The Mac mini appeared in January, a stripped-down computer with no screen, keyboard and mouse.

Designed to appeal to people switching from Windows, or to those who make a habit of buying many computers, the Mac mini was a powerful but very cheap Apple computer - something of a first for the company.

What's more, it rapidly developed a cult following among Mac acolytes and new Mac users alike.

Sporting a minimalist design but packing a reasonable punch as a computer for internet and multimedia use, the Mac mini was soon inspiring armies of hackers to put it to use in bizarre ways - installing it in cars, or using it as a TV recorder.

The mini's future remains an exciting topic of conversation among Mac users. Will it be beefed up? Certainly, it will.

Will it become a replacement for DVD and DVDrecorders? Chances are good. Might it be granted its own iPod docking port, turning it into a tiny hi-fi-system as well? We can hope.

Apple also announced the iPod shuffle, a tiny, cheap, music player. Later in the year, it replaced its bestselling iPod mini line with the iPod nano, a shinier device with a colour screen and more space for more songs. As you'd expect, they flew out of the shops. This year saw the rise of a new concept: "Web 2.0" .

This isn't a second internet, but a new way of building websites and services. Typically, a Web 2.0 service is one that uses the very latest technologies to provide a website that works more like an application on your desktop.

It will also be open, allowing other web services to exchange data and build new services by combining two or more others.

The first wave of such sites was sparked by a collective interest in productivity. People wanted to "get things done" and searched for good ways to do so.

A number of sites sprang up to help people keep track of tasks and lists: TaDaList ( www.tadalists.com ) and Protopage ( www.protopage.com ) foremost among them, but there were many others.

In the spirit of Web 2.0, the Odeo free audio service offered the world a chance to record and publish its own "podcasts" - pseudo-radio shows made by the people, for the people.

Podcasting exploded into the mainstream with national newspapers and broadcasters rushing to put their own audio content on the web.

Podcasts (so named because they're easy to stick on your iPod and listen to as you travel) vary enormously in style and quality.

Some are peppered with annoying advertising, others sound painfully amateurish. But there are a few gems - it just takes a long time to find them.

Towards the end of the year, activism gained a higher profile with many people turning to the web to recruit helpers and supporters for their causes.

The Open Rights Group ( www.openrightsgroup.org ) was established after a virtual whip-round at Pledgebank ( www.pledgebank.org/rights ) to raise money for an office and to pay for full-time staff.

Each supporter promised to pay a small monthly sum to support the work of the ORG. It is now busy setting up high-profile campaigns against abuses of digital rights by business and government in the UK and beyond.

Google unveiled yet another superb web service in February - Google maps ( maps.google.com ).

This free site lets you find almost any address in any country on earth, and view it as a map or a satellite picture.

In places where the satellite images are high-resolution, people have taken to studying them in great detail, and submitted their most interesting discoveries to sites like Google Sightseeing ( googlesightseeing.com )

In the autumn, Google announced Base - a curious thing that didn't quite catch on like the Maps service. Google Base ( base.google.com ) is a database for just about anything and everything.

Anyone can add data, about any topic. Critics said Google should give the Base a clearer sense of purpose; it will be some time before we can judge what role it will play in growth of the wider web.

* Giles Turnbull has a web-site at gilest.org ..SUPL: