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PC World's 20 Most Innovative Products of 2006

Posted by samzenpus on Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:07 PM
from the top-20-list dept.
Technology Hardware
Craig Sender writes "PC World has put together a list of their choices for the 20 Most Innovative Products of 2006. The List includes Office 2007, Nintendo Wii, Sony Reader, Sony PlayStation 3, the BlackBerry Pearl, and some other interesting choices."
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PC World's 20 Most Innovative Products of 2006 50 Comments More /

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  • Print view (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:12PM (#17383878)
    http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,128176 /printable.html [pcworld.com]

    Ridiculous that the article is stretched across 8 pages.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AZScotsman (962881)
      Gotta make room for all those ads somehow.... I stopped paying attention to PC World and PC Week over 8 years ago. It's pretty clear that their "reviews" have lapsed into the Puff-Piece Zone, and the rating they give software/hardware is relative to the number of full-page ads the subject has bought over the last twelve issues. Years ago, I wrote for a "subscription-only" print mag that reviewed game software and published hints and walkthrus (Yeah, it was a cushy job, but somebody had to do it...). We di
    • Ridiculous that the article is stretched across 8 pages.

      Thanks for the alternate view linkage, it would hurt even more if I had to read that spotty list clicking "next" over and over

  • gah (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Red Flayer (890720) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:14PM (#17383888) Journal
    Can this article please be re-labeled as an advertorial?

    I'd like to see advertising revenue figures from 2006 for the featured items' companies on PCWorlds financials... I wonder how closely they'd tie in to the rank of the products.

    I'm sure it's part of their sales strategy (I work in print publishing... you can bet advertisers get preferential treatment in editorial content).

    • Here are the top 10. (Score:5, Informative)

      by khasim (1285) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:23PM (#17383944)
      1. Microsoft Office 2007
      2. Intel Core 2 Duo
      3. Parallels Desktop for Mac
      4. Nintendo Wii
      5. Samsung 32GB SSD
      6. Sony Reader
      7. YouOS
      8. Dell XPS M2010
      9. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB
      0. T-Mobile Dash

      • Re:Here are the top 10. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by seebs (15766) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @11:06PM (#17384152) Homepage
        Innovative?

        Core 2 Duo: How is this anything but an incremental improvement over the Core Duo, which is in turn just improvements on techniques that have been out there for years? The first dual-core chip could have been innovative. The 39th or whatever this is isn't.

        MS Office 2007: I see. So, Office 6, Office 97, Office XP, Office 2003, none of those were innovative. But this one, the 10th or so in a series, really is. ...

        I just don't see any innovation here. A hard drive bigger than previous hard drives? Unheard of!

        • Re:Here are the top 10. (Score:4, Funny)

          by stubear (130454) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @11:10PM (#17384184)
          Well then you're fucking blind. Office 2007 is innovative because it rethinks the toolbar interface. The ribbon is a great UI concept and exposes hidden functionality in the older versions of Office.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by seebs (15766)
            Maybe it's neat. Is it one of the ten most innovative things done in an entire year?

            I mean, every time there's a new Office, various MS-fans tell me that it's completely innovative and, unlike the previous one, doesn't suck. Why should I believe it this time?

                • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

                  by masdog (794316)
                  The good news is that its free to try for 60 days.
                  • The good news is that its free to try for 60 days.
                    The good news is that it's free to try and crack for 60 days.

                    There, fixed that for you !

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by wootest (694923)

              I wish MS [and other developers] spent more time copying the UI idea's of Apple, which generally have fewer of the more arcane options that people rarely if ever change from their default values. Focus on what people WILL use, not what they COULD use.

              First: You're right. Fixing the interface is not innovative. But if this was a 20 Best Ideas list or 20 Best Things To Have Happened list, damn straight the Ribbon in Office 2007 would have placed on it, and that's a line I didn't think I'd write about this

      • The one that impressed me most was seeing a mention of sed TV. I haven't read the article yet (too long), but now I'm all pins and needles.

        Just think, right around the corner we might see awk Radio! Or Perl the Movie. Or how about groff the Board Game?

    • In 2005 they ranked firefox and gmail the #1 and #2 best products of the year. Neither of those two advertises with PC World. (to my knowledge, correct me if I am wrong)

      Could it be that MS Office (#1 on this list) just isnt popular with the slashdot crowd and that is why the first several posts are denouncing PC World as paid Microsoft shills?

