Year in Review 2013: Top Tech Stories of the Year

iOS 7
It’s likely of little surprise to anyone following the news in the tech world that Apple’s actions in the mobile market this year garnered lots of attention. As a popular choice amongst North American consumers and growing popularity oversees, the new iPhones, iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, dominated headlines when they were released. But the even bigger story was iOS 7: It was the first step away from skeumorphic design since the release of the iPhone, and opted instead for a brighter, cleaner and slicker look. That came with some growing pains, such as the ‘moving background’ which made some people nauseous, but on the whole, iPhone users welcomed the update.

PS4 vs Xbox One
In a year-long lead-up to the battle, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One have dealt the first blows in the next generation of console wars. After holding separate press events in the first half of the year, both companies unveiled the gaming capabilities of their devices at this year’s E3. After more confusion about ‘always online’ being mandatory for the Xbox One, and major game delays for both consoles, the real fight is brewing as the companies compete to dominate the crucial first post-launch holiday shopping season.

Google Glass
Google created quite the buzz with its wearable mobile technology and its elite rollout for the device. They began by opening up the Explorer program, asking people to apply in order to be the first to purchase Google Glass. The growing presence and availability of Google Glass has brought to light potential issues with wearable technology, like privacy concerns with a camera always hovering in your eye line, or what the ramifications are of wearing Google Glass while driving.

Phonebloks
It seemed like an idealistic dream when a designer proposed a new way to think about cell phones: Instead of buying a new phone every time a single component broke or no longer suited your needs, you could have a modular phone that would allow you to replace only the parts you chose to. While many got excited about the idea, not many thought it could become a reality. We’re all set to be proven wrong as Motorola has announced Project Ara, a work-in-progress between Motorola and Phonebloks to flesh out the idea and eventually bring it to market.

Smartwatches
Many touted 2013 as ‘the year of the smartwatch,’ but the reality is all that hype fell somewhat flat. A few early and exciting entries into the smartwatch market have been developed, but they’re not necessarily the hot sellers some were expecting. The Pebble smartwatch, which started out as a Kickstarter project, has been released to largely favourable reviews. Qualcomm has also quietly released its own version of the smartwatch. The device with the biggest hype was likely the Galaxy Gear, the highly-anticipated smartwatch from Samsung, but cost and the limited number of devices it is currently compatible with greatly limits its appeal. And while many thought that 2013 would be the year Apple unveiled a smartwatch, nothing was ever announced.

Death of Google Reader
Google shutting down products that it believes are no longer contributing to its overall strategy is nothing new. We’ve seen Google Buzz, iGoogle, Google Wave and many more all meet their ends. But no end-of-life product caused more fervour than when Google announced it would be shutting down Google Reader. The RSS service turned out to be a popular product with many users, and the outcry at its demise was intense. Since Google Reader was shut down in July, several RSS reader alternatives have risen to the occasion and seen a tremendous boost in subscribership as a result of Google’s decision. Feedly, Digg Reader, NewsBlur and The Old Reader have all helped to ease former Reader users’ pain.

Oculus Rift
This virtual reality helmet caught the attention of the media and the public this year by providing one of the most exciting evolutions in gaming accessories in quite some time. Players wearing Oculus Rift headset are immersed in a 3D environment; they can turn around 360-degrees, move through the environment and experience the virtual game world in a whole new way. The helmet isn’t yet available for sale, but representatives from both Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation have shown great interest in the technology.

Facebook Graph Search
In a move towards competing with search engine giants like Google, Yahoo and Bing, Facebook unveiled its Graph Search feature in January, and slowly rolled it out over the summer. The concept is relatively straightforward: Instead of searching the web for restaurant recommendations or photos of famous landmarks, you can turn to your friends and search through the information they’ve provided. While this does have exciting possibilities, it has also drawn much ire for those who don’t want their profiles mined for information by their friends. If you fall into that camp, there’s information available on how you can limit your profile so you’re not accessible through Graph Search.

Moto X
Since being bought by Google, Motorola has been pretty quiet on the phone hardware front. They finally piped up this year with the first phone out of the new partnership, the Moto X. In addition to lots of quirky innovations, the phone also had two remarkable things about its build: Users would be able to customize their phones using the Moto Maker website, and the customized phones would be made in the USA, at a Texas factory. Unfortunately, AT&T customers are currently the only ones who can take advantage of the custom process. Motorola has said it is considering expanding the program, but there are no plans in the foreseeable future for it to come to Canada.

Google Glass
Google created quite the buzz with its wearable mobile technology and its elite rollout for the device. They began by opening up the Explorer program, asking people to apply in order to be the first to purchase Google Glass. The growing presence and availability of Google Glass has brought to light potential issues with wearable technology, like privacy concerns with a camera always hovering in your eye line, or what the ramifications are of wearing Google Glass while driving.

Vine launches
What started out as a quirky app to film six-second videos has skyrocketed in popularity as a way for many users to express their film-making creativity. Launched this year by Twitter, users can record short films on their phone and upload them into categories to share with others. Many users have used the six-second limitation and simple stop-start recording controls to try their hand at stop-motion animation, and the results are pretty impressive.

SimCity’s always online catastrophe
Despite the excitement ahead of the new SimCity launch, expectations were quickly deflated when the always-online game failed to effectively launch. Many were concerned when the always-online necessity was announced that they wouldn’t be able to play even their single player game offline, because their games were being saved in the cloud (a concern that turned out to be largely justified). But the real problem came on launch day when it turned out EA’s servers were no match for the volume of people seeking to get online and play. Many players were unable to connect for hours, or had brief connections long enough for the site to encounter an error, and render their purchase code invalid.

Samsung Galaxy S4
In an over-the-top Broadway-style announcement, Samsung unveiled its latest smartphone in March, the Samsung Galaxy S4. Features like eye-tracking to register whether the user is looking at the screen and an improved camera were added in hopes of pulling more of the market share away from Apple’s iPhone, and according to the most recent statistics, it seems to be working: Samsung’s global smartphone share in the last quarter was 32.1 per cent globally, while Apple’s share fell two per cent from the previous quarter, down to 12.1 per cent.