Tech Wise by Peter Vogel
Expecting a mention of 2012 top search terms Gangnam Style, Whitney Houston, and Lance Armstrong? Read no further. This column isn't for you.
Technology stands still for no one. The year 2012 was a gangbuster year for technologically-driven developments. As the year drew to a close it appeared that a stalwart of the Canadian high-tech sector, widely written off by pundits, was mounting a tentative comeback.
Research in Motion has essentially banked its very existence on phones slated to run the company's new BB10 operating system. The new phones will be unveiled in January and appear at retail later in 2013.
It was during 2012 that the 7" form factor became a must-have in the tablet category. While much of the world was waiting for Apple's iPad Mini, it was the quiet release of the Google Nexus 7 that gave the category momentum.
I've previously written about my own positive experiences with the Nexus 7, and while the device isn't perfect it is on track to move at least a million units during December alone.
Mobile devices are sporting ever better cameras, and in 2012 we saw some very solid performers in the Samsung Galaxy line and in the Apple 4S and 5 lines.
As the year drew to a close Samsung released its Galaxy camera, a device running the Android operating system and having 4G communications on board. Snap a picture and it is immediately uploaded to the cloud for safekeeping.
This has been, if nothing else, the year of the smartphone, here in Canada and around the world. Market research firm IDC projects worldwide smartphone sales at a little over 700 million units for the year, up 45 per cent over 2011. Two-thirds of the 2012 smartphone market belongs to Android, Apple's iOS being a distant second at around 19 per cent.
Hobbyists were salivating over the July release of the Raspberry Pi, a credit-card-sized computer with enough bells and whistles to become a control centre for home televisions.
So popular was the device that the developers were overwhelmed with orders. My own order, placed July 2, was filled in late November.
At under $40 the Pi is truly an amazing device. If you have a tech-inclined youngster you can't go wrong having one of these in the house.
Microsoft's release of Windows 8 and its Surface line is giving new impetus to touchscreen technology on the desktop. Whether consumers are ready to part with the standard desktop interface remains to be seen.
Certainly the release of the Surface RT line, which only runs dedicated apps, ahead of the Surface units running full-blown Windows 8 has experts scratching their heads.
As this column went to press Microsoft was preparing to sell Surface in standard retail outlets rather than in its dedicated stores. Only then will the market get a better handle on the winners and losers in the tablet space.
Getting back to Samsung and Apple for a moment, a 2012 retrospective has to include mention of the legal action between the two tech giants that left the Korean company with a penalty of a billion dollars and change for design patent infringements. The initial outcome remains under appeal, and the jury verdict could well be reversed.
BYOD and BYOT (bring your own device or technology) gained traction in the business world as well as in schools, forcing corporate technology departments to rethink security measures and to ramp up support for wireless communication.
On a somewhat related front Shaw Communications has been rapidly expanding its Shaw Open service. Subscribers to the company's Internet and television services may register up to six mobile devices that are then able to connect to Shaw's Wi-Fi services in many areas of the Lower Mainland.
On the social media front, Facebook and Twitter continued to lead the pack, but the year belonged to Pinterest. Google+, which debuted in 2011, continued to evolve rapidly, most recently adding a "communities" feature which is reminiscent of the Usenet news groups that were so popular two decades ago.
In November the first provisions in Canada's Copyright Modernization Act came into effect. It's finally legal to use your PVR to record that favourite TV show! Teachers are now free to print and distribute to their students content publicly available on the Internet.
However 2013 may well bring the first prosecutions for the downloading of copyrighted digital content. Provisions in the act may force Internet service providers to divulge names and IP addresses that can be linked to the downloading of specific content.
Rights holders might then pursue damages of up to $5,000 for each case of non-commercial copyright infringement.