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Top tech trends of 2012 Here’s a look at the events, devices and ideas that have made their marks this year.
Niche tablets
If 2011 was the year of the tablet, then 2012 has been the year of — well, the tablet again (but with a little twist). Last year, technology companies were happy just to release a tablet, but this time they took it up a notch with niche tablets. The devices now come in various sizes and some even have styluses and keyboards.
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Composite created using wire photos
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Big data
Big data has become tech-speak for the complex and huge amounts of information used to analyze or help predict events. Big data analysis figured prominently in this year's election. The Obama campaign used it to monitor Twitter sentiment about the candidates in key states, while blogger Nate Silver employed it to correctly call the election results in all 50 states. Big data is also being used to help solve global problems. This photo from the Human Face of Big Data project shows glasses made with the big data to help people with retinal diseases see again.
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Image courtesy of the Human Face of Big Data
More data, please
Internet data usage in the United States jumped 120 percent in the past year — and a third of that usage was in Netflix alone.
Brendan McDermid
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Reuters
Cloud computing
The cloud-computing field has seen a lot of activity this year. Tech giants such as Google and Oracle launched cloud services, while others like DropBox and Amazon continued to spruce up their existing services. Even the government has jumped on board. In October, Microsoft announced that it had won a contract to bring the Environmental Protection Agency’s 25,000 employees to the cloud.
David Paul Morris
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Bloomberg
Mobile-first design
Stumbleupon, Facebook, Apple and Windows 8 all added grid-like designs intended for touch-screen interaction with their users. Bold grids showed up, too, on the pages of USA Today and eBay as part of rebranding efforts. With more consumers browsing the Internet on their smartphones, mobile sites were informing the design of browser pages — rather than the other way around.
Kin Cheung
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AP
New ways to pay
Near-field chip payments technology may not be here quite yet, but looking at Square's partnership with Starbucks or the growth of micro-payments in apps hints that people’s smartphones or tablets are quickly becoming their wallets and their cash registers.
Jin Lee
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Bloomberg
Global speech
As people increasingly turned to the Internet to express themselves, they ran afoul of global speech laws more often. Many Brazilians were mortified in September when a judge detained a Google official over a YouTube video that had stirred ire in a mayoral campaign. And a few weeks before that, when the "Innocence of Muslims” video sparked riots across much of the Islamic world, countries asked YouTube to block the video, which it did. In this photo, Indian Muslim women are protesting the "Innocence of Muslims" video.
Dibyangshu Sarkar
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AFP/Getty Images
Size shifts
Smartphones got bigger this year while tablets got smaller. Apple ditched its standard 3.5-inch iPhone screen for a 4-inch screen when it announced the iPhone 5, and Samsung went even bigger with the Galaxy Note II, stretching its screen to 5.5-inches. In the tablet space, the mini tablet market heated up as tech titans Apple and Google joined in the fray.
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Composite created using wire photos
IP battles
A carryover from last year, companies continue to fight it out in court almost as fiercely as they do in the marketplace. Two of this year’s high-profile court battles: Apple vs. Samsung and Google vs. Oracle.
Vicki Behringer
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Reuters
Mobile-first design
Stumbleupon, Facebook, Apple, and Windows 8 all added grid-like designs intended for touch-screen interaction with their users. Bold grids showed up, too, on the pages of USA Today and eBay as part of rebranding efforts. With more consumers browsing the Internet on their smart phones, mobile sites were informing the design of browser pages -- rather than the other way around.
Robert Galbraith
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Reuters
Ultrabooks
And one that wasn't a trend: ultrabooks. They were supposed to take off in a big way, but instead made their debut in a year forecasted to be the first time the PC market shrinks in over a decade.
Chris Tzou
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Bloomberg
FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES
Photos of the day
Buddhist Wesak festival, prisoners-of-war reunion, bridge collapse, world’s largest Lego model and more.
Flexing their muscles
Dozens of bodybuilders came out to Silver Spring to compete in the 2013 Musclemania Capital Tournament of Champions.
Animal views
Fun and fascinating creatures around the world.
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