Shiny’s annual gadget awards: LG scores a hatrick
The Oscars of the gadget world, the Shiny Awards 2007, hosted in London last night by Shiny Media, and attended by many high profile British journalists and bloggers, saw LG’s mobile phones clean up with two wins and a runner-up spot.
Shiny Media also teamed up with European blog networks Blogo.it (Italy), Weblogs SL (Spain), Creative Weblogging (Germany), and Journal du Geek (France), asking their readers to vote on the best European gadget.
Over half of the 5,000 votes cast named Nintendo’s Wii games console, with the iPod Nano as runner-up.
Some suitably British awards were handed out. The “WAG Gadget of the Year” sought to highlight the gadget that would most likely be used and endorsed by the wife or girlfriend of a famous footballer, and was won by the LG Chocolate mobile phone, as used by Colleen (pictured).
“WAGs don’t just influence consumers choice of handbags or shoes, it appears they now have the last word on what mobile we all buy too,” said Ashley Norris, Shiny Media’s CEO.
Winning the best ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) gadget – in other words the one most likely to be used to annoy other people – came the Samsung K5 music player. “It was a great idea putting decent speakers on a tiny MP3 player. But we do fear some bus passengers may suffer from these powerful speakers if the current trend of playing music on tinny mobile phone speakers is anything to go by,” joked Norris. “I suspect though some ASBO owners will prefer our runner up, Heelys trainers/skaters combo, which are ideal for, ahem, quick getaways.”
The complete list of winners and runners-up follows:
WAG Gadget of the Year
Winner: LG Chocolate Phone
Runner Up: Roberto Cavalli LG Phone
ASBO Gadget of the Year
Winner: Samsung K5 MP3 player
Runner Up: Heelys’ trainers
European Gadget of the Year:
Winner: Nintendo Wii Console
Runner Up: Apple iPod Nano
Best Fashion Mobile:
Winner: LG Shine Phone
Runner Up: LG Chocolate Phone
Icon of the Year:
Winner: LG Chocolate Phone
Runner Up: Apple iPod Nano
Best Web 2.0 Innovation:
Winner: Vox
Runner Up: Last.fm
Best ‘Boring but Useful’ Gadget
Winner: Sling Media Slingbox
Runner Up: Logitech Revolution mouse
Best Smartphone
Winner: Nokia N73
Runner Up: HTC TyTN
Game of the Year
Winner: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Runner Up: Wii Sports
Best HDTV Contribution
Winner: Sky
Runner Up: LG BH100
Gadget Accessory of the Year
Winner: Nike iPod sports kit
Runner Up: MobileWear by Abacus AU6001/AU6002
Green Gadget of the Year
Winner: Evesham Crusader Carbonthree PC
Runner Up: Eclipse Solar Gear solar powered briefcase
Andy Merrett is a London-based full-time blogger writing for several Shiny Media technology blogs and various other projects. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.