<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"2012: The year Anonymous and many others protested against ACTA and SOPA\r\n2012 started with many protests; not only online, when sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit went dark to object to SOPA/PIPA, but also offline, as Anonymous supporters and others marched to defend Internet freedom from controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: HRVOJE POLAN / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Kim Dotcom fought DoJ charges against Megaupload and himself\r\nMegaupload's larger-than-life founder Kim Dotcom was arrested in New Zealand during a controversial giant raid on his mansion, only to be released on bail a few weeks later. He is been fighting the DoJ charges against Megaupload, his team and himself since then, while working on his upcoming Mega service.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Sandra Mu / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The (other) year Bradley Manning spent incarcerated\r\nBradley Manning was formerly charged with 'aiding the enemy' and 21 other counts in Wikileaks case. During his hearing in February, he declined to enter a plea ahead of the trial, which is set to start next year.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Invisible Children released Kony 2012\r\nNGO Invisible Children released its short film 'Kony 2012' last March to spread the word about its campaign against indicted war criminal Joseph Kony. While he still has to be arrested, the video went viral, scoring over 95 million views on YouTube and over 18.3 million plays on Vimeo. [See TNW's post on the 10 best memes of 2012.]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year the Fair Labor Association audited Foxconn working conditions\r\nAfter repeated negative reports on working conditions, Apple asked the non-profit Fair Labor Association to perform audits in the manufacturer's plants in China. Although it later delivered a mostly complimentary report about Apple\u2019s progress in fixing existing issues at Foxconn, a new controversy emerged when it was revealed that Foxconn factories enlist underage workers as \u2018interns\u2019 to meet demand. [See our post Apple\u2019s 2012 in Review.]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: AFP / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Facebook bought Instagram\r\nWhen Facebook acquired photo-sharing company Instagram last April, it was announced that the deal value was one billion in cash and stock. While this amount has fluctuated since then, this takeover remains a game-changer for the digital industry, and the terms of service debacle seems to indicate that we haven't seen the full picture yet.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year of Facebook's IPO\r\nOn the heels of acquiring Instagram, Facebook made its long-anticipated debut at the NASDAQ stock exchange. While this was the largest-ever IPO for an Internet company, it has been surrounded with controversy and lawsuits.\r\n\r\nImage credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year we missed (then finally got) Google Maps on iOS\r\nWhen Apple first demonstrated its new map application to featured on iOS 6 at WWDC earlier this year, few were those who would have been to predict how badly it would be mocked and criticized once it replaced Google Maps on the brand's devices. There's no doubt about it, Apple still has a lot to envy to Google in that respect, but the end of the year also brought good news, as Google Maps finally found their way back to iOS - as a standalone app.\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images\r\n\r\n2012: The year we discovered Google Glass (and the Nexus 7)\r\nGoogle Glass may not be available yet, but the futuristic product wowed anyone who was following Google I/O - either from the audience or online. As you may remember, Google used its annual developer conference last June as an opportunity to organize a giant live stunt, that culminated in skydivers landing on the roof of San Francisco's Moscone center. During the event, the company also unveiled the Nexus 7 tablet, which became available for pre-order through Google Play on the same day. [See TNW's post Google's year in review.]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: KIMIHIRO HOSHINO / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year a Higgs boson was almost certainly discovered\r\n&amp;quot;Scientists at CERN have announced that they\u2019re 99.99% sure that they\u2019ve found a new sub-atomic particle, and that it is likely to be the elusive Higgs boson \u2013 often referred to as the &amp;quot;God Particle,&amp;quot; TNW's Martin Bryant wrote last July. The title of his post? 'Higgs boson in plain English, and why it\u2019s so important' - a must-read if you want to understand what it's all about.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Marissa Mayer became Yahoo CEO\r\nMarissa Mayer left Google earlier this year to become Yahoo's new CEO. Since then, she went on to hire key staff, and gave us a glimpse of what's coming up at Yahoo with a big redesign of its Mail service and an overdue but important update to Flickr iOS app.\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images\r\n\r\n2012: The year Square got into Starbucks\r\nStarbucks is now accepting mobile payments via Square in 7,000 US coffee shops. This is the result of the tremendous progress Jack Dorsey's latest company made over the last few months. As you may remember, the coffee giant invested $25 million in its recent Series D round, valuing it at $3.25 billion.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Ecuador granted political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange\r\nThe net is closing on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after being granted political asylum by the Latin American country whilst facing extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Rosie Hallam / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year NASA Curiosity sent us pictures from Mars\r\nNASA certainly made history this year when Curiosity Rover landed on Mars, and started to send pictures to help the world keep track of its fascinating journey.