Since it’s that time of year, here’s (yet another) totally biased, personal list of the best and worst the world of tech had to offer my corner of the blogosphere during 2008.

The Best

1. Apple: No denying the insane-greatness of the iPhone 3G, which I ponied up for, and despite my complaints about poor battery life and shoddy reception, it’s 90% awesome - and that reception part, I can just blame AT&T. The iPhone OS is growing, new development platform with tons of cool apps. Second, Apple as a company had the wherewithal to stockpile billions of cash in preparation for the downturn. During the last recession, Steve Jobs said Apple would innovate through the downturn, and I fully expect them to do the same this time around. They could release something as simple as a new Mac Mini, a small MacBook, or a big iPod Touch and vacuum millions of dollars into their coffers.
2. Netflix: This year the video rental company began rolling out ways to get people off physical media by providing streaming video via the Internet. They put Watch Instantly on a set-top box with Roku, the XBOX, the Mac, and TiVOs. But the big surprise: their service works amazingly well - I’ve had an easier time operating the Roku box than my Apple TV. My desire to rent movies via our Apple TV was essentially submarined. The $100 spent for the Roku box is my favorite tech purchase of 2008.
3. Google: Despite a lack of any big Web 2.0 strategy, Google did one huge, unexpected thing: Chrome, its own web browser. It’s clean, simple, easy to use, and it’s fast. They also made incremental updates to their other apps, so much so that I now use Google Mail and Google Reader every day without any fear. Here’s hoping a Mac version of Chrome arrives in 2009.
4. FriendFeed: Friendfeed was the only new Web 2.0 site I stuck with all year, and it’s so good, it basically destroyed my desire to use any other Web 2.0 social sites. It’s the social-media-networking-Web 2.0 endgame. Pretty much anything I’d ever want to do online is there, and once you get hooked on it there really isn’t much reason to go anywhere else. The two big reasons are the comments (amusing conversations are always popping up there) and the lightning fast search which I’ve used to find LOLcats, software tips, and movie recommendations. Friendfeed is that good, and I still stand by my opinion that it will be huge stuff in the years to come.

Honorable Mentions: Amazon, WordPress, Twitter (for not completely falling to pieces)

The Worst

1. Blu-Ray: The next-gen HD format war ended in 2008, but the retarded thing is my desire to purchase a Blu-Ray player is fading fast. Several reasons: distribution over the Internet is catching up fast (see above regarding Netflix), player and disc prices are still too expensive, and lastly, I have little desire to accumulate more shiny silver discs in YADF (yet another disc format) that as of now, I can’t use on a Mac. This year I sold 90% of my DVD collection, and what with Handbrake, cheap storage, a Netflix account, and multiple ways to get content on the TV, I’m going all digital.
2. Facebook: No, I still do not want to be a vampire and poke your super wall.
3. Yahoo!: A Web 1.0 leader that was making some smart moves, acquiring the best of Web 2.0’s earlier, innovative days (Flickr, delicious, MyBlogLog) but then fubaring everything with wishy-washy leadership and clueless middle management. I feel they should have sold when they had the chance.
4. The financial collapse of America: We learned housing was a huge bubble and tech is not immune. I’ll just toot my own horn and say I wrote about this subject back in August, 2007.
   

Dishonorable Mentions: Cuil, Vista, Steve Jobs death rumors

Oddly enough, looking back on my best / worst list from 2007 there’s a lot of overlap (iPhone, Internet Video, and Google). Frankly, in the tech world, I didn’t see much innovation in 2008, and due to the recession, I don’t expect anything ground-breaking in 2009. Thankfully, I have a crapload of movies to watch until 2010.

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