      • Could be. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by khasim (1285) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:35PM (#17384006)
        Could it be that MS Office (#1 on this list) just isnt popular with the slashdot crowd and that is why the first several posts are denouncing PC World as paid Microsoft shills?

        It could be.

        But then ..... look at #8
        8. Dell XPS M2010

        Sporting a cutting-edge design, the Dell XPS M2010 (starting price $2999) makes a bold and immediate statement. Not quite a desktop and definitely less portable than a standard notebook, this hybrid system neatly balances elements of both. You get a 20.1-inch screen, a slot-loading DVD drive, and a detachable, full-size Bluetooth keyboard, plus an integrated Webcam, eight built-in speakers, and a subwoofer. Powering this entertainment system are ATI graphics, an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, and up to 4GB of RAM. It also folds up into a briefcase-like bundle, complete with a handle--but it weighs a hefty 18-plus pounds.

        Now, compare that to this system.
        http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/compaq/ [obsoleteco...museum.org]

        Yes, the "luggable" computer. But, all you have to do to make it "innovative" is to add more speakers (speakers with a portable computer, how ... innovative) and a bigger screen (see previous).

        And reviews like that are why PC World is disparaged.
        • I think there is a fair bit of difference between those two things. The dell looks like a product specifically designed for LAN gamer types in mind and improves a great deal on the ease of lugging it around compared to what existed before. It looks to me more like a desktop designed to be easy to move around than a traditional laptop. The computer you linked to looks more like an ancient precurser to the laptop than a gamers system that is easy to move around.

          I guess you can make the case that a luggable

          • I think there is a fair bit of difference between those two things.

            Yes. About 22 years worth of "difference". Seeing as how I believe that the Compaq luggable was around in 1984.

            It looks to me more like a desktop designed to be easy to move around than a traditional laptop.

            Yes. Hence the term "luggable".

            The computer you linked to looks more like an ancient precurser to the laptop than a gamers system that is easy to move around.

            "gamers system"?

            I guess you can make the case that a luggable computer you could

          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward
            The number one reason this wouldn't be a LAN gamers system is the big Dell logos on it.
      • Could it be that MS Office (#1 on this list) just isnt popular with the slashdot crowd and that is why the first several posts are denouncing PC World as paid Microsoft shills?
        No, for me it weas the gushing reviews of products (with links to their sales sites) that just didn't seem to be anything more than gloss ads. Nothing at all to do with Microsoft in particular.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by sanyam_y (982945)
      Intel/Microsoft != Innovation. Their products might be the most successful in the year, but certainly not innovative.

  • Proving once again that PC World has no shame (Score:4, Insightful)

    by loftwyr (36717) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:15PM (#17383898)
    PC World brings you the top 20 most frequent advertisers' current most hyped object!

    But wait! There wasn't an iPod! But iPods are the most innovative things evar!

    Number 0 must be the iPod Video, now with rubber ducky control built in!

    • Re:Proving once again that PC World has no shame (Score:5, Insightful)

      by HappySqurriel (1010623) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @11:16PM (#17384212)
      Well, I went looking for a definition of Innovate and what I got was:

      To begin or introduce (something new) for or as if for the first time.

      What bothers me with this list is that most of the products can not really be classified as inovative; the list might be alright if it was the 10 most important products released in 2006, or the 10 most improved product lines of 2006, but 10 most innovative is a big stretch. Now, I recognize that this is partially my love of the Wii speaking but the Wii is (from my understanding) the only product on that list which really brings anything new; the others may bring a lot of improvement to their product lines, but they don't bring much that is really new.
  • Is anyone else annoyed at the amount of ads you have to see not just once, but _every_ time you have to view the "next" part of the webpage? This is the internet fer god's sake! Put all the content on one page or you're not getting my possible viewing revenue!

  • Playstation 3? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lethyos (408045) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:18PM (#17383926) Journal

    Can someone explain to me exactly what is innovative about this? I do not understand how a hardware upgrade is innovative. Can I get on this list since I put a new video card in my machine this year?

    • It has lots of features (like the 3DO had), but it's a great deal? (if you're in the market for a Blu-ray player...) Although the motion control was tacked on in response to the Wii, and the networking support was a not-spectacular attempt at matching the 360's, a few of the subsystems are thought to be better than its peers?

