At this time of year I like to look back over the past 365 days and pick out the stories that really got my attention. Now if you have something that you think that should be on this list, leave a comment with your thoughts. Now on to the top stories of the year:
Java: By the time the Department of Homeland Security told users to disable Java in their browsers due to repeated security issues, Java’s days of being installed on many people’s computers were already numbered. Various cross platform attacks were already out there that put millions under threat. It’s a open question as to whether users can really trust Oracle again when it comes to the security of Java.
Bitcoin: I didn’t cover this much, but by the latter half of 2013 Bitcoin had become such a sensation that governments were forced to deal with the implications of a currency that nobody controls. Expect this and other virtual currencies to be a big topic in 2014.
Big Brother Is Watching You: Edward Snowden really upset the apple cart this year by revealing that the NSA pretty much spies on everyone. Plus they might have gotten help from friends such as Britain and Canada. This highlights the fact that there should be no expectation of privacy anymore.
BBM: When I abandoned my BlackBerry for an iPhone 5 earlier this year, I had nobody on my BBM list. Today I have BBM installed on my iPhone and have a dozen people that I currently BBM with. All of which have it installed on BlackBerry, iOS or Android devices. This has to be the biggest comeback story of the year and proves that perhaps they should have opened up BBM to platforms other than the BlackBerry years ago.
Tesla: The poster child for the electric car had some highs and lows this year. The high points were them not only selling a ton of cars and having a nationwide network of “supercharging” stations to take away the argument of range anxiety. The lows were a very volatile stock price combined with the bad PR caused by some high profile fires caused by objects hitting the battery pack at highway speed. The latter was blown somewhat out of proportion in my opinion, but it shows what can happen when you’re on on the bleeding edge of technology and the entire planet is watching for your mistakes.
Windows 8: One of the biggest crash and burns of the year had to be Windows 8. Long time users couldn’t deal with Microsoft’s new Metro interface, most notably the lack of a “Start” button, and it generated a ton of bad press and OEM’s taking shots at Microsoft. The Windows 8.1 update improved things including bringing back the “Start” button….. sort of, but one wonders if the damage has already been done.
Healthcare.gov: Another epic fail from a tech perspective was the healthcare.gov website. Nobody was able to sign up due to the fact that the website was unable to handle the load. The usual public flogging known as Congressional Hearings then ensued. Expect this to be a topic of conversation during next fall’s elections.
Surface Tablets: Microsoft had to write down almost a billion dollars of them and offer hefty incentives to move stock while Apple sat back and sold thousands of iPads every hour without really trying too hard. I’ll be watching to see if the latest iteration of Surface does any better in 2014.
The Fall Of BlackBerry: From hero to almost zero is the best way to describe BlackBerry. While BBM’s resurgence was a bright spot. Not a whole lot else was. Despite having great hardware such as the Z30, they have almost no marketshare and they have lost billions. Now while their back end software BES 10 is scoring wins, it’s not enough to stop the bleeding. It will be interesting to see what CEO John Chen who has a reputation for turning around troubled companies does in 2014 to rescue this sinking ship.
Nokia Gets Bought By Microsoft: I remember the days when Nokia was the number one phone maker on the planet. These days it’s owned by Microsoft and the best Windows Phones come out of there. This purchase by Microsoft might be the tech giant’s best bet of fighting Apple as now they control everything from stem to stern.
Social Media Fails – Part 1: Whether it’s PR execs making ill advised Tweets about Africa and AIDS, Toronto fire fighters making sexist Tweets, or people making Tweets about wanting pot delivered to their workplace only to attract the attention of the local police, all sorts of people discovered the hard way that things you say on social media can and will come back to haunt you. The sad thing is that you can fully expect these sorts of fails to continue in 2014.
Ballmer Departs Microsoft: I’ve made fun of Steve Ballmer and his rather eccentric behaviors such as screaming “Developers” at the top his lungs and throwing chairs across his office. But that stopped this summer when he announced that he would be retiring from Microsoft. The really sad part is that nobody was unhappy that he was leaving as many blame him for Microsoft losing its edge. It will be interesting to see what his replacement does in 2014.
