iPhone: A-
By measure of size of the market, it could be considered that the iPhone is Apple's most important product launch since the Mac. Within six months of launching, the iPhone came and overtook Windows Mobile in US marketshare. The UI turned out brilliant, and the keyboard and lack of 3G turned out to be pretty minor problems. (Important and fresh as it is, missing features and the initial $599 price caused us to recommend people wait to buy it.)

There were some problems outside the product, though. The price drop from $599 to $399 had early adopters very unhappy, and Jobs' peace offering of a $100 dollar rebate earned criticism too. (Even from Woz) iPhone hackers met resistance as Apple's firmwares setup obstacles to installing apps. And I still have a bricked iPhone here that ate it after firmware 1.1.1 killed iPhones unlocked using the iPhone Dev Team's AnySIM program. Apple's official fix, "Buy a new one", didn't sit well with anyone, but it's clear they weren't going to go out of their way to work with hacks. Especially those that threatened their revenue sharing agreement they set up with AT&T. We kicked and screamed for 3rd party programs; Jobs eventually wrote another letter revealing that the iPhone would get a public SDK, with security safeguards, come February. Even before then, unofficial app developers have patched so many of the phone's shortcomings, such as MMS, location awareness on the maps and custom ringtones. For the record, and against my cautious "wait to buy" verdict, I've been using the iPhone on and off since launch and loving it in spite of its flaws. 31% of Giz readers are doing the same, according to a recent poll.

Leopard OS: A
Leopard finally shipped into our desktops and hearts. After two Worldwide Developer Conferences and several months of iPhone-induced delays, Leopard launched. It was an understated occasion in the best possible way for Apple. Bugs were squashed with a patch issued about two weeks later, and although there are some quirky new features, Leopard's best trait is an overall streamlining of daily use: quickly turning emails into to-do or calendar items with a few clicks; Quick Look's ability to scan large amounts of media quickly; etc. Compare that to Vista, which PC World just dubbed the biggest disappointment of the year, while Dell reissued XP sales. A quiet launch is a good launch, although Apple did report 2 million in sales in the first weekend. (Relatively speaking, Leopard had a better adoption rate than Vista, but by absolutes, the much bigger Windows user base ended up snatching 20 million copies of Vista in the first month.) If you actually think Vista is better, more power to you: OS X's Boot Camp was upgraded this year to support Vista in case you forgot. Game over, man, game over.

iPods: A-
For a while, almost every major competitor (Creative, SanDisk, Zune) has had a product ladder that trumped the Apple model they targeted with features, like stronger format support, built-in FM tuners, video playback or price. This year Apple fought back with the iPod touch's UI and superior screen-to-surface-area ratio borrowed from the iPhone. It also introduced the video-capable nano, one we initially called "fat" but later recognized as having the same fine lines as any Italian automobile: Contoured and sharp at the same time, ultimately the nicest feeling in one's tight jeans. The classic is there to satiate those who prefer to carry their entire music collection at once, but I resent its title given that it does not come in white. The shuffle was designed for gyms, junior family members and Xmas stockings, and only Apple could spin the lack of an LCD—something quickly becoming standard in the premium-cheapo MP3 players arena—as an asset and namesake.

As its been, the iPod continues to be the focal point of Apple's mainstream power, with plenty of Windows-indoctrinated iPod owners dipping their toes into the Mac water and finding out they appreciate iPod-like computers and cellphones. Lack of advanced codec support for DivX and the like continues to be an ignorant stance on how users are finding content these days. (This would not be as much as of issue if the video store was more fully stocked, hint hint.)

Computers: A
The Mac product line has been updating much quicker than in the PowerPC days, with updates coming weeks behind Windows machine counterparts. The 15-inch MacBook Pro got a noteworthy midyear update to LED backlighting and Santa Rosa chips, and the iMac got a new glass face and a beautiful aluminum case stamped from a single piece of metal. Both are outstanding models and values, with the MacBook Pro earning PC World's title of fastest Vista notebook ever, and consumer reports rating them higher than all other notebooks.

The Mac mini and the MacBook standard got some minor speed bumps, but no breathtaking updates. The powerful Mac Pro desktops seem to be destined for workplace use, as the mainstream's love for all-in-ones and notebooks grows quarter after quarter. (In Q3, notebook sales were up 34% from 2006; a full 62% of sales were notebooks.) There is a place in my heart for a 12-inch notebook to replace the G4-powered PowerBook, but this could be rectified by the announcement of the long rumored ultralight MacBook in Macworld '08. Crossing my fingers. Also, to be fair, these notebooks need to all start packing LED backlighting, flash SSD drives and 3G connections to stay competitive in 2008. Card readers wouldn't hurt either.

