I spend some time at the end of every year and think about the best and worst things I’ve reviewed. I wrote 63 reviews this year, from sock garters to headphone amplifiers. What were the best and worst things I bought all year?
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It’s that time of year: I look around my house and look at all the stuff I bought. What was the best thing I purchased all year? What was the worst? Here’s 2007, and 2005 … looks like I skipped 2006. Whoops!

The best Gibberish gadget of 2008
The HTC Touch / Verizon vx6900
I never gave my Windows Mobile phone a proper review, but that was probably because I was too busy checking email, sending text messages, taking pictures, and approving Gibberish comments on it. Oh yeah, you can call people, too. When I first started my job they didn’t allow access to private email like Gmail or Hotmail, so Touch to the rescue. Thanks to an update to Windows Mobile 6.1 and an unlocked internal GPS receiver, my HTC Touch is a lot more stable and feature-filled than when I bought it at retail. I liked the phone then, and love it now.

Honorable mention: Kapoosh Universal Knife Block. Yeah, it may be droll, but I use it almost every day. The Kapoosh is a product of quiet genius. It is simple and effective, and you don’t realize how much you needed it until you have it. A great product, and a great value at $20.

Worst Gibberish gadget of 2008
Motoport
This is a no-brainer. The multiple fitting issues, the ranting and admonishment at the hands of Wayne Boyer, the owner of Motoport, and an equally disastrous return process put bitter icing on an already bad cake. In fact, my experience with Motoport may make it the worst Gibberish gadget ever. You have to be a mighty big asshole to dethrone a product that kills dogs, but there you are, Motoport.

Honorable mention:Navigon 2100 Portable GPS. How can you sell a new GPS in 2008 with maps from 2006? Long satellite acquisition times, poor user interface, and an insensitive touch screen display makes this off-brand GPS a stinker.

I buy a lot of stuff, and sometimes my highest hopes turn out to be the biggest disappointments. I’ve evaluated the things I’ve purchased last year, with an eye to what I use on a regular basis that Gibberish readers may use often as well. Sure, I “use” my Keltec PF-9 every day when I carry it, but most of you don’t have carry permits and its appeal is not as universal as this year’s winner. Here’s a look back at the best and worst gadgets covered on Gibberish in 2007.
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After reviewing 42 items in 2005, I figured it was a good time for a look back and the gadgets and games I covered last year in Gibberish. As is typical I suppose, the things I reviewed ran parallel to whatever I was concentrating at the time. After we got our Sony PSPs, I rattled off 7 reviews. When we started drinking more tea instead of coffee, I did a write up of Adagio.com, our teaware, and our favorite teas (which reminds me, I need to reorder some White Peony). And so on.

So, after all that blabbering in 2005, what were my favorite and least favorite things that I reviewed?

Worst Gibberish Gadget of 2005:
Broadvoice Voice Over IP Service
Talk about an overhyped underperformer. I really thought our hand-built computer system was going to win out when I got the idea for this story, but goddamn if going through my reviews didn’t trigger a Tourettic volley of expletives. I think it’s a combination of cable internet connectivity, Broadvoice’s service, and VOIP in general, but look elsewhere if you are considering for a landline replacement.

If there’s the slightest glitch in the Matrix the IP-to-phone adapter will shit itself, resulting in a dead line and necessitating a reset. We drop a few calls every week, or some weird shit happens where one party can’t hear the other. Lady Jaye was speaking with her mother recently and this happened. Lady Jaye could hear her mother just fine, especially the part where her mother yelled, “I HATE THIS PHONE” and hung up. Isn’t that a great way to spend $39 a month?

While not officially supported by Broadvoice, faxing over VOIP is like playing the lottery. Need to fax in that expense report, or documents chronicling a camcorder theft? As Jack Nicholson said, “roll the dice and take your chances.” There is no pattern to why one fax will go through fine, and the very next fax to the same number will take multiple tries before success. My own personal record is 11 attempts to my employer’s expense report line.

Oh yeah, while you have unlimited minutes to most countries in Europe, if you call a mobile phone over there you get charged up the ansu. I had one teleconference call with a vendor, to the tune of almost $9 for less than an hour of talktime.

Let me put it this way: I think VOIP sucks so badly that I’ve considered getting a regular landline again.

Congratulations, Broadvoice, you’re the biggest piece of shit Gibberish reviewed this year.

Best Gibberish Gadget of 2005:
Casio G-Shock GW500A-1V Watch
Hey, ranting about Broadvoice felt pretty good. But not as good as I feel when I think about the Casio watch that I wear daily. Partly because it has some sentimental value (Lady Jaye gave it to me), but also because it’s a kickass gadget that I use all the time. Aside from my glasses, it’s the first thing I put on in the morning, and the second-to-last thing I take off at night before I go to bed. This thing has survived a bonk during our move from Maryland to Virginia, a direct hit from a paintball gun, swimming in pee-infested gym pools, and the massive shocks associated with couples doing what couples do. And no, I don’t mean picking out curtains together.

As I said in my initial review, the only thing I lament is the lack of a countdown timer, but I’ve gotten used to not having one. I use the stopwatch every time I grill outside, where the difference between turning a pork chop at 7 minutes and 30 seconds versus 7 minutes and 50 seconds mean the difference between grill marks and scorch marks. When the world come crumbling down, this watch will still keep going. Of course, who gives a fuck about time when society has crumbled, but whatever.

G-Shock GW500A-1V, you’re the best Gibberish gadget of 2005!