  • YouOS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by daigu (111684) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:19PM (#17383928) Journal
    Anything in alpha testing can't really be called a product, much less the most innovative product (or in the top ten) of the year.

  • Google Sketchup? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm surprised this made the "Innovative" list, and not the "Vaporware" list.

    Since Google bought them, all they've done to the actual app is stamp "BETA" on it. They brag that it works on Macs, but the last upgrade was over 18 months ago, before Apple announced the Intel transition, and they still have no Universal binary for Macs. The PPC binary works, mostly, if you're willing to put up with workarounds. Oh, and random crashes.

    It's a sad state of affairs when "making no forward progress" counts as "inno
  • wow, a new hard drive that's bigger than last year's model. Innovation is dripping off of this one.

    I assume others will speak to the inclusion of Office.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by RealGrouchy (943109)

      I assume others will speak to the inclusion of Office.

      Not as many as I would expect by now.

      My initial thought was also "MS OFFICE?!? INNOVATIVE?!?" (see username...).

      Personally, I would define "innovative" in this context as "things customers probably wouldn't have thought of, but once they saw it, they liked," and limit it to those products/changes that were introduced in 2006.

      When I actually RTFA, MSO 2k7 is actually fairly innovative, in comparison to most of the rest on the list.

      Skimming over the list

    • I believe that the 750 gig drives were considered innovative because the 750 gig drive were the first to 'get perpendicular' [hitachigst.com].

  • These guys are confused. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:34PM (#17384000)
    Even if PC World is too clueless to realise it, there is a difference between "innovative" and "better than the same thing was last year, due to incremental advances". Core 2 Duo: Good? Hell yeah. Innovative? Not exactly.

    750GB HDD: A nice upgrade from the 500GB ones? Sure. An innovation? Well, the number is bigger than it was last year.

    That logitech control puck thing: Cute? Sure. Innovative? Well, it has a few more buttons than the Griffin PowerMate that has been around for years.

    And so on and so forth. There are almost no actual innovations. Mostly just feature bumps and price/performance increases. Now, that is what makes the world go round, most of the time; but don't call it "innovation".

  • WOOOOOOO (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Diordna (815458)
    A bad upgrade to a ubiquitous software package, a chip, 2 game systems, 2 hard drives, 2 phones... Now I remember why I don't read PC World.

  • Is it me, or... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mind21_98 (18647) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:40PM (#17384040) Homepage Journal
    ...do none of those products really strike me as "innovative"? Maybe I'm just missing the old days when innovation meant a complete change from the norm. However, the Wii is pretty neat. :)

  • How many laptops did it take? (Score:5, Funny)

    by atari2600 (545988) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:41PM (#17384044)
    So for MS Office 2k7 to make the number one position, i wonder how many LAPTOPS [slashdot.org] Microsoft had to give away. Just kidding, just kidding - i couldn't resist.

  • Please perfect the innovations we already have. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gelfling (6534) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @11:00PM (#17384122) Homepage Journal
    Frankly I'm disappointed that the gadgets we already have really don't work so hot. Like Cell Phones. Why can't I get usable USB or Bluetooth drivers and sync software for my Samsung A640, even from Samsung? Oh yeah I forgot, Sprint wants me to pay for a service to email them to myself. Ditto my Sanyo 3100, Samsung A840, Samsung A900 or Sanyo 8400?

    Why does my Xbox360 still require bizarre router settings to connect wirelessly to my router? Oh yeah I forgot, Microsoft does not care. Why did I have to return 3 different routers until I found one that worked with all my clients and VPN tunnels? Oh yeah I forgot, they're lazy. Why did the wireless print server I picked up naturally assume that it had to have the same IP address as my router and afforded absolutely no options to switch it? Oh yeah I forgot, the vendor bought the product instead of developing themselves. Plus the quality of their firmware is shit. Why am I still shopping for an affordable NAS that actually does what it's supposed to do without bugs and the feature set is actually what they say it is instead of vague promises and bullshit? Oh yeah I forgot, all the goodness is in the next version of their $700 unit. Sorry.

    See I'm not a big fan of best new gadgets because next year either they will be abandoned as the shit they probably are, or, they will be shit anyway and still be around bolstered by hype, consumer indifference and marketing.