Social Media Fails – Part 2: Whether it was Samsung and their attempt to cover up a S4 that apparently caught fire, or TSN who had fans take to Twitter to rage after the broadcast of several important English football matches was interrupted due to a power outage and no meaningful info was given by them to keep “footy” fans calm, companies found out the hard way that once something gets out onto social media, it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle. You can also expect these fails to continue in 2014.
Yahoo Mail Down For Almost A Week: A couple of overhauls of Yahoo Mail that didn’t go well had already put users of the mail service on edge. So when there was a week long outage, things exploded and it forced Yahoo CEO Melissa Mayer to post an apology. I’m pretty sure that improving the image of Yahoo Mail is a to-do item for 2014 for Mayer.
Social Media Successes: Whether it was #SFBatkid saving San Francisco while social media cheered him on, responsible Internet usage campaigns from companies such as Telus, or the use of #BrigherFuture being used by Rogers to raise money to get technology into the hands of underprivileged youth, there were plenty of things on social media that could make you feel that there was hope for humanity beyond figuring out what in the world twerking was.
Wearable Tech: Google Glass and the Samsung Gear dominated this emerging category this year. Though sometimes there was some negative press connected with both. But I suspect with other tech companies rushing to get into this space, 2014 will see an explosion of wearable tech for you the user to choose from.
Apple Continues To Rise: Its stock is at an all time high, it can’t make iPads fast enough, and it continues to be a force in the mobile phone market. It seems that Apple under the leadership of Tim Cook is on the rise. But with competition from companies like Samsung and Google, we’ll see if it continues that rise in 2014.
Game Consoles: The Xbox One and PS4 hit the streets late this year to much fanfare to battle for your gaming dollar. We’ll see who reigns supreme in this market in 2014.
Canadian Telecom Issues Become Top Of Mind For The Average Canadian: Rumors of Verizon entering the Canadian market earlier this year sent Bell, Rogers and Telus scrambling to fight back in any manner that they could. Though some of those campaigns ticked off consumers. Combine that with the fact that the Canadian Government engaged in a heated PR war against Bell, Rogers, and Telus and the net result is that every Canadian is now aware of the fact that what they pay for mobile phone service in Canada is among the highest in the world. Expect that to continue into 2014 starting with the latest spectrum auction in January and followed up by the Canadian Government making good on promises to lower mobile phone prices by any means.
The IT Nerd’s Foray Into Cars Continues: Last year I started doing car reviews. This year I’ve really gotten into cars in a big way by reviewing Chrysler and Volvo products. Plus I spent a lot of time answering questions about cars and writing about the technology inside them. If this continues, I’ll have start calling this blog the The Car Nerd rather than The IT Nerd.
We Welcome Our New Drone And Robot Overlords: Amazon made a lot of waves by saying that in the near future purchases could be delivered by drone. My initial thoughts on this were that I was dubious at this concept seeing as the timing of the announcement was between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But on the other hand I have learned not to bet against Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Oddly while this was going on, Google was buying military robotics companies. This could make for an interesting 2014.
The IT Nerd Reviews Lots And Lots Of Phones: This was a record year for reviews and most of that was driven by phone reviews. I’ll be doing a lot more of that in 2014 which means that if you visit Pearson International Airport, you may run into me.
And now, the top five most popular stories of the year based on my statistics:
Some things jump out at me. First of all, the top three stories have to do with Mac issues. Clearly some of my experiences with Macs and some of the questions that I’ve answered are helping others. I am glad I can be of service. Second, I note that there’s a lot of interest in the Chrysler UConnect system. I’m not surprised as I found it to be the easiest to use infotainment system in any car that I reviewed. Finally, for the first time since I started doing these reports, Rogers is on the list for positive reasons. That’s good for Rogers.
Here’s to 2014 as the tech world is really going to get very interesting. And I will be here to comment on it.
Happy New year!
