Apple products in the Engadget awards

While I love Apple and their products, I'm not one to blindly follow a company and say they make the greatest products in the world like many people. But to say the editors at Engadget are on drugs or otherwise not thinking straight has got to be a bit of a stretch. You have to think that the editors at Engadget know what they're talking about since they follow and are experienced with a very broad range of products and technologies.


Gadget of the year: 5G iPod vs Xbox 360

Outside of the Apple community, the Xbox 360's introduction made a bigger splash, was more anticipated, and was in the media more than the iPod 5G this year. You talk to anyone, and most of them will be more excited if you tell them you have an Xbox 360 than if you told them you have a video iPod. For roughly the same price of a 60gb video iPod, the Xbox 360 can play high-definition games, stream music, pictures, and video from any Windows PC, download games and videos from Xbox live, and oh yeah, you can plug your iPod into it and play all the music that's on it. To me the 360 is definitely the gadget of the year.


Desktop of the Year: PowerMac G4 Quad vs Sony RC-series

I would have voted for the Quad G4 myself, so I agree with the readers on this one.


Laptop of the Year: PowerBook G4 vs IBM Thinkpad Z

How is this even a contest?! The PowerBook G4 has been Apple's neglected step-child for the last year and a half. Then to vote it in as laptop of the year? I love my PowerBook (as I'm typing from it right now) but don't get me wrong, for features and performance, the Thinkpad Z has it beat hands down. It may not look as good, but its just as robust and many times more powerful. Now, the forthcoming MacBook Pros, that's a different story ...


Media PC of the Year: iMac G5 with Front Row vs Niveus Media K2

Again, how is this a contest? On one hand you have a desktop PC that ships with a remote control and a software front-end for media applications so you can look at videos and trailers, listen to music, look at pictures, and watch a DVD. Oh and is cumbersome (at best) to have in your living room hooked up to a TV. On the other hand you have a PC in a much more natural form factor to fit into your entertainment center, running Windows Media Center (which blows Front Row away when it comes to features), dual HDTV tuners (with HD DVR functionality), dual HDTV output, 5.1 surround output, among other things. It's a no-brainer, the iMac gets spanked.


Audio Player of the Year: iPod Nano vs iRiver U10

The Nano beats the iRiver in storage capacity and form factor. The iRiver has the Nano beat in features: bigger screen, video capabilities, battery life, FM radio and recording functions, flash player, etc. As far as which one made a bigger splash this year? Nano hands-down. Which one is the all-around better audio device? My moneys on the iRiver.


Portable Video Device: Apple iPod 5G vs Cowon A2

Again, in features and capabilities, the Cowon has the iPod beat. The larger, higher-resolution screen, built-in stereo speakers, much broader file-format playing capabilities; the list continues. If I were to get a video jukebox, I certainly would be considering the Cowon over the iPod. The 5G iPod is a great device, dont get me wrong; but for videos, the screen is just a little too small for my liking and my video format choices are a bit limiting. The iPod is a great music player first, and it happens to be able to play specific MPEG-4 videos. The A2 is a great video player first, which happens to be able to play music and display photos.


Dont get me wrong, I love Apple and I love their products. However, its very easy to just put on blinders and just expect Apple to make the best products available. Apples devices are among the best-designed, easy to use, and mostly just work. However, when you just open your mind and eyes a little bit, you may realize there might be some better, cooler, and more feature-packed products out there not made by Apple.

Just my $0.02 ...

If you think the Engadget editors are anti-Apple, you should just read some of the comments to these awards.

Wow, the Engadget editors are really big losers, choosing the Xbox and iRiver. It's like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and only eating the watermelon and the stale bread.

Yeah, well there's no accounting for (bad) taste. Engadget is a PC crowd. iRiver over Nano? Hardly.

Who the hell voted for the Powerbook to be laptop of the year? It wasn't anything new this year, and lagged far behind the capabilities of pentium-m PC laptops (i.e. ThinkPad T4x).

I don't mean to be a knitpicker but it's an IBM thinkpad z not a BM thinkpad z

And what are the editors smoking?

The iPod G5? I want one!!