It's been quite the year for technology news, with gadgets, apps and lawsuits stealing the headlines, not to mention the death of the great Apple leader, Steve Jobs. But as the news gets more interesting, so does the quality of gadgets being made available to consumers. For a start, smartphones have become larger and cheaper, and almost every manufacturer now has a tablet of some sort on the shelf (except for HP, which pulled its TouchPad just six weeks after its July release).

To recap the tech year that was, here is a list of the gadgets that took the honours in a competitive year. Unsurprisingly, Apple has three inclusions. While it's Asian rivals in HTC and Samsung are hot on its heels, with their Android leanings, but their lawyers are hard at work as well. Let's take a look at 10, in no particular order.