Legal battles, multi-million takeovers, boardroom shuffles, and of course a raft of new gadgets, 2011 has been a big year for the world of tech. As we prepare to wave goodbye to 2011 and embrace 2012, T3 looks back at the headline-grabbing stories that shaped the past twelve months.
Can you remember when we first saw the Samsung Galaxy S2 or when Angry Birds was knocked off its perch? Jog your memory with T3's tech year in review. It was nice knowing you 2011...
2011 Tech year in review: January
6-9
CES 2012: the annual Vegas tech-fest sees the BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom vie for title of best tablet, while Samsung's Smart TV offering is the pick of the 3D tellies
6
Apple launches the Mac App Store. One million bits of code rushed to Mac owners' desktops in the ensuing 24 hours
15
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia celebrates its ninth birthday. Edited for accuracy: tenth birthday
16
Two months after finally landing on iTunes, loveable mop-top beat combo “The Beatles” top five million downloads
17
Steve Jobs takes a medical leave of absence from Apple
21
Larry Page replaces his replacement, Eric Schmidt, as Google CEO
27
Sony announces the PlayStation NGP, which then becomes the Sony PS Vita. UK release: space year 2012
2011 Tech year in review: February
2
Android Honeycomb is officially unveiled. Apple and News Corp announce The Daily, an iPad-only newspaper. This goes on to be a massive success, losing a mere $10 million in its first quarter
8
Fresh from buying out Palm, HP launches the WebOS-running HP TouchPad tablet. This went on to enjoy a level of success comparable to The Daily, above
11
Struggling Finnish Symbian pimp Nokia announces a partnership with Microsoft to produce Windows Phone 7 handsets. The first fruits of the union appear on November 16
14-17
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona sees the arrival of the eventual T3 Gadget Award winning Samsung Galaxy SII and the long-awaited (yet not award-winning) “PlayStation phone”, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. LG announces the Optimus 3D while HTC gets into tablets with the Flyer
2011 Tech year in review: March
2
Despite being on leave, Steve Jobs turns up at the launch of the iPad 2. The device sells bucketloads within nano seconds of going on sale
3
Charlie Sheen's epic public meltdown makes him the fastest person ever to reach 1 million Twitter followers
8
Spotify hits a million Premium subscribers
19
ICANN, the body that governs website naming protocols, approves the “. XXX” suffix for sites wishing to display smut
22
Amazon launches an Android app store to compete with Market
26
The Nintendo 3DS goes on sale, dogged by a lack of high-profile launch titles, reports of headaches, and the boom in phone gaming. Nice little machine, though
2011 Tech year in review: April
5
PlayStation Network falls victim to a hack, compromising the personal data of over 100 million users and, more importantly, preventing them from getting their game on while a fix is arranged
7
The Motorola Xoom reaches the UK. A high asking price means it fails to “xoom” out of shops
20
Virgin Media announces plans to test supersuper-super fast broadband, with downloads at a zippy 1. 5 Gigabits per second
28
Ten months after it was promised, Apple finally releases the mythical white iPhone 4, to the delight of the gay and salesman communities
2011 Tech year in review: May
10
Microsoft announces it has agreed a deal to buy Skype for $8.5 billion in cold, hard cash. Its promise not to ruin Skype inspires huge confidence
12
Reports Stateside claim that Facebook hired a PR company to smear Google. 400 people “like” this
13
Audi announces plans to launch the R8 e-tron, its first fully electric car. It arrives in late 2012. The word “étron” is French for “turd”, interestingly
26
After a staggering 275 days atop of the App Store charts, Angry Birds loses its number one slot to less-wellknown game The Heist
27
Google unveils its NFC-based mobile payment scheme called Google Wallet. The US-only scheme begins a trial in New York and San Francisco in September
2011 Tech year in review: June
1
The Motorola Atrix, crowned number one in the annual T3 Hot 100 gadgets, launches
6
Steve Jobs' last ever keynote reveals online storage locker iCloud, the iTunes Match music subscription service, iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion
7-9
The E3 gaming expo in LA sees Nintendo's Wii U unveiled with a six-inch touchscreen tablet/joypad thing that confuses all attending. It'll go on sale in 2012
10
Following a 15-year delay, Duke Nukem Forever is released. Everyone hates it
17
Microsoft releases an SDK for Windows to allow developers to create motion-based tools and apps via Kinect
24
The Samsung Chromebook, the first laptop to run Google's cloud-based Chrome OS, reaches UK shops
29
Google+ gets 20 million sign-ups while still invite only. Interest subsequently wanes a tad
2011 Tech year in review: July
1
Twitter announces that it now handles 200 million tweets a day
2-3
The BBC screens the Wimbledon singles finals in 3D, the Corporation's first such broadcast
7
Facebook and Skype link up to offer hot video sex – sorry, chat – on the social network
20
Apple refreshes its MacBook Air range with, aptly, with new processors, Thunderbolt super connectivity and Mac OS X Lion
28
The BBC iPlayer sets sail for pastures new, with European ex-pats now able to catch up with Top Gear and more via an official subscription iPad app
29
Myspace is sold to a little known ad network for $35 million, just five years after News Corp bought it for – oops! – $580 million
2011 Tech year in review: August
1
Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer responsible for building the iPhone and iPad, among other things, announces plans to “hire” a million robot workers to alleviate pressures on its oft-suicidal workforce
9
Apple gets the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10. 1 banned across Europe, claiming it copies the iPad 2
10
BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook and Twitter are blamed for causing/ escalating the UK riots
11
Nokia announces that it plans not to launch the Meego-toting Nokia N9 in the UK or US
17
Sony cuts the PS3's price to £199
19
HP decides to kill WebOS operations following poor TouchPad and Pre sales. A closing-down sale sees the device on sale for less than £100
25
Steve Jobs steps down as Apple CEO, handing over the reins to chief operating officer and Big Friendly Giant lookalike Tim Cook
2011 Tech year in review: September
13
Microsoft's Windows 8 is revealed
16
Sony makes a belated bid to mount the slate horse with the Tablet S and Tablet P duo
22
Cloud gaming service OnLive launches in the UK
23
Facebook shows off a new time-centric profi lepage and announces social apps integration. Spotify and The Guardian head up the new partnerships
27
Microsoft releases Windows Phone 7. 5 (Mango to its mum), complete with 500 new features and improvements
28
The cheapest Kindle yet is launched in the UK, priced at just £89 – with inflation what it is, that's the same as a bag of apples will cost you by early 2012
2011 Tech year in review: October
4
Apple announces Siritoting iPhone 4S. Punters express sadness that it's not called the iPhone 5, then buy it anyway
5
BT promises to bring 300Mbps internet speeds to “some” residential customers by spring 2012
10
Crisis-hit RIM is hit by a server crash which blacks-out BBM, email and internet services
11
Microsoft Kinect is crowned Gadget of the Year at the T3 Gadget Awards 2011, the most voted-on awards in our history. Go readers!
19
Google officially announces Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as its flagship device
24
US movie streaming giant Netflix announces plans to launch in the UK in early 2012 (it's going to be a busy spring)
2011 Tech year in review: November
3
Motorola Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition announced. W00t!
8
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 shifts 6.5 million copies and rakes in $400 million in 24 hours
13
Philips launches world's first universal Android phone dock, the Fidelio AS851
15
The Amazon Kindle Fire launches in the US; no word on a UK release yet. Master Chief and Xbox celebrate their tenth birthdays
16
The Nokia Lumia launches to strong reviews
2011 Tech year in review: December
25
Christmas day. Don't forget to buy batteries or pre-charge gifts with their own batteries