*iPod and iPhone are registered trademarks of Apple and Zune is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Hide-a-Pod is not associated with them in any way. This is all just a big gag and you couldn’t order a Hide-a-Pod if you wanted to. So there. (But check out the T-shirt!)

Those who become exhausted just thinking about the myriad features offered on Apple’s new iPhone (internet devise, iPod, video player and more) might want to consider the Media Skin. Conceived by young Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka, the minimalist mobile phone sports the same svelte proportions as the iPhone but with few type-A add-ons, making it a welcome technological regression for the technologically challenged.

Although the Media Skin was recently featured in Departures Magazine, it’s actually been around for a couple years. Maybe it’s enjoying a renewed marketing push in response to the success of Apple’s iPhone…

Arden Faire Mall is just up the street from our office so, Friday after work, Dawn and I dropped by the Apple Store to see how the scheduled 6 PM official release of the iPhone was progressing. Sure enough, the “eagers” were gathered en masse, some having claimed their spaces in line the day before. The line stretched as far as I could see, well beyond Macy’s and, as the bewitching hour approached, I thought I’d capture a couple of photos. Enter the white-polo-shirted Apple rent-a-security-guy.

As I raised Dawn’s new pocket Canon to snap a photo of the front outside window of the store, I was accosted by the a.r.s.g telling me I couldn’t take any photos before 6PM. I politely reminded him that I was in a public place, the mall for crissake, and that neither he nor Apple could prevent me from taking pictures outside the store. Wrong thing to say to a rent-a-security-guy, I guess. He said that while that might be true, he would simply block my shot. I called him an ass and pointed my camera at the crowd. Once he became bored and moved on, we took our window shot.

The mall manager witnessed the scene and came over to profusely apologize and to assure me that I could take pictures anywhere in the mall, that it was Apple causing the problem. He gave me his business card and I thanked him for his concern.

Following a countdown that rivaled a space shuttle launch, with Channel 3 capturing the event for their news broadcast, the doors opened and Apple employees began metering the number of fans entering the store. I chatted with one happy buyer, Josh, who told me that he’d been in line 18 hours (since midnight) to get his iPhone. He was number 16 in line.

Now, I fully expected eBay to be inundated with marked up iPhones almost immediately. It was. About the only thing that would have had me standing in line for more than, say, an hour would have been the prospect of a huge payoff. And since Apple wisely limited iPhone sales to two per customer, the potential for a really big eBay killing, at least for me, wasn’t there.

Dawn and I were at the mall the following day and stopped by the Apple Store in the hopes of perhaps seeing - and handling - the new uber gadget. The store was crowded but we quickly sidled up to a pair of iPhones and fiddled to our hearts’ content. I’m not so good with crowds (crowdophobic?) so I went outside and struck up a conversation with a guy who’d been in Friday’s line for 12 hours and had returned to buy some accessories (an adapter so he could use alternative earphones - Apple uses a non-standard plug on their earpods - and an acrylic case.) While we chatted, Dawn emerged from the store, a new iPhone in hand! Seems she liked what she saw and, since they still had them in stock, bought one! She amazes me!

Fanboy issues aside, this single device, along with the campaign behind its launch, has again opened my eyes to what can be accomplished with an amazingly intuitive user interface and a terrific marketing plan. Beginning with the bag, the packaging detail is a work of art. And coupled with the intuitive interface and the clever ad campaign, there is absolutely no learning curve. When you pick it up, you can use it. I suspect one of these will join the Cube at the NY MOMA.

Of course, we still have to activate it and I understand there may be some issues doing so. And I’ll, of course, have to upgrade my aging Mac (Damn!) to synch with it…

Michael sent this clever parody by Sarcastic Gamer of Microsoft’s announced Surface computer, a table featuring a 30-inch multi-touch display, much like the one Jeff Han introduced at TED 2006 only running Windows Vista. It reminds me of the old Pac-Man table video games that used to proliferate cocktail lounges. The parody is pretty funny. Microsoft plans to release the Surface in the winter of 2007 for an estimated $10,000…

Touchscreen technology in various forms has been around for years but only recently has anyone matched it to practical applications. Jeff Han and his company,  Perceptive Pixel,  are producing (and shipping) a wall-mounted unit, the latest version of which consists of two 8’X3’ panels that, for my money (if I had any), offers a more useful form factor and more advanced technology. You can watch a three minute video presentation of their offering here. And there’s a great article in the February issue of Fast Company about Jeff Han, the inventor, and his vision for the technology here.  

The evolving technology is mind boggling. And we’ll be the beneficiaries. The future looks exciting!

D (D5 - All things Digital, The WSJ Executive Conference) is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. And a highlight this year was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates interacting on the same stage for the first time in 20 years.

You can read about the entire event on the D5 website which includes video footage, photos and more.

