It's a been a whirlwind year of tech launches, with phones and tablets taking centre stage. Our colleagues over at CNET.com went the whole hog and wrote up their 100 top stories of 2012, but as the year draws to a close I wanted the CNET UK team to take a moment to reflect on their personal highlights of the past 12 months.
We've all picked a single product that has impressed us the most, and given our reasons why below. It's inevitably a much more UK-focused list than that of our American chums. What do you think of our picks? Let us know in the comments box at the bottom or on our Facebook wall.
YouView
Even the best smart TVs are a bit rubbish -- hard to use, slow and full of bad apps you'll never use. Sky and Virgin are much better, but expensive. Enter YouView, providing easy-to-use, on-demand telly to people who don't want to pay a subscription.
Most of the coverage YouView received at the time of the launch focused on the delays behind the project, of which there have been many, but when the product is as good as this, I'd argue it's worth the wait. It's not often you're around at the start of something big, but I think this will be the way most of the country watches TV in the next five years.
Raspberry Pi
Back in the day, we didn't learn computers at school. We once made PowerPoint presentations about our favourite celebrities, but there was no coding, no programming, no genuinely useful technical stuff. But a £16 micro-computer released this year with the adorable moniker of Raspberry Pi is set to change the way computer science is taught to today's tech-savvy, school-age scallywags.
The Raspberry Pi may be the size of a credit card, but it's powerful enough to play Full HD video. It's making waves in the online developer community, but more importantly, it makes learning the ins and outs of tech cheaper, more accessible and more fun for everyone.
Orange OPC
The Orange OPC takes an iconic guitar amplifier design known the world over and packs it full of high-performance computer components. With speakers mounted in the front it acts as both guitar amplifier and desktop PC.
It's loaded up with a wealth of modelling software, letting you create virtually any sound imaginable with your axe of choice and lay down your tracks in studio-quality recording programs. While other desktop PCs were toeing the same grey lines, the Orange OPC offered red-hot style and an innovative way to play and record your own music from your home computer.
Samsung Galaxy Camera
Now I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, but the Samsung Galaxy Camera was totes my idea. Back in February I lamented that the average camera phone was rubbish, and really we should be putting phones in cameras.
Fast-forward to the end of the year and Samsung has done just that, adding 3G, Android and a huge S3-sized screen into a camera, complete with large sensor and superzoom lens -- and a nifty interface that bridges both snapper and blower. With an app like Skype you can even call your chums. Who knew a cameraphone could be both camera and phone without compromising either? That's right, I did. I assume my cheque's in the post.
Google Nexus 4
For me, 2012 was the year of cheap tech. From new Kindles to £160 tablets, it's been great to see more gadgets on sale that won't lay waste to your bank balance. The Nexus 4 is the undisputed king of this wallet-friendly new world, offering every modern convenience you'd associate with high-flying acts like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3, but at half the price.
Quad-core performance, a blinding high-res screen and cutting-edge Android make the Nexus 4 a great phone, but the £239 price tag makes it the year's most exciting gadget. I'm keen to see the knock-on effects of its low cost in 2013.
Google Nexus 7
Okay, we were all excited about the Nexus 4, but I reckon the Nexus 7 has done something much more difficult -- it's established an unbreakable beachhead in a territory formerly dominated by Apple, the tablet.
It did it by concentrating on very specific needs: sub-£200 price, fast processor, great screen, very latest version of Android. There's no expandable storage, and it's more plasticky than the iPad, but those are nitpicks. This is a terrific gadget and hopefully its success will spur more and better quality tablet apps for the platform.
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Comments 22
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anonymous 18 December, 2012 18:43
And the galaxy s3 is not one of the products of 2012 BS but I'm glad there is no apple products up there because they would not belong!
anonymous 18 December, 2012 19:22
No, the S3 isn't up there... if you've ever purchased the S1 and S2 prior to your S3 purchase, you'd know purchasing it was a mistake. You're going to end up with an outdated phone with very little support from samsung or your carrier. Meanwhile, the windows phones, nexus phones, and iPhone will be running the latest OS features and will have all their bug fixes taking place regularly.
S3 is for instant gratification, but it'll become quite winded in the long run. It's been shown time and time again.
anonymous 18 December, 2012 19:27
Yes like I didn't notice it wasn't there th no need for all your jibberish all I'm saying is the s3 is arguably one of the best products of 2012 and that's a fact!
anonymous 19 December, 2012 01:02
But the S3 is no Nexus 4 and there's little point in putting both on the list.
anonymous 19 December, 2012 08:38
One word... FAKE
anonymous 19 December, 2012 11:03
Why would they include the S3 with the LG Nexus being half the price and just as good? Everyone bitches about Apple fanboys, but it seems Samsung has the same blind following....
anonymous 19 December, 2012 11:39
@anonymong 11.03 your stupid only a fanboy would be the first to cry fanboy! You know nothing about me and probably not much at all. Seeing as the nexus is going to have more of a impact in 2013 and the s3 was unbelievably popular and as good as it is I say it should be there. I was going to grab a nexus 4 by selling my s3 but seeing how long it is to get one at that cheap price I decided to leave it. So idiot explain how I'm a fanboy!
anonymous 19 December, 2012 11:46
I wouldn't say just as good. I have both Nexus 4 and S3 coz I use 3 phones at any one time. The Nexus 4 prompted me to ditch my S3 and get another Nexus 4. It would take the S3 LTE, which has double the RAM of the original S3, to even come close to the Nexus 4.
