But, whether we like it or not, we can't Grinch out; so we'd better start thinking about the gift-giving season now and get it over with. And since your friends at ReadWriteWeb are huge geeks, we thought we'd amuse you with a few Internet-enabled oddities that might actually make your obligatory retail purgatory a little more bearable.

If there's anything worse than shopping for a loved one's gift, it's shopping for a loved one whose preferences, tastes and needs are a complete mystery. Don't worry: it doesn't mean you're insensitive. You've just got your mind on other things.

The solution: For quick, decisive, and possible all-online gift-buying, coerce every potential gift recipient into signing up at Wishzilla. The creators of this site have kept the clear-cut, actionable sensibility of the gift registry while maintaining the element of surprise. Here's how it works: users log in with Facebook (or create an account) and then start bookmarking their gift wishlist all over the Web. Once the list is done, it's locked. Signed, sealed and sent to Santa. What items have been purchased and by whom remain a secret until the wrapping paper gets torn away.

Everyone wins, and no one is left feeling awkward about that good-intentioned but ill-advised sweater.

2 & 3) Customized Clothing for Him, Her, Hym, Etc.

We've recently been exposed to the wonderful world of e-spoke apparel. We actually just made up the term e-spoke as a portmanteau of electronic and bespoke; basically, there are a few sites out there that allow for high-quality and entirely customizable wearable goods; in fact, some of them are very forward-thinking, technologically.

For the dress shirt-wearer in your life, we have ShirtsMyWay, a site that lets the user completely customize their ideal of collared and cuffed perfection. Our Twitter research has shown that some folks find the site a little spendy; but seriously, a beautiful dress shirt designed to your exact specifications and measurements is worth the extra cost - which, we might add, is significantly less than most other customized apparel experiences.

And for your feminine side, we have Shoes of Prey. The URL alone takes no prisoners, and neither will your fierce creations. Heels on these completely customizable beasts only elevate the wearer a modest 3.5 inches at their highest, but the ability to branch beyond the dyed-satin-bridesmaid-shoe paradigm of shoe customization is more than enough incentive to check out this site.

4) Storenvy

If Craiglist, eBay and Etsy had some kind of inter-website relations and made a Web baby, it would be Storenvy. In a prettily designed community setting, users can set up buyer and seller accounts. The site is a series of independent online retailers and shoppers who browser across all of those stores at once, interacting with each other by watching what notes and ratings they leave on products and stores throughout the site. Check out the social features in action here, or just set up an account and start having fun.

Better yet, get your friends to set up accounts and thus remove some of the guesswork from gifting.

5) Regretsy, the Gag Gift You Can't Resist & Will Never Live Down

Rubber chickens, whoopie cushions, every sadistic and horrifyingly cheap Secret Santa atrocity - none of it can match the horrors found on Regretsy. We actually feel pity for the people who buy or receive the Etsy-fueled inventory from this site. If you ever wondered what kinds of jewelry can be made from animal feces or exactly who makes embroidered toilet paper, you have found your Web-enabled holy grail. If not, well, you're in for a good laugh and at least a few ideas for passive-aggressive office gift exchanges. Forced, semi-professional merriment will never be the same.

So there you have it, folks! You never have to leave your three-monitor array of addictive Internet connectivity to satisfy the whims of the potential gift recipients in your life. Just use these tools and a little personal judgment, and all your holiday shopping-related worries can be laid to rest.

We just hope we have a similarly good list when it comes to last-minute shopping; god knows we plan to procrastinate as long as possible, helpful tools notwithstanding.

However, a new study from the Pew Internet Project shows that geeks, including IM users and bloggers, are more likely to help neighbors, get out of the house, volunteer, and behave as upstanding members of their IRL communities.

And although the study found that Internet users were less likely to rely on neighbors for help, its findings also tell us that frequent or dedicated Internet users are a mighty friendly and helpful bunch when it comes to giving support to neighbors. Bloggers are almost 80 percent more likely to do small favors for their neighbors than other groups, and they're 84 percent more likely to help a neighbor care for a family member, e.g., offer babysitting help. And while Internet users, including photo-sharing folks and IM fans, are more likely across the board to help and hang out with people in their neighborhood, the study also showed that Internet users are almost 50 less likely to lend neighbors money. Insert a pun about teaching a man to phish here.

Folks who use sites such as BuildingBulletins or NeighborGoods to connect with people who live near them are also more likely to engage with their community, especially in terms of actively discussing community issues, listening to a neighbor's problems, or helping a neighbor with chores or errands.