YouTube also has most of the Gates-Jobs footage posted in several clips, one of which follows below:

Read the various speakers’ presentations and transcripts to get an idea of what’s coming in the world of technology inovation. Watch all the Gates-Jobs clips if you’re a fan with time on your hands.

Michael alerted me to this CBS news clip (Pardon the preceding ads):

Of course, the inconvenience of wearing Latex gloves to use it may prove problematic. But I’m sure the guys at Sony will work that out…

I’ve been corresponding recently with Adam Richardson, Strategy Director at Palo Alto based   frog design. Turns out he worked for a startup company called Infogear in the late 90s and was part of the team that designed its first product, a desktop phone/email/web affair with a VGA black and white touch screen, a speedy 56k modem and a slide-out keyboard.

Like quite a few PC/phone/appliance gadgets (Webphones) at the time, it seemed a good idea but ultimately collapsed under the weight of high cost relative to rapidly falling prices of full-blown PC’s that did a lot more. Infogear struggled and was ultimately acquired by Cisco Systems in 2000. With it, Cisco inherited the trademark on the devise’s name: iPhone. 

So now you know how Cisco ended up with the iPhone trademark or, as the saying goes, “the rest of the story.” 

I suppose you could say this is number 16, but it’s really no surprise. Cisco Systems is suing Apple Inc. in federal court for trademark infringement over the naming of Apple’s new “iPhone”, Cisco announced in a press release Wednesday. Cisco has held the trademark on the name “iPhone” since 2000. According to this CNN report, the company is seeking an injunction preventing Apple from using the “iPhone” name.

Some are speculating that Cisco obtained the trademark amid the flurry of rumors of a forthcoming Apple iPhone in order to muscle some money out of Apple. After all, most folks have been discussing a possible “iPhone” from Apple for years and most, including the media, had already dubbed it the “iPhone” knowing that Apple likes to use the “i” designation on many of its products. And indeed, Steve Jobs has been trying to “buy” it from Cisco for some time.

Anyway, amid speculation that Apple would announce an iPhone during Tuesday’s keynote address at Macworld, Cisco announced another VoIP telephone devise three weeks ago and dubbed it “iPhone.” And since Apple didn’t accept Cisco’s offer to sell the name before Tuesday’s announcement, Cisco is seeking an injunction barring Apple from using it.

Apple believes Cisco’s trademark is “tenuous at best”, that Cisco’s product and Apple’s are sufficiently different (VoIP v. cell phone) to negate trademark protection against Apple’s use. Cisco argues they might decide down the line to produce a cell phone. (Not likely, but they clearly want to show similarity.) Without knowing how the “product” was described in Cisco’s trademark application, I can’t say either way. However, it’s likely that the trademark application would have been denied had it been overly broad, i.e. “any phone-like thingy or service.” So we’ll just have to see how it all works out.

Cisco, of course, has a bundle of cash on hand so they can certainly afford to pursue the matter although I can’t imagine why they would care to. Jobs, I suspect, would pay a reasonable amount in order to avoid protracted litigation so, if Cisco is reasonable, they still might strike a deal. Meanwhile, I guess the game is afoot. 

Here’s a tip from Ami at Cool Hunting: Capitalizing on the loophole that lets most mobile users out of unwanted or unneeded contracts by transferring them to someone else, a new online service called Cellswapper allows cell users who want to abandon their current cellular plan to offer it on the new site it to others looking to pick up a short-term plan. To provide the win-win exchange (neither party has to pay a fee for starting or canceling service) Cellswapper uses a Transfer Tracking system to keep users informed about the exchange and helps facilitate the legal transfer. For users hoping to ditch non-Cingular contracts in order to sign up for a multi-year exclusive deal with Cingular for the recently announced Apple iPhone , Cellswapper may be a viable solution.

              Click to enlargeMacworld kicked off this morning at Mosconi Center with Steve Jobs’ much anticipated keynote address focusing almost entirely on iPhone and, to a lesser degree, iTV. The next several months will likely provide additional product announcements… But iPhone? That’s pretty big news. Here’s the link to watch either (1) the entire keynote address, or (2) just the segment introducing the iPhone.  Comments Cisco? 

More about the new Apple iPhone: There are no click wheel or navigation buttons;  it’s all touchpad controlled and is filled with everything from your music, photos, movies, podcasts, the internet, email, contacts, calendar… and a 2mp camera. It runs on an abbrebviated version of Mac OSX so it functions much like a desktop Mac including Safari HTML browser (with tabbed browsing and full html views of websites including images), Google Maps and Widgets. A 3.5” widescreen monitor features Apple’s highest resolution yet, 161 ppi.

The new Apple TV devise is a set top unit that wirelessly syncs with your Mac or PC, then streams movies, photos, music, podcasts, slideshows etc from your computer(s) to your wide-screen TV in HD.

Definitely “outside the box.” Engadget has more details and photos from the keynote.