ReadWriteWeb

In our yearly wrap-ups of the best products of 2009, we cannot but notice the shadow that falls over the editorial desk.

We are chilled and saddened by the ghosts of the past year - the apps that should have been, the startups that failed to launch, the brilliant ideas that were throttled, the great minds that were fired, the tech heroes that committed tragic gaffes. But some failures were so monumental that they require specific enumeration and commentary. Here are the 10 worst tech failures of 2009.

The dirt is still fresh on the grave of the CrunchPad; we ought to feel guilty for writing this post.

But our good friends have been working with a few cohorts on a stealth-mode startup for quite some time - working on the problem of the lightweight, portable, web-friendly device. Only their product is smaller in size and larger in spirit than any netbook or notepad yet seen - perhaps there is a balm in Gilead after all.

But you didn't come here for literature; you came to see pics and read specs. So here we go.

Everyone is falling all over themselves to talk about tablets. Yesterday Wired.com topped them all in the hype department by declaring 2010 to be the year of the tablet. But let's just slow down a minute. Yes, a big old pane of multi-touch goodness is a thing of beauty, and we're just as susceptible to its magic as you are. But there's a reason tablets haven't caught on to date.