  • Parallels? (Score:3, Funny)

    by WMD_88 (843388) <kjwolff8891@yahoo.com> on Wednesday December 27 2006, @11:15PM (#17384208) Homepage Journal
    Why is Parallels Desktop on there? I've seen it - it's almost a complete rip-off of the VMware UI. There is nothing new in that program at all...except that it runs on Intel Macs. Oh boy!
  • accepting a submission. maybe then, you can see that it's full of crap (i.e. it has much more advertisement than quality content).

  • Olympus E-330 like the Panasonic DMC-L1 (Score:3, Informative)

    by kherr (602366) <kevin&puppethead,com> on Wednesday December 27 2006, @11:24PM (#17384256) Homepage
    While the features of the Olympus E-330 are new for a digital SLR (live view and electronic dust cleaner) , Panasonic's DMC-L1 has the same features described as #14 most innovative product. This isn't surprising at all, since Panasonic and Olympus share technology, including the Four Thirds lens mount. In fact, it would have been better to list Four Thirds instead of a specific camera, since it's a cross-platform lens system specifically for digital cameras.

  • Big flash drives (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NineNine (235196) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @11:25PM (#17384262) Homepage
    This is gonna be the next big thing in all kinds of PC's. Flash drives. We'll be able to say bye-bye to the last of the important moving parts in a PC, that happens to be the most defect prone (because of moving parts), and also the most important (assuming your data is worth more than your hardware). I've been wanting these for years for reliability reasons at work. I can't wait until these things get shoved in a vanilla IDE (or is it SATA these days?) format. Hard drives with platters will be completely extinct in 5 years.

  • Where is the "innovation"? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Helldesk Hound (981604) on Thursday December 28 2006, @12:37AM (#17384638) Homepage
    Lets look at this list...

    1. Microsoft Office 2007
    Nothing innovative here - GUI office productivity suites have been around for decades - MS Word was the innovation on the Apple MacIntosh - but that was before MS released a usable version of MS Windows!

    2. Intel Core 2 Duo
    Where is the innovation here? The Intel Core 2 Duo is merely two CPUs on a single chip. Duo is neither the first 64bit processor, nor does it share resources between cores, nor does it have an onboard RAM controller. for all the above look to AMD's CPUs.

    3. Parallels Desktop for Mac
    Running Windows software on the Mac is not a new thing - especially now that the Mac is being sold using Intel hardware. Neither is using virtualisation software to run Windows on other platforms. For years it has been possible to run Windows on Big Blue's mainframes, and on *nix using such applications as VMware.

    4. Nintendo Wii
    Truly innovative interface - completely new design for use in a completely new way with a completely different range of games.

    5. Samsung 32GB SSD
    Using Flash EPROM for mobile storage of user data is not new. Neither is the incrementing of the maximum size available. What is new is the replacement of a mechanical permanent storage device with a solid state storage device that may yet prove to be not yet as reliable as a HDD.

    6. Sony Reader
    Truly innovative device that enables electronic texts to be read as easily and as casually if they were a proper book, and with a very easy UI. Only problem is that it uses a proprietary file format.

    7. YouOS
    Using a browser for remote desktop access is not a new development.

    8. Dell XPS M2010
    Portable computers have been around for decades (predating even the Mac). Wireless keyboards are not new, nor is a DVD player, nor is a 20" flat screen. Nothing new there - except the hefty weight.

    9. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB
    Yes - innovative method of writing data onto a HDD. But the fact of increased storage capacity is nothing new. HDDs have been increasing storage capacity for many decades.

    10. T-Mobile Dash
    QWERTY keyboard not new. 1.3 megapixel camera - not new. Wireless - not new.
    Additional RAM storage - not new (but close). Amount of built in RAM - definitely not innovative.

    11. Pioneer Inno
    In one form or another a "Real Live radio receiver" that can also record onto some sort of storage medium has been around since the '70s.

    13. Sony BWU-100A Blu-Ray Disc Rewritable Drive
    Re-writeable optical discs - nothing new here.

    14. Olympus EVolt E-330
    Digital camera with LCD display - definitely nothing new here.

    15. Google SketchUp
    3D software is not new. Free (as in Libre or as in Beer) is also not new. Perhaps the ease of use is what is new.