TV, Hollywood and Music Industry Cooperation: D
Jobs wrote that open letter to the music industry asking for a stop to DRM. EMI and Jobs broke the news that they'd be doing DRM-free music on iTunes initially but competitors like Amazon caught up while iTunes started to stall. The movie list on iTunes continues to be not so great, even if it did just pick up Trading Places (Mortimer!). I'm not sure this problem is Apple's fault. The powers that be in old guard media just don't want all that power of distribution to aggregate in iTunes. ITunes is my favorite program for media loading to a portable, but Matt Buchanan, Giz writer, explains it best here:

When you open up the iTunes store, "shaky" is probably not the first word that springs to mind as a description for its relationship with content providers. But anyone searching for their favorite video content is going to find some holes. The NBC flameout was just the loudest rumble, causing iTunes to lose a lot of its most popular TV content while NBC pushed this video Netflix and Amazon and some other sites, while co-founding its own free video service, Hulu, with Fox . Don't forget Universal Music gave iTunes the finger as well on a long-term contract, and now supplies non-DRM music to iTunes competitors Wal-Mart and Amazon. It may even go on its own there too. This is a problem when you're talking about a provider responsible for 40 percent of iTunes' video downloads and the largest catalog of music on the planet. The iTunes/iPod monopoly fear is also why movie prices might shoot up and long-rumored rentals are total vapor. Something's gotta give, and so far no one's blinking.

Apple TV: C
Apple didn't try very hard here. The execution is solid, but underwhelming. Its foot is in the living-room door, but as Jobs described Apple TV at All Things D, it's a hobby for the company clearly focused on its computers and its portable phone and music players. The YouTube addition announced at All Things D as an honor to Mossberg's event was nice. How about we go to a full-on Mac mini DVR hybrid and get an OS X machine with an extended Front Row menu capability for couch surfing.

Rumor Control: C
The new game: When Apple C&D's a publication, you can call it proof that the photo belongs to them, and that the device is at least a prototype, like in the case of the leaked iPod nano shots. At least Apple must be satisfied that Think Secret is dead (RIP), but its not like they were responsible for the major body of Apple leaks and rumors in 2007. (See Media Control section below.) This year, Apple brought many rumors to life; in 2008, we have rumors of ultralight laptops and multitouch Macs, and the second coming of the iPhone. What I want in 2008 is a left-field product no one has even thought of before, announced at a keynote, previously unleaked. Boom.

Keynote Reality Distortion Field: B The January Macworld iPhone announcements were epic. The fact that the phone remained unleaked alone was a miracle. Even the malfunctions were decent: Jobs used a frozen slide as an opportunity to tell some stories about pranks that he and Woz pulled off in their younger years, making the event more personal. At the end, Steve thanked families of Apple for understanding late nights at work without knowing what was being built. After it was done, there were no demos of iPhones, just a prototype taunting us in 360 degrees as it rotated in its glass case. At WWDC, iMac and iPod launches later in the year, forementioned product leaks and reinterative presentations on Leopard took the steam out of most events. Steve's boom count was lower than at previous events, too, and stock prices dropped (a bit) afterwards as Wall Street was left without much significant new product to get excited about.

Media Control: N/A
Some think that Apple coverage in the papers and blogs seem blown out of proportion to other tech coverage. It has even been suggested by the occasional chemically unbalanced Zune fan that I give Steve Jobs blowjobs. All that venom, found in the comments of this site and in emails, have made me a little afraid to express my appreciation for the work the Cupertino kids do. If anything, we expect a lot more from them, and are unforgiving when they fuck up. (Again, I bring up our iPhone recommendation.) So I find that integrity for a gadget journo in 2007 meant delivering honest Apple verdicts at the risk of appearing a shill. (There is nothing more frightening for a tech hardware journalist than this.) But at least we were not alone. The mainstream big hitters like Pogue and Mossy have always loved Apple's work. But this year, PC Magazine's crusty John Dvorak proved that even the toughest critics have warmed this year. I recall that Consumer Reports ranked the 15 and 17-MacBook Pros best in class in a recent buyer's guide (although not the standard MacBooks) and PC World's tested a MacBook Pro to be the fastest machine running Vista at the time they went to press. Time's iPhone "Gadget of the Year" magazine cover made me want to freaking barf, but its not untrue. Apple has had the best year in recent history and I hope they meet the high expectations we've formed for them in 2008. Regarding the Think Secret settlement announced this week, if they start offering buckets of cash to this publication to stop rumor mongering, it isn't going to get them very far.

Final Grade: A

[Gizmodo's Year-End Report Cards 2008]

Xbox 360: A-
Microsoft, you have to be happy as hell that you pushed Xbox 360 out of the gate a year before the PS3 and the Wii. Console sales have been great, staying ahead of Sony and only recently challenged by Nintendo. This is fueled by two factors: a better selection of hot games like Halo 3 and BioShock and the only real implementation of live online gaming in the console world. The Xbox Live community has even allowed you to pilot programs for HD video downloading and all sorts of other media treats that make Sony (and Apple) nervous. Sadly for HD DVD buffs, compatibility with that format is not one of the selling points, or you would have included it in your recently revamped HDMI-equipped 1080p Xbox 360 Elite.

Performance aside, I would say that the only mark against you on this front is the hardware itself. I personally would like some kind of Xbox 360 Ultimate with integrated with HD DVD, but even if that doesn't happen, it's still pretty noisy, and the Red Rings of Death are getting to be more than just a clever punchline.

Zune 2: B+
The Zune is one of those products that gets shat on just for being what it is, but the first one really was a weak contender. Why start with an HDD player when, in 2006, flash-memory giant SanDisk shook Apple to the core with an affordable low-frills nano challenger? Apple owned the higher-end hard-drive based media-player market, but could be challenged more easily in flash memory. Still, I'll admit that as of June, the Zune share was something around a respectable 11%.

Fast forward to October, and you get it much closer to the bull's-eye, with a flash player in four non-brown colors, plus wireless syncing and a slightly more lenient over-the-air sharing policy. Missing were two key customer demands: the ability to purchase songs over Wi-Fi, and the availability of movies and TV shows in the online Zune Marketplace.

The absence of those features wouldn't have been such a trauma if it weren't for the fact that Apple's iPod touch, which lets users buy songs over the air, had just arrived in stores, while the iPhone got an upgrade to do the same. Ironically, sales of your thin new 80GB player may be boosted by some frustrations with the iPod classic, which was introduced at the same time.

We're still a long way from seeing many Zunes in subways, and even longer off from that great social day when strangers are sharing Zune tracks on those same subways. My own personal opinion is "yawn" but I'm not going to begrudge you your successful attempt to jump well into the middle of the non-iPod pack.

Windows Home Server: A-
When I first peeped the WHS this past summer, I was impressed by the wealth of features it presented, such as smooth network file sharing, centralized daily backups and web-based remote access. The "media furnace" concept has always appealed to me, and it was nice to see Microsoft's server division creating a home product that didn't seem to have all of the emotional and technical baggage of the Windows franchise. Beta response was overwhelmingly positive, and it appeared a slam dunk was in order. Though I had my minor troubles in testing it, the platform itself is getting rave reviews. Lately, I've heard talk from both inside Microsoft and just outside of it that the next WHS might even offer full support to Macs as well, just thing thing for hybrid homes like mine.

Windows Vista: D
Let's cut the blather about new functionality and early-adoption growing pains and all that: New operating systems are supposed to run smoother than older ones. In my own life, three Vista machines proved unable to meet the mobile rigors of blogging in the field. I had used both Macs and PCs for years, but my primary devices had been PCs. Unable to find a Windows laptop that could hold up, I turned to a certain machine with the initials MBP, and can report zero regrets to date, even with the impulsive day-of update to Leopard.

Let me repeat that, so any people who accuse me of fanboyism can wrap their heads around it: I was trying hard to find a Windows machine that I could work on. I tested a handful of them, all without satisfactory results. Then, and only then, did I switch to a Mac for full-time use. Incidentally, my dad switched, too, and is enjoying his new iMac.

You can blame the OEMs for the troubles, but they blame you: In recent my conversations with execs from big PC makers, one said that the good news about Apple gaining market share is that maybe, just maybe, Microsoft would "get the picture" and work harder to build a better product. Just yesterday, another exec told me that customers were "crying like schoolgirls" to get XP put back onto shipped Vista machines.

Windows Mobile: D
My feelings about Windows Mobile were best expressed in a sentence from my hastily written Motorola Q9m mini-review: "Seriously, if you buy this phone, you are dumb." Frustrated as I've become with the platform, I turned to the coolest head I know—Jason Chen—for a reality check, but his thorough, non-biased evaluation of Windows Mobile proved almost all of my gut instincts correct. WM6 is not the improvement that was needed to fix what's broken, and it doesn't look like that will come now until at least WM8. Thanks for the heads-up, Microsoft, but telling us to wait that long for something that has the features commonly found in Treos, BlackBerrys and yes, iPhones, is not very alluring.

Like I said, this has not been the easiest year for you, but then again, out of some unexpected places came some against-all-odds victories, and you should be proud. Just please, for the love of all things holy, get crackin' on an OS that might convince the switchers that you haven't just given up. By the by, I'm really looking forward to the new Office... for Mac.

Final Grade: B-

The PlayStation 3 kicked off a surprisingly strong year with the introduction of folding@home, an app intended to distract people from the thin library of games. If you can't play Final Fantasy, the least you could do is help cure Parkinsons. Then there's the upcoming Second Life-esque Home, along with web browsing and installing Linux—activities which occupy the time that you could be spent gaming.

Good news continued as Sony's XBR5 and XBR4 series of LCD TVs rolled out to critical acclaim. Even the killing off of its rear-projection TVs represented a forward-looking move, and another example of Sony owning up to its problems. We'll miss the 70-inch 70XBR5 for a little while, but by this time next year we'll probably be dazzled by some other sweet set. If Sony still knows how to do one thing, it's manufacture quality hardware.

...But if Sony knows how to do two things, it's make proprietary formats that nobody likes, as evidenced by their killing off the ATRAC format. We're glad to see it go, but many consumers are still peeved at having it forced down their meat hole all these years.

Things were looking good on the home front as the slimmed-down second edition of the PSP sold 1 million in only two months. I even pondered aloud that the PSP might even be able to catch up to the DS someday, although that was somewhat of a fantasy situation.

Sony did manage to beat the Nintendo Wii in sales for four straight weeks, something nobody thought could be done without some sort of Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy injection. Are the hardcore gamers in Japan finally warming up to the PS3 because of its media functionality, or are they snapping it up because of the recent influx of decent games? Probably both.

