Word has it that Apple has invited various members of the media to a special event on February 28th 2006, when they plan to announce what they call “fun new products”. Unrelenting in their talent for self-promotion and hype-generation, it was no surprise that news of the event spread around the web at a break neck pace. From news sites to blogs, anyone interested in Apple now considers February 28th to be an spiritually anointed holiday.

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Well, today is the day! In just another hour or so we should start seeing the first bits of news on Apple’s new product offerings trickle in. The iTunes movie store? DVR mac minis? Smaller, sleeker iPod shuffles? Only time will tell!

Remembering dozens and dozens of logins for your different haunts around the web can be not only difficult, but also a liability if you come to rely on one login/pass combo to heavily. Fortunately there are still innovators out there trying to come up with a solution to the difficult problem of ensuring websites stay secure while also remaining easy to use and convenient for their audiences.

Enter Passclicks, a fascinating departure from the traditional process of logins and passwords. Passclicks are a set pattern of location based clicks that are created by a user, and therefore validate their identity. Upon the need to login to a website, the user would simply enter their username, and click on various points of an image to prove they are indeed who they claim to be.

Of course a system of user-defined clicks isn’t necessarily easier to remember than a single password: imagine if you had to remember click locations for say, 20 different sites, all of which used different images. But it does none the less show that innovations can still be made in the process of logins, so we can hope that in between now and the time that we’ve all got schwarzenegger-esque brain implants, logging could be a bit less of a hassle.

That’s it! The billionth song has been sold on the iTunes Music Store. Just a little over two weeks after our original post, Alex Ostrovsky made the billionth purchase when he downloaded Coldplay’s latest album, X&Y. For those of you that were vying to be the recipient of the grand prize 20″ iMac, 10 iPods, $10,000 iTMS money and the creation of a new scholarship to Julliard in your name, you can take some comfort (or maybe not) that at least the winner was a Michigander. Alex hails from West Bloomfield, Michigan and I’m sure you are all with me when I say, “Congratulations, you son of a bitch.”

• iPod
• Xbox 360 Dashboard
• Sony PSP
• Tivo
• Salling Clicker

No one can argue that as we progress further and further into the information age, gadgets are quickly becoming an essential commodity for everyday life. However, just because a device is small and cute, there’s no guarantee that it will be easy or enjoyable to use. Thankfully there are outliers from the crowd, devices that fulfill a wide range of needs, all the while providing an elegant and intuitive user experience while they do so. What gadgets do you feel deserve an honor on the grounds of great usability?