Techwise, I’m still not sure whether I’m grateful 2008 is almost over or sorry to see it shuffle off into the past. I do know that it was a strange, eventful year–and that much of the biggest news involved Apple, Google, Microsoft, and various combinations thereof. Here’s a recap of the year’s biggest stories, as judged by a blue-ribbon panel consisting of…well, me. Feel free to counter my choices in comments if you disagree with ’em–actually, I’d be grateful if you would.
It’s hard to sum up the year in video games with one adjective. In some ways it was admirable, with megapublisher Electronic Arts betting on new franchises instead of just peddling more of the same. “Tumultuous” is also a fair description, as the economic meltdown left a chink in the industry’s “recession-proof” armor. But mostly, it was good, leaving quite a few “almost masterpieces” on our shelves as the holiday season winds down. Which game rose above these exceptional titles? Read on to, and you’ll find out.
Apple may be famously secretive, but there’s one guy the company has been confiding in for more than three decades now. That would be its Uncle Sam, in the form of the U.S. Patent Office. The company’s patent filings are a remarkable record of Apple’s brainstorms, from its biggest blockbusters to its most humbling flops to concepts that never got off the drawing board. The thirty-eight images that follow include multiple examples of all of the above. Click on the filing dates, and you’ll go to the patents where the drawings originated, mostly at the indispensable and addictive Google Patents.
Frenemy: Someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is both mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust.
That’s not a bad first stab at a definition, but let’s expand on it: A frenemy can be a friend who evolves into an enemy. Or an enemy who morphs into a friend. Or a friend who seems to be an enemy, or an enemy who seems to be a friend. Or someone who teeters precariously between friendship and enemyhood, sometimes over the course of decades. One thing, however, is undeniable about frenemies: The technology world has always been rife with them. Consider these twelve outstanding examples–past, present, and future.
On December 9th, 1968, Stanford Research Institute scientist Douglas Engelbart demonstrated his unique invention–the computer mouse–for the first time in public. It took another decade and a half for it to catch on, but once it did, computing was never the same. And today, it’s hard to imagine using a desktop or laptop computer without a mouse (or one of its latter-day substitutes such as the touchpad). In celebration of the anniversary, here’s a gallery of some of the mightiest mice of the last four decades.
A billion people may use Microsoft products, but until now, just about nobody has worn them. All that changes–maybe–starting December 15th, when the company’s retro-themed Softwear by Microsoft T-shirts hit the market. Including some designs by rapper Common, the line celebrates the much-missed era when floppy disks were actually floppy and 640KB did indeed feel like all the memory anybody would ever need. Here’s a little fashion show of the initial shirts, which come in four sizes: Basic, Home, Business, and Ultimate. (Kidding!)