Despite all the improvements the PS3 has had this year, Sony still managed to slap consumers with one hand while taking money from them with the other. Of course, we're talking about the gradual elimination of backward compatibility. It was first reduced to software-only emulation on the 80GB system, and then eliminated entirely on the 40GB version. If you can't play PS2 games, you're gonna have to buy our PS3 games! Right?

Sony's Blu-ray format pulled out a sizeable lead in 2007 over the rival HD DVD, even though Sony's own CEO Howard Stringer says that the fight isn't that important and the two sides are in a stalemate. Nevertheless, the fact that Blu-ray is kicking butts in terms of players in homes (thanks to the PS3) and titles sold bodes well for the format.

Don't think Sony could pull out an untarnished victory, as Blu-ray wasn't without its gaffes for the year. Not only were there compatibility problems between different Blu-ray players when playing back discs, it happened multiple times. Then there's that whole BD Profile 1.1 mess: bottom line, Sony's standalone players don't support the latest interactive discs, even ones being released by Sony's own home video division. People have to buy a Panasonic (or update the firmware on their PS3) for compatibility.

Overall, they've had a good year. We've seen good product releases from all over the consumer electronics spectrum with no crazy rootkit scandal to speak of. The PlayStation 3 and PSP are finally gaining steam, and the Blu-ray format seems to be doing well for itself. If it weren't for the missteps, Sony would have received an A—but a B+ is nothing to be ashamed of.

Final Grade: B+

The iPhone is undoubtedly the hottest story in tech this year, whether you wanna lick it, spit on it or do something downright unseemly to it. And AT&T locked up the exclusive rights, scoring a huge, huge win. Of course, it rearranged AT&T into more like an ATM for Apple, but by and by, it's getting what it paid is paying for, despite pesky, persistent little hackers. A

But! The major problem everyone has with the iPhone (before we ditch the subject, honest) is actually AT&T. I mean, Apple even tried to take it to Verizon first. Burn, no? AT&T has got a crummy-ass network, and EDGE is only part of the problem, even after "Operation Fine Edge." Twue, its 3G network's a little better than before, but still way behind Verizon's—not that it matters for iDrones anyway. 'Til next year. D+

In addition to the iPhone, the rest of its hardware is pretty decent too, and even if you aren't bonkers over its lineup, it still beats Verizon on two fronts. One, there is no standardized Lifesaver-red interface gunking your phone up. Two, AT&T is a GSM carrier, so if you don't like what it's got, just bring your own sleeker wares from Europe or Asia, pop in an AT&T SIM card and you're good to go, as long as your wallet can take the beating an unlocked phone will probably give it. (OMG, open access! Wait a second...) B

Wireless is always the most popular, but let's not forget that AT&T has a tight grip on landline data and voice, too. Take its fiber service, for instance, part of the U-Verse IP service. Like Verizon, AT&T is getting it out there as fast it can despite some kinks, but Verizon is smoking it speed-wise, offering 20Mbps down and upstream on its entire FiOS network, plus a killer 50Mbps down/20 up in some places. AT&T's U-verse's top package is a barely competitive-with-cable 6Mbps down. "Elite" package, my ass—worse, that's only getting boosted to 10Mbps in Q1 2008. The problem is that AT&T has been mostly pushing a cheaper "fiber to the neighborhood," copper-to-your-door approach, rather than a "fiber to the premises" one, so Verizon has bandwidth to spare that AT&T just don't, though it's starting to see the fat-pipes light with more FTTP deployment. But, kudos on the recently juiced Britney-sized backbone network. C

Hey, guess what? Seriously shady government collusion earns you no points in our book, even if the FCC is willing to look the other way, and Congress (almost) let you totally slide. Passing Uncle Sam intensely personal conversations about my toenail-clipping habits is so rude, especially without a warrant. While we're on the subject, a network-wide content filter would be a dick move, too. Fail

Sorry AT&T, we know we're being a little harsh but it's only because we want you to be better. And you have been better to us, at least to our faces. After that whole thin-skin Terms of Service fiasco, you took the magic lawyer eraser pen and made it less evil. And now you're pro-rating early termination fees like a nice guy. Like a champ, you're offering a data-only plan for the deaf. Though if you didn't step up on that one, everyone would've called you an asshole for hating the deaf. You even found time to get all BFF with us, and your candor is appreciated. B+

Odds and ends: AT&T made a big 700MHz move that it'll likely plug the holes in with the 700MHz spectrum auction for nationwide coverage. Even though it followed Google and Verizon into the auction, it did not follow them into the Open Handset Alliance, the only major carrier to abstain completely. Why not join up? Even Verizon did, and the word "open" used to make Verizon cower under a desk. It's like a country club, only with a lot more money. B-

AT&T's dizzying ups and breathtaking lows actually average out to a pretty, well, average score. Even the peak of its year, the iPhone, wasn't totally fig pudding, though by no means did all of its mishaps fall on AT&T's head. (Just a lot.) Some of the lows were pretty low, like Anakin screaming "NooOOOooOo" at the end of Revenge of the Sith. But with a 3G iPhone, faster and larger wireless and fiber networks (minus gov't backdoors and copyright dragnets), the door is very much open for AT&T to Strike Back next year.

