The year 2013 was fully jam-packed with new innovations, new ideas, new techno stuff and much more. 2013 was a time oh hope, a time of sadness, a time for twerking and a time for doge.
Each new gadget has its own identity. So here I present the gadgets we love, we hate and the ones that we found aesthetically offensive.
The GOOD
Many tried to make a smartwatch people wanted to wear and use this year, and many failed. Pebble succeeded. Success for a smartwatch still doesn’t look like massive millions of units sold, but it looks better than when the Pebble team tried this a few years ago with the inPulse smartwatch for BlackBerry. “The what?” you say. Exactly.
The Fitbit Force
Fitness trackers are many and varied, but Fitbit consistently delivers top-notch hardware. The Fitbit Force is the latest. It takes the successful formula of the wrist-borne Fitbit Flex and adds a basic screen so you can get information right from your wrist, instead of having to open an app on your phone every time you want to check your progress (in more detail than via a few lighted dots).
The iPad mini is an inexpensive way to join Apple's tablet family, but it remains more costly than its similarly sized competition. Besides the striking Retina display, what makes the minuscule iPad so attractive this year is it's essentially a shrunken-down version of its powerful bigger sibling. Very few sacrifices were made to accommodate the smaller stature -- something the competition can't quite claim.
Kindle Paperwhite
The "all-new" Paperwhite doesn't really offer anything all that different from last year's edition, but an improved frontlight and some software tweaks have made an already great reading experience even better. Unless Goodreads is a must-have app for you, it's a tempting, but largely unnecessary upgrade if you already own last year's version.
The BAD
Gamestick
“Android-based game console” is a phrase we wrote so many times this year. So. Many. Times. And it turns out, they mostly blow. Atop the pile of those that miss is the Gamestick, a crowdfunded disaster that no one loves.
Pebble made a good smartwatch, and Samsung made a dumb one. They made weird ads to try to promote their dumb smartwatch, too, which helped nothing and creeped out the entire world. Plus it only works with a small pool of Galaxy devices, and it has terrible battery life and looks awful. Go home Samsung, you’re drunk.
Razer Kraken E-Panda Hooligan Headphones
Release the Kraken! This pair of headphones is named after not one, not two, but four unrelated things. We know that Razer is the brand name that invokes images of a blade, that the Kraken is a creature from Greek mythology and that a hooligan is someone who gets into drunken brawls at soccer games. But what the heck is an E-Panda? Is it a panda that’s addicted to ecstasy? Officially, E-Panda is the nickname of Bruno Mars’ brother and drummer Eric Hernandez, but how many people actually know that? And how many actually care?
OUYA CONSOLE
The initial backer editions of the OUYA shipped with a flawed controller and access to a limited games selection. But even after the retail release, the OUYA's still a system best left to hackers and developers, as it's likely to leave most gamers disappointed by its average smartphone-level internals and rehashed games library.
The UGLY
CTA Digital iPotty
Kids need to learn to use the toilet, and they should learn early that they also need to use iPads while they’re doing their business. So why not combine potty training and tablet use into a single device? The answer is that you shouldn’t do this because God will never forgive you if you do.
Google Glass
We've yet to see a consumer-facing Google Glass, but suffice to say the current version's more of a research project -- definitely not worth its $1,500 price tag for most folks. Mountain View still has to polish its features, address privacy concerns and entice developers before it hits the market. Until then, current Explorers will just have to deal with lots of confused stares when they wear it outside
Nitendo 2DS
I ain’t mad at you for dropping one of the ‘D’s Nintendo – you never needed three to begin with. And this device is actually pretty great, and I’d buy this instead of a 3DS if I didn’t already have one. Still, it’s not good-looking. It is, in fact, ugly. Good looks cost money, though, so uglification for a budget device may be strategy, not a stupid mistake