    16. Sony PlayStation 3
    Games consoles have been around since the '70s.

    17. RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8100
    Two words... Palm Treo. Enough said.

    18. Rhapsody 4.0
    One word... Ipod.

    19. Logitech NuLooq
    Different. Cross between a joystick and a mouse and a rollerball. I wouldn't mind trying it out if I ever came across one in a shop.

    20. Shure E500PTH Sound Isolating Earphones
    Noice cancelling headsets have been around for years. Nothing new there.

    So where is the true innovation? 19, 15, 9, 6, 4. That's only 5 out of 20.

  • YouOS (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kranfer (620510) on Thursday December 28 2006, @02:37AM (#17385188) Homepage Journal
    Personally, I think the best innovation of 2006 was the YouOS. I started using this thing and I think it is probably the best way to share files between computers than anything else I know of besides VNC, terminal services etc... Its definately the most innovative thing I have seen all year.
    • Well, if you read the article it seems pretty clear they are considering the interface to be innovative. Personally, I tend to agree with them, its miles better than other productivity software I have used in the past. (imho of course, its subjective)

      I dont think that using either ODF or MS Open XML (or whatever its called) is very innovative one way or the other. Claiming they arent/are being innovative by choosing one format over another is kind of silly.

      Just because you dont like that they arent suppo

    • Re:Office 2007? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by linguae (763922) on Wednesday December 27 2006, @10:46PM (#17384064)

      Office 2007's innovation is the ribbon interface, which does away from the traditional toolbar/menu interface. Although I personally don't like the interface (the ribbons are uncustomizable, and some options that used to require only one click on a toolbar now require two or three clicks), the interface does accomplish the task of placing related options together in an easily accessible way to novices of Office, as well as accessing less-commonly used features.

      Like the interface or not, the ribbon interface is an innovative way of grouping tasks together, especially in a program such as Microsoft Office that supports hundreds of features. If the ribbon interface contained some concessions for experienced computer users (shortcuts and ribbon customization, for example), then the ribbon interface may be a serious contender to the traditional menu/toolbar paradigm on the Windows platform. This is probably the single most innovative thing I've seen coming from Microsoft yet, even if I personally don't like it ;)

      • Personally I really like the new way they are doing keyboard shortcuts. If you push alt keytips appear on all the different tabs/buttons. I got in the habit of doing this and within a few hours I was faster at doing most tasks in 2007 than I was in 2003 or even emacs (apples and oranges, I know). You should try it, I really liked it, it seemed to have a very low learning curve but was fairly powerful.

      • Re:Office 2007? (Score:5, Informative)

        by arose (644256) on Thursday December 28 2006, @04:26AM (#17385534)
        In related news: Ton Roosendaal under investigation for illegaly altering the timeline. The director of TBI was terse: "The fact that Blender 3D contains a ribbon type interface predating MS Office 2007 made us suspicious, the fact that PC World named the ribbon interface in MS Office 2007 the top innovation of 2006 confirmed our worst fears."

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by nacturation (646836)

      Good lord, how is this innovation in anything except crapiness? Office 2007 is the opposite of ODF [wikipedia.org], which is the wave of the future in documents. Fighting against the community for profit is hardly innovative -- MSFT has been doing it for years.

      Give it a rest. This community of which you speak has been ripping off Microsoft Office for inspiration for years. Check out OpenOffice.org's innovative word processor interface [openoffice.org] -- everything is ripped off, from the font dropdowns, the indent/unindent icons, to the bold/italic/underline options, the clipboard icons, even the 3.5" floppy disk drive icon representing the save function. And who saves to floppy drives anymore? As far as interfaces go, I'd say it's pretty hard to rip something off better th

      • I'd be surprised if they win with Blu-Ray.

        Ignoring ANY merits of the two formats and pretty much EVERYTHING ELSE that either has going for it, it's pretty easy to predict that blu-ray will win over HD-DVD. Why? Because even if the PS3 is a horrible, horrible failure and only sells 10 million units over the course of its lifetime, that's 10 million more blu-ray players in homes, which HD-DVD likely can't hope to match.

        Plus, as everyone seems to forget, it's not only Sony backing blu-ray: http://en.wikipedia. [wikipedia.org]
        • Plus, as everyone seems to forget, it's not only Sony backing blu-ray:

          But also don't forget that it's only Sony gets the royalty check at the end of the day.

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