Final Grade: C

Open to New Ideas: A
Dell shipped PCs with the easy-to-use Linux operating system Ubuntu, and although all the included drivers weren't open-source, the move pushed more developers to create drivers that were.

Keeps Workspace Neat and Clean/Green: A
Dell agrees to recycle your old PC/monitor free if you buy one of its PCs, even if your old rig isn't a Dell. Bravo.

Obeys the Honor Code: F
Dell admitted to four years of cooking the books, falsifying quarterly financial returns from 2003 to 2006. Oops. "You know that extra $150 million we said we earned?," Dell might have said. "Disregard that, but still, our net income for those years was $12 billion."

Keeps Hands to Itself: B
The company eliminated almost all crapware, that is, free-trial junk software, from its Dimension and Inspiron notebooks and high-end XPS systems.

Helpful to Those in Trouble: C
Dell's tech support isn't too good these days. The State of New York filed suit against the company because the company's "exasperated consumers, fed up with the endless runaround and ineffective technical support, resort to paying a third party to fix their equipment...even though it is covered by a Dell warranty or service contract." But then again, a Consumer Reports survey reported even more problems with other computer manufacturers, including HP and Compaq laptops, which had "significantly lower satisfaction scores than Dell in our ratings."

Respects Tradition: B Reintroduced Windows XP for all the Windows Vista whiners.

Competes Well With Others: C Dell lost ground on the business front this year. PC-making rival HP widened its lead over Dell in worldwide sales. According to market research firm iSuppli, HP had a market share of 19.1% to Dell's 14.6% at the end of this year's third quarter. HP's market share moved up from 16.5% last year while Dell's moved down from 16.3% last year. Even in the face of that stiff competition, Dell's earnings were up 26% from a year ago.

Good Values: A For example, get an excellent 24-inch widescreen LCD display for $399.

Personal Appearance: A Dell's marketing push this year started including gorgeous babes, a big plus in our book. The gear itself wasn't so shabby either; in all, perhaps Dell's best-looking products yet.

FINAL EXAM GRADE (Theme: New Products): A-

B-: Latitude XT Tablet
Long awaited, much ballyhooed, but still no haps yet. Available next month. The 3.57-pounder will start at $2499 with Core 2 Solo or Duo options and the choice of a sweet 64GB SSD or 120GB HDD, and a capactitive touchscreen. But it's still, in the end, an expensive tablet without fully operational multitouch software. Maybe we'll change our mind when we play with it.

A: Precision Workstations
Excellent. Dell released Quad-Core Penryn T54300 and T7400 workstations, both capable of 8-core configurations.

A-: The gorgeous XPS M1330
A 13-inch laptop with an LED-backlit screen, SSD, Consumer Reports rated it higher (67 to 59) than the soon-to-be-replaced Apple MacBook 13-inch. The Dell cost $130 more but has a faster processor. Only real prob with the thing was that it sold out quickly and Dell couldn't keep up with the demand at first.

B: Dell XPS M1530
The 1530s are now available for order, but when will they ship? Specs include a 15.4-inch fairly low-rez 1280x800 screen that's not LED-backlit (m1330 is), optional 64GB SSD, 6 lb. weight. Looks purdy with that red top, though you can get it in black or white for $25 less. Even has optional Blu-ray and superfast 200GB 7200rpm drive. Total package: $2929, though "preliminary" ship date is showing 1/2/2008.

A-: Dell XPS One
Design is ok, but its ATI Radeon HD 2400 graphics card (same as in the 20" iMac ) sucks. However, according to PC Magazine, the Dell XPS One ($2,399 direct) easily outclasses its all-in-one competitor (and namesake?) the Gateway One, and matches or surpasses the Apple iMac, long the "gold standard" of all-in-ones.

A Open to New Ideas
A Keeps Workspace Neat and Clean/Green
F Obeys the Honor Code
B Keeps Hands to Itself
C Helpful to Those in Trouble
B Respects Tradition
C Competes Well With Others
A Good Values
A Personal Appearance
A- Final Exam

Final Grade: B

This was the year that DRM stopped cramping online music stores, and that's in some part due to Wal-Mart's insistence on selling DRM-free tunes. Together with Amazon, it's one of two major online retailers selling MP3 files. And while the MP3 store is still pretty lousy, Wal-Mart's push to have the last major-label holdouts drop DRM will be good for us all. If that happens, Wal-Mart's influence will at least have something to do with it.

This year has also seen the prices of HD DVD and Blu-ray players drop significantly, thanks in part to Wal-Mart's pressures. Wal-Mart's size gives them huge influence over the industry, and earlier this year when it went around that Wal-Mart was pushing for cheapo HD DVD players it gave the then-suffering HD DVD camp a shot in the arm. The push for cheaper players makes us happy.

In addition to using its influence to bring down pricing in the HD disc war, it also used it to try and break up Microsoft's Windows dominance by introducing a $200 Linux gPC to their generally non-techy clientele. It was a ballsy move, one clearly motivated by desire to sell cheaper computers over the desire to stick it to Microsoft, but stick it to Redmond it did. There's no bigger retailer out there who has the power to introduce an alternate OS to the masses and make it seem friendly, and that's just what Wal-Mart did. (Of course, we think the reason the gPC sold out so fast was because of Linux fanboys in search of cauldrons for their potions, but you never know.)