Bloggers and mobile phone users are also 72 percent more likely to belong to a local group or organization such as a charitable organization, a youth sports league, or a religious group. For example, an average single, white person with no children has a 40 percent chance of belonging to at least one local voluntary group. However, that chance increases to 54 percent if that person users a mobile device and 72 percent if that person is also a blogger and frequent Internet user.

Another fascinating set of findings completely negate the stereotypical image of Internet geeks as agoraphobic recluses. Internet and mobile users are far more likely than non-users to hit up coffee shops, parks, and restaurants in their communities. Internet users in general are around 50 percent more likely to find themselves in public places than non-users, and bloggers specifically are 60 percent more likely than non-bloggers to spend time in a public park.

The study concludes, "As with other local community activities, the relationship between Internet use and participation in public and semi-public spaces is likely a combination of self-selection and an outcome of internet use... The Internet may also enable visits to public spaces through opportunities to coordinate rendezvous and search for new places to visit."

The down and dirty deets are as follows: 3Mbps up and 10Mbps down speeds via a KU-band satellite. According to our late-night, Twitter-powered research, this beats more than a few Earthlings' connection speeds. To learn more about the hardware, servers, and how often the crew gets told to "just turn everything off then on again," read on.

Moving on to hardware, the space station houses 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and 32 Lenovo ThinkPad T61p laptops, one of which is a server. Between cabled routers and WiFi hotspots, our brethren in space have a few ways to connect to the Internet via their local network. Their connection also allows for limited video calls. But there are no iPods for astronauts - or relatively few, at least. The team reported that the crew don't usually request to bring netbooks, gaming devices, or MP3 players aboard the ISS.

The ISS crew is connected to the Internet indirectly. Data is run through the ISS server and through NASA. Email for the crew is updated three times a day.

So, what happens when the system fails? Although the ISS crew is trained to respond to and repair common problems, the Houston ground crew maintains an exact duplicate of the space station's network for extraordinary circumstances. When viruses infiltrate ISS machines, as they have in the past, the infected machines are quarantined; and from the notes we've read, hackers have not yet been able to affect ISS's systems. Also, the ISS's IT folks told CNET, "One thing that really impacts the crew's day-to-day operations is if the file server itself fails. This forces them to reload the hard drive and re-establish all the network drives and all the apps. They actually have to get out the media and load the image to the hard drive... Over the last nine years, this has only happened twice."

We hope to bring you more news on the Internet as it applies to space, but we have reason to believe these updates may be sporadic. Stay tuned, live long, and prosper.

At a recent presentation at the Neuroscience 2009 meeting in Chicago, the scientists stated, "The results suggest that searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults." Defying folk wisdom regarding old dogs and new tricks, the research was conducted on Internet users aged 55 to 78, about half of whom rarely used the Internet.

One of the authors of the study, UCLA psych professor Dr. Gary Small, said, "We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function." In other words, it takes just a matter of days for older first-time Internet users to catch up to their more experienced counterparts in terms of brain activity.

Small also wrote iBrain, a book all about how technology use impacts brain functions.

Here's how the study was conducted: The researchers found 24 people aged 55 to 78 whose brains functioned normally. Half were daily Internet users, and half were noobs.

First, all the volunteers searched the web in a lab setting while the scientists took functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of their brains, looking at changes in blood flow in the brain. Next, the test subjects were sent home and asked to search the Internet for an hour a day for seven days over the course of two weeks. Their searches were based on assigned topics that required them to search the web, explore websites, and read. Finally, the participants returned to the lab for more scans while they searched for more information on different topics.

What researchers found was that the Internet noobs' brains displayed activity in areas of the brain that govern language, reading, memory, and visual ability during both the "before" and "after" scans. However, their brains showed new and increased activity in the parts of the brain that control working memory and decision-making. The patterns were, in fact, similar to those found in the brains of the longtime daily Internet users.

The UCLA team said that these changes occurred because search requires users to store information in working memory and also determine relevant details from datasets of competing pictures and words.

The study was funded by the Parvin Foundation. Researchers included Susan Y. Bookheimer, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute at UCLA; Himaja Gaddipati, a UCLA neuroscience student; and Jennifer Brace, a UCLA doctoral student in neuroscience.

The company recently ran some numbers on response rates for messages sent between almost a million otherwise compatible men and women of varying races, and the results are eye-opening. "Whenever we compare the match/reply charts for a given breakdown of the population, they should look about the same," the related blog post reads. "However, this, like so many other fine assumptions, totally breaks down when race gets involved."

