Gallery: Tech 2011: Biggest News Stories of the Year
01playstation-hack-logo
The past year sure didn't *seem* like it was dominated by Google and Apple news. We followed hundreds of stories in 2011, and the vast majority of them had neither Google nor Apple in their headlines. But now, as we survey the stories that captured Gadget Lab's attention the most, it's clear the highest-impact events swirled around the two California mega-companies in Mountain View and Cupertino. With market-swaying power that would seem to rival that of full-fledged nation states, Google and Apple have an ability to influence news cycles unlike any other tech companies. So, yes, AppGoo -- or should that be Goople? -- have formed a high-impact nexus of newsworthiness. But that doesn't mean other companies haven't snuck into our list of the most important tech news stories of 2011. If only for nefarious reasons. Enjoy our list, and if we missed any important news stories, let us know in the comments section of this article. __Above:__ April 20: PlayStation Network Is Hacked --------------------------------------- Though its violation wasn’t revealed to the outside world for three days, Sony’s PlayStation Network was compromised on April 20 by what the company called an “[illegal intrusion](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2011/04/playstation-network-hacked/).” At risk: the account details, passwords, and credit card information of some 77 million users. Sony later confirmed that user email addresses and birth dates were stolen, and stated in a blog post, “While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility.” So who did it? Our own [Threat Level blog handicapped](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/playstation_hack/) possible culprits, including the merry pranksters of Anonymous, Chinese hackers, “recreational” hackers, and for-profit cyber thieves. Congress launched an inquiry into the hack, spurring Sony to release more details about what happened. Most interesting: According to Sony, the hackers planted a file named “Anonymous” that included the tagline “We are Legion” on Sony’s servers. Anonymous spokesman Barret Brown then denied any involvement by Anonymous -- a highly decentralized group with no real leader -- in a [Guardian op-ed piece](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/06/anonymous-sony). Bottom line: Whoever pulled off the Sony network intrusion earns twisted kudos for pulling off the Hack of the Year.
02icecreamsandwich-jimm
May 10: Ice Cream Sandwich Reinvents Android -------------------------------------------- [Teased](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/05/android-ice-cream-sandwich/) on May 10, [previewed](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/android-ice-cream-sandwich-3/) on Oct. 19, and finally [released](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/ice-cream-sandwich-hands-on-with-googles-new-android-os) on Nov. 17, Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0, showed the world just how fun and lovable a Google mobile operating system can be. We knew from the beginning that Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS, would finally unify the phone and tablet versions of Android. With ICS, all Google mobile devices would run on a single code base, and harmony would return to the land of little green men. And, in fact, ICS leverages many of the features that first appeared in Honeycomb, aka Android 3.0, the OS that Google launched to support 10.1-inch iPad competitors. When ICS finally arrived, however, it was debuted on Samsung’s [Galaxy Nexus](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/reviews/2011/12/galaxy-nexus/) smartphone. Our review was glowing. Indeed, the Galaxy Nexus is the best Google phone yet, and ICS offers scads of thoughtful touches not currently available in (ahem) iOS. ICS is jam-packed with clever, but still unobtrusive, animations. Social media hooks are surfaced in sundry menus and OS-level features, with big thumbnail photos of all your friends leading the way. ICS users also get deep new controls for data usage, photo editing, web browsing and myriad other activities. In total, ICS wasn’t just an important news event for Google. It was also the best operating system update we saw this year. *Photo by Jim Merithew/Wired*
03google-screen
June 28: Google+ Launches, Shows Google Will Never Give Up on Social Media -------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, you just *can’t* be Google and go about your business without a successful social media platform. *No*. This simply won’t do. Some of you may remember [Google Buzz](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/google-buzz/), Google’s first attempt at social media. Buzz was a mere adjunct to Gmail, and privacy missteps prevented the service from ever stealing mindshare from Facebook and Twitter. It was launched in February 2010, and shuttered in October 2011 to the disappointment of, well, no one. Buzz was a blunder of the most pathetic persuasion -- not just a failed product, but a product so meh from beginning to end, not even its *closure* pissed off anyone. One should expect so much more from the Internet’s biggest product developer, right? Well, in the middle of 2011, Google [launched Google+](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-social) amid the pomp and fanfare of a special press event. At first you had to be “invited” to try out Google+, but some three months after launch, on Sept. 20 to be precise, the service was opened to all. This Wednesday, Google+ was estimated to have signed up more than 62 million users. Of course, Facebook claims some 750 million users worldwide, so it will be a long, uphill battle for Google's social media platform. But at least *this* platform doesn’t show any signs of going away.