Things aren't all forward-thinking at Wal-Mart, though. They still do a lot of the stuff that's earned them a horrible reputation for years now. They refuse to carry movies and CDs that they deem "inappropriate," at times arbitrarily pulling products from shelves—or at least that's how it seems. Consumers should get to choose what they want to buy; they don't need retailers to act as babysitters and decide what is and isn't appropriate.

As for the brutal labor practices, there's still a lot we think is totally uncool to, but to be fair, Wal-Mart is introducing a much-improved health care plan next month. Still, don't look for the reputation of Wal-Mart retail jobs to get a lot better anytime soon. Everybody knows the store is full of miserable employees half-assedly serving miserable customers.

So kudos, Wal-Mart, for being more forward-thinking in the tech department than I would have ever expected. Keep it up! When the gigantic, faceless companies that make up the RIAA and the MPAA want anti-consumer practices to become the norm, we need other gigantic, faceless companies to stand up to them, and if it's gonna be you I'll take it. And if you're gonna make next-gen disc players cheaper for everyone, I'll thank you for that. But I'll still never set foot in one of your stores. I'll admit to cautiously admiring some of your moves from afar but your reduced letter grade is because of the human cost: you really should treat your employees better.

Final Grade: C

[Gizmodo's Year-End Report Cards]

Verizon's smoking final exam score is its sudden, totally stunning turn to the Light Side of the Force, publicly embracing an "any app, any device" open network as the One True Path. It's like Vader turning at the end of Jedi. Or the Emperor, even. To continuing abusing the SW metaphors, Palpatine only wishes he could've gripped the galaxy as tightly as Verizon gripped its network. The only catch we know of so far is that its own handsets may well continue to be locked tight, but overall it was a huge—possibly the best—twist ending of the year.

We've still gotta dock them for bitterly and persistently trying to mow down the open access provisions Google got the FCC to put in place for the 700MHz auction. It sorta makes us wonder if we're seeing Verizon's Senator Palpatine act. Then again, it did kiss and make up with the Goog, and is going with a more open standard for its 4G network, one that will be shared with (get this!) GSM carriers in the US and abroad.

Speaking of "the network" (sorry), it's been a pretty good one for users. On the mobile front, Verizon upgraded every city to EV-DO Rev. A,which in English means can download stuff over the air fast if you've got the coverage (1.4Mbps, or 8 secs for a 1MB file). We're not down with the flippy-floppiness about data caps though. V CAST Mobile TV also debuted, though the Giz jury is still out on the whole mobile TV concept.

It's easy to forget Verizon is also the provider of landline and broadband services, but on that front, it's done well too. Its FiOS network kept getting more awesome (read: faster) and we got assurances it would just keep making us cable users more and more murderously jealous. Not only did the carrier roll out a torrent-tastic 20Mbps down/20Mbps up symmetrical plan, they brought it to the whole network and offered their speediest service yet, 50Mbps downstream, creeping us ever closer to true Godzilla bandwidth. Negative points: It's probably still not coming to your house.

AT&T may have the iPhone, and there might not be an iPhone killer in sight, but Verizon still has a (usually)solid lineup of gear. More importantly, the phones work well all over the place, so the carrier continues to win JD Power & Associate customer satisfaction awards, soundly beating other networks (*cough*AT&T*cough*Sprint*cough*). We still grimace at the unsightly Verizon standard interface appearing on all too many phones, though openness is the answer. Even now, the Verizon phones we most love don't have a Verizon interface.

The carrier's formerly deathlock contracts are now less constricting, a big win for customer satisfaction, but there's still plenty of reasons to piss and moan about the some aspects of customer service.

Verizon was also a willing hand in the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, turning over untold amounts of data to help the government spy on Americans. Big thumbs down, even if they probably aren't going to get spanked for it.

Final grade: B- Overall, Verizon can be a mixed bag, but (and it's a pretty big "but") if its moves to be more open are truly in earnest, the carrier might lead the mobile industry down a much more interesting path than it looked to be on even just a few months ago.

For better, for worse or for Google, it sent the formerly locked-tight mobile-phone industry into an open-access hysteria. True, Android and the Open Handset Alliance are still (mostly) pretty logos and promises on paper. But for a bunch of talk, it's lead to some very real action, like helping nudge Verizon out of its ugly, red-walled garden. All this gesturing might actually change the industry.

Android aside, we can really give Google props for helping to break the mobile industry via its hard fight for open-access provisions in the 700MHz spectrum auction. The provisions themselves could change the game for all telecoms, and Google doesn't even need to win!

If anyone thought Google was approaching the limits of its growth earlier in the year, Wall Street proved 'em wrong when gPhone hype pushed its stock past the $700-per-share mark, making it the fifth most valuable company in America. It's comfortably resting now at the hype-free level of about $670, over $550 more than the initial price of around $120. (At the time, many investors say that was too high.)

Google kept up the "don't be evil" motto by pumping lots of money into green energy and green research. Maybe this is because they believe in a better tomorrow, but maybe it's just to power their Matrix-like server farms without resorting to turning runaway Microsoft employees into living batteries.