As a control group, the folks at OKCupid examined reply rates based on zodiac signs. They predicted a 60% match rate among all zodiac signs, and there was relatively little variation between the response rates, which ran in the 30% range and pretty much match up with the line graph above:

However, when looking at profiles with a similar degree of compatibility - right around 60% - the reply rates varied wildly based on gender and, interestingly, race:

It probably comes as no surprise to the seasoned Internet user that, in general, the ladies have a better chance of getting a reply to a sent message (sorry, fellas!), but looking at the exact breakdown of replies is a disheartening commentary on interracial dating.

Here's a table showing response rates for male senders of varying ethnicities:

The data show that black women reply "about a quarter more often" than women of other races, that white men get more responses, and, to quote from the post, "White women prefer white men to the exclusion of everyone else--and Asian and Hispanic women prefer them even more exclusively. These three types of women only respond well to white men. More significantly, these groups' reply rates to non-whites is terrible."

Next, let's take a look at what happens when the sender is a woman:

And now we see why white men are today's punching bag - at least on the OKCupid blog. They respond less than any other group, and they respond least of all to black women. And speaking of black women, who we saw in the last table responded more than other groups: These ladies are receiving fewer responses than their peers of other races.

Finally, take a look at this chart looking at users' responses to the question, "Would you prefer to date someone of your own skin color/racial background?"

Ouch! White men and women do not come off particularly well, especially considering the relative open-mindedness of their peers. And sadder still, according to OKCupid's internal metrics, their users are younger, better educated, and more progressive than users on other sites. Truly, the mind reels.

Without making any assumptions, we would also love to see how the data look for same-sex pairs of varying races. Is there something about GLBT culture that might make queer folks less racist than our straight counterparts?

Moreover, we wonder if the study was conducted based on data from U.S. users only, or whether international users' messages and replies were examined, as well.

What do you think this research signifies, RWW reader? Are there other, unseen factors at play, or do you think the data stand as a sad commentary on unjustifiable race-based phobias inherent in a hegemonic culture? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Here are a few tools we wish we'd had when we were still dorm-dwelling nobodies. Forward these links on to the collegiate folks in your life, and add your own favorites to the list. Together, we can rid the world of dropped classes and "ramen starvation."

BigWords is a site and iPhone app that source a slew of online retailers to get students the cheapest possible textbooks, taking the legwork out of online comparison shopping. BigWords also claims to optimize prices by looking for multi-item specials, shipping discounts, coupons, and other exceptional deals. Students (or textbook-shopping parents and guardians) can also share "bookbags" with others, and the site claims an average $225 savings on multi-item orders.

Study Socially

When students can use Facebook Connect to sign into an app designed to optimize study time, you know the world has changed. StudyBlue takes advantage of your virtual Rolodex to help you share notes, flashcards, and other study tools. Notes can be recorded as text or as multimedia content - that means you can share audio and video with your class-skipping colleagues. If only it counted as attendance, no? Best of all, the StudyBlue team has announced mobile capabilities for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Another app we like in this space is Quizlet, an online flashcard and quizzing resource that also uses Facebook Connect.

Rent and Return Textbooks

BookRenter soothes the eternal frustration of spending a triple-digit amount on a textbook you'll use for four months and then resell to your college's bookstore for a princely ten bucks. Renters register and have access to the company's catalog of millions of titles. Prices are refreshingly reasonable; shipping options and rental periods are flexible; and return shipping is free.

Situate Yourself

DesignYourDorm is a new-this-year app that allows college students to design their dorm room interiors in 3D and purchase their decor selections online. Not only can students often choose their exact room dimensions and layout from the DYD database and collaborate with dormmates to get rooms furnished based on thorough checklists; parents can also send care packages from a gallery that calls to mind an edible version of 1800Flowers.

Mobilize Your Textbooks

Coursesmart, a leader in the e-textbook game, just released an iPhone app, which we reviewed recently. Their catalog so far includes 7,000 ebooks, and their software works for both Macs and PCs. The desktop apps also allow students to take notes while reading, and both desktop and mobile apps have built-in search function.

Research on the Fly

The mobile version of Wikipedia has long been available for on-the-go consumption, but did you know Wikipedia also just released an official iPhone app, which we recently reviewed? You can also try iPhone apps such as Wapedia, Wikiamo, or Wikipanion.

