While the one laptop per child program ended up with a feature stripped laptop that actually cost nearer to $200, Asus promised to deliver a fully fledged commercial version for the same price and fewer compromises.<p /><p />In the end the linux OS, Asus eee wound up at around $300. However, it is still a remarkable feat.

We would pick the Wii over the iPhone as this years gadget for the reason that we believe it will have a fundamental cultural effect beyond that of the iPhone.<p /><p />The iPhone takes a bunch of existing technologies and packs them into an unbelievably new and well designed format. The Wii completely reverses the model of an existing technology.<p /><p />Before the Wii, interactive games were for couch potatoes offering no physical benefits over passive TV viewing. The Wii makes gaming not exclusively masculine and not exclusively unhealthy.

The source behind some of the excitement at Apples rumored products - solid state hard drives will transform the performance of computers by permanently changing their architecture.

There is nothing sexier than impossibly thin gadgets and OLED screens will transform TV designs.<p /><p />Released in October the Sony XEL - 1 is a wonderful looking product.

Some of the best features that have been added to cameras recently, have involved being able to upload directly to the web without half an hour messing around with software.<p /><p />The Casio EX-S880 is one of the first devices to make simple uploading of movies to YouTube a part of its core feature set.

Rather like the transformation of Japanese car manufacturers from cheap feature driven design to the high end luxury market. South Korean powerhouse, Samsung, which accounts for a fifth of the countries exports, continues to improve the design quality of its gadgets.<p /><p />The P2 is an example of a device that starts to rival if not better, the level of product design offered by Apple. For this reason we choose the P2 as one of this years significant products.

The camera that brought semi-pro digital SLRs below $500. This was rightly chosen by Wired as one of their picks for best gadgets of 2007.

The iPhone is so obviously one of the top gadgets of 2007 that a discussion of what makes it so doesnt add much.<p /><p />The only downsides to the iPhone are that it possibly elevates the Blackberry to the position of THE business phone as compared to the iPhone as a luxury consumer device. <p /><p />This is a situation ominously reminiscent of what made the inferior DOS outstrip Apples OS. <p /><p />In the other countries that it has launched, the iPhone has not made anything like such an impact, where cellphones have traditionally been more sophisticated than those available here.

This may seem like a mundane pick compared to other contenders, however we are picking the Apple wireless keyboard for the following reasons:<p /><p />1. When its design was leaked there was an unusual amount of witch hunting at Apple HQ for such a peripheral (literally) device, possibly indicating that this innovative looking product indicates the design direction that Apple is heading with products like forthcoming ultra portables.<p /><p />2. There has been so much coverage of the hugely expensive but, in our opinion, underwhelming Optimus Maximus keyboard, that here is one area where we think Apple represents the difference between good design and gimmick design.

I have always had a soft spot for TV, they are a company that really cares about quality and the ergonomics of their carefully designed remotes combined with what has become the classic on-screen UI are second to none. Despite this, TiVo has always been before their time and they are not the size of company that they should have been if you take into account their influence.<p /><p />Their original series 3 was a let down at a price of $800, thus nearing the psychological $1000 mark, but the TiVo HD solved the problem this year, at a comfortable $300 price point.

Only available in Japan, as far as we know, the W53CA bettered Sony Ericsson for the first time, offering a genuinely useful 5 megapixel camera in a standard sized phone.

Because of the sheer size of video files, digital media systems aimed at consumers now have specifications that are more demanding than anything but broadcast professional systems.<p /><p />The NEC Lui server is an example of how a multitude of devices, are being consolidated into a feature rich media server which will form the central nervous system in digital households.

This is our vote for best gadget. It means that you can receive calls to your cellphone number, anywhere in the world, without paying exorbitant roaming charges.<p /><p />This is how it works: You put you cell phone SIM card in the device, then purchase a local SIM card with free incoming calls, in the destination country. The device then routes the calls between the SIMs using Skype - for free.

Although this kind of functionality will eventually be built in as standard into cameras, this $130 device will allow people to be one of the first to truly explore the possibilities of creating photo maps really easily.<p /><p />You could probably base an entire startup business model on the possibilities of this gadget.

While the product design of the Ibiza Rhapsody is really not that great, it has one feature which hands down beats an iPod and points to the way things just have to be: It syncs wirelessly.