On the Google application front, its office suite is still no Office-killer, and we still have some kinks we wish could be worked out of the Reader, but Google did make our lives easier in a couple ways, like by dropping the invite requirement to Gmail, adding IMAP support and getting even more iPhone-friendly. Yay. And, just the other day, it threw down with Wikipedia by launching its latest collect-all-knowledge component, Knol, which'll pay contributors—with ads. (Surprise.)

Owning YouTube kinda caught up to Google, and we're kinda sore on that front—it got sued by Viacom, bitched at by other media companies and then had to implement a content-filtering system. But possibly even more egregious was its addition of overlay ads.

Now for even less palatable stuff: Google knows pretty much everything about you and everyone you've ever loved and that probably won't ever change, even if it is trying to be a little less creepy. For instance, Google will still have all the info you think you're erasing from Ask.com. And, it still plays nice with ethically dubious—to be generous—Chinese censorship regulations to ensure its grip on a chunk of the massive and growing market over there, which doesn't exactly line up with the "don't be evil" screed. Even Sergey thinks so.

And the ads. It's much pretty much a given the catch on any Google goodness is that there'll be some sort of advertising wedged in there—true, nothing worth paying for is totally free, and Google doesn't appear game for charging monthly fees for every little service, like Microsoft and Yahoo! now do. But Google going mobile means ads becoming an increasingly unavoidable part of your mobile life— AdSense for Mobile is all fired up. It seems the lovely mobile industry freedom Google's fighting for isn't free. It costs a buck-oh-five—or a contextual spot.

Final grade: B But we think this grade is slippery: next year, Google will either be A+ or D. What Google is doing is either a massive greed-motivated build-up or a series of initiatives intended to change the tech business (and our world) for the better. In two semesters, we think we'll know if either is true—or if both are.

Mobile Phones & Devices: A+
This year, Samsung socked it to Moto and took second place behind the Big N in worldwide phone marketshare. The BlackJack II smartphone met with sound critical acceptance in a tricky field, handsets such as the Armani phone gave Samsung some needed style cred, and mobile boundaries were stretched (as well they should) with devices like the Q1 Ultra. There were some beefs, like the fact that the original BlackJack hasn't yet seen an official Windows Mobile 6 update, and let-downs, like the 5-megapixel G800 "photographer's choice," but overall, Samsung is winning the device game.What impresses us most though is Samsung's aggressive pursuit of openness and network agnosticism. It's a founding member of Google's Open Handset Alliance, and has been the first company to openly promote "femtocell" devices to enhance cellular reception in your own home via a network-connected cellular access point. In Korea, Samsung is showing off its second-generation of WiMax phones, which will someday run on Sprint's Xohm network. Meanwhile, it just joined Nokia's 3GPP group to roll out the LTE protocol for super crazy fast wireless from a GSM-based network, one that both Verizon and AT&T plan to adopt.

Cameras and Camcorders: C
Samsung has been left totally in the dust in the camera business, and it's mainly because the camera division operates independently from both the mobile and consumer electronics businesses. I've played around with a few, but I have no interest because the traditional camera makers Nikon and Canon, along with the photo-savvier CE companies Sony and Panasonic, keep me plenty busy with the highest-quality shooters.

Camcorders are a different thing, because they are part of Samsung Electronics. The trouble is, while Samsung is doing a decent job of developing cool-looking lower-priced cameras that use flash memory and get clips online in a hurry, the real video business has vanished into point-and-shoot cameras, which will all soon be HD capable. Samsung's real mistake is in not reorganizing its camera division closer to its other electronics.

Storage of All Shapes and Sizes: A+
There's no way to make this business sexier than Samsung has this year, with the introduction of 2.5" 64GB flash SSDs to take your laptop to lightspeed, as well as super-small 1.3" HDDs that are on the horizon which may answer my personal yearning for an iPod touch with decent capacity.

In addition to flash and HDDs, Samsung introduced a long overdue innovation in optical disc technology this year, a slot-loading drive that handles both full-size and 8cm discs. This is most helpful for people who use those little DVD camcorders, but with HD DVD and Blu-ray still on the rise, there's no telling how popular 8cm discs will be in the future, so it's wise of Sammy to plan ahead.

MP3 Players: B
Samsung is in the media player business mostly because it can be. As the supplier of a vast quantity of the world's flash memory, it can get the chips presumably at cost, while easily integrating developments for its booming cellphone business (OLEDs; touchscreens; Bluetooth chips) as well. The thing is, it feels like Samsung isn't aggressive in this business, because it makes money whether it sells a YP player or Apple sells an iPod. Samsung competitor SanDisk has been far more aggressive, forging partnerships with Real and Yahoo, and spinning its successful music-player business into an increasingly diverse portfolio of media players with content deals to back them up. Samsung's latest product, the P2 touchscreen music and video player was a good example of the deflated enthusiasm. One key selling point was that it had Bluetooth, so you could use it as a music-playing speakerphone for your cellphone. But when it launched, the software wasn't ready. In other words, reviewers couldn't test the single most unique attribute, so it fell back into a crowd of non-nanos.