Get Yourself and Your Group On-Task

Remember the Milk is one app we like for individual or group tasks. This full-featured program allows users to keep track of tasks through RSS feeds, share tasks via email, add tasks via email or SMS, and even assign tasks a specific location. There's an iPhone app, and RTM plays nicely with Gmail, Twitter, and Google Calendar, as well.

Hit 'Em With Your Best Shot

Finally, after all your hard work and study, you'll need to create a certain number of papers, presentations, projects, and perhaps even a website or two during your time in school this year. We have a whole list of code-free website creation tools that range from easy to use to ridiculously easy to use, and with a little finessing, they'll definitely impress a professor or two. For creating multimedia presentations, we like Empressr, Drop.io, and SlideShare, all of which have different social sharing/embedding and multimedia capabilities.

Back to Basics

For staying organized, keeping in touch, taking notes, and generally keeping yourself sane, your old friends are more useful now than ever. And by "old friends," we mean those apps you already use so much you don't even realize they're apps anymore. Try seeing Facebook, Google Docs, Google Notebook, Gmail, Twitter, and Skype as study and communication tools rather than just time-wasters, and you'll notice that you can get a lot done on your favorite sites.

So, what apps are you using to get organized, get smart, get together, or just get it right this year? Let us know in the comments!

A new study from BabyCenter shows that mothers' social media use has increased 462 percent over the past three years. The same group's mobile web usage is up 348 percent over the same period of time. And these moms aren't just keeping tabs on secretive teenagers. They're networking for themselves, finding answers online, and sharing stories about their offspring. The two-part study was conducted between 2006 and 2009 in conjunction with NovaQuant. BabyCenter also conducted a series of 18 in-depth surveys between January and June of 2009

As far as hardware is concerned, almost all moms - 91 percent - say they never leave home without a mobile device. More than half say they have replaced traditional photo albums with online photo-sharing services. And moms are also the primary console gamers in the household after the birth of a first or second child.

Health is an important vertical for digital moms. Again, the report reads, "In online communities, children's health issues are the leading topic of interest in online communities (91 percent), followed by childhood development tips (79 percent)." Mothers are also seeking out expert medical advice, parent-to-parent wisdom, and product reviews via social media.

As Gen X and millenial women and men come of age and start families, their technological preferences are applied to new aspects of life, as well. Longstanding sites such as BabyCenter and niche startups such as LilGrams are in excellent positions to serve the needs of digital parents and connect them to brands, hopefully in ways that are relevant, helpful, and innovative.

This week, John Fontana of Network World reported that Google has reserved 1 million phone numbers with communications and information services company Level 3. The company has not announced anything yet, but on the GrandCentral website it says "if you are a GrandCentral user, over the next few days you will be prompted to upgrade to Google Voice". These look like clear signs that it is getting ready to go live any time now, so check those emails and get ready to claim your number, they could go fast.

Judge for yourself. Below are three videos that show how easy it is to place calls, set up a conference call and how the phone calls are routed. There is some speculation about future integration with Android and we are certainly looking forward to that as well.

Friday, before it was officially released, I did get a chance to play with the Pre a little bit and tested one again on Saturday at a local Sprint retail store. My initial impression is that it is pretty cool indeed. First of all, it looks sleek and feels really good in my hand. The touch screen display is large and the Qwerty keyboard is adequate, if not a little small. The user interface is instinctive and both the browser (full HTML browser based on the WebKit application framework) and the webOS are lightning fast. It comes with most everything you would expect from a $299 smartphone ($199 after rebate), including a camera with flash. And of course, it is perfectly capable as a telephone also. The only obvious reason the Palm Pre is not an iPhone killer just yet is its lack of available apps.

Fortunately, our own Sarah Perez has really done her homework on the new Palm Pre and its new webOS and you can find that post here. Be sure to also read posts from Bloomberg.com and Gizmodo and watch a video review on YouTube for even more information. We knew it wouldn't take long for someone to want to tear this thing apart to see what makes it tick (it's the nature of the geek, right?), so for all of you morbid tear-apart-the-toaster types, there's this.

Here are a few cool, tech-forward tools to ensure neither you, nor your contact details, are lost in the shuffle.

First, let's turn our attention to the MyNameIsE Connector, a nifty device that first came to our attention in this promotional video:

The Connectors work out of the box. Users touch the devices together to exchange information and download contacts later through a USB port. It's ridiculously simple. The Connector will be available for conferences and festivals, and the MyNameIsE tech is also available via a mobile site and several native apps.

A disturbingly similar device is the MingleStick.

