2012 Tech Year in Review
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Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s Day in Tech History annual year in review post. Just like last year we take a look at what happened the last 365 days. Of course all content will be added to the Wikazine page (www.wikazine.com) so you can enjoy the podcast episodes for 2013.
Jump to: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December
2012 in Review
[box]January[/box]
January 2 – An error was found in OS X Mail, which discarded attachments for saved messages
January 4 – Scott Thompson is named CEO of Yahoo! He would later be fired for a misleading resume.
January 9 – Apple sued for selling copy-protected books
January 12 – First Lady Michelle Obama joins Twitter
ICANN opens up registration for new generic top-level domains. Registration fee: $185,000
January 17 – Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang resigns
In protest to SOPA, Wikipedia, Google, and other websites blackout their pages.
January 19 – Apple announced iBooks 2 for digital textbooks
FBI seized Megaupload.com and it’s 15 child sites, citing copyright infringement.
January 23 – YouTube hits 4 billion daily video views
January 25 – Over the Top TV set top box maker Boxee begins selling Live TV tuner for $49
January 26 – Google+ allows teens 13 and up to be part of their social network
January 30 – Yahoo! closes mobile sites Yahoo Meme, Mim, and Deals
[box] February [/box]
February 1 – Facebook files papers for an initial public offering
February 2 – 15 year old Cim Stordal finds a cross-site scripting bug to Apple.
Apple loses a preliminary ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Nexus for patent infringement
February 7 – Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock announced he will step down
February 11 – Apple requested a ban on sales in the US of Samsung made Galaxy Nexus citing patent violation
February 13 – Google gets final EU approval to purchase Motorola – a $12.5 billion dollar deal
February 20 – Samsung announces they will split off the LCD unit to Samsung Display Company. This is so the main unit can focus on their OLED technologies.
Google acquired Cuil’s final patents.
February 23 – Apple acquires Chomp, an app search and discovery service.
February 24 – Google sells of their stake in Clearwire, $47 million dollars worth.
Google improved their voice service by adding Google+ circles.
Tumblr announced within the next week, they will be implementing new policies banning any blog that promotes self-harm. Topics like anorexia, bulimia, purging, and suicide will be removed.
[box] March [/box]
March 1 – Microsoft hired FTC attorney Randall Long – who led investigations of DoubleClick and AdMob
March 5 – Judge orders Google, Motorola to and Android data to Apple in regards to the $12.5 billion dollar acquisition of Motorola Mobility
March 7 – Google released a search app for Windows Phone
Apple announced the 3rd Generation iPad, with retina display (2048×1536), increased internal memory to 1 GB, and 4G models available from AT&T and Verizon. Apple also announced an updated Apple TV, and iLife, which programs like iMovie and Garage Band will be available with iOS 5.1 update
March 8 – Reddit named Yishan Wong new CEO
March 15 – Digg and Milk co-Founder Kevin Rose joins Google to head the Ventures division.
[box] April [/box]
April 4 – Yahoo announced around 2000 layoffs
April 4 – Fisker Automotive unveiled the Atlantic
Google announces Project Glass – an adaptor that will give you a more augmented reality.
April 9 – AOL announced they will sell over 800 patents to Microsoft
April 10 – Facebook announced they purchased Instagram for $1 billion
Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn steps down
April 12 – Google+ gets a new design. Spurs the “Whitespace” issue.
April 15 – FCC fines Google $25K for not responding in time to the company’s data collection practices
april 22 – Microsoft released Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone
April 24 – Google released Google Drive
April 29 – Kickstarter project “Joey Bra” gets national attention. Bra has a side pocket to hold your wallet, cell phone.
[box] May [/box]
May 3 – Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson was found to have misrepresented himself on his resume.
May 13 – Scott Thompson resigns. He is replaced by interim CEO, Ross Levinsohn
May 18 – Facebook goes public. Starting at $38 a share, the social network did not gain in the first day. By day 3, stock fell to $31 / share.
May 22 – SpaceX launched. The rocket successfully joined up with the International Space Station
May 25 – Yahoo discontinued Livestand
May 25 – A Judge rules that the girlfriend is not responsible for an accident the boyfriend got into when he was texting and driving. The accident involved a husband and wife, who were riding on their motorcycle, when they were hit by the boyfriend. The husband and wife both lost a leg in the accident.
May 26 – RIM announces it will be laying off 2,000 employees come June 1
May 27 – Arizona Man sues Google to take the trademark off the name. Says the name is too synonymous to search.
[box] June [/box]
June 1 – Google+ Local launched
June 8 – the Internet Society coordinates the World IPv6 Day, a day where internet service providers switch from the IPv4 protocol to IPv6. The switch keeps the internet from running out of internet addresses.
June 11 – Apple announced a new line of Macbook Pro computers, including the Macbook Pro with Retina Display. Also announced was iOS6 with new features including integrated Facebook and Apple Maps – along with guided access for those with visual disabilities, OS X Mountain Lion, and Airplay – being able to push video from one device to another. Mountain Lion upgrade will cost $19.99
June 15 – Microsoft wraps up the AOL patent deal, announced in April
June 18 – Yahoo! hires Michael Barrett as Revenue Chief. He was formerly at Google after a company acquisition.