04androidtabletsalesfizzle-jons
July-ish: Non-Apple Tablets Proliferate -- But No One Seems to Care ------------------------------------------------------------------- Let’s share some names. Motorola Xoom. Acer Iconia A500. Toshiba Thrive. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Asus Eee Pad Transformer. HP TouchPad. RIM PlayBook. Do you own one of these devices? Do you know anyone who does? Some 50 weeks ago, many of the tablets in the list above were either speculated to appear, or were actually demo’d, at CES 2011. Indeed, 2011 was to be the year of the legitimate, no-excuses iPad competitor. Honeycomb-based Android tablets would lead a forward assault, while HP and RIM would run flanking maneuvers, adding much-needed variety (and competition) to the tablet scene. The upstart tablets started arriving around March -- and immediately struggled to command consumer attention. By late July, Motorola’s quarterly earnings report revealed that [just 440,000 Xoom tablets](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/motorolas-android-tablet-sales-fizzle-out/) had shipped to retail stores, and certainly fewer than that number actually sold. In the same quarter, Apple sold some 9.25 million iPads -- or about 20 times the number of Xooms. Yep, by July it was pretty clear that Honeycomb Android tablets weren't much of a challenge to the iPad stranglehold. Only one tablet failure (see our August 18 entry) qualified as a singularly impressive news event. But make no mistake: A slew of unsuccessful tablet launches combined to form one of the more depressing trend stories of the year. *Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired*
05google-motorola-bid
August 15: Google Bids to Acquire Motorola ------------------------------------------ Google may (seemingly) own the Internet, but it’s never really owned any “stuff.” The company’s products have always appeared as mere images -- fleeting, transient -- on other people’s LCD screens. The Google portfolio has always been packed with useful products, sure, but nothing you could ever grab, and hold onto, and call your own. But this was all set to change when [Google announced its bid](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/epicenter/2011/08/google-motorola-acquisition/) to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in cash. By owning a hardware handset manufacturer, Google would join the ranks of Apple and RIM, which own and control entire mobile product “stacks”: the hardware itself, the operating system that the hardware runs, and the marketplace that sells apps for the OS. When the acquisition was announced, Google was quick to reassure its existing Android partners: “Our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community,” Android head honcho Andy Rubin said in a statement. But it was this statement, from CEO Larry Page, that really shed some light on the hardware buy: “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.” Sigh. It always comes down to the lawyers, doesn’t it? *Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired*
06hpkillstouchpad
August 18: HP Kills TouchPad -- Just Months After Its Release ------------------------------------------------------------- We [reviewed](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/reviews/2011/06/hp-touchpad/) the HP TouchPad on June 18. Exactly two months later, [HP killed the TouchPad](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/hp-webos-tablet-touchpad), its utterly feckless bid to take on Apple, RIM and the entire Android army in the tablet space. What the flunk?! We were actually stunned to learn that the great national TouchPad nightmare was over. Sure, by August 18 it was clear that the TouchPad wasn’t going to be a success. But for rice cakes, HP bought a whole company -- Palm -- in order to deploy WebOS on the TouchPad and other mobile devices. Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, famously described the Palm acquisition to TechCrunch: “This is a great opportunity to take two Silicon Valley idols and put them together ... WebOS is the best-in-class mobile operating system. Our intent is to double down on webOS.” Ouch. A gambling metaphor. A gambling metaphor describing a risky move that often ends in heartbreak. As we reported when the entire TouchPad fiasco was drawing to a close, HP had to [write off $3.3 billion](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/hp-webos-mobile-touchpad/) in fiscal year 2011 costs due to “the wind down of HP’s WebOS device business.” And that $3.3 billion figure is 2.5 times the amount HP paid for Palm in the first place. *Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired*
07iphonelostinbar
