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It’s been a while now since Macworld Expo ended, and we’ve since seen a MacBook update that probably should’ve been in the keynote, and heard more news on the health of Steve Jobs. Thinking past this back to the show, and having finally dug through all the product materials we collected, the Appletell writers who were at Moscone have finally been able to select their favorite products of the 2009 expo.

Jake Gaecke:

My favorite newly announced product of the show has to be, without a doubt, the ModBook Pro by Axiotron. On paper, it truly is the biggest and best tablet made…period. In real life, the case is the most sturdy case I’ve ever had the pleasure of holding. I’m not even sure if Axiotron knows what the words flex or bend mean, because the ModBook Pro certainly doesn’t know how to do either of those things. Many Apple fanboys have been asking Apple for a MacBook Touch. This product exists, and it’s amazing. It’s called the ModBook Pro, and it’s the tablet Apple should have made.

Beyond just the tablet interface, the independent touch functionality, the stunning case design, the vastly improved handwriting recognition—I could go on and on—are the people at Axiotron. I stopped by the Axiotron booth several times; once to see the press release with the Woz, once to talk with Monica Ballin and once to sit down with CEO Andreas Has. Each time I visited, I couldn’t help but smile the entire time. These people are doing amazing things and they love it just as much as we the end users do. And how could you not feel like you’re instantly best buddies with Andreas? He’s such a great guy. Really, there are way too many reasons to list as to why I think the ModBook Pro outshines almost everything at Macworld this year. If only everyone could afford to own a ModBook Pro, though you get what you pay for.

Kirk Hiner

Unlike years past, it was difficult for me to decide upon one particular product as my favorite this year. I’d like to say it’s because there were too many from which to chose, but that wouldn’t be accurate. Rather, there just wasn’t a single product that caught me completely off guard. There were some gems, though, my favorite of which would have to be the Microvision Pico Projector.

This tiny device connects to your iPod or iPhone to project video on any surface. And when I say “any,” I mean “any.” Flat, curved, near, far, it doesn’t make much difference because the video is projected with lasers, so it’s always in focus. The image is bright and clear when the projector is close to whatever it’s being projected on, but does get dimmer (and bigger, obviously) as you pull away. In controlled light conditions, you can expand the projection to up to about 100” inches wide without washing it out too much. In your standard lit room, anything over about 32 inches becomes a little difficult to see. The only drawback to the Pico Projector is that it can’t handle iPod or iPhone games, as Apple doesn’t support video out from other apps. Well, there’s that drawback and the fact that it won’t be available in mass quantities until the second half of this year, and would cost about $500 if released now. Hopefully, they’ll get that price down by the time it’s released.

Bill Stiteler

I’m going to have to go with the herd on this one and say that Macworld Expo 2009 was a big yawn. There were a lot of good products there—notably cases for the iPhone—but if anyone was hoping for the Next Big Thing, they were sorely disappointed.

The best product I saw there was the introduction of Sling Player for the iPhone and iPod touch, one of several products that are bringing streaming television to the iPhone. But the advantage of Sling Player is that you can watch live TV, and if you want to watch a show you’ve already recorded on your DVR, you can simply watch it; there’s no need to figure out what you want to watch beforehand and upload it to another website. I’ll be anxious to see how good the feed is in real-world-internet conditions.

• Also see Appletell’s “most surprising” finds of Macworld Expo 2009.