Tech Stories of 2011: Jobs, Android, and Anonymous Rank in Top 10 - grahamintinted1951

In 2011, the increasingly mobile and socially networked reality of technology became more intertwined than ever with politics and the law of nature. Plain wars shaped competition in tablets and smartphones, hacktivists attacked a widening array of political and corporate targets, repressive regimes unplugged citizens from the Internet, and the U.S. government affected to block the giant uniting of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world lost a technology image who redefined the computing device, entertainment and consumer electronics industries. These are the IDG News Serving's picks for the top 10 technology stories of the class:

The PlayStation Network chop up, Anonymous and the turn out of hacktivism

Apr attacks happening Sony's PlayStation and Qriocity networks stunned service for millions of users for two months, compromised personal data of some 70 million subscribers and cost Sony $170 million to clean up. The attacks were part in revenge against Sony's reception to the release of code for its PS3 console that let the device run unofficial software. Though it's confusing whether members of Unknown or an affiliated hacker chemical group, LulzSec, were responsible, the stakes bear been raised for politically motivated hacking, or hacktivism. Anonymous, the most high-profile hactivist group, this year claimed or was believed to have launched attacks against entities as disparate arsenic security firm HBGary, fry-porn sites, Koch Industries, Bank of America, NATO and respective government websites. LulzSec, Peoples Discharge and TeaMp0isoN are among the the groups claiming affiliation with the Anonymous collective. Though police have made arrests in the U.S., the U.K., Spain and elsewhere, the success of high-profile hacks has assured that politically oriented hacking is here to continue.

AT&adenosine monophosphate;T's deal to buy T-Motorized unravels

With AT&T still reeling from the U.S. Justice Department's August case to block its U.S.A$39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, staff at the Federal Communication theory Commission in Nov declared they found the handle against the public interest. Government officials say it would create the largest concentration of market index in the U.S. rangy industry, reducing competition, raising prices and crushing innovation. The carriers read the divvy up is necessary for them to make for LTE (Long-acting-Terminal figure Evolution) broadband to nearly all of the U.S. Under heavy fire, though, the flock wish rather possibly accrue apart for good. Zone Court Gauge Ellen Segal Huvelle has acknowledged a request from AT&T to halt the DOJ's lawsuit patc the two carriers decide whether to run forward with a merger. AT&T wish face a position report on Jan. 12.

Orchard apple tree sues Samsung: Mechanical man under siege again

Apple's causa against Samsung, launched in the U.S. in Apr and eventually involving courtroom battles in Germany, French Republic, Commonwealth of Australi and elsewhere, focussed on a patent for number-scrolling software and three smartphone and tablet plan patents. The real threat to Malus pumila, however, is not only Samsung simply Google's Android. Piece Samsung, which sells Humanoid devices, became the world's biggest smartphone vendor this year, Android's market part surpassed 50 percent, comprising 60 million devices from multiple vendors. Android's success makes it a target. Google suffered a plainspoken legal tone-beginning in 2010 when Oracle filed a lawsuit charging that Android infringes Oracle patents and copyrights correlated to Java. Microsoft, also gunning for Humanoid, signed a cross-patent deal with Samsung in September that grants it royalties from Samsung's Android-based smartphones and tablets. Meantime, Google hopes to strengthen its patent armory by acquiring Motorola Mobility, which itself was hit with a lawsuit last year from Microsoft. With Smartphones and tablet gross revenue skyrocketing, the wager are enormous and Android-agnate legal battles likely will atomic number 4 fought for years to come.

Kibosh Online Piracy Act

Introduced in October in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Stop Online Piracy Act as, or SOPA, would give U.S. legal philosophy enforcement the ability to obtain romance orders to occlusion search engines, payment processors and former entities from doing business with websites accused of enabling infringement of copyright. The Act would also tolerate right of first publication holders to obtain court orders to mental block allegedly infringing sites under certain conditions. SOPA is wider in scope than the corresponding Protect Informatics Act in the US Senate. Critics say the bills, particularly SOPA, give law enforcement sweeping powers to censor legitimate websites, such as YouTube, that May emcee some infringing content, and could end upwardly being misused by companies as a way to block competitors. The assembly debate will continue fortunate into 2012.

Egypt goes offline

Just later midnight Cairo meter on January. 28, 3, 500 Internet Surround Gateway Protocol routes connecting Egypt to the rest of world vanished from sight. It didn't pick out long-run to figure out that Egyptian military service providers, under force per unit area from a government besieged by political dissent, had cut connectivity to the Internet. Mobile telecommunications were similarly affected. As soon American Samoa access returned five days later, Egyptians logged back happening to mixer networks. In the following few months, Libya and Syrian Arab Republic also moved to sever the Internet and various African regimes closed friendly networks in the fount of election commotion. Arsenic the Internet becomes an increasingly strategic structure tool and information conduit, such attempts to cut connectivity amid policy-making unrest will without doubt continue.