Matt Winston. 19 December, 2012 12:36
I think the S3 is better than the Nexus 4. S3 has got 4G, SD slot and a removable battery. The Nexus 4 doesn't. And what can the Nexus 4 do, the S3 cant do, or wont be able to do soon?? Most people wont notice the difference in performance, but the only thing people will notice is the price.
anonymous 19 December, 2012 12:52
How can you include the Nexus 4?
given the supply chain fiasco. Someone must be wearing rose tinted spectacles!
anonymous 19 December, 2012 14:11
THE BEST PRODUCT OF YEAR 2012 IS... SAMSUNG GALAXY S III.
_______________________________________________________________
anonymous 19 December, 2012 14:27
I think the Nexus probably gets in there soley on price, no one has as of yet sold a phone with such top end specs for such a mid-range price. Although I think the S3 is a better phone, it is nearly double the price! (I have a note2, the missus has the s3)
Althogh I would be quick to love up a device made by LG, my experiences with them are okay, but they always seem to have something essential missing... like making a nice phone with a battery that lasts 4 hours!
HOWEVER yourview has no place on here. I use SKY beacuse of the sports and I don't have cable in the area so I don't have much choice. But to be honest a free BTVISION box and £10.25 a month and you get helluva lot more... it would cover you for 30 months for the same price.
tbag 19 December, 2012 15:45
I owned an S2.
I chose a Nexus 4 over an S3....
I loved the expandable memory and replacable battery on the S2 but at the end of the day the excellent performance and staggeringly low price of the Nexus 4 made me duck out of a contract upgrade and go sim free.
All of the things i was worried about with the Nexus 4 (Lack of memory expansion and lack of a replacable battery) have proved not to be an issue, the battery life is much better than my S2 and i have been smarter with using the 16GB of memory i have available.
Matthew Hackett 19 December, 2012 16:10
anonymous seems to have lots of different views..
anonymous 20 December, 2012 00:49
Best product is the iPad mini and iPhone 5. You (the people in the comments) are all just droid nerds and you probably only pick droids because you're not cool enough to rock Apple products. I do art in my spare time and its not possible without an Apple.
Also when will droid stop making blackberry because no one uses blackberry so android should stop making it.
Also the S3 is the same phone as the nexus 4 so just get the s3 because its cheaper and made by amstrad.
anonymous 20 December, 2012 09:32
Why n4? Availability is a joke and worst android launch ever! I wanted one for xmas gift but cannot buy it
andydandy 20 December, 2012 12:29
Good shot at it. N7 was a game changer and N4 would be if we could buy one. You view and Pi and the Samsung camera are great choices. Nice job.
anonymous 20 December, 2012 15:31
Anonymong @ 00:49 can't tell if your trying to be funny if you are you have failed in a epic way or if your genuinely the thickest person to have ever commented on cnet!
anonymous 20 December, 2012 17:33
Got myself an Orange OPC. BEST. COMPUTER. EVER.
anonymous 21 December, 2012 00:05
I'm surprised the iPhone 5 isn't there, I mean the maps was wrong but it's fixed now right?
Noble Lox 23 December, 2012 16:06
Oh dear! iPhone 5?!?! I'd have thought the deluded Apple fanbois would be in hiding after that technical and public relations disaster! And all this talk of Nexus 4 V Samsung SIII leaves me scratching my head, why is everyone fighting over one plasticy tat phone or another, when we all know the HTC One X is slightly better than both of them, overall, but miles ahead in build quality.
Howard10000 31 December, 2012 15:49
The nexus 7 does not have a great screen - it has one which looks dull, lifeless and cheap next to even a generation 1 iPad.
The sound quality from the built-in speaker is shocking.
Making adjustments to everyday settings is a menu-driven pain in the ass compared to the IPad.
Granted it's cheap but it is still utterly inferior to the IPad competition.
I'm not a fanboy - I don't like Apple as a company but this tablet is not the white knight IPad killer it is represented as here. But google does pay for a lot of advertisement ....
If you need a 7" tablet, get an IPad mini - this will save a lot of distress and disappointment further down the line.
I EBayed my nexus 7 'cos it was so disappointingly crappy - do not believe the hype.