Forgoing any juvenile remarks about the product name, we observe the point-click-download process is, indeed, the perfect solution for conferences and shows; you can check out the 'Sticks in action at a trade show in this video. Don't they make a lovely addition to those chic lanyards we all know and love? However, this particular product is likely to remain a conference-bound toy for a while. Although the web-based MingleManager service offers a nice array of address book/calendar/content sharing functions, there is no mobile functionality aside from the MingleSticks themselves.

Moving away from hardware, let's have a look at Dropcard. At this website, users can create free profiles with contact information, including websites and social networks. Upon meeting someone the user wants to keep in touch with, he texts the other person's email to 77950. The new contact is then sent the Dropcard user's profile information in an email and can save the information immediately to their address book. The best feature here is that it involves no effort on the new contact's part; they don't even need to have a phone handy. Think of it as 'good spam'.

Two other SMS-based services are TextID and Contxts. The latter has been particularly in vogue at recent tech conferences. However, both services require the non-user (or new contact, if you will) to take action by texting a word (usually a username or similar identifier selected by the user) to an SMS shortcode. Contxt is a free service for sharing up to 140 characters, while TextID monthly plans range from $19.95 - $79.95 and allow for sending just about any kind of information, including mobile websites, pictures, maps/directions, or brochures and menus.

As with any technological roundup, we're sure this post omits several wonderful products we didn't find; feel free to let us know about them in the comments.

And for the love of Mike, stop wasting trees and lining the bottom of that biz dev guy's carry-on: Just say no to business cards.

I had been pitched on this interdisciplinary tech/creative conference in the middle of nowhere and decided to go out of perverse curiosity - because really, who in their right mind would have a conference in Nebraska? I had to find out. My good friend and FreedomSpeaks.com co-founder Kurt Daradics' curiosity got the best of him, as well; and when I told him I planned to drive, he booked a plane not to Omaha, but to D.C., so we could make the journey together. That was the start of the "road trip gone Twitter."

Video features @JolieODell and @Dingman, camera work by @KurtyD.

I'm writing this now from the backseat of a moving car. We're rolling over the irrigated fields of Iowa about 30 minutes away from BIGOmaha and Gary Vaynerchuk's opening night party; we're getting calls from our metropolitan social media friends already there and excitedly sharing stories we've gathered so far. We tell them about the young St. Louis farmer whose local produce co-op was at capacity with a full waiting list, the tech scenesters still on fire from their town's first BarCamp or Startup Weekend, the fresh perspectives on the purposes and future of tech, the deliberate and intentional movements to live and buy locally, the strong online connections within physical communities (it's not just the geeks on Twitter out here; it's the waitresses, the baristas, the small business owners, and just about everybody else), and the focus on sustainability in the most pristine corners of our country.

We've seen communities full of optimism and energy and shockingly hip millennial folks, and we've been shown amazing hospitality by complete strangers. I credit this partly to traditional Midwestern kindness and partly to the radically cool nature of the Internet. You see, another big premise of the RoadTwip is that the online and offline each have the most powerful effects when combined. Relationships are strengthened; the social web grows thicker; value is enhanced.

@Dingman and @Giramonda at Arthur Bryant's Barbecue in Kansas City.

One of my favorite stories so far is about Kansas City, which wasn't even a planned stop on the RoadTwip. A few KC locals got wind of the 'Twip and reached out to me on Brightkite; their enthusiasm was so infectious that I ended up begging KurtyD and Dingman to allow for a drive-by meetup for the city's famous barbecue and a look at what residents were telling me was a tradition of microentrpreneurism. We had an amazing time there, ended up staying a couple hours longer than we should have, and are consequently late for Gary V's shindig. But we learned so much from the new friends we made that not one of us regrets a second of it. This, to me, is a perfect illustration of the value of social media. Next time anyone asks me why I waste my time on the Internet, this story is going to make an appearance.

The three of us have mapped out an arc through a lot of open space dotted with relatively small towns in order to hear new stories, challenge our perspectives, stop spinning on the NYC/SF/LA axis of the tech world, get outside the echo chamber, test the IRL capabilities of social media, and get a glimpse of something new and authentic.

@ax0n explains the madness and method behind his blog, KC-Bike.Blogspot.com.

So many young people will never have the extraordinary privilege of visiting the American Midwest.