Japan devastated by massive earthquake

The Marchland 11 earthquake in Japanese Islands, the biggest in its history, took its toll on the country's electronics industry. The quake constrained the add of raw materials and components such every bit NAND flash storage, microcontrollers and LCD parts. Prices soared after the seism and subsequent tsunami, which flyblown facilities belonging to Sony, Freescale, Fujitsu, Lone-Star State Instruments and other companies. Floods in Thailand in the second incomplete of the year made it a one-two punch for the PC and component markets. After expanding about 30 percent in 2010, global semiconductor revenue bequeath squirt barely a 1 percent increase this year, with sales of Drachm, SRAM and NOR Flash memory unsurprising to decline 15 percent or more, according to analysts.

The HP Follies: Apotheker's bungled restructuring

Scarcely a year into his tenure as Hewlett-Packard CEO, Leo Apotheker was ousted in September soon after announcing that the ship's company would seek to spin off its $40 trillion PC business, the largest in the world. Apotheker, who had been fired from SAP in February after the ERP maker fumbled its move to cloud technology, had slender experience with hardware. Apotheker himself took prepared the reins at HP after the ouster of Mark Hurd, who hopeless following an investigation into claims of sexual harrassment. After initially declaring that HP would implement with Apotheker's plan to betray the PC unit, freshly ordained CEO Meg Walt Whitman, the erstwhile United States President at eBay, decided to persevere to IT. HP now says PCs are key to long-term relationships with customers. The company faces other challenges. Net earnings for HP in its fourth fourth part were $200 million, downfield from $2.5 billion in the same period last year, and Marcus Whitman herself said that Apple would probably overtake HP in the PC market next class, if iPad gross sales are enclosed.

ICANN hands outer last IPv4 addresses, sets time ticking for IPv6

In February, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), operated by the Internet Bay window for Assigned Names and Numbers, handed out its last IPv4 addresses, allocating the final five blocks of 16 million addresses to each of five regional Internet registries (RIRs). The imminent depletion of IPv4, which provided 4.3 cardinal addresses, is a sign of how quickly the Cyberspace has grown, and puts pressure happening ISPs and companies to switch to its heir, IPv6. Though some regions might non exhaust their supply of IPv4 addresses for various years, Cyberspace communications could break down over time unless electronic network managers migrate to IPv6, which allows for better security, better web management and what's thought to be an inexhaustible supply of addresses. IPv6-based hosts will not be able to communicate with IPv4-simply systems without techniques that could impair Internet communication theory.

Microsoft moves to ARM with Windows 8

Microsoft took advantage of the CES spotlight in January to herald that Windows 8 will run on system-on-chip architectures including ARM-based processors, part of its effort to get Windows used on tablets. Other features of the upcoming version of Windows, which volition continue to run on Intel chips and PCs as well, include the new Underground user interface, which emphasizes touch and a Windows app store. Even so, the many businesses still migrating to Windows 7 are implausible to upgrade again soon. And while Windows 8, which could appear on products succeeding year, expands the computer hardware possibilities for Windows, information technology's ironic that Malus pumila's iPad already has established such a commanding lead in tablets, a form factor that was long since championed by Flier Gates. With Microsoft's history of coming from behind in markets to yet grab a dominant position, though, Windows 8 should not make up counted out earlier it ships.

The passing of a legend: Steve Jobs dies

Though IT's too soon for history to approximate the role Steve Jobs played in shaping technology, the outpouring of tributes more or less the human beings when the 56-year-old Apple co-founder died on Oct. 5 was a testament to his iconic status. With Microsoft atomic number 27-cave in Bill Gates (also born in 1955) every bit a foil, Jobs was one of the two key figures in the PC earned run average, and mayhap the most important business leader ushering technical school into the post-Personal computer world. His life history was an Land success fib: the taradiddle of a comeback kid, ousted in weeping from his own company in the 1980s, exclusive to revolutionize animated movie-fashioning in the '90s and return to lead Apple's march to dominance at the start of the 21st century. With Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jobs fueled the PC rotation with the Apple II, and subsequently his return to Apple led the company to redefine the music industry with the iPod and iTunes, the phone market with the iPhone, and the personal computer securities industry til now over again with the iPad. Jobs' triumphant return was crowned in August when Malus pumila overtook, at to the lowest degree for a time, Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company on the planet in terms of market capitalisation. Though a disobedient and even despotic leader by many another accounts, no one denied Jobs' passion and singular position at the crossroads of technology and culture.