Microsoft announces Surface Tablet – A tablet running Windows 8, in two processor configurations. ARM and Core i5. No prices were given, ARM Surface will come out with the release of Windows 8, with the i5 version coming out a couple months later.
June 19 – iPad app Flipboard announced they will have Google+ integration.
June 20 – All Googlemail in Germany will finally become Gmail after a long holdout from a german company with the gmail trademark.
[box] July [/box]
July 3 Google announced they will be shutting down iGoogle, Google Video, Chatback, Google Mini and Symbian search.
A lost interview of Steve Jobs surfaces. It was put up on iTunes.
July 6 – Yahoo calls off patent battle with Facebook. They agree on partnership terms.
July 9 – The Web Apocolypse – A malicious code was found that will disable their computers on this day, due to the removal of key servers.
MegaUpload’s Kim DotCom extradition hearing was postponed until 2013 as search warrants were declared invalid.
July 11 – Russian parliment enact a Web blacklist for illegal websites.
July 12 – Yahoo! announces their was a major password leak as hacker D33Ds posted 450,000 log-ins obtained from the Yahoo! Contributor network.
July 15 – NBC purchases Microsoft’s side of MSNBC.com to officially split the venture. The site officially changed their logo to read NBCNews.com
South Korean musician PSY releases “Gangnam Style” – a popular song that becomes the first to hit 1 billion views on YouTube.
July 16 – Marissa Mayer is appointed new CEO of Yahoo! Mayer was an Exec over at Google. On that same day Mayer announced she was pregnant
July 20 – At the Premier of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO. James Holmes opened fire on one of the theaters, killing 20 and injuring many.
July 24 – Twitter announced they will release a tweet export tool. Users will be allowed to download all tweets they posted.
July 26 – Google launches their first fiber city in Kansas City, KS. Google also shows off Google Fiber TV service.
July 30 – Guy Adams had his personal Twitter account shut down because he tweeted NBC’s top Olympic exec’s email address. Guy worked for the Independent.
July 31 Twitter introduces ticker symbols for finance searches. Entering $Goog would get you Google’s stock price, for example.
A Facebook post of “Where are they now” re-opened a 25 year old murder case where two brothers (Higher Brothers) were found innocent because one person (who thought they were innocent) went looking for clues and found them.
Hotmail announced a revamp of their mail system. Hotmail is now Outlook and includes Facebook, Twitter links.
[box] August [/box]
August 1 – Mozilla releases Firefox 3.5
August 2 – Google surpasses Apple as ‘top global brand,’ according to analytics company General Sentiment. Google led with $756 million in brand value, as oppose to Apple’s $594 million.
August 6 – Apple announced they have removed YouTube from the native iOS. Google begins work on a standalone app
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Twitter account raises 116 thousand – 15 percent being fake, paid accounts.
August 7 – Craigslist asks search engines to stop indexing their posts. This follows a lawsuit where websites 3tap and PadMapper were harvesting rental listings to increase traffic on their sites.
August 10 – FTC settles a Facebook privacy complaint. FTC says that Facebook must submit to privacy audits and obtain the users consent before sharing
August 13 – Google cuts 4,000 jobs at Motorola Mobility
August 15 – Google Maps charts 1 million public transit stops. They revamped the Android app to add them.
August 27 – Yahoo hires Kathy Savitt as CMO. She was CEO at Lockerz – a photo-sharing website.
August 30 – Google shuts down TV advertising sales platform
[box] September [/box]
September 5 – Google wins the patent for “Login to a computing devices based on facial recognition”.
September 10 – Google removes all autocomplete searches of Pirate Bay from their search engine
September 11 – Mark Zuckerberg talks at TechCrunch for the first time after the Facebook IPO. He talks about mobile devices and getting into the search business.
September 12 – Apple unveils the iPhone5 with new A6 processor and a smaller, yet wider screen. Apple also introduced iOS6 and announced a new version of iTunes.
September 13 – Nintendo announces the WiiU and TVii – available in November. The white “Basic” bundle is $300 and comes with a GamePad and Wii U with 8 GB of memory. The black “Deluxe” for $350 includes a 32 GB Wii U system, charger, stand and Nintendo Land.
September 17 – AMD CFO Thomas Seifert resigns
September 19 – Apple releases OS X 10.8.2 fixing game center, messages and FaceTime bugs. Apple also released OS X 10.7.5 for Snow Leopard
September 27 – Microsoft invests in Klout (undisclosed terms) to add to new Bing sidebar
[box] October [/box]
October 2 – Using social networking, the NYPD brings down two New York gangs using evidence from Facebook.
Opera releases 12.1, including Retina and SPDY support
October 3 – The FTC announced a crackdown on international computer tech support scam. The scam involved a cold call to the home saying they were from Google and noticed the home PC had a virus on it. They would then take control of the PC and charged the users up to $450 to remove it.