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This entry was posted on December 31, 2013 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2013: Year In Review
At this time of year I like to look back over the past 365 days and pick out the stories that really got my attention. Now if you have something that you think that should be on this list, leave a comment with your thoughts. Now on to the top stories of the year:
Java: By the time the Department of Homeland Security told users to disable Java in their browsers due to repeated security issues, Java’s days of being installed on many people’s computers were already numbered. Various cross platform attacks were already out there that put millions under threat. It’s a open question as to whether users can really trust Oracle again when it comes to the security of Java.
Bitcoin: I didn’t cover this much, but by the latter half of 2013 Bitcoin had become such a sensation that governments were forced to deal with the implications of a currency that nobody controls. Expect this and other virtual currencies to be a big topic in 2014.
Big Brother Is Watching You: Edward Snowden really upset the apple cart this year by revealing that the NSA pretty much spies on everyone. Plus they might have gotten help from friends such as Britain and Canada. This highlights the fact that there should be no expectation of privacy anymore.
BBM: When I abandoned my BlackBerry for an iPhone 5 earlier this year, I had nobody on my BBM list. Today I have BBM installed on my iPhone and have a dozen people that I currently BBM with. All of which have it installed on BlackBerry, iOS or Android devices. This has to be the biggest comeback story of the year and proves that perhaps they should have opened up BBM to platforms other than the BlackBerry years ago.
Tesla: The poster child for the electric car had some highs and lows this year. The high points were them not only selling a ton of cars and having a nationwide network of “supercharging” stations to take away the argument of range anxiety. The lows were a very volatile stock price combined with the bad PR caused by some high profile fires caused by objects hitting the battery pack at highway speed. The latter was blown somewhat out of proportion in my opinion, but it shows what can happen when you’re on on the bleeding edge of technology and the entire planet is watching for your mistakes.
Windows 8: One of the biggest crash and burns of the year had to be Windows 8. Long time users couldn’t deal with Microsoft’s new Metro interface, most notably the lack of a “Start” button, and it generated a ton of bad press and OEM’s taking shots at Microsoft. The Windows 8.1 update improved things including bringing back the “Start” button….. sort of, but one wonders if the damage has already been done.
Healthcare.gov: Another epic fail from a tech perspective was the healthcare.gov website. Nobody was able to sign up due to the fact that the website was unable to handle the load. The usual public flogging known as Congressional Hearings then ensued. Expect this to be a topic of conversation during next fall’s elections.
Surface Tablets: Microsoft had to write down almost a billion dollars of them and offer hefty incentives to move stock while Apple sat back and sold thousands of iPads every hour without really trying too hard. I’ll be watching to see if the latest iteration of Surface does any better in 2014.
The Fall Of BlackBerry: From hero to almost zero is the best way to describe BlackBerry. While BBM’s resurgence was a bright spot. Not a whole lot else was. Despite having great hardware such as the Z30, they have almost no marketshare and they have lost billions. Now while their back end software BES 10 is scoring wins, it’s not enough to stop the bleeding. It will be interesting to see what CEO John Chen who has a reputation for turning around troubled companies does in 2014 to rescue this sinking ship.
Nokia Gets Bought By Microsoft: I remember the days when Nokia was the number one phone maker on the planet. These days it’s owned by Microsoft and the best Windows Phones come out of there. This purchase by Microsoft might be the tech giant’s best bet of fighting Apple as now they control everything from stem to stern.
Social Media Fails – Part 1: Whether it’s PR execs making ill advised Tweets about Africa and AIDS, Toronto fire fighters making sexist Tweets, or people making Tweets about wanting pot delivered to their workplace only to attract the attention of the local police, all sorts of people discovered the hard way that things you say on social media can and will come back to haunt you. The sad thing is that you can fully expect these sorts of fails to continue in 2014.
Ballmer Departs Microsoft: I’ve made fun of Steve Ballmer and his rather eccentric behaviors such as screaming “Developers” at the top his lungs and throwing chairs across his office. But that stopped this summer when he announced that he would be retiring from Microsoft. The really sad part is that nobody was unhappy that he was leaving as many blame him for Microsoft losing its edge. It will be interesting to see what his replacement does in 2014.