August 31: A *Second* iPhone Prototype Is Lost in a Public Bar -------------------------------------------------------------- Apple is famous for its internal security measures and ability to carefully manage product messaging. Journalists never receive casual, impromptu product demos, and information leaks from chatty Apple employees are essentially non-existent. So, in April 2010, when an Apple engineer left an iPhone prototype in Gourmet Haus Staudt, a Redwood City, California beer hall, we marveled at the gross security breech. The fallout that followed the phone’s [dubious sale to Gizmodo](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/08/gizmodo-iphone/) for $5,000 was a bit of a spectacle too. Someone at Apple is in big, big trouble, we thought. This will surely *never* happen again. Until some 14 months later. On August 31 of this year, we learned that [another iPhone prototype](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/iphone-5-lost-at-bar/) had been lost in a Bay Area bar, this time at a Mexican joint called Cava 22 in San Francisco. The phone was apparently lost in July, and Apple immediately set about trying to recover it -- but not before it was reportedly sold on Craigslist for $200. By the time the drama was over, a San Francisco residence had been [searched by police and Apple employees](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/09/update-sfpd-iphone/) to locate the missing phone. Can lightning strike *three* times? Check the tables of Bay Area bars in the March to July 2012 time frame. iPhone losers have already sinned at Mexican and German haunts, so we’re guessing the next “loss of shame” will happen at a Thai restaurant.
08fireannounced-victorjblue
Sept. 28: Kindle Fire Gives Tablet Hope to Cash-Strapped Common Folk -------------------------------------------------------------------- Android tablet manufacturers flailed and hollered all year, trying their damnedest to make someone, anyone, pay attention to their wares. But then, on Sept. 28, Amazon came along and [showed the traditional hardware companies how it’s done](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/epicenter/2011/09/amazon/): Drop your price to a decidedly populist $200, and let everyone know your tablet is a simple, newbie-friendly portal for mindless, non-judgmental media consumption. The Kindle Fire was an immediate hit: Pre-orders began locking up sales a-plenty some six weeks before the tablet even shipped. Business journalists celebrated the tablet as a potential iPad killer, though their stories always focused on Amazon’s larger Kindle Fire strategy -- i.e., how a loss-leading piece of a hardware would stoke incredible merchandise sales, both in physical goods and digital downloads. But no one was spending much time commenting on the hardware itself, and whether it would deliver a satisfying user experience. Well, on Nov. 14, the Kindle Fire finally arrived -- to mixed reviews. Many journalists (like myself) found a book reader that wasn’t as good as E-ink Kindles, and a magazine reader that wasn’t as good as printed magazines. But, most annoyingly, the [Kindle Fire offered a crappy-slow web experience](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/reviews/2011/11/kindle-fire/) -- despite the fact that Amazon celebrated its Silk web browser as a website-chewing banshee. *Photo by Victor J. Blue/Wired*
09siri-brianxchen
Oct. 4: Siri Captures the Public Imagination --------------------------------------------- When all was said and done, the [iPhone 4S](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/apple-iphone-5-live-blog/) wasn’t a huge product update -- and certainly not anything worth a full version jump from, say, iPhone 4 to iPhone 5. In essence, it gave us a better camera, a faster processor, and ... wait, what’s that?! There’s a *woman* in my smartphone? Siri, Apple’s "virtual digital assistant," captured the imagination of the body nerdo-politic as only an Apple product can. It was covered by the 11 o’clock news. Topolsky demo’ed it on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon." But more than anything else, Siri’s [knowing responses](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkt9G34333E) to ironic questions sent iPhone 4S users on Easter egg hunts, giddily looking for even more cheek and sass. As the year wound down, Siri was [unfairly assailed](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/siri-results-unintentional/) for (allegedly) pushing a political agenda, favoring pregnancy crisis centers instead of abortion clinics when responding to queries about abortion. The abortion controversy was a boondoggle, and actually took focus off of a legitimate Siri failing -- that it’s currently more of a fun party toy than a tool for quickly getting important information, or interfacing with key iOS apps. But, hey, she *is* still in beta. *Photo by Brian X. Chen/Wired*
