The 25 Best Gadgets of 2011

If you scoff at the idea of using your tablet as a replacement for your laptop when on the road, two Seattle-based inventors have just thing for you: the TouchFire. A lightweight silicon screen-top keyboard for Apple's iPad, the TouchFire allows users to touch-type on their tablets the same way they would on their regular computers. What started as a Kickstarter project has become one of the breakthrough products of the year.

When announced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, the Motorola Atrix seemed ahead of its time. It wasn't because it was touted as the world's fastest smartphone with a 1 GHz dual-core processor, had 4G connectivity, and Google's then new Android Gingerbread OS. It seemed that way because Motorola touted the Atrix as the first phone that you could use as a laptop. Equipped with a keyboard dock, the phone could transform into a full-on laptop—albeit an incredibly slow one. But it didn't matter. The phone was incredible and the thought of a phone being, physically, more than a phone changed the game.

How the hell can we put a product on this list that bombed as mercilessly as the TouchPad did? Because it's our list, that's how. Also, the TouchPad, though a commercial failure, was not a bad product. Quite the opposite. Sure, it didn't have the large number of apps available for its WebOS platform like iOS and Android, but it was attractive, intuitive, and a pleasure to use. The hardware wasn't groundbreaking, but it was sleek and felt good in hand. When HP decided to slash the price to clear out back inventory, the TouchPad sold like Gears of War. It sold so well, in fact, HP put the TouchPad back on sale to push out the rest of the stock. Hell, even though priced next to free, you have to give credit to the little tablet. No one bought the PlayBook when it went on sale…

We've seen a number of dope iPhone camera add-ons, but the Kogeto Dot is the best so far. Simply snap the device on to your phone, download the free "Looker" app and record 360-degree panoramic video onto your phone without having to record separate video clips and stitch them together afterwards. And, yes, it's real panoramic video. When you want to play it back, you can watch the video from any degree you want. You can watch the same footage in a number of different ways.

Most people don't expect much from a $50 handset, Microsoft and Samsung believe you should. One of the entry-level devices running the all-new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, the Focus Flash has everything you need, and very little you don't. That's what you should expect for $50.

People may talk of the decline of mobile gaming and how smartphones are taking over, but those people must have not touched a Nintendo 3DS. You can read all about the 3DS in our official review, but all you need to know is that the 3D really works without glasses, and the experience is all the better for it.

Our favorite accessory maker stepped into the personal audio arena with a line of headphones as simply and thoughtfully designed as its awesome cases. Our favorite of the bunch is the Sonic over-ear model which completely and comfortably encompass the ear. To look good and sound good is all we really ask of our headphones and these do both.

We don't expect anyone reading this to go out and drop $80,000 on a TV. However, if you are ever so inclined to spend the price of a entry-level Porsche on a TV, this is the one to get. Bang & Olufsen turn the simple process of turning on you TV into theater. When summoned, the BeoVision 4 raises off the ground and greets you. Did we mention that it's a 3D set? For $80K you would expect your TV to adjust itself, right? The BeoVision does that. An Automatic Picture Control Sensor measures light in the room and adjusts the brightness of the display accordingly. It has an Automatic Color Management system that constantly checks to make sure the picture isn't degrading over time. It's all very opulent. And that's great.

The Atrix for all its headstrong forward-thinking didn't really perform as intended. Not the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. Armed with a NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, Asus gave you an Android (Honeycomb) tablet that could truly transformer into a laptop. It didn't just dock into a keyboard—it was a dock that came with an SD slot, a USB 2.0 slot, a multi-touch touchpad, and could extend your battery life for 16 hours.

Smaller, lighter, with simple touchscreen navigation, the NOOK Simple Touch may be the best e-reader for the money. Yeah, you can get a Kindle for almost $20 less, but you're going to be stuck with ads. All the NOOK has is a great six-inch E-Ink screen and a battery that can last nearly two months. What more do you need?

A lot of carriers talk about 4G wireless, but only one really delivers on the promise of high-speed wireless: Verizon. With the MiFi you could finally have access to that speed wherever you were. It's one of the few products that worked better than advertised.

No one knew what to expect from the Amazon tablet. Some thought it would go head-to-head with Apple's iPad while others thought it would simply be a trumped up Kindle. Both parties were right. While not as powerful as other tablets on the market, it's also not as expensive. But the Fire works in providing users with more content than they could hope to consume. Once you're locked into the Amazon eco-system, the Fire is a beautiful experience, allowing you to read, watch, and listen to nearly anything available on the popular website. It has dreaming of what the Fire 2 will bring.

The fist Galaxy S became an instant best-seller thanks to its display and raw power. For the follow-up, Samsung stuck to script, delivering an incredibly powerful handset and an even better SuperAMOLED display. If you're in the market for an Android phone, or, hell, any phone at all the Galaxy S should be at the top of your list.

