Happy Birthday Deep Thought! Deep Thought turns one today, and we thought it would be good to take a look back at some of the products that have made an impact in the year since Deep Thought came online. While not all of these products are necessarily the best in their class, (and one was launched last year before DT) they are all here because they made a serious splash this year and shook things up in the tech world. Some of them may surprise you, others are obvious, but all are remarkable in their own rights.

So without further ado, here’s the list.

Sony PlayStation Portable

For years, handheld consoles have been regarded as the ugly stepchildren of the videogame hobby. While home console players were enjoying rich 3D worlds, cinematic visuals, top-notch CD-quality sound, voice acting and robust online play, handheld players had to make do with SNES-era visuals, bippy music and practically no 3D rendering capabilities.

Then came the PlayStation Portable.

With its debut entry into the handheld gaming market, Sony set out to redefine what handheld gaming meant, and the result is a sleek, sexy handheld device with incredible power under the hood.

The first thing you notice when you see the PSP is its screen. It is an absolutely gorgeous 4.3” widescreen TFT LCD display flanked by the familiar PlayStation buttons and packed tightly into an appealing glossy front panel. Transparent and chrome accents for the shoulder buttons and wrist-strap loop give the PSP a look that is at once understated but also seriously high-tech.

Things get even better once you turn the system on. The gorgeous screen comes to life, displaying stunning imagery thanks to its 480x272 resolution. The hardware creating that imagery is no slouch either; it compares favorably with the PlayStation 2 in terms of graphical capability, and that capability is done justice with games using full-motion video, rich 3D graphics and CD-quality sound, all made possible by the 1.5GB Universal Media Discs they ship on.

The PSP is also a capable media player as well, with the ability to play full length movies from UMD or video clips, music and photos stored on Memory Sticks. Its built-in Wi-Fi hardware allows it to get on the internet, where you can surf the web using its built-in browser, or challenge other PSP owners in games locally or remotely.

It’s no wonder that the PSP has gained massive traction in the 11 months it has been available. Despite a rather lackluster initial game lineup, the PSP’s sheer capability combined with its stunning good looks definitely makes it one of the top consumer gadgets of 2005.

iPod nano

The iPod nano is a device that really needs no introduction, and not much more commentary. Apple’s seminal line of digital media players has won the collective hearts and minds of consumers worldwide, in part thanks to their good looks, easy-to-use interface and deep connection with iTunes, Apple’s digital music management software.

But even among iPods, one particular model stood out. The iPod mini managed to hit the magical combination of price, capacity and features and sold far more than its siblings. It was a tiny thing, measuring just 2”x3.6”x0.5”, yet it packed up to 6GB of tunes onto its microdrive and cost as low as $200. So, of course, Apple replaced it. Thankfully, they replaced it with something better.

The iPod nano is that replacement, and it is perhaps the most gorgeous digital music player ever created. Measuring just 1.6”x3.5” in width and height, it is already smaller than its predecessor. But the big story is its depth, a positively anemic 0.3”. It is the supermodel of music players; at once stunningly gorgeous yet thinner than any device of its kind has any business being. A beautiful (if scratch-prone) glossy finish, a 1.5 inch color LCD screen and a shrunken version of Apple’s customary Click Wheel round out the player’s looks.

Despite its slimmed-down profile, the iPod nano has lost nothing the iPod mini had. It comes with up to 4GB of space, but it can also show photos, something the mini couldn’t do. It also works with the universe of accessories that use the iPod Dock Connector.

With its sexy but anorexic exterior and features that are quintessentially iPod, the iPod nano has once again given Apple the edge in the digital music player market, and it is only a matter of time before iPod nano takes its place as a fixture of city life worldwide.

Xbox 360

There’s an old axiom around geek circles that claims Microsoft always requires three tries at a new product before it gets it right.

I think, with Xbox, they only need two.

The Xbox 360 launched just yesterday (November 22, 2005) in North America, and it is already winning raves from just about everyone who has reviewed it. And indeed, it’s hard not to like this device thanks to its power, its looks and its sheer potential.

The hardware itself is a marked departure from the original Xbox. It is sleek and white, with gently curved surfaces, chrome accents and a green “ring of light” status indicator dominating the right side of the console. Internally, it’s got power to burn, with a three-core PowerPC-like CPU and a future-generation ATI GPU sharing 512MB of RAM and 10MB of additional video RAM. A DVD player and detachable 20GB hard drive, three USB2.0 ports, wireless controller capability and Ethernet connectivity round out the hardware features.

