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Gallery: The 100 Best Innovations of 2010

Our Best of What's New 2010 winners, all in one place

Posted 12.20.10 at 12:42 pm 5 Comments

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Gadgets Grand Award Winner: Apple iPad

After years of companies trying to cram a computer into a tablet—the resulting boxes have been too heavy, the software too sparse, the screen too small—Apple made what everyone wanted: a sleek device with a gorgeous screen and a dead- simple interface that makes you want to sit back and play. The trick? Rather than shrink a computer, enlarge a phone. By using the same multitouch gestures and App Store as the iPhone, Apple created an intimate gadget for updating your Facebook status, watching a movie, or reading a magazine. Making it look simple, though, is complicated.

The 9.7-inch high-definition screen is the best example yet of in-plane switching, in which liquid crystals are aligned to allow a wider viewing angle than regular LCDs, and its speedy one-gigahertz processor is still efficient enough to run for nearly nine hours on a single charge. Apple sold three million in the first 80 days (more than the iPod or iPhone); now companies are rushing LCD tablets to market. The iPad, something between phone and computer, is what we always hoped a gadget could be. $500–$830.

See more at the Best of What's New 2010 site.

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5 Comments

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holabird

12/20/10 at 2:38 pm

Pikes Peak is in Colorado. EH?

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inaka_rob

12/20/10 at 11:34 pm

I am sorry. I have a single HDMI wire running from my pc to my TV. how much is it going to cost to get rid of this wire. its free right? no I have to PAY to get rid of one tiny almost loss less HDMI cable.
also my TV is my PC. I guess stuff like this and apple and google TV is perfect for people like parents.

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inaka_rob

12/21/10 at 1:56 am

Coolest: USB 3. Wifi Alliance. Improved Scramjet tech. Unmanned reusable space ship. Palm Nailer, Hand held ultra sound. Sealegs boat with wheels. Patriot AR drone. FAIL: Sony move. The product is cool and not a fail. It just shouldn't be on this list becuase of it is simply sony's version of the Wii mote. Also fail: onLive. onLive can and probably will be really cool. Right now it doesn't offer a single recent game. All the games are years old. you can put a pc together for 200 bucks that will run most of the games they are offering at this point. Fail: Google TV. Any body who is tech savy has had their pc or laptop wired to their TV for years. It is the only way I watch tv or movie now. The only time I use a remote control is when I turn on my TV. I control everyone thing from my pc after that.

I actually want to buy the Kor-fx but 200 bucks is way too much.

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Moon born

12/22/10 at 1:10 am

Philips EnduraLED's make trees in the Sahara live.

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Observer

12/31/10 at 12:21 pm

"398 pound-feet of torque"?? Torque is measured in foot-pounds. 398 foot-pounds of torque. "pound-feet" is meaningless. Unless one is weighing feet (recipe for pigs feet perhaps)? Pounding feet (medieval torture)?

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