Say what you want about the XOOM, as the first tablet to run Google's Android Honeycomb OS, it was, and still is, a great buy. Front and rear-facing cameras? Check. Speedy processor? Check. Nice display? Check. Available with data from the fastest wireless company in the market? Check. Though it was hampered by the release of the iPad 2 it still continued to thrive as viable alternative with a full set of useful motorola accessories akin to the Atrix. It set the bar for what an Android tablet needed to be.

Sure, everyone's using cloud services and multi-platform apps like DropBox to tote their files and documents, but we still like to have our things on our person. And for that we turned to Victornix. Yep, the people that make Swiss Army Knives also make USB flash drives. Good ones, too. You can get one in nearly any size you wish. This one is thinner than a five-pack of Juicy Fruit gum and can hold 32GB. Remember when your computer didn't even have 16GB?

The follow-up to everyone's favorite point-and-shoopt camera picks up with the S95 left off. We know you can get a S95 for a great price, but this is a list of the best products to his store shelves in 2011. So here we are. The S100 is plenty fast, delivers amazing image quality, and sports enough manual controls to keep the purists happy. It's the best in its field.

Digital Camera development has taken major great leaps in the past years, but nothing has come close to how cool the Lytro camera is. Priced at $500 and appearing to be nothing more than a children's toy, the Lytro allows users to change the focus and lighting of an picture after the image has been taken. How? To let Lytro tell it: The camera captures all the available information—light, intensity, color—and lets you play with it after the shutter is snapped. The first time you use it you'll think the experience boarders on miraculous.

We can guarantee that you've never thought twice about your thermostat. You're not alone. Most people have a reactionary relationship with their thermostat. They interact with it when it's too cold or too hot, which is a shame because thermostats play a big role in most people's monthly expenses. The Nest, designed by a former Apple employee, looks to change all that by making people want to interact with their thermostat. It's beautiful, but it's also smart. The Nest can build a schedule around when you're in your home and when you're sleeping and when you use the most energy and any other variable that goes into deciding how many energy output is needed for your home. Hopefully every other thermostat maker wakes ups and tries to compete.

Many grumbled at the iPhone 4S sporting the same aesthetics as the iPhone 4. We didn't. Look at it! It's still one of, if not the best-looking phones ever made. We also didn't grumble about the faster A5 dual-core processor, or Siri, the digital personal assistant that even though we don't use as much as thought, is still cool. And you know what? Neither did millions of other people because it sold faster than Bieber's Christmas album.

Wireless audio is the future. We don't care whether you're using Apple's AirPlay, Bluetooth, or a Sonos system, having your device physically connected to your speaker is old news. The good news is that there are a bunch of products on the market that allow you to enjoy wireless music. Our favorite is the new Bose SoundLink. Made sturdy enough to endure trips to any locale you feel needs tunes—beach, basement parties, camp sites—it can go anywhere you go. Like all Bose products the sound does not disappoint. Employing proprietary passive radiators to deliver surprising lows, the SoundLink sounds every bit as good as other Bose iPod docks. We know, streaming audio via Bluetooth is not the ideal—but trust us, with the Bose you won't be able to tell the difference.

The ThinkPad line has endured through the years as one of the best laptop brands and the X1 carries that tradition along. Lenovo's ultra-thin is the pinnacle of ThankPad design—carbon fiber roll cage, Corning Gorilla Glass on the 13.3 display, and a spill-resistant keyboard that, while appearing to fall in line with newer keyboard designs, still retains the signature ThinkPad feel. We can't think of any other Windows laptop we would buy.

However, we were to buy a Mac laptop, our first choice would go to the MacBook Air. Apple's ultra-thin portable saw a significant upgrade in 2011. In came Intel's latest processor, bigger hard drives, and a backlit keyboard. That pretty much addressed nearly every complain lodged with the machine. The MBA keeps getting better and better.

As the newest official Google phone, the Galaxy Nexus manages to pack in nearly every technology that may or may not get play in the upcoming year. There's Near-Field Communication, facial and voice recognition, a gyro, and even a barometer. The rest of the hardware is also top-of-the-line, but it's the unadorned, unmolested, pure Google Android experience that makes this the Android phone to get.

Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the best camera currently for sale. You won't find a better one for the money. Back in the spring when we reviewed it, we crowned the X100 the camera of the year, an accolade we proudly stand behind. The fixed 35mm lens is incredible and forces you to work for your shots. Everything is laid out exactly where it should be making it a pleasure to use. And it's built as rock-solid as a camera can be. You won't find better fit and finish from any other brand save Leica.

The iPhone 4S may have been a slight retread of familiar ground, but the iPad 2 completely broke through new territory. Apple's latest tablet delivered the same user experience as the first one but did so with a faster processor, lighter weight, and slimmer profile. And Apple didn't stop there. It focused on the little things that would make using the tablet all the more enjoyable. Things like lining the front fascia with magnets and then building a cover for the tablet that made use of all those tablets so protecting the screen was simple as connecting the Apple power plug on a MacBook. It's so good we are left scratching our heads wondering what Cupertino's got coming next.