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By Michael Wong

Another year has passed by and what a year it was…

Chinavasion is almost four years old now, and it seems as each year passes we get more and more blog love attention. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad…but you know what they say: publicity is a lot like pizza. No matter how bad it is, it’s never that bad.

January

The year rolled in like a Shakespeare play, but this Winter’s Tale got off to a flying start with the Power Wristband of the Gods which was picked up by eveybody from Yanko Design to Boing Boing ( gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/17/your-new-cyberpunk-w.html) which let you power all your devices and look like Thor doing it. For your ride however, we had something special in mind. No in-car media system? No matter! …in fact a car is only as good as its steering wheel Bluetooth adapter. This handy little device was picked up by Tech Pin ( techpin.com/steering-wheel-bluetooth-car-adapter/ )

February

All of China was still asleep so February was pretty uneventful… Except for yours truly arriving in Shenzhen having accepted a job offer from the online leader in direct from China electronics and thinking “what the Missy-Eliot-Get-Your-Freak-On have I gotten myself into????”

Well, actually the blogosphere did take a shining to our warm white LED light bulb, especially 7gadgets (7gadgets.com/2009/02/03/led-light-bulb-warm-white/9306).

Our Bluetooth bracelet was all the rage on the runways of Milan and Paris, OhGizmo actually thought it out-performed a more expensive model ( ohgizmo.com/2009/02/18/vibrating-bluetooth-bracelet-gets-an-update/ ).



And Nexus 404 ( nexus404.com/Blog/2009/02/01/budget-hidden-video-spy-camera-watch-surveillance-watch-for-bargain-bin-bonds/) thought our Spy Camera Watch was just the thing for your average secret agent on a budget.

March

The first quarter of the year was coming to a close, but the weather was still a bit nippy. So what’s a geek to do? USB cup warmer to the rescue.

Have some hot coffee while you work, the USB holder keeps your cup warm. Drop in a few splashes of Irish Whiskey to feel even warmer and don’t forgoe your USB port to do it. Sorry Chinavasion doesn’t sell alcohol. (We just test it in-house). But even so Geeky Gadgets warmed to the item (geeky-gadgets.com/usb-gadgets-cup-warmer-usb-hub/)

In hindsight who would’ve thought that March would prove to be so crucial to retro gamer happiness everywhere. Whoever said “Beware The Ides Of March” didn’t have a clue, because we were about to drop the Dingoo on the world in black and white! Geeks everywhere celebrated with a victory lap of Mario Kart for the SNES with Gizmodo writers going as far as saying they would let their children play no other portable gaming system (gizmodo.com/5195957/i-will-force-my-kids-to-play-chinavasions-emulator+filled-handheld).

April

The greatest MC of all time, Rakim aka The R aka God MC once said, “I ain’t no joke, I used to let the mic smoke, Now I slam it when I’m done and make sure it’s broke!”



Joke? April Fool’s? That’s what we thought when we woke up one morning to realize that we had a viral video hit on our hands with the Breakdancing RC Car. Yeah we know, WTF is right! Still, Willy our groundskeeper was out for two weeks when he pulled his groin trying to windmill in our cafeteria. Thankfully Technabob knows what time it is ( technabob.com/blog/2009/04/14/breakdancing-remote-control-car/ ).

May

With the better weather it was time to head for the pool. And what would be a better poolside device than the waterproof bluetooth speaker ball. We know. Who would ever use such a device? Picture this: you’re a rap mogul and you’re shooting a pool party video with lots of Victoria Secrets models and you need mood music by the pool. What are you going to do? Back your Escalade with the spinning 22s up to the side of the pool? No fool! You throw a bunch of waterproof bluetooth speakers into the pool and…wet tee shirt contest anyone?

And, contrary to popular belief, neither the back street boys ( technabob.com/blog/2009/05/29/waterproof-bluetooth-speaker-goes-for-a-swim/ ) nor Billy Corgan ( engadget.com/2009/06/01/waterproof-bluetooth-speaker-approved-by-vacationing-billy-corga/ ) endorse this product.

The internets then discovered our 4-in-1 Portable GPS Device and decided that it was better than a ball on the end of your aerial ( geekalerts.com/portable-gps-location-finder/).

We even gave the world its first balance board for the Wii that didn’t come bundled with Wii Fit and how they laughed. (engadget.com/2009/05/11/keepin-it-real-fake-part-ccvi-yet-another-balance-board-editi/).

June

You know how in highschool English they teach you that the plot structure of a novel looks like a mountain and the tip of the mountain is the climax? And when Miss Fernandez said climax, everyone giggled? June was definitely a highpoint of the year with not one but seven Chinavasion products picked up by bloggers big and small.

Fan subbers gave praise that they were now able to watch Bleach in high defintion glory with our 1080P Hi-Def SD / USB Memory Card Media Player as it “was damn well meant to be!” (technabob.com/blog/2009/06/19/hd-1080p-media-player-plays-sd-usb/) There was the all-in-one projector that does everything for you except lie to your girlfriend about where you were last night (gadgetvenue.com/allinone-multimedia-projector-06030333/). Those of you who didn’t like how cellphones had become too portable got a special treat with the GSM desktop cellphone unit! ( gearlive.com/news/article/q408-chinavasion-desktop-gsm-phone/ ) No, it’s only an oxymoron if it involves people. Honest lawyer for example, that’s an oxymoron.

Feeling particularly shiny disco ballish, we introduced the world to LED light panels (technabob.com/blog/2009/06/24/led-color-changing-flat-panels-perfect-for-home-discos/), followed up by a nifty quad band water resistant watch phone ( redferret.net/?p=14862 ) Lets see your wrist iPhone watch phone do this LG!

Working with the world’s top designers including Prada, D & G, as well as Chanel, we launched the first ever Solar Vest And to make sure people knew it was a Solar Vest, we wrote Solar Vest in big letters on the back although Geeky Gadgets (geeky-gadgets.com/the-solar-vest/) and Wired (wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/solar-vest-charges-gadgets-shreds-cred/) didn’t think it would be a drawcard for the ladies. Thankfully we had the video to prove them wrong.



By the way, have you purchased your Chairman Mao laptop pad yet? It’s what all the cool revolutionaries are doing and, according to Andrew Tingle from Nexus 404 the best thing you can do to prevent a Gordon Brown Laptop cooling pad being made ( nexus404.com/Blog/2009/06/06/chairman-mao-laptop-cooling-pad-obligatory-in-china-probably/ )

Just look who Mao is giving it to!



Stay tuned because some time later today we will go over blog coverage in the second half of the year. If you haven’t already, check out the latest China gadgets to see what you think will be picked up next. And let us know what YOU think was the best gadget story of the year in the comments below.

• Read what happened from July to December, from Digital cameras with reaally long lenses (The Avatar) to a LED watch so cool they’re STILL talking about it on twitter (Iron Samurai LED Watch).
  
  
• Read A Year In Review, 2009’s Hottest Gadget Stories, Part 2