Blu-ray and HD DVD: B+
Promised software updates seemed to be a trend this year for Samsung. On one hand, this promotes the future-looking technology on hand, gadgets that can be upgraded after purchase. But it also allows Samsung to be slow with certain things.

The P2's delayed Bluetooth update is not nearly as significant as the hotly anticipated and positively reviewed BD-UP5000 combo Blu-ray and HD DVD player. We've been stoked since the early buzz, but there's this nagging sensation that it's too good to be true. After all, its promised December arrival has been postponed to January, and even then, it will require an online update to be ready to play the "final standard" or "profile 1.1" Blu-ray discs slated to arrive starting in early 2008. That said, when the update does come, the BD-UP5000 will be one of only four players on the market to be able to read these discs. Sony's PlayStation 3 will probably get an update in the next few days, but neither Sony's electronics division and Blu-ray champion Pioneer will have such a compatible player.It's funny that Samsung is both exploring the world outside of Blu-ray while being a stalwart supporter of that format as well, with not only one of the first 1.1 players, but also in easing its BD-P1400 down in price to where a confused consumer base might actually buy a free-standing Blu-ray player, that is, down to the $299 level.

[I just want to say that this letter grade, for the Blu-ray and HD DVD section, was written in pencil: as soon as the BD-UP5000 ships and gets updated to full Blu-ray 1.1 capability, I will happily change this to an A. Ditto if the BD-P1400 starts selling openly for under $200!]

TVs: A-
This year, Samsung saw its market share slip a little in the LCD business, as Sony took back some ground and smaller Chinese brands such as Vizio moved cheap product up into pole position. But what it lost in quantity, it's made up for in quality. Samsung LCDs are consistently the best-reviewed products around, especially the 81 series characterized by LED backlighting and 120Hz motion-blur reduction. In its first technical review, HDGuru Gary Merson said it had very high motion resolution, better than most 120Hz LCDs and even some plasmas.Samsung is pushing hard in all areas of TV technology. Its experiments in high-def wireless video streaming have led me to believe that we might actually take the concept of wireless TV seriously next year.

It's also doing its best to play in the OLED sandbox: word on the street is that come CES, Samsung will show off a 40-inch OLED TV. It's a crazy technical feat, and one that other electronics makers seem to think is impossible. In a little over two weeks, we'll know for sure.

Extra Credit: Keeping It Green
Samsung deserves bonus points this year for coming out on top of Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics, neck and neck with Sony Ericsson. That's not to say it's Kermit-green, by hippy standards, but it is to say that, among the titans, it is the most granola.

Overall Grade: A

• Things were looking up for the Wii at the start of the year after it completely sold out during the holidays—but it still managed to lose to the Xbox 360 in overall sales due to the fact that there weren't enough units available.

• Gut-check time for Nintendo as the first modchip became available in February. Would its laissez-faire attitude toward piracy on the DS and Wii continue to bite Nintendo in the ass? After all, there was little incentive to not mod your Wii since there's no punishment, like withholding Xbox Live service from pirate users for. Someone could just disconnect a system from the network and run all the free Wii games he likes.

• More bad news for Wii owners when Nintendo announces that there will be no third-party online games until the end of the year. This might seem to doom the Wii to the fate of the GameCube—great first-party support and yet utter lack of third-party support—but that doesn't seem to be the case. Third-party developers and publishers are falling over themselves to get stuff on the console that , at least in Japan, has already passed the GameCube in lifetime sales.

• Along with third-party software manufacturers, hardware manufacturers were also getting in on this motion-sensing gravy train. The Nyko Wii Party Station is only one of many Wii accessories we saw this year.

• Although Wiis were selling faster than they could make 'em, E3 brought a big upswing in interest as Nintendo unveiled the Wii Fit. Emphasizing a focus on casual gamers while still playing lip-service to hardcore fans, Ninty showed yet another clever means to get people who don't normally play games into its corner. It's still working, though the Wii Fit won't be out 'til the spring.

• The Xbox 360 finally bowed down to the Wii in overall sales in September, despite having been on the market about a year longer.

• Showing that this Christmas season will be as strong as the last for the big N, the DS set a game console sales record for Thanksgiving week at 653,000 units purchased.

• And, to top everything off, there's the fact that Wiis are still very hard to find. Not only is it the most talked about Christmas item for two years running, it's been the most talked about year-round item as well.

So here's how Nintendo did. Sales are phenomenal for both the Wii and DS, even while features were fairly few and far between. Sure, it announced DS Demo downloads and a upcoming developer channel for homebrew-ish games, but they aren't here now. And speaking of games, once you get past the first-party titles for the Wii like Super Mario Galaxy and every other game that has Mario in it, the library looks a bit thin. The DS, however, looks as strong as ever.

A Exhibits positive self image (Strong sales)
B+ Seeks help when appropriate (Let third-party developers in)
B- Focuses on task at hand (Interesting games, though not enough of them)
C Doesn't play well with others (Weak online support; friend codes are a joke on both Wii and DS)
C Tendency towards truancy (Hard to find in stores)
B+ Shows adequate attention (They're ramping up production, they promise)
B+ Makes responsible choices (Didn't can Manhunt 2)
A- Finishes required tasks (Got Mario Galaxy out the door)

Overall: A-