Best cell phone: Apple iPhone

These days it’s practically essential to have a cell phone (mobile phone if you’re outside the US). I’m a relative laggard in this area. I didn’t get my first cell phone until 1999 with a bare-bones $10/month plan and 25¢/minute. And that was the plan I kept for 9 years, until a month ago when I got an iPhone.

The iPhone is great because it’s basically a mobile computer with a phone built in. It enables a number of mobile scenarios that — now that I’m used to — would be difficult for me to live without. For example, it does a great job approximating my current location when doing a map search, making it really useful for finding nearby stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc. when I’m out & about. It also shows live traffic data on the map, which is critical when making route decisions.

I’ve stopped carrying a separate music player; the built-in iPod app works great. I love the phone integration. When I receive a call, the audio pauses; when the call ends, the audio starts again. It has a built-in camera too. The quality is mediocre, but it works well enough, and it’s always with me. No need to lug around a point & shoot every day for serendipitous picture taking.

The email, SMS, and web browser are useful too but on the AT&T Edge network, things can be a bit to slow to be of much use. But there are times you really want to look something up, and the ability to do it — albeit slowly — is nice.

Finally — and I cannot emphasize this enough — the iPhone is easy to use. You are not going to find a phone out there with a better interface than this one. As an interface designer, I’m acutely sensitive to design details, and Apple has once again nailed it with this device.

Now is a perfect time to get an iPhone. The new 3G model is coming out in about a month, so you can pick up the first-generation model at a discount — especially from technophiles getting rid of their old ones in anticipation of buying the new one. I highly recommend checking out CraigsList or eBay for deals. If you prefer to wait for the newer one, click here.Get an Apple iPhone

Best laptop: Apple MacBook

Apple makes the best laptops out there. period. They are beautifully-designed, high-quality, and a great value (price/performance). While I have a MacBook Pro, most people don’t need the extras that the Pro incudes (larger screen, bigger hard drive, more graphics memory) at the cost of nearly doubling the price. However I do recommend that you don’t buy the cheapest MacBook. The DVD writer, extra memory, and extra hard drive space will all be things you’ll grow into and be glad you got after a few years.

Of course one of the main selling points of the Mac is that it runs Mac OS X — widely considered to be friendlier and easier to use than Windows. The visual design is lighter, simpler, and polished to a high shine. For basic Internet use, music, photos and other basic consumer tasks, the Mac shines. And as an amatuer musician, GarageBand is a fantastic application. There is nothing like it on the PC at any price.

However if you need to run Windows, your MacBook can do it. You can boot directly into Windows using the free Boot Camp utility provided by Apple. Or you can get virtual machine (VM) software — Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion — and run Windows as a separate application within Mac OS X. I’ve done both, but lately I prefer the latter as I only need Windows occasionally. Ironically, PC World reported in October 2007 that the MacBook Pro was the fastest Windows laptop that they tested. On the down side, there is no dedicated second mouse button or forward delete key, but you can work around these with a two-finger touch pad + click and fn+delete respectively.Get a MacBook from Amazon

Best headphones: Sennheiser HD-280 Pro

I’ve been an amateur musician since I was a teenager, and I’ve owned my fair share of headphones. For a long time, it was the Sony MDR-V6, and they are a really nice pair of headphones. But I really think Sennheiser’s sound better. The fine folks over at Headphone.com agree, saying:

These headphones sound terrific for sealed-earcup, full-size cans priced under $100... They are efficient enough to be well-driven by most portable audio players and laptop computers... The HD-280 Pro has also become the headphone choice of audio, film, and field recording/mixing professionals due to its clear tonal presentation, very effective ambient noise attenuation properties, and durable build quality. A true workhorse of a sealed-earcup headphone at a really hard-to-beat price.

Now I’m a bit of a headphone fanatic. I’ve own over 30 pairs of headphones in my life. Any while there are certainly different types of headphones I'd recommend for specialized scenarios (VOIP, exercise, airplane flights, etc.). But if I had to pick only one pair of headphones to use for the rest of my life, these would be it.

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Best video game console: Nintendo Wii

If you’re going to get a video game system for you, for your family, or as a gift, go with the Nintendo Wii. In a word, it is simply fun, and after all that’s what a game system should be.
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