123The marvellous iPhone 6, the sleek Android wearables, a photography innovation that lets you zoom in to insane levels, camera-wielding drones, the selfie stick for the great selfie appetite and more. 2014 has been a year of astounding products.
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR Selfie Stick
The year 2014 will be known as the year when humanity finally lost its collective mind and started using the ‘Selfie Stick’. It is one of those products that evoke mixed emotions. On the one hand you think ‘WHY?’. On the other you think, ‘why didn’t I think about it?’. The selfie stick which costs anything from Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 comes in many varieties, is at least a metre long and lets groups of people to take selfies. The cheapest one is just a stick that you periscope out, attach a phone to so you can make a photo using the camera’s timer. And the costliest comes with Bluetooth-enabled shutter buttons so you can click pictures to your heart’s content.
PHONE OF THE YEAR iPhone 6 Plus
INNOVATION OF THE YEAR Lytro Illum
Lytro is the camera from the future. It is the first commercial light-field camera, rewriting the rules of photography. Lytro Illum gives still photos but not in the traditional sense of the word. Due to the ‘shoot first, refocus later’ philosophy, you can refocus any part of the photo, change the perspective and zoom in to an insane level. The Illum is beautifully crafted, has a massive lens, comes with a touch screen for easy manual controls and looks stylish. It comes at a hefty price tag of $1,499 (approx. Rs 95,000).
MUST-HAVE GADGET OF THE YEAR DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus
Now you need not be the President of the United States to have your own drones to shoot people with. Camera-wielding drones is the newest status symbol and it doesn’t get better than the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus. With its sleek white body with red stripes, the Phantom 2 looks like something designed by Apple and is no slouch when it comes to performance. Using a unique controller to which you can attach your iPhone, you get a real time view of what you are filming, and you can control the drone as well as the camera attached to it. It has a great camera app, an improved compass, is intelligent enough to come back to you when it goes out of range. All of this could be yours for just Rs 85,000.
TABLET/E-READER OF THE YEAR Amazon Kindle Voyage
The Amazon Kindle Voyage is the best e-reader ever made because it is better than a printed book for the dedicated bibliophile. With its sharp, dark text on a high-resolution display, it looks fabulous both under the harshest sun and in the darkest room. With features like easy bookmarking, note-taking and the ability to store thousands of books, this super thin e-reader is available for Rs 13,000.
APP OF THE YEAR iOS Workflow
For the first time, users of iOS devices, the iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch, can automate tasks on their mobile devices using Workflow to get the powerful smartphones and tablets to do a series of tasks in a row. Anything like making GIFS or PDF documents, posting images to Instagram automatically can be done at the touch of a button. Available for Rs 190 on the App Store.
WEARABLE OF THE YEAR Moto 360
The year could forever be known as the year the Apple Watch is born. Meanwhile, another watch from Motorola showed that smart watches need not be ugly, chunky pieces of plastic. The Moto 360 runs on Android wear, and works with most Android phones. With its beautiful round face and leather or metal bands, the Moto 360 does everything that an android watch is supposed to do. Available in India for Rs 17,999.
app OF THE YEAr Android Z Launcher
Using Android can sometimes be a painful experience. The Z Launcher shows apps based on what you have used in the past and depending on the context like the time of the day. You can even launch apps by just scribbling the first letter of the app on the screen. And since it learns from your actions, it gets better with usage so you can get the most out of your Android phone. Best of all, it is available for free.
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