In a world where technological advances pop up everyday in news-feeds and broadcasts, the annual T3 Gadget Awards is a microcosm of all of these advances in one place. Like the Oscars for Technology, the T3 Gadget Awards nominate the most cutting-edge gadgets out today. With past releases like the iPad 2, Microsoft’s Kinect and huge advances in gaming, it’s worth a quick note to show some of the most important revelations which have taken place in 2011. Over 960,000 votes, together with the final tabulations of a 6 person expert panel, determined the winners. Here are just a few of the more interesting revelations, as well as some interesting–if not ironic–choices for winners.
Ironic Winners
One of the most interesting aspects of the Awards are the categories themselves. They run the gamut of technology, and aren’t completely focused on gadgetry. For instance, there’s the Best Retailer award and even the Gadget Personality of the Year award. It is in this category that one can find an ironic choice: Mark Zuckerberg. Although his influence on modern communication can’t be ignored, few would debate that he’s got Clooney-like charisma. And then there’s the category of Best Commuting Device in which anything that helps you get from here to there can be included. So, the electric bicycle nominee may appear like an obvious choice. The winner, in fact, was the Amazon Kindle — which makes “getting there” easier, as long as you’re not riding the electric bicycle while reading it!
Influential Winners
Another interesting revelation can be found in the voters’ decision that Twitter is the “Digital Media Service of the Year.” Sure, Zuckerberg’s got the Personality, but Twitter won the bigger battle. To be sure, the principals of large corporations like Apple, Google and Facebook are most likely not crying themselves to sleep because they didn’t win a Gadget gong. It is notable, however, that more votes were generated for Twitter than any other medium by the tech community themselves. Those in-the-know with plenty of sway should be taken very seriously by the tech giants. Simply put, Facebook can’t rest on its laurels (just look at MySpace for reference).
Surprising Winners
If you were to ask the average passerby which phone would win Phone of the Year, most would probably say the iPhone 4. Again, though, because a very tech-savvy crowd cast the votes, the votes went to Samsung’s Galaxy S II. Google won the Tech Brand of the Year, beating out rivals Apple and Facebook. Although it’s just the “T3 Gadget Awards,” Google is in a much better position amongst the tech community in terms of brand recognition and maybe overall importance.
From Google and Samsung, Apple and Microsoft, to Facebook and Twitter, the list of nominees is a “who’s who” of technological innovation. Please take a moment to check over the complete list of nominees and winners, of which the Gadget of the Year and Innovation of the Year weren’t even mentioned here. It’s truly interesting to see how fast the gaming world is evolving, how fast technologies are being created and, consequently, becoming outdated. For fun, check out the candidates from the first Ceremony held in 2008, a lifetime ago in technology years!