James’s Top 10 List of Everything for 2005
As the end of the year approaches I have read numerous “Top 10” lists on a myriad of subjects. Not to be outdone I have compiled my own Top 10 lists, several in fact. So, in no particular order, here are some of the best of the best for 2005.
Top 10 Apple Product Releases
10. iMacs with iSight built in
9. Dual core dual processor PowerMacs
8. iPod shuffle
7. Aperture
6. Front Row
5. ITMS sells video content
4. Video enabled iPod
3. iPod nano
2. Mac Mini
1. OS X Tiger
Top 10 Apple News Stories
10. Apple updates iTunes, then says “ha, gotcha!” and updates it again a month later
9. People will pay $1.99 to see an episode of Lost that they missed the night before
8. Steve Jobs becomes one with the Force
7. iPod owns 70% or more of the MP3 player market
6. Apple forces several MP3 makers to discontinue products due to fierce iPod competition
5. Mac viruses 0 vs Windows viruses 130,000+ (and the year ain’t over yet)
4. iPods will scratch because they aren’t made of adamantium
3. Apple aims for home entertainment market
2. Apple release video capable iPod
1. Apple goes Intel
Top 10 Industry Mistakes
10. Mighty Mouse. . .ugh
9. Xbox 360 doubles as game console & space heater (cooling? who needs it?)
8. Walmart loses philosophical battle with Jobs, decides to sell iPods
7. Vista (the name)
6. Companies thinking they could compete with the iPod
5. Thinking that the iTunes enabled phone from Motorola is worth the $
4. Sony Executive: “I know, root-kits! Yeah, that will work great!” (sorry, this was just so stupid I had to include it twice)
3. Microsoft, wanting to prove to the world that they are complete morons, demos its new “Live” software (it would have worked too, if the janitor hadn’t of unplugged the internet)
2. Vista (the product)
1. Sony root-kit (aka, goodbye public image, hello class action lawsuits)
Top 10 Products We Hope To Be Talking About In Next Year’s List
10. FrontRow 2.0
9. IE 7 (look everybody, it has this new feature called TABS, we think it will be big!) Taking suck to the next level
8. Playstation 3
7. Video iPod (don’t get this confused with an iPod that happens to play video)
6. A Linux distro designed for “normal people” (ha ha ha ha ha ha, keep dreaming)
5. ITMS expanded to include movies
4. Vista, released ahead of schedule and is bug free (sorry, heroin tends to mess up my concentration)
3. FireFox 2.0
2. Mac Mini Media Station
1. Intel Macs booting multiple operating systems
Top 10 Reasons Why Vista Is Delayed
10. Ballmer
9. We’re Microsoft, F#$K Schedules!
8. Gates found out that stealing is easy, innovation is hard
7. 20 year old company motto of “Ship it now, patch it for the next 6 years” no longer seems to work
6. Spent 2 years and countless millions to come up with new name, I guess because “Longhorn” just didn’t suck enough
5. Programmers confused about which security holes to leave in so that Microsoft can effectively sell “anti-virus” software to hordes of morons
4. Spent all their time getting Windows Live up and running
3. New windows file system looks really good on paper, much worse on screen
2. Mass exodus of best people to Google
1. Tried to copy too much from OS X, bit off me that they could chew, started choking
Top 10 Games That Must Come Out Before I Buy An Xbox 360
10. Halo 3
9. Halo 3
8. Halo 3
7. Halo 3
6. Halo 3
5. Halo 3
4. Halo 3
3. Halo 3
2. Halo 3
1. Halo 3
And there you have it, the best of the best top 10 list you will find anywhere. Merry Christmas everyone, can’t wait to do this again next year.
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“9. IE 7 (look everybody, it has this new feature called TABS, we think it will be big!) Taking suck to the next level
6. A Linux distro designed for “normal people” (ha ha ha ha ha ha, keep dreaming)
7. 20 year old company motto of “Ship it now, patch it for the next 6 years” no longer seems to work
5. Programmers confused about which security holes to leave in so that Microsoft can effectively sell “anti-virus” software to hordes of morons”
hahaha… gold!