Perhaps this is due to misconceptions about its nature, population, and culture. Perhaps it's because opportunities are perceived to be greater in more urban areas. Perhaps it's a simple lack of curiosity. Watching the youngest of my cohorts as he drives our packed-to-the-gills car through Missouri rain, exclaiming at the way the cars ahead fade into the bend of the road, I can't help but pity those who will never see this place or meet the many wonderful people who live here and love it.

To read about the rest of the journey, bookmark the RoadTwip blog or follow us on Twitter. The RoadTwip gang is @JolieODell, @KurtyD, and @Dingman.

@KurtyD putting the finishing touches on a RoadTwip video.

That's exactly what the company is aiming to become, though, with this new partnership. The "Generation Forward" campaign will reward credit card users with music downloads and other tokens of thanks when they make "responsible choices" like pay their bills on time, donate to homeless shelters and promise to be nice to small animals. How much more surreal could this get?

We're all for the webification of financial data, with proper privacy and data portability steps of course. We're big fans of some of the personal finance apps available. We really want to see innovation in this space and even some of the paternalistic shoving towards social responsibility that MySpace is engaging in seems like a good idea.

This is MySpace, though. It's got a lot going for it, but a "responsibility based" MySpace credit card sounds like an Octuplet Mom co-branded condom to us. This just seems too far afield from the brand that made MySpace what it is and we expect the credit cards to be something that more people make jokes about than use.

In general, I am just not good with physical things, because I am a software person. I've always been fascinated by people who can easily make sense of physical objects, because for me it takes a lot of effort even to put together children's toys. My brain is wired differently, to see patterns in software, not in hardware. But most people are the other way around.

A Brief History of Making Physical Things

Before we dive into the realm of software, let's look briefly at how we got here. Clearly, the history of humanity is the history of hardware. Since the Stone Age, when we invented the hammer, the world around us has been, so to speak, a nail. For the past several thousand years, we figured out how to use physics and chemistry to make physical objects. For a long time, we were craftsmen, until the industrial revolution brought scale and systematic manufacturing.

The main thing we learned is patterns in physical objects. We know that we can bend them under certain conditions. We know that there is friction. We know that things react differently to heat. The millions of facts that occupy our lives have to do with how we interact with the physical world and make physical things. These patterns get wired into our brains and help us live our daily lives.

Software 1.0: Why Computer-Phobia Happened to The Mainstream

Computers have software inside that does not behave like physical objects do. The key thing about software is that it is soft and that the conventional laws of physics do not apply to it. As a result, it's hard for people to picture what is going inside. It is hard for people with brains trained to deal with physical things to understand how software works. Because there are no physical laws we are used to, what are we to expect?

I constantly meet really smart non-technical people -- doctors, lawyers, teachers -- who have no clue how computers work. They treat them as magic black boxes that randomly break and never make sense. Why? Because software is a fundamentally different kind of system. It does not behave like the other things around us that we are used to.

On top of being different, software was really hard to use as recently as 5 years ago. PCs and Windows are to blame for the computer-phobia that still dominates the mainstream. My wife works for a large pharmaceutical company, and her Dell with its Windows 2000 is a monster. I do not blame her for being confused. In addition to being unbearably slow, the computer just makes no sense with its crazy administration scripts, incompatible drivers, annoying popups, endless choices, and daily crashes.

There is nothing in the physical world as complicated or confusing as her computer. All of the systems in our home work with the push of a button; all her daily routines are much simpler than figuring out how to turn off auto-spellcheck in Microsoft Word. Like most people, my wife is perplexed by the complexity of her work computer. But thankfully, things are turning around.

Software 2.0: Apple, Ajax, Video Games, and the New Laws of Physics

We changed our household computer to an Apple in 2004 and later on got one of the first iPhones when they came out. Obviously, my wife has no trouble using Apple products, because they are simple. More important, they, like physical things, behave as expected. Every user action results in a reaction that makes sense. There are way fewer choices, and things do not pop up out of nowhere.

Even better, this new kind of software proves to the user that the digital world can be superior to the physical one. There is no friction; things move around effortlessly; and they do work. This is not happening just with Apple products; it is happening all over the web. With the advent of AJAX, a new breed of web applications is teaching users that software can indeed work better than hardware. And that it can be way more fun.

It's the fun element that is likely going to be the tipping point, because it involves kids, our future. The latest video games are simply stunning. Like Apple software, they feature a lot of physical realism and behave as users expect. But in addition, they add a lot of special behavior only possible in the digital world. And it's not just about flying or instantly transporting from one place to another. Video games are creating a whole new reality that is an intricate blend of physical and digital.

Our kids are growing up native to this new digital world. To them, the new rules of digital physics are what the rules of physical physics are to us. They take these new rules for granted, because that is just how all our brains work.

Techies + Mainstream + Kids = Software Revolution

I never had trouble grasping software. To me, its inner workings and abstractions always made more sense than the physical things around me. But this is not so for many other people. Yet, the shift is on its way. Good software is becoming an integral part of our lives. Apple is one of the first and most visible examples of how software is taking over the hearts and minds of mainstream consumers. Its software is beautiful, simple, it works the way we expect it to, and people are starting to love it.

And this love is the first step to truly getting it, to understanding how something works. Because this new software is simple and fun, people are becoming attached to it and are willing to spend more time with it and, ultimately, to understand it well. This new software has a shot at making people get it, just like they get hardware.

And kids, of course, are already there. For them, all of this novelty is effortless and natural. It's a ton of fun, and they do not think twice about which buttons to press; they just know. So, with techies, the mainstream, and kids on board, we are poised to enter this brave new world dominated by software. The impact of this new world is going to be huge because, whether we like it or not, we will no longer be the same. Our brains, while never forgetting the laws of physics, will increasingly adapt to the laws of this new, digital physics.

There was lots of activity in the digital lifestyle space in 2008, with new devices, services, and platforms being launched and some of our favorites from last year getting significant updates. One notable trend throughout the year was the way these products and services began to converge; not in the sense that they were becoming all-in-one devices, although some of that was happening, but rather by hardware, services, and content playing together nicely, often through open standards and platforms, with the Internet acting as a conduit. On that note, here are our picks of the 10 best digital lifestyle products of 2008.

• Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 International Products of 2008
• Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008
• Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008
• Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 Enterprise Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 Real World Web Apps of 2008

1. The App Store

The real upgrade to the iPhone this year wasn't the iPhone 3G but the accompanying App Store. Launched just five months ago, the store now offers over 10,000 third-party apps, and Apple has seen over 300 million downloads. Part of that success can be attributed to the way in which the iPhone as a platform has galvanized developers; a second major factor is the simplicity of the App Store itself. As a result, lots of our other favorite digital lifestyle-related products and services wound up on the iPhone and iPod Touch, such as Pandora and Last.fm (digital music), Joost (Internet TV), Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter (social web), as well as location-based services, games, remotes (VLC Player and Sonos), and much, much more.

See also: The real surprise of the App Store isn't number of downloads or revenue

2. Netflix

When Netflix starting talking up plans to deliver its online streaming service, Watch Instantly, to "Internet-connected high-definition DVD players, Internet-connected game consoles, and dedicated Internet set-top boxes," we were a little skeptical, especially of the time frame. However, the company really delivered in 2008: Netflix streaming is now available on TiVo, the XBox 360, Internet-connected DVD players from LG and Samsung, along with the Roku Netflix Player set-top box.

3. Android

Our initial review of the first Google phone, T-Mobile's G1, was mixed, but the Android OS had us pretty excited. "Without a doubt, the Android operating system is spectacular," last100's Daniel Langendorf wrote at the time. "It's fast, with little or no lag time. It's responsive, fun to use, and full of promise." A few months on and we're still impressed. In particular, Android's mobile web browser is the best post-iPhone one yet. And likewise, the Android Market does a great job of copying the iPhone's App Store. Of course, the best thing about Android is that it's open source; as a result, we'll see it powering numerous new smartphones next year, along with other hardware, such as set-top boxes, MIDs, and GPS devices.

4. Nokia E71

In our extensive review, we described Nokia's E71 as our favorite smartphone yet. So, admittedly, this one is a very personal choice. The E71 is roughly the same size as the iPhone but has a completely different form-factor, omitting touch for a more traditional user interface and with enough room to pack in a compact but very usable QWERTY keyboard. Other pluses are the device's overall responsiveness, bundled applications, and a number of welcome improvements to the S60 line's user interface, along with decent web browsing and media playback, superb call quality, and extremely good battery life.

5. Hulu

Although online video site Hulu was available in private beta in 2007, it didn't launch publicly until March of this year. Our initial verdict was mixed, but since then the Fox and NBC joint venture has become the third biggest video destination in the U.S., according to Nielsen. Perhaps a testament to that success, a number of device makers have released set-top boxes marketed on their ability to put Hulu content on the TV, such as ZeeVee's recently announced PC-to-TV solution, the ZvBox, and the Neuros LINK. Now, if only Hulu would release an iPhone app or, like Netflix, form official partnerships with consumer electronics companies.

