Good products and services deserve to be acknowledged and rewarded. So Lifehacker is rounding out 2010 by asking our readers to vote for our Best Of The Year awards and identify the crucial stuff that you truly can’t live without.
Picture by Terren
We’re going to give out awards in five categories, which reflect the main topics we cover here at Lifehacker:
- Best Desktop App
- Best Web App
- Best Mobile App
- Best ISP
- Best Mobile Broadband Service
While we’ve got some definite ideas about contenders for each of these categories, I’m sure that there’s plenty more you guys have to recommend as well. So over the next fortnight, we’ll be looking for your suggestions for worthy contenders in these areas.
Put your suggestions for nominees in any or all categories (and tell us why you picked them) in the comments. We’ll assemble them together over the next two weeks, then we’ll pick out a top five of potential nominees and official voting for each category will begin!
Pat
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 11:12 AMBest Desktop App/Web App/Mobile App = Dropbox.
Why? Because its awesome. I use it on all 3 platforms and it works flawlessly all the time, I rarely bother with a USB stick anymore
Graham
Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 8:49 AMBest Desktop App = Seesmic Desktop – the first app I open for all my tweets and social communications
Best Web App = GMail and Dropbox
Best Mobile App = Seesmic on Blackberry and Android
Best ISP = Optus
Jeff
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 2:02 PMBest Desktop App = XBMC
Best Web App = GMail
Best Mobile App = Google Maps
Best ISP = Adam Internet
Best Mobile Broadband Service = Vodafone
Ben
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 3:34 PMDesktop App: Dropbox – use it every single day, no complaints.
Web App: ABC iView – brilliant! , Gmail – search is fantastic
Mobile App: Dropbox. iBooks – very comfortable to read on ipad, use it daily.
ISP: iiNet – service is wonderful (esp. churning from TPG), pricing is good, always amongst the first to unmeter content.
Stan V
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 10:44 AMDesktop Apps I Can’t Go Without:
- CCleaner
- Microsoft Security Essentials
- Firefox + Adblock
- DuckLink Screen Capture
- Foobar 2k
- VLC Media Player
- DoPDF
- WinRAR
- VSO COnvertX to DVD – A+++
- Easy CD-DA Extractor
- Foxit PDF Reader
- Mobile Me
Best Broadband (for me anyway)
- TPG (been with then for almost 8 years)
Stan V
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 10:54 AMI forgot to mention why they are so great!
- CCleaner – Minimalistic, efficient and SAFE junk file cleaner which keeps your pc maintained.
- Microsoft Security Essentials – A slim effective up to date FREE anti virus which is memory sufficient compared to the rest.
- Firefox – A more secure / customizable browser as an alternative for IE.
- Ducklink – Great free screen capturing tool
- Foobar – A TINY fast and customizable audio player!!! awesome!
- VLC – Free open source media player compatible with almost any format
- DoPDF – Free PDF Creator which keeps all borders of a print in alignment all the time
- WinRAR – great compression utility – fast and effective
- VSO ConvertX To DVD – Create great DVD’s of your personal videos or any video fast and with high quality
- Easy CD-DA – Great for ripping audio cd’s to ANY format any quality you wish with a great CDDB database
- Foxit PDF – Alternate fast/slim PDF reader which integrates to your browser
- Mobile ME – Great for a cloud service/email/calendar (which is what i use it for) oh and to find my iphone if it got stolen again! ;)
David Forster
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 11:23 AMBest Desktop App = World of Warcraft
Best Web App = WoW Armory
Best Mobile App = WoW Mobile Armory
Best ISP = Bigpond
Best Mobile Broadband Service = Bigpond
Ian Mckay
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 1:24 PMBest Desktop App: Google Chrome
Best Web App: phpMyAdmin
Best Mobile App: Google Maps
Best ISP: TPG
Best Mobile Broadband Service: Telstra (unfortunatly)
Liam
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 3:26 PMBest Desktop App: Firefox, Steam, VLC, MSE
Best Web App: GoogleMaps or GoogleReader
Best Mobile App: Dropbox, EpicWin, Evernote
Best ISP: iiNet
Best Mobile Broadband: Telstra
ROss
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 1:36 PMBest Desktop App
Best Web App
Best Mobile App
Dropbox for all 3 above
Best ISP – Internode
Best Mobile Broadband Service – Optus
Travis.
