Switched On: The 2007 Switchies, Home Products
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
The last Switched On presented the Switchie awards for portable products. This special edition of Switched On highlights the award winners for home products.
The "Hi-Def Heaven" and the Home Product of the Year goes to the TiVo HD. It's not so much that TiVo's DVR functionality has advanced to become that much more compelling than those of cable-supplied DVRs. However, TiVo has evolved into a jack-of-all-trades that integrates traditional programming sources with Internet content and even homebrew applications when it has access to a PC. TiVo also wins points for enabling the Lifetime Subscription Transfer option, which unfortunately does not enable the reincarnated to take TiVo into their next lifetime.
The "Great Googoloplex" award goes to Vudu Labs' Vudu for a device that virtually obsoletes the video rental store, offering thousands of movies with instant access and an expedient way to navigate around them. Honorable mentions in the broadband set-top box category go to Apple TV and the Netgear EVA8000 -- the former for integrating a sync-and-store process that removes the vagaries of network performance and the latter for its support of high-definition content and Internet services.
The "Blue in the Face" award goes to Samsung for the Samsung BP-U5000 dual format Blu-ray and HD-DVD player for its attempt at reconciling the high-def disc format wars. The player's embrace of both camps' interactivity standards and lower introductory price has lent strength to the argument that two formats are sustainable.
The "Fab Slab" award goes to the Gateway One, which turned heads as arguably the best-looking desktop on the market, and impressed by integrating ports into its power brick. If this model can't help new owner Acer move up in the desktop market, it's hard to imagine what can. Honorable mention goes to the even slimmer, aluminum and glass iMac, but mostly because of its compatibility with Mac OS 10.5 and its slick Time Machine feature.
Yet, Windows Home Server takes home the "Server with a Smile" award. Consider it another victory for Microsoft OS code developed before Vista, but the product as embedded in HP's MediaSmart server manages multiple drives with the aplomb of a Drobo external drive housing and integrates media serving and remote access capabilities. Since it essentially requires a PC to operate, prices for the boxes are high compared to NAS units, but it could win more consumers looking for backup solutions for their multiple PC households.
In a year that saw a mind-numbing number of digital picture frames thrown into the market, the eStarling Wi-Fi photo frame took home the "Picture Perfect" award for its flexible connected ways to receive photos, including via RSS and e-mail.
Finally, the "Widget Gadget" award goes to Chumby Industries for the Chumby. While its content needs to step up to prove the consumer case for this hacker's playground, its passive infotainment is the best-conceived information appliance to date. Honorable mention in this nebulous category goes to Thomson's GE InfoLink phone, which uses DECT and RSS to deliver small bits of Internet-delivered information to the once-clueless cordless.
Congratulations to all the winners. CES and perhaps Macworld will bring news of contenders for the 2008 Switchie awards. Already in the queue are 2007 holdovers including the Digeo Moxi DVR, Sling Media SlingCatcher, Everex Cloudbook, Slacker Portable, Dash Express portable navigator, the first Zink printers, and the LiveScribe Smartpen.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group,. His blog can be read at http://www.rossrubin.com/outofthebox. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