Who cares about M$, what we will talk about by the end of next year is the Nintendo Revolution.
James, you beat me to the punch. I was going to suggest we all did lists in the last week or so.
Only a couple of things I’d disagree on:
Top Apple story:
#1 Mighty Mouse
Having been flamed to a crisp the week before for daring to suggest a multibutton mouse and feeling how passionate Apple users were about their one-button mouse, this was the biggest story of the year for me.
Next year’s top products:
Nintendo Revolution
I’m with BadBeaver.
This is going to be the console that breaks my resistance to forking out money just to play games.
I don’t think Nintendo Revolution will be that big of a success. Mainly because there’s no advertisement enough when comparing to Sony PS3 and MS Xbox 360. The best will be Sony, again, I think…
I think HD will drive the adoption of XBOX and PS3. Revolution did some market research and made the strategy to not compete on those features, but game interface.
The biggest problem with that strategy (since these are 3-4 year product cycles) is that HD DVD/Blu-Ray will drive the sales of the other consoles while the Revolution will already be a has been a year from launch.
donovan,
Glad you like those I hope you got a good laugh out of them.
Bad Beaver,
The Revolution? Well. . . not what I would have picked. . . but. . . ok. . .if you say so
Chris Howard,
You seem to be just as nuts as Bad Beaver, but that’s ok, because I like both of you.
Tomovich,
Finally, someone who seems to have heard of the PS3!
Nathan,
The Xbox 360 doesn’t have an HD drive in it, correct?
Thing is, consoles are all about good games, not features
James: HD = High Definition.
I read a review recently that showed, all things considered, Nintendo is the most successful games console maker - despite Sony selling five times as many PlayStations as either the original XBox or GameCube.
And I am trying to find it again!
One of the things it highlighted as the reason for Nintendo’s success is game play.
A good game doesn’t need good graphics - and a bad game can’t be saved by good graphics.
Here here, Bad Beaver! If Nintendo’s dream comes true, the Revolution will be the best system ever. Those of us who anything about anything with video games know that Nintendo’s own offerings, at their worst, are good. Most everything else is excellent. An online Super Smash Brothers? A Mario Kart you might be able to steer by just moving the controller itself? Finally, a sequal to Mario 64?
Yeah, I think everyone will be crying when they realize how good the Revolution will (can) be. Graphics, shmaphics. I want good games.
Yeah, sure, the Intel switch for Apple starts in 2006, but all I really care about right now is that Nintendo system.
^ Totally! Graphics became ‘good enough’ years ago. We don’t need them any better, we just need programmers to use the current tools to make awesome games, not just update the tools a bit more.
I have never bought a Nintendo console (aside from the GBA) but the Revolution has got me more excited than the other consoles. And I’m usually a very big Xbox supporter (I ranked 118th in the world at Halo 2 in Big Team Battle for a while.)
So yeah, that’s what I think about games consoles for 2006…. oh wait, I thought we were commenting on a top 10 list story.
...oh wait, we were!
Let’s try to make a distinction between “successful” and “good/great” here. Titanic was a successful movie, in fact the most successful movie ever. Was it a great movie? Nope, at a formal level it lacked the direction, acting, and script that a great movie requires.
When PS2 came out, there was no killer game, it was wildly successful because of its features (PS1 compatibility) and the promise of incredible graphics capability. Not because of great gameplay with great games.
Nintendo has revolutionary concepts for game input - it is starting to pay off with the DS (cs. the PSP), and I hope it will for the Revolution. But I don’t think it will ultimately pay off in terms of success. PS3 and sort of the XBOX has all the features and marketing capability to pull off a successful console.
As for the HD drive in the XBOX, I will bet anything it will have an HD-DVD drive in it by Spring 2006. Nintendo may yet surpise and add in HD capability but no one is holding their breath.
I should also add that network play could become much more revolutionary to gameplay than any new physical interface. If Nintendo misses on this mark, they are as good as dead.