Social Media Fails – Part 2: Whether it was Samsung and their attempt to cover up a S4 that apparently caught fire, or TSN who had fans take to Twitter to rage after the broadcast of several important English football matches was interrupted due to a power outage and no meaningful info was given by them to keep “footy” fans calm, companies found out the hard way that once something gets out onto social media, it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle. You can also expect these fails to continue in 2014.
Yahoo Mail Down For Almost A Week: A couple of overhauls of Yahoo Mail that didn’t go well had already put users of the mail service on edge. So when there was a week long outage, things exploded and it forced Yahoo CEO Melissa Mayer to post an apology. I’m pretty sure that improving the image of Yahoo Mail is a to-do item for 2014 for Mayer.
Social Media Successes: Whether it was #SFBatkid saving San Francisco while social media cheered him on, responsible Internet usage campaigns from companies such as Telus, or the use of #BrigherFuture being used by Rogers to raise money to get technology into the hands of underprivileged youth, there were plenty of things on social media that could make you feel that there was hope for humanity beyond figuring out what in the world twerking was.
Wearable Tech: Google Glass and the Samsung Gear dominated this emerging category this year. Though sometimes there was some negative press connected with both. But I suspect with other tech companies rushing to get into this space, 2014 will see an explosion of wearable tech for you the user to choose from.
Apple Continues To Rise: Its stock is at an all time high, it can’t make iPads fast enough, and it continues to be a force in the mobile phone market. It seems that Apple under the leadership of Tim Cook is on the rise. But with competition from companies like Samsung and Google, we’ll see if it continues that rise in 2014.
Game Consoles: The Xbox One and PS4 hit the streets late this year to much fanfare to battle for your gaming dollar. We’ll see who reigns supreme in this market in 2014.
Canadian Telecom Issues Become Top Of Mind For The Average Canadian: Rumors of Verizon entering the Canadian market earlier this year sent Bell, Rogers and Telus scrambling to fight back in any manner that they could. Though some of those campaigns ticked off consumers. Combine that with the fact that the Canadian Government engaged in a heated PR war against Bell, Rogers, and Telus and the net result is that every Canadian is now aware of the fact that what they pay for mobile phone service in Canada is among the highest in the world. Expect that to continue into 2014 starting with the latest spectrum auction in January and followed up by the Canadian Government making good on promises to lower mobile phone prices by any means.
The IT Nerd’s Foray Into Cars Continues: Last year I started doing car reviews. This year I’ve really gotten into cars in a big way by reviewing Chrysler and Volvo products. Plus I spent a lot of time answering questions about cars and writing about the technology inside them. If this continues, I’ll have start calling this blog the The Car Nerd rather than The IT Nerd.
We Welcome Our New Drone And Robot Overlords: Amazon made a lot of waves by saying that in the near future purchases could be delivered by drone. My initial thoughts on this were that I was dubious at this concept seeing as the timing of the announcement was between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But on the other hand I have learned not to bet against Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Oddly while this was going on, Google was buying military robotics companies. This could make for an interesting 2014.
The IT Nerd Reviews Lots And Lots Of Phones: This was a record year for reviews and most of that was driven by phone reviews. I’ll be doing a lot more of that in 2014 which means that if you visit Pearson International Airport, you may run into me.
And now, the top five most popular stories of the year based on my statistics:
Some things jump out at me. First of all, the top three stories have to do with Mac issues. Clearly some of my experiences with Macs and some of the questions that I’ve answered are helping others. I am glad I can be of service. Second, I note that there’s a lot of interest in the Chrysler UConnect system. I’m not surprised as I found it to be the easiest to use infotainment system in any car that I reviewed. Finally, for the first time since I started doing these reports, Rogers is on the list for positive reasons. That’s good for Rogers.
Here’s to 2014 as the tech world is really going to get very interesting. And I will be here to comment on it.
Happy New year!
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This entry was posted on December 31, 2013 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.