October 10 – online auction retailer eBay launched a redesign of their site. Many say it looks a lot like Pinterest.
October 12 – Yahoo rolls out a new webpage design
October 16 – Google’s Larry Page makes his first appearance since a recent illness took him out of the limelight.
October 18 – Apple files patents on AirPlay, Mirroring and Siri
October 22 – Hurricane Sandy forms.
October 23 – Apple announces the iPad Mini for $329 Apple also announced the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display for $1699 and iBooks 3 with iCloud support
October 24 – Zynga loses %52.7 million in Q3. They announce a stock buyback to get the company under control.
October 26 – Paul Ceglia was arrested for a multi-billion dollar fraud against Facebook. He was the man who claimed he should own half of the social network.
Microsoft launches Surface RT – in ARM processor format. $499 for Surface with 32GB storage. Surface touch cover for $119.99 and tactile feel keyboard cover for $129.99
Microsoft launches Windows 8 OS with changes to the start menu into an animated tile screen. #39.99 upgrade via download or $79.99 for the DVD
October 29 – Microsoft releases Windows Phone 8 – codename “Apollo”.
Hurricane Sandy hits New York, New Jersey area. It flooded streets and subways and cut power to a lot of residents. Estimated damage was as $63 billion.
October 30 – Google announced new hardware via blog post due to Hurricane Sandy. The Nexus 4 smartphone ($299), Nexus 7 (starting at $199) and Nexus 10 tablet ($399).
Google announced they have tied Apple with over 700,000 Android apps in their app store.
Disney announced that it had purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion
Apple maps project manager Scott Forstall was fired.
[box] November [/box]
November 6 – FCC announced it had reached a $700,000 settlement with AT&T who allegedly overcharged wireless data customers.
Google rolls out newer page look. They move the navigation bar to the side.
Mozilla settled with the IRS for $1.5 million after a 2008 inquiry when Mozilla partnered with Google.
November 7 – Microsoft released SkyDrive app for windows phone 8 devices.
November 12 – Google was hit with a $208,000 fine by an Australian man because a 2004 shooting prompted Google to reference his name with organized crime.
John McAfee goes into hiding because his neighbor (Gregory Faull) was killed. McAfee stated he had to go into hiding because Belize police were out to get him.
November 19 – Facebook publicly denies a search alliance with Yahoo after reports from the Sunday Telegraph say other.
November 20 – Intel CEO Paul Otellini announces he will be retiring in May 2013
November 24 – The entire Beatles catalog was remastered on LP
November 26 – A fake press release on PRWeb announced Google purchased Wi-Fi provider ICOA for $400 million. The stock was frozen as the press release was found to be perpetrated by someone in Aruba.
Federal officials took down 132 websites that allegedly sold counterfeit merchandise during Cyber Monday.
November 29 – Apple launches iTunes 11 with a new redesigned interface and playback features.
Syrian IP address were unreachable. This made the country removed from the internet. The blackout comes from the intense fighting in Damascus. Syria has shut down the internet but only for a brief while. The Internet will go back online December 3.
[box] December [/box]
December 3 – After 3 days offline, Syria IP addresses begin resolving again. They went down on November 29 2012
December 4 – YouTube finally gets rolled out to iOS devices after being taken off by Apple
A gun fabricated by a 3D printer successfully shoots four rounds before disintegrating.
December 5 – John McAfee is arrested in Guatemala. McAfee was then rushed to the hospital for a series of heart attacks.
December 6 – Google adds Communities to Google+
December 10 – GMail goes down briefly due to a coding error
Facebook puts out a poll telling users to vote to keep a policy to veto policy changes. 300 million people need to veto this by Monday, which did not happen.
After a series of motorists were mis-guided by Apple Maps to Mildura, Apple raced to fix this major issue. The map led drivers miles away from the actual destination.
December 11 – Google announces they are looking for a buyer to their Motorola home set-top box division.
Nolan Daniels was quick to capitalize on the $550 million dollar powerball drawing. He fixed a ticket, then posted on Facebook to like the picture and he would give $1 million to a random name from the likes.
December 13 – Google Maps iPhone app is released.
December 14 – Adam Peter Lanza shoots 24 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT.
December 15 – ESPN announces they will start embedding instant-reply into tweets.
December 17 – Hacker Christopher Chaney was sentenced to 10 years in prison for hacking into celebrities email accounts and posting private information online. Scarlett Johansson was the best known victim but it also included Mila Kunis, Christina Aguelera and many others.
Facebook re-writes Instagram’s privacy policy. This allowed “Affiliates” to gain access to pictures created by the mobile app.
December 19 – After a gun was successfully fabricated by a 3D printer and shot 3 rounds (December 4), Makerbot purges gun parts from Thingaverse.
December 20 – Facebook rolls out new privacy settings including the ability to send an email to someone not in your friends list for $1 a person.
December 21 – We faced the Apocalypse and survived.
Facebook reverts Instagram back to it’s old privacy policy after outcry on December 17