Just in time to round out your holiday shopping season, we've consulted the Web traffic oracles and compiled a list of the most popular laptops of 2009.
Based on which system reviews CNET readers clicked on most often, this list shows what's on the minds of laptop shoppers -- and the emphasis is clearly on value over all else.
We've got six Netbooks in the top 10, including the Asus Eee PC 1005HA, which we've held up as a classic example of a Netbook done right. Apple, and 13-inch laptops in general, are also well-represented. Interestingly, while five major PC brands are represented, there are a few big names missing in action, including Gateway, Lenovo, and Toshiba.
To see what the most popular laptops of 2009 were, based on reader interest, click through to the slideshow below.
Ah, long live the year-end listicle. What did we ever read (or write) in December before the media came up with the idea of compiling and disseminating lists of the best, most popular, strangest and stupidest?
Here's my contribution to the tradition for 2009--oh wait, there's also my Holiday Gift Guide offering--a potpourri of camcorder popularity as based on how many people read reviews of a product since last New Year's. As you might guess, the results are rather heavily skewed toward older products, products on our top lists, and products that we've reviewed, but I've tried to provide some context and combine new and old versions of products to try to minimize redundancy.
This mysterious black rectangle is the most popular TV on CNET during 2009.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)Among the three most-popular technology product categories covered by CNET Reviews--cell phones, laptops, and TVs--just one doesn't feature anything made by Apple. At least not yet.
Without having to fear roundish, white-logo-clad products whose names begin with a lower-case vowel, the scads of nearly identical-looking glossy black rectangles (notwithstanding a touch or two of color) can safely saturate the HDTV battlefield with their "Hz"-infused blood, assured of relatively equal footing.
Or is it? Judging from our list of most popular HDTVs of 2009, accessible below in suspense-building reverse order, said field is dominated by two titans that pummel the rest. Of the ten HDTVs listed, only one--the remarkable Pioneer Kuro PRO-111FD, still the highest-rated television I've ever reviewed--comes from a brand other than Panasonic or Samsung.
The disparity between brands is no coincidence. Products that made the list, which is arranged by total pageviews over the span of 2009 (and so includes a good number of TVs from 2008), invariably spent a lot of time atop or near the top of the Best Products lists. ... Read more
And, of course, there is a lame prize as usual. So watch the show, then come back here and post your trivia question answer below. We'll choose one of the the first 10 correct posters to win the Star Wars Episode 1 Electronic CommTech Reader.
The answer to the lame prize question from last week's tech turkeys countdown was: Meet Me Tour.
We're getting close to the holidays and we know you're starting to make your wish lists. So we're treating this month's most popular products list as a request. You're spending a lot of your time viewing these products. We get it. Feel free to send this video around to friends and family as a hint.
And while we're at it, let's give you something. Well, one of you. Go watch the video, answer the trivia question, and come back here and post your guess. It could light up your holidays. Literally.
The answer to last week's question was: The GNU Project.
Special hint. If you have a bogus e-mail address in your account, you won't win because you'll never get the e-mail. Just a thought.
The old most popular list is really coming back into its own these days. For a while there I thought it would be all phones forever. But it's two months running with only two phones on the list. I guess most of you all finally picked a phone and are moving on to better TVs, Netbooks, etc.
So watch in good health this week and then come back to this blog post and take a crack at answering the trivia question for a chance at winning the lame prize.
On Thursday, Popular Mechanics magazine will unveil its 2009 Breakthrough awards. Included on the list is a series of innovators, as well as a number of products, including this lawn mower, the Hustler Zeon, which is the world's first all-electric, zero-turning-radius mower. It can cover an acre of grass on a single charge.
(Credit: Popular Mechanics)Popular Mechanics magazine on Thursday will unveil its fifth-annual Breakthrough Award winners, an august collection of designers and products that could do much more than their share to change the world for the better.
From famous inventors like Dean Kamen to a flying car for the Third World to bacteria-powered batteries--and much in-between--the awards are meant to highlight technologies that will shape the way people around the world live and how they interact with everyday products.
Each year, the magazine's editors scour the country for a worthy group of winners, and this year, in the end, Popular Mechanics settled on one leadership award winner, one next-generation honoree, eight Breakthrough innovators and 10 Breakthrough products.
"In all cases, there's a really practical application that we see coming about," said Jerry Beilinson, the magazine's deputy editor, "so these aren't theoretical scientific applications. (They're going to) change the world and have a really positive aspect on people's lives."
Beilinson said that after five years of identifying technological breakthrough products and innovators, certain themes have emerged in the editors' preferences. Among the most important, he said, is alternative energy and products and designers that push that category forward.
"If I look back (at the last few years of doing the awards), we looked at aviation and we looked at medicine," he said. "But over the last few years, I think the things that have been clear themes that we've been looking at that have emerged (are) alternative energy and appropriate technologies for the developing world."
And while the themes can be forward-looking, the individual awards celebrate a "moment in time," he said.
"We're sort of picking the moment at which it's become real, and passed the threshold and seems like its worthy of an award," Beilinson said. "But most of these kinds of things do take some time to develop."
For this year's Breakthrough Leadership award, Popular Mechanics honored Dean Kamen, an inventor with more than 440 patents who may be best known for creating the incredible but commercially disappointing Segway personal transporter.
... Read moreTime once again to check in on the most popular, and the trend away from cell phone domination continues this month! Hooray for Netbooks and TVs! Maybe it's the fall shopping season finally starting to turn people's minds away from phones. It's so much nicer to buy a gift that doesn't come with a two-year contract.
And of course there's a prize in this Top 5. So watch it, and answer the question in the comments below. One of the first 10 people to answer correctly wins the racing shirt. Properly laundered, I promise.
Time once again to check in on the products you folks are spending the most time looking at on CNET these days. Remember, these are based purely on the number of page views for the product review page.
Just like that cheerleader, Brittany, you knew in high school, these aren't necessarily the best, but they are the most popular.
And don't forget to be one of the first 10 people to watch the video and then post the correct answer to the trivia question in the blog comments below. That Mandelbrot Set commemorative T-shirt is waiting for you.
It's time to check in on the most popular products of the month, which usually means phones. This month is no exception. We do have one not-phone. And to keep the suspense, we don't know which of the phones will be number one. Note: this all came out before the iPhone 3G S.
So watch the video and come back here to post your answer to the lame-prize trivia question.
