2012

This year forced the gaming industry to take a long look at itself in the mirror. The ever-changing landscape of casual, mobile, and hard-core games has fragmented a marketplace once ruled by home and portable consoles from "the big three" (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo). In 2012, app-based gaming on phones and tablets has severely cut into the demand for separate portable gaming systems, platforms that Nintendo and Sony once thrived on. While Sony's new Vita portable impressed, its lack of consistent must-have game exclusives has proven to be its Achilles' heel.

In addition to other console manufacturers, Nintendo … Read more

A funny thing happened alongside the release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system this fall. Traditional clamshell laptops started shipping with built-in touch screens. That's to be expected from Windows 8 hybrids and convertibles, and maybe a few high-end proof-of-concept systems, to be sure. But instead we found everyday mainstream and even budget laptops adding touch screens, some for under $550.

That's partly because Windows 8 is so tightly tied in to touch navigation that it hardly makes sense to use it without a touch screen, which is why it works (surprisingly well, really) in traditional laptops … Read more

Last year, Audi included a dedicated data connection into some of its models to power services, such as Google Earth integration with its navigation system. This year other automakers piled on the connected car effort, with varying strategies to enable the types of services we have become used to on our smartphones in dashboards. Witness the Ford Sync AppLink, Toyota Entune, and Chevrolet MyLink as three top examples.

Most automakers leverage our own smartphones' data connection to deliver services such as Pandora music streaming, destination search, and even social media. At the same time, each automaker customizes the experience in … Read more

In 2012, technology design went square, and I don't mean boring. Rather, the past year signaled a shift to sharp 90-degree angles as a design element. By itself, that change may not seem significant, but when you consider that so much in tech -- from hardware to software to Web design -- was built on the concept of rounded corners, you see that it is a notable design shift. Apple didn't follow the pack (Steve Jobs wasn't a fan of square corners), but plenty of its rivals did.

Microsoft was the biggest promoter of square corners, not … Read more

Pinterest and Tumblr exploded this year as users flocked to the two sites, which are a little like book-marking services on steroids, to curate highly visual collections of images of food, clothes, favorite travel spots, inspirational quotes, and, particularly in Tumblr's case, hilarious memes.

Pinterest grew quickly in the creative and crafting communities early this year, filling up with beautiful photos and inspirational projects. It's so popular now that some police departments use the site to find wanted criminals and missing people. Tumblr, a hipster favorite, provides a bunch of original content as well, but the most popular … Read more

In 2012, other companies learned what Apple had long ago mastered: How you launch your product matters just as much as the product itself. What's more, instead of unveiling your new creation on a crowded stage like a huge trade show, you can maximize your buzz by staging your own event exactly when and where it suits you.

Samsung showed it had chutzpah when it launched the Galaxy S3 last May in London. A tight clamp on leaks got the tech press salivating early and Samsung broke with tradition by staging a global launch of a flagship device. Then … Read more

It wasn't that long ago that Sony was the gold standard in consumer electronics. Now, it's scrambling with subpar products, a tarnished brand, and has been scrambling to find a sense of direction. Its downturn underscores the broader troubles that the Japanese electronic giants all face, companies that include Panasonic and Sharp. Sadly, Sony may be the best positioned among them to mount a comeback.

The fall of these companies provides a warning to others that attempt to do too much, spreading themselves too thin and missing out on crucial trends, like the rise of the global smartphone … Read more

Still in its nascent stages, the trend toward home automation is slowly being realized with new products and services that allow people to control their lights, locks, music, TV, and heating systems with the touch of a button -- whether they're home or not.

The flagship product in the home automation field is still the Nest thermostat, the second generation of which was released this year. But it's hardly the only way consumers are able to monitor and control some of their homes' systems digitally.

Lowe's and AT&T both announced home-monitoring services. Sony and Control4 … Read more

This year, the shift away from desktop software toward cloud-based apps and services really took hold. More people are managing and sharing documents with Google Docs and Microsoft's Office 365, they're storing photos and music in iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive, and they're turning to online music services such as Spotify and Pandora. E-mail is quickly becoming a cloud-only affair: Microsoft launched cloud-based Outlook.com even as venerable desktop e-mail apps like Mozilla's Thunderbird and Sparrow disappeared forever in 2012. And why buy boxed tax-prep software when the same capabilities are available in-browser from the same … Read more