A console is nothing without software, and here too, Microsoft doesn’t disappoint. All games support High-Definition, widescreen displays and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. In addition, the Xbox 360’s built in Dashboard software allows for playback of DVD movies and Music CDs. Plus, it can connect to networked PCs and portable devices to read the music and pictures off those. It also acts as a Windows Media Extender so those with Media Center PCs can have the full experience in their living rooms, in full HD.

But the Xbox 360s killer app is, without a doubt, Xbox Live. Microsoft’s landmark online gaming service was already leagues ahead of any competing service, and with the Xbox 360, they have upgraded it further. New Player Achievements, pervasive instant messaging capabilities, spectator mode and player feedback greatly enhance the community aspects of the service, while the revamped Xbox Live Arcade promises to allow smaller developers access to a much wider audience of players than they’ve ever had before.

All told, the Xbox 360 hits the mark on just about every level and it is a product that redefines console gaming. It is powerful and sexy, and it delivers experiences that are unmatched in the industry.

Nintendo DS with Wi-Fi Connection

Nintendo, longtime king of the handheld gaming market with its decades-old GameBoy, looks to maintain and solidify its dominance in the face of a strong new competitor with the Nintendo DS. The DS is a quirky device that is typically Nintendo; it’s unique, it’s simple and it’s all about fun.

The DS isn’t much to look at; it looks a lot like one of those personal organizers from the mid 90s when it’s closed. Opening it reveals its two screens (the DS stands for Dual Screen) flanked by control buttons in an arrangement reminiscent of the old-school Nintendo Game & Watch units. Each screen is a 3” LCD display, but the lower screen also includes touch screen functionality. Invisible are the Wi-Fi adapter and built-in Microphone, with the dual cartridge slots for DS and GameBoy Advance games and the stylus neatly tucked away behind the console.

Graphically, the DS pales in comparison to the PSP, but it’s no slouch, delivering 3D graphics about on par with the Nintendo 64 game system. But because its games come on cartridges, you won’t get the richly detailed worlds, full-motion video and CD-quality sound you’d get from a PSP. What you will get are the amazingly fun, unputdownable games Nintendo is known for. These games leverage the touch screen functionality to full effect, with some games such as Nintendogs relying almost exclusively on the touch screen and stylus and captivating players hearts and minds. The DS’ Wi-Fi capability is leveraged with Nintendo’s new Wi-Fi Connection service, which allows DS owners to connect at various hotspots throughout the world and play games like Mario Kart DS online. The service is simple to use and a whole lot of fun.

The Nintendo DS does not have the power, beauty or sheer pizzazz of the Sony PSP, but then it doesn’t try to deliver that. What it does deliver is an amazingly fun, simple experience that everyone can appreciate, and that’s why it made this list.

Palm LifeDrive

With the original PalmPilot, Palm almost single-handedly popularized the modern PDA. Its simple OS, one-step data syncing and bevy of handheld applications turned the PDA into a useful tool for business and personal organization. Since then, PDAs have improved in power, quality, battery life and capacity, with the latest models sporting True Color VGA screens, wireless connectivity options and processors powerful enough to handle music, video and 3D gaming. But one thing has not changed. PDAs still come with paltry amounts of storage. Most PDAs only come with 128MB or 256MB of flash memory, which was sufficient for names and phone numbers, but a very tight squeeze for music and video. This squeeze is especially tight considering many music players come with 4GB or more of storage.

Enter the LifeDrive. Palm’s current flagship PDA comes with a beefy 4GB Microdrive built in, allowing it to hold thousands of contacts, emails and office documents, thousands of songs, dozens of full-length videos and more. A big, 3.8 inch TFT LCD screen and 320x480 resolution lets videos and other media shine while wireless connectivity through both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ensure that you will never be disconnected. The device even looks decent, with a sleek metallic design.

This device is not perfect though. It runs the mature Palm OS 5, which, despite its maturity, doesn’t stand up favorably against other handheld OSes such as Windows Mobile, Symbian and Linux. Various execution flaws such as hard drive reading delays and clunky HotSync support doom this product to mediocrity, but that’s not the point. The point is we finally have a PDA with a hard drive and a focus on media playback. It is only a matter of time before other handheld makers follow suit, and the PDa will finally take its rightful place as the most versatile and capable portable device available.

Credit to Palm for being the first out of the gate.

