Weвve recounted the biggest stories involving Apple, the iPhone, and iPods. Weвve even told you what our most read stories were in 2009. But what articles did Macworld readers take a shine to? And which ones did they think were the pits?

Each article posted on Macworldв”even this oneв”features a thumbs up/thumbs down feature at the bottom where readers can tell us what they think about a story. We track that inputв”to the point where we can tell you the most popular stories of 2009в¦ as well as the least popular articles we posted.

10 to the power of 100? Ah, yes, the good ol' days.

The great thing about tech nostalgia is that you can reminisce to your heart's content without having to worry about branding yourself an old codger. I remember the days when my computer came stocked with an entire gigabyte of hard-drive space, and I haven't even hit 25.

On the last day of 2009, we thought we'd look back at some of PCWorld's best tech-nostalgia stories from the past year.

Gadget Autopsy: The Nintendo Game Boy

I got my first Nintendo Game Boy when I was about six years old: My parents discovered that the easiest way to shut us kids up on long plane trips was with a portable video game system. I spent many a long car or plane ride hunched over the tiny green screen, switching cartridges with my brothers and expertly blowing into the system when the cartridges didn't work.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese police arrested thousands in a drive against Internet pornography throughout 2009, officials said, vowing a deepening crackdown that critics say is being used to tighten overall censorship.

The Chinese government has run a highly publicized campaign against what officials said were banned smutty and lewd pictures overwhelming the country's Internet and threatening the emotional health of children.

Chinese police said late on Thursday the crackdown on Internet pornography had brought 5,394 arrests and 4,186 criminal case investigations in 2009 -- a fourfold increase in the number of such cases compared with 2008.

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration on Thursday dropped its subpoenas it had issued to two Internet writers in its effort to find the leaker of an airline security directive.

The subpoenas were criticized by a leading journalism organization.

The TSA said the investigation is 'nearing a successful conclusion and the subpoenas are no longer in effect.'

The security directive, which ordered extra measures after a Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, quickly became known to passengers at screening lines and aboard their flights. Nonetheless, the passenger screening agency said it 'takes any breach in security very seriously.'

Today's Apple tablet rumor has an optimistic zing to it--and maybe that's a great way to close out a dreary 2009. According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. Lee worked for Apple more than ten years ago and left Google earlier this year, according to published reports.

That figure--10 million--seems awfully high for a consumer product that's charting unknown territory. The tablet (or iSlate or iPad, if you prefer) would target an untapped market, if rumors of the device's form and functionality are true. True, a few tablet-style browser/media players are either already on the market or are arriving shortly, but none has garnered anywhere near the attention of the Apple tablet.

LOS ANGELES – Reclusive Irish singer Van Morrison said Thursday that a computer hacker planted a false report on his Web site claiming he had fathered a fourth child at the age of 64 with a new partner.

The false report was disseminated Monday by a Los Angeles-based publicist for Morrison, Phil Lobel. The publicist was quoted by an unidentified associate on Thursday as getting the report from the Morrison site.

The false report was picked up by several news agencies, including The Associated Press, as well as celebrity sites and British newspapers. The false report on the Morrison Web site claimed that a woman identified as Gigi had just borne a son with Morrison.

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration backed down Thursday from its demand that an Internet travel writer immediately provide information on how he obtained an airline security directive.

Anthony Elia, attorney for writer Chris Elliott, said the TSA extended the response period through Jan. 20. The TSA subpoena, dated Tuesday, originally demanded a response by New Year's Eve.

Elia now has the option of challenging the subpoena in federal court or negotiating a settlement with the TSA.

Economic uncertainty. Swine flu. Newspaper articles featuring Jon and/or Kate Gosselin. You can understand why most people will be happy to see 2009 exit stage left. And while Iвm sure the folks at Apple headquarters may be sympathetic to all the 2009-related ennui out there, itвs also safe to say that the company may be a little sad to leave 2009 behind. After all, Apple had a really good year. And the Mac was a major reason why.

In recent years, it might have seemed that Apple took its eye off the Mac platform in favor of newer, shinier baubles like the iPod and (especially) the iPhone. (Dropping the word вњComputerв from your companyвs name helps foster that impression.) Not in 2009в”while both the iPhone and iPod had their moments in the past year, the Mac enjoyed plenty of time in the spotlight. The past 12 months have seen Apple revamp its hardware offerings as well as the operating system that runs on them, with many of those changes helping fuel strong sales and profits at a time when other tech companies are scrounging for loose change among the couch cushions. And Apple shows every indication of continuing that momentum into the new year.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Bowing to Chinese law, Apple is reportedly blocking iPhone users in China from downloading applications about two figures Beijing considers "separatists": the Dalai Lama and exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

IDG News Service said at least five iPhone software programs related to the Tibetan spiritual leader are unavailable in Apple's China App Store along with one related to Kadeer.

Everybody likes contributing an opinion, especially in subjects on which we consider ourselves experts. Rank'em (located at gorankem.com), now in beta testing, uses this human urge as the basis for a crowdsourced song recommendation engine.

This obviously wouldn't work without some structure--asking users to pick their 10 favorite songs at random, for instance, would be too scattershot and yield useless results. So Rank'em has users select particular artists, then asks them to choose between 5 and 20 songs and rank them in order. Users must also rate their level of enthusiasm--or 'fanstanding' as the site calls it--for each artist. These self-ratings are limited by the number of songs picked. If you only know a handful of Modest Mouse songs, Rank'em will assume you can't be a very big fan, and will only let you rate yourself on a scale of one to five. If you pick 20 songs, they'll let you give yourself up to 10 points.