6. BBC iPlayer

Hulu could certainly learn a thing or two from the iPlayer, the BBC's TV catch-up service (UK only). Since its controversial Windows launch, when the public broadcaster was accused of getting too close to Microsoft, the iPlayer has added streaming for the Mac and Linux, a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch, numerous other portable media players, and support for the latest phones running Windows Mobile. There's also an iPlayer application for select Nokia phones and a browser-based version optimized for the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

7. PlayStation 3

Sony's PlayStation 3 wasn't launched in 2008, but it certainly came of age this year. The company has always pitched the PS3 as a device that goes far beyond gaming. Instead, like Microsoft's XBox 360, it's designed to be a trojan horse in the living room, delivering a range of non-gaming content and services through the television. On that front, Sony made significant progress in 2008 by winning the next-generation format war with Blu-ray, adding DVR functionality in the UK with PlayTV, launching a video download store in the U.S., adding support for DivX video, and, finally, rolling out its own virtual world called Home.

8. Songbird

After being in development for two years, the open-source desktop music player Songbird reached its 1.0 release this month. What sets Songbird apart from the likes of iTunes is the array of available plug-ins that extend the app's functionality. For example, mashTape, one of six default add-ons, let's you delve into artist info, discography, links, and news and scroll through Flickr photos and YouTube videos. Other add-on services that ship with the player out of the box are Last.fm, Concerts, and SHOUTcast radio. With these installed, you can sync your tracks to Last.fm's online service, check out upcoming concerts in the area, and stream music over the Internet using the player. As of publication, there are over 70 plug-ins available for Songbird.

See also: ReadWriteWeb's full Songbird review.

9. Wii Fit

Nintendo has long contended that "everyone's a gamer," and now the console giant wants everyone to get fit. Announced last year but released in 2008, the Wii Fit aims to improve the health of family members through the kind of active play first seen in Wii Sports. The "game" comes with a balance board that assists with aerobic, toning, and balancing activities. A neat feature is that household members can review each other's progress on a new Wii channel.

10. The Netbook

This isn't an individual product but a whole new product category that has really taken off in 2008. Initially targeted to the education market and those wanting a third machine, netbooks are resonating with a much broader market -- and not just because of their lower price point compared to more traditional, higher spec'ed sub-notebooks. Despite years of industry propaganda, consumers are wising up to the fact that they don't have to step on the processor upgrade treadmill. Instead, in an age when more and more of our applications and data reside in the cloud (on remote servers, rather than local computers), a machine with Internet connectivity and powerful enough to run a modern web browser (a netbook, in other words) is often all we need.

In Android-related coverage, we put the case of why Google should have developed a GPhone of its own, and we also looked at the implications of Android's pending Marketplace for third-party applications. Lastly, on the trends front we examined why the mobile browser maybe more important than any one mobile operating system.

Review: HTC Touch Diamond

"It's hard not to look at HTC's new flagship smartphone, the Touch Diamond, through iPhone-tinted glasses. Featuring a touch screen interface that's been designed, on the surface at least, to be operated using a finger rather than a stylus, like Cupertino's own crown jewel, the Touch Diamond is marketed as a device that makes accessing the Web on the go just as easy as making a phone call. It's also HTC's latest attempt to put a consumer face on the business oriented Windows Mobile operating system. No mean feat in itself."

See also: Review: Samsung Tocco SGH-F480

I've jumped on the Netbook bandwagon (MSI Wind U100 / Advent 4211 review)

Steve O'Hear: "Ever since Asus debuted its first Eee PC, I've been fascinated by this new category of mobile device, dubbed the Netbook by chip maker Intel. The form-factor is a notebook but these devices are purposely cut-down in terms of price - the Eee PC 701 sells for under $300 - as well as size and weight, and to some extent features. While designed primarily as a way of accessing the Internet on-the-go, Netbooks don't have any pretensions of putting the Internet in your pocket, and instead look to keep the screen size and keyboard small enough to still be extremely portable, yet large enough to be that bit more productive."

See also: Don't buy a Netbook pleads PC industry

Why Google should have developed its own Gphone

Dan Langendorf: "Whether the Google phone comes out in September, or later this year, or sometime in early 2009, it really doesn't matter. All this bickering over supposed hardware delays, software issues, and hurt developer feelings has me wondering how Google would have fared if it had taken a different path and developed the Gphone on its own."

See also: What's in a name? Google's announces the Android Market, not the Android Store

Mobile browser more important than operating system

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