As 2010 comes to a close, I thought I’d offer some thoughts on my favorite Apple products of the year. And the ones that didn’t “do it” for me. Among my favorites:
° The iPad, of course. It hasn’t replaced my laptop, but it’s a great combination web browser, photo viewer, movie viewer, iPod, ebook reader, email checker, and much more.
° The 27-inch iMac with optional solid state drive. Eventually, all Macs (except for the workhorse Mac Pro) will ship with nothing but SSDs. The latest version of the world’s best all-in-one offered a solid state drive option, a hint of things to come.
° The Magic Trackpad, which brings the intuitive Multi-Touch gestures of Mac notebook trackpads to the desktop. It’s also a hint of things to come: namely, more iOS like features in Mac OS X.
° The latest iPod touch. Apple’s best overall iPod now has FaceTime, a gorgeous Retina Display and more.
° The 11-inch MacBook Air. Apple’s smallest ever Mac isn’t for everyone — but it’s a great, supremely portable, companion to a desktop Mac.
Not making my list were the iPhone 4 (namely because AT&T’s wireless service in my neck of the woods is so horrible it’s unusable), the new iPod nano (either a dumbed down version of the previous nano or a wised-up version of the shuffle), and Ping (the “social network” introduced with iTunes 10 comes across as a half-baked advertising ploy to get you to buy more music on iTunes).
— Dennis Sellers