Google’s IPO

Ah, Google. Everyone’s favorite Search company is all grown up. Even before its April 30, 2005 IPO, Google was a stunner, combining a highly-regarded search engine with well-implemented target ads. But flush with cash after it’s $2.7billion IPO, Google seemed to kick it up a notch, releasing new products left and right.

Take Google Maps, for example. Online streetmaps fall into one of two categories: before Google Maps, and after Google Maps. Sites like MapQuest presented maps as static images. If you wanted to manipulate the map in any way, you had to click a button - an arrow to move the map, a magnifying glass to zoom in, etc. Anything you clicked would reload the page showing the new location on the map. By contrast, Google Maps featured a map which you could click and scroll freely, zooming using an intuitive slider, all without clumsy page reloads or plugins of any sort. It was all just standard JavaScript and DHTML.  Locations on the map are marked with pushpins which, when clicked, popped up a small balloon with more information about the locatoon.  In addition, Google provided developers with an API for its Map interface, and now Google’s map technology is being used by communities all over the Web for location-based information. Sites like Frappr and Oodle use Google maps to plot locations, and any web developer can put a Google map on thier site with just a few lines of code.

Or take Gmail, Google’s seminal webmail service. Gmail launched on April 1, 2004 with novel, then revolutionary features, not least of which was the free 1GB of space it offered its members. Combined with a completely new webmail interface that empasized and tracked related threads of email, leveraged JavaScript and DHTML and too advantage of Google’s Search technology, Gmail became an instant hit… if you could get an account. For a long period of time, Gmail was available by invite only—a spam control measure—and Gmail invites were exchanged and traded like precious commodities. But Google wasn’t done yet. Just as its competitors began matching its 1GB storage offering, Gmail raised the bar again, doubling its storage to 2GB and announcing a continuous increase in storage—its humorously-named “Infinity + 1 Storage Plan.”

Then there are services like Google Video and Google Print, which aim to do for online video and printed books what Google Image Search has done for online photographs. And Google has gone on a bit of a spending spree as of late, buying satellite imagery company Keyhole Systems and releasing Google Earth, a satellite imagery application. It’s also bought weblog pioneer Blogger and photo-managemen software maker Picasa. Plus, it has moved into Instant Messaging with Google Talk, desktop search With Google Desktop Search and online classifieds with Google Base. All powered by its April 30 IPO.

Verizon FIOS

Remember when you first got broadband? Remember poking along at 56k (or lower) speeds, waiting endlessly to download your email? Remember loading up that first web page on broadband, and being amazed at how fast it came up? Get ready to have that feeling again, because Fiber to the Home is here, and Verizon is leading the charge with its FIOS service.

Today’s consumer broadband connections are fast enough to deliver respectable Web video, CD-quality music and low-latency one-on-one video conferencing, as well as high-speed games and files hundreds of megabytes in size. But new applications are already testing the limits of that bandwidth, with applications such as IPTV, Voice over IP, podcasting and multi-party video conferencing often maxing out available bandwidth and causing sluggish downloads.

Enter Fiber To The Home. Fiber-optic cables can deliver near-limitless bandwidth over massive distances quite cheaply – once they have been deployed. Verizon’s FIOS takes advantage of all this bandwidth, delivering up to 30mbps downloads – five to ten times faster than today’s consumer broadband offerings. Verizon also offers IP telephony and Television in some markets. Put simply, Verison FIOS offers a compelling alternative to Cable and for that reason alone, it makes this list.

Motorola RAZR V3

Ever so often, a company comes out with a device that just ‘clicks’ somehow with consumers, despite not being particularly remarkable, feature-wise. The Motorola RAZR V3 cellphone is one of those devices. Released in November 2004, the RAZRs claim to fame is its remarkably thin profile. Measuring just 0.6’ deep, this clamshell phone features a 2.2” LCD screen inside coupled with a 1” screen outside, Bluetooth capability, quad-band GSM support, an integrated VGA camera and voice recorder.

All those features can be found on any number of phones released in the past year. But the RAZR packs them into a sleek, sexy and downright cool phone. The case is made of anodized aluminum. With the phone open, the massive LCD display dominates the upper half of the phone, while the laser-etched keypad with cool blue backlighting commands attention below. Flipping the phone closed reveals the black-bordered external LCD topped with the VGA Camera. Discreet chrome buttons along the sides control the ringer volume and voice recorder.

The RAZR is a relatively standard phone, but its striking design has captured the attention of consumers world wide. It is by far the coolest phone this year, and other cellphone makers are racing to ape its look. For that reason, it makes this list.