It feels like only yesterday we were kicking off a new year, touching down in Las Vegas to attend what was sure to be an exciting CES. And here we are, already enjoying summer vacations. As we slip into the second half of the year, we look at some of the best and worst technologies of the first half. Ubuntu on Dell PCs--that's a good thing. A messaging phone that can't message efficiently--that's bad. And before you start wondering where the most-anticipated product of the year (decade? century?) falls on this list, we should note that we insisted on having a product or technology in house and in hand, in order to give it a thumbs-up or down. We're pretty confident, however, that it will make one of our December lists. (And of course, stay tuned for our in-depth review posting shortly.) In the meantime, take a break from iPhone overload and check out our analysis of how the year's progressing.