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 1:51 PMBest Desktop App: Firefox, echofon
Best Web App: Facebook
Best Mobile App: Dropbox, echofon
Best ISP: Internode
Best Mobile Broadband: Telstra
woodsdog
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 1:55 PM* Best Desktop App – XBMC
* Best Web App – ZamZar (file coversion)
* Best Mobile App – IMDB(iOS)
* Best ISP – TPG (for value for money)(i think it should be different categories)
* Best Mobile Broadband Service (McDonalds, available everywhere and free)cant give it to any of the big 3…(telstra – overpriced, V & O flaky and oversubscribed)
Rossco
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 1:58 PMBest Desktop App: Evernote
Best Web App: Gmail
Best Mobile App: Evernote for Android
Best ISP: iiNet
Best Mobile Broadband Service: Vodafone
Chris
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 4:13 PMBest Desktop App: Firefox
Best Web App: Google Suite (Mail, Reader, Docs, etc)
Best Mobile App: TeamViewew, Foursquare, Facebook, eBay
Best ISP: TPG
Best Mobile Broadband: 3Mobile.
Matt
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 5:08 PMBest Desktop App – TweetDeck
Best Web App – Google Reader
Best Mobile App – DropBox
Best ISP – Adam Internet
Best Mobile Broadband Service – (in my opinion, they are all bad)
Daniel
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 5:51 PMBest Desktop App – Dropbox, no words necessary.
Best Web App – Dropbox
Best Mobile App – Mobile Opera, S60v5 version of the best browser ever made.
Best ISP – Internode, insanely good value for money. Plenty of data and over 10TB of un-metered content.
Best Mobile Broadband Service – McDonalds
Carly
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 9:53 PMDon’t laugh, best mobile broadband = Vodafone, specifically the pocket wifi.
Basically it turns me into a walking talking mobile wifi hotspot. Great device, great service. Consistently get line speeds between 3-5 mbps, 10gb allowance is great value for money, whole caboodle is extremely convenient.
Oh, and I support the Dropbox noms ;)
Matt
Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 2:36 AMBest Desktop App: Notepad
Best Web App: Gmail
Best Mobile App: Codewallet
Best ISP: Internode
Best Mobile Broadband Service: Vodafone
Nathan Holmes
Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 1:55 PMBest Desktop App: XBMC
Best Web App: Gmail
Best Mobile App: Wavesecure/Cyanogenmod(if it counts)
Best ISP: Adam Internet
Best Mobile Broadband Service: Telstra/Vodafone
Nathan Essex
Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 9:28 PMBest Desktop App: CCleaner
Best Web App: Google Wave
Best ISP: Internode
timelady
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 11:31 AMBest Desktop App = Dropbox
Best Web App = Dropbox
Best Mobile App = Dropbox
Dropbox is a game changer. Has made cloud computing viable almost single handedly. Open source AND free! On almost every mobile device. Default on many mobile file, image, rss/web & doc apps.
Best ISP = Internode
Best Mobile Broadband Service = 3
Bonus Round:
Best Tech = iPad
Again, game changer. Everyone scrambling to copy,, uptake phenomenal. Who thought tablet frenzy would be the end of 2010, mot of the speculation this year has been iPad competitor based – so far, fail.
Runner up= Android O/S
Awnshegh
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 4:15 PMBest Desktop App = VLC Media Player – savior of my life and my sanity. Lets my luddite partner watch anything she wants to. No fuss.
Best Web App = Funnily enough I can’t think of anything. I think it’s the old thing if it ain’t bolted down it’s gone. Working in the cloud is just not something I do every day. Well not yet anyway.
Best Mobile App = WP7 – Yes I know it’s an OS and I know it’s only new but it has some cool features and is only going to get better.
Best ISP = iiNet – speed is consistent and downtiem is non existent. Even through 3 moves in 3 years across 3 exchanges.
Best Mobile Broadband Service = no noms from me. I stick to wifi hotspots
Nick
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 10:42 PMBest Desktop App: Dropbox
Best Web App: Gmail
Best Mobile App: Google Maps
Best ISP: Internode
Best Mobile Broadband Service: NA
Tim
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 4:49 PMBest Desktop App – Dropbox, VLC
Best Web App – Nikeplus.com
Best Mobile App – dropbox, nike+ GPS, apple remote (used properly with a house set up with airTunes)
Best ISP – TPG, after 5 years Never a problem always helpful, wouldnt be with anyone else
Best Mobile Broadband Service – telstra pre paid mobile wifi
Tyler
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 5:31 PMBest Desktop App: Firefox
Best Web App: Gmail
Best Mobile App: Google Maps
Best ISP: IINet
Best Mobile Broadband Service: Telstra
Martha
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 5:50 PMBest Desktop App: PaintRibbon and Onenote
Best Mobile: Things for iPhone
Best Web App: Facebook?
Tor
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 5:53 PMBest Desktop App: Chrome
Best Web App: Gmail
I use these two apps more than any other, so obviously they must be the most useful (for me anyway)!