10stevejobsdies
Oct. 5: Steve Jobs Dies ----------------------- The timing was eerie. And, in a poignant twist of fate, it showed that Steve Jobs completed his life as he comported his life: as a consummate showman. Just one day after Apple announced the iPhone 4S to great fanfare at its Cupertino campus, Steve Jobs, the living embodiment of Apple, [passed away](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/epicenter/2011/10/jobs/) at home in Palo Alto. It was surely a coincidence. But, my, it still oozed with drama. Some three months after his death, there’s really nothing we can say about Steve Jobs that hasn’t already been [reported or eulogized](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/ff_stevejobs_sidebars/all/1). And it would be almost, well, cheap at this point to rehash his achievements, or repeat those memories, both fond and critical, that so many friends, co-workers, and tech industry veterans have shared about the man. But we *can* leave you with this: Apple marches on. Gadget Lab has visited the Apple campus since Steve Jobs’ passing, and it’s the same buzzing hive of activity and optimism that it’s always been. Steve Jobs might have died, but he’s clearly imbued Apple with a sense of greater purpose -- that Apple is about products, not single individuals, and that the employees’ most treasured memorials will come in the form of killer product development, not sentimental platitudes. *Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired*
11adobekillsmobileflash-jons
Nov. 9: Adobe Kills Mobile Flash -------------------------------- Steve Jobs said he would never allow Flash on his mobile devices. In April 2010, he even published a [damning blog post](http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/) on Apple.com. His words resonated with bravado and finality. Flash was a resource hog, he sniped. It was a closed architecture. It was a security risk. It crashed Macs, and would crash mobile devices if allowed to do so. He advised Adobe to pursue HTML5 as an alternative to Flash, and all but declared Flash a public health menace. Well, the consumer electronics health threat [ended Nov. 9](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/adobe-mobile-flash-dead/) when Adobe threw in the towel and announced it would no longer support development of the Flash plug-in for mobile browsers. The company was turning to HTML5 (just as Jobs requested), and, in effect, Flash was dead. Of course, Flash support was a notable selling point for Android tablets, but by the time Adobe made its death announcement, no one really cared. We all now know that mobile browsers must support HTML5 just to be, well, browsers, and not enough people are using Android tablets to cry over dropped plug-in support anyhow. *Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired*
12att-tmobile-merger
Dec. 19: AT&T Gives Up on Its Bid for T-Mobile ---------------------------------------------- Denied! No T-Mobile for you, AT&T! Way back in March of this year, AT&T offered to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG, a German company, for $39 billion. The AT&T/T-Mobile merger would have made AT&T the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., pushing it past Verizon. But right from the outset, AT&T suffered challenges. Within eight days of the AT&T announcement, Sprint urged the government to squash the deal, arguing it would give AT&T and Verizon duopoly-level control over the nation's wireless business. Then, in July, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) protested that the merger would lead to higher customer bills and fewer consumer choices. In September, Sprint actually filed suit to prevent the merger, but the big whammy hit in November when the FCC recommended that the merger should be reviewed by an administrative law judge -- a de facto "We don't approve" power move. AT&T withdrew its merger application with the FCC, but said the retreat was only temporary, and that it planned to soldier on. Well, *that* position didn't last long. On Nov. 19, [AT&T announced it was giving up](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/epicenter/2011/12/att-tmobile-merger-ends/) on purchasing its T-Mobile stocking stuffer entirely -- some $4 billion poorer for its wasted efforts. The best news to come out of AT&T's embarrassing foray into M&A? The wholesome image of the "[T-Mobile Girl](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4428119/)" won't be tarnished via guilt by association.
