Biggest Tech Stories of the Year

We love our tech. Be it for mere entertainment, business, leisure, browsing, gaming or reading, most of us have a strange attraction to all that is technology driven. This year we got to see a lot of interesting new products introduced to the market, maybe non of them were groundbreaking and some of them were solely evolutionary presentations of things we’ve already experienced, but we got a lot to talk about. Apple is still the company that has the spotlight most of the time, be it its beautiful functional products, its stock or their constant battle with frienemy Samsung. Samsung of course has grabbed the attention of many with its great product line of smart phones and tablets. Google continues to dominate in what they set there eyes to, and continues to stalk Apple in many offerings. Lets see what were the biggest tech stories of the year.

10.-iOS 6 and the Maps fiasco

An uncharacteristic bad step for Apple, earlier this year they release their highly anticipated new update for their mobile devices, iOS 6. It featured a new Maps App that promised to be the mother of them all. It failed miserably as it didn’t quite match Google Maps, the previous Map app in all iOS devices.

“This wouldn’t happen if Steve Jobs were still alive” Cried the world

9.-Social Media’s big role in Elections around the world.

The new era of Social Media Influence seems to have finally arrived as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and others greatly influenced trends around the world, including Politics. With big presidential elections in the U.S. and Mexico this year, meme’s, tweets, fan pages and more were crucial for the outcome this year. It’s still in diapers, but the signs of what’s to come are here.

8.-Facebook puts its evil in Instagram

Instagram seemed poised to unseat every social media outlet from mobile devices until the big dog came and bit. Facebook felt the threat and offered a billion reasons to include Instagram in its catalog of services. Later this year Instagram decided to make money changing its terms of use sending an uproar of user complaints. Facebook’s evil hand had ben felt.

7.-Megaupload and Pirate Bay die

Internet pirate websites Megaupload and Pirate Bay finally went away this year thanks to the international police who managed to capture its creators and founders in their countries of origin ending the Napsters of our time.

6.-SOPA and internet piracy

The internet was supposed to be an access point to places we thought we could never reach. When it first started to gain global interest in the early 90′s it was kind of an adventure when we got to witness new discoveries. Today, everything is encrypted or restricted. A new law which put more locks within the locks was turned down after a global outrage, keeping some of the freedom intact at least for a little time.

5.-Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface

Microsoft has been struggling. We all know that the tied turned for Bill Gates company, so it needed a fast solution to its problem. In comes a universal solution called Windows 8 and to the surprise of many, a hardware solution that planned to compete with the iPad, the Surface. Both products are incredible yet seemed to be trapped in the war between Samsung and Apple. Will they succeed? They have the products, now they need the consumer’s confidence.

4.-iPad Mini is finally announced and released

After a good couple of years of speculation Apple finally releases it’s much anticipated small version of their market dominating tablet, the iPad.  Even though it failed to include a dedicated Retina display or their fastest processor, it’s still a huge success.  Some may say that it may cannibalize the sales of its bigger brother.  Apple’s slick style was included and that’s all that matters.

3.-iPhone 5 or Galaxy SIII?

The phone wars continued between Apple and Samsung.  With two major releases for both companies, they went to war again this time with closer results than expected.  Both the iPhone 5 and Galaxy SIII are fabulous products that sport pro’s and con’s.  Some prefer Apple’s slicker lighter phone to Samsung’s powerhouse big screen competitor.  Either way we consumers are the real winners as we get better products with this feud.

2.-Patent wars

Everybody seems to be jumping to the patent war bandwagon.   Everybody is suing everybody these days.  Patents are flying everywhere from the simplest things like circled squares to button placement.  Apple won a big one against Samsung this year and with this they opened a can of worms that will be difficult to close.

1.-Facebook’s IPO

Mark Zuckerberg finally fell to the hands of corporate America turning in the biggest IPO in tech history only to fall hard as the months went by. This only enhanced the problems deep within the social media giant as not even they knew the way they were going to make money.  Every attempt to please the stock holders has been held with complaints by its users.  Could this be the beginning of the end?  I’m betting it is.