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech via Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Neil Armstrong passed away\r\nAstronaut legend Neil Armstrong died on August 25 at the age of 82. &amp;quot;That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,&amp;quot; he famously declared as he became the first man to walk on the Moon.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Samsung was fined in the US for breaching Apple's patents\r\nA US court fined Samsung Electronics $1.05 billion last August for breaching Apple's patents. However, this isn't the end of the story, and multiple Apple vs. Samsung cases are still pending in several countries, while the South Korean firm won rulings in South Korea, Japan, and the UK.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: JUNG YEON-JE / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Amazon's Jeff Bezos was named Businessperson of The Year by Fortune Magazine\r\nJeff Bezos introduced the fifth generation of Kindle devices during Amazon's press conference last September. Earlier this year, Amazon's CEO was named businessperson of the year by Fortune. As we reported, things weren't always as easy: speaking to US talk-show host Charlie Rose, Bezos recalled that he had to attend 60 investor meetings to raise the $1 million of funding he needed to get Amazon started.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: JOE KLAMAR / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Apple launched the iPhone 5\r\nIn the picture below, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple senior vice president of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters look on as an attendee tests the new iPhone 5 during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on September 12, 2012 in San Francisco.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year RIM's BlackBerry 10 was announced - and postponed\r\nTroubled mobile giant Research in Motion (RIM) took the opportunity of its Blackberry World conference to announce the upcoming release of its next mobile OS, Blackberry 10. Initially scheduled for 2012, it was later postponed, and the first official launch event for the platform and two of its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones will be held on January 30, 2013. In the meantime, it opened opened app submissions, and leaks of its new L-series device have already surfaced.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year bullied teen Amanda Todd committed suicide\r\nCanadian teenager Amanda Todd committed suicide last October, five weeks after posting a YouTube video about the bullying she endured. The video has since gone viral and Todd\u2019s story has made international headlines. According to Google Zeitgeist report, her name was one of the top ten trending search terms this year.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Felix Baumgartner jumped from the stratosphere\r\nFelix Baumgartner's record-breaking freefall from the edge of space generated no less than 8 million concurrent livestreams on YouTube. The video of Red Bull Stratos mission also made it into YouTube's top 10 for 2012.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Manfred Laux / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Apple unveiled the iPad mini and iPad 4\r\nWhen Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed iPad's fourth generation last October, the announcement was quickly overshadowed by the unveiling of the smaller, lighter iPad mini. Both tablets launched in the US at the beginning of November, with Apple selling three million of its new devices in only three days.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Image credit: KIMIHIRO HOSHINO / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Swiss clocks became even more iconic\r\nApple signed a licensing agreement with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) last October, ending their dispute concerning the use of its iconic clock design in iOS 6.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Microsoft launched Windows 8 and Surface RT\r\nMicrosoft officially released the Surface RT tablet, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 last October. According to early Christmas retail checks, it seems that demand for the Surface is modest compared to iPad and Kindle Fire. [See TNW's story on the evolution of the tablet market this year.]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY /AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Disney bought Star Wars studio Lucasfilm\r\nDisney bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock last October, and announced that it plans to release a Star Wars film every one to three years from 2015 on, starting with Episode 7. Disney also took ownership of Lucasfilm's technologies, as well as its other franchises like Indiana Jones.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Jim Bauer on Flickr\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year the US election also happened online\r\nPresident Obama\u2019s election victory tweet became the most retweeted message on Twitter ever last November. This was the acme of a campaign in which social media and the Internet played a central role.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Rovio's Angry Birds became ubiquitous\r\nThree years after it first launched Angry Birds on iOS, Rovio is bigger than ever, as the franchise is turning into a global brand. Earlier this year, it unveiled Angry Birds Star Wars, Bad Piggies and a flurry of offline licensed products, amid speculations that it could IPO in 2013.\r\nImage credit: Bethany Clarke / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year the BBC could have done without\r\nBBC Director General George Entwistle resigned last November following a report on flagship current affairs show Newsnight, which falsely accused former British politician Lord McAlpine of child abuse (without directly naming him). Entwistle will be replaced by former director of news Tony Hall, described by his peers as a &amp;quot;digital pioneer.&amp;quot; The investigation into BBC\u2019s handling of sexual abuse allegations against broadcaster Jimmy Savile spanning several decades is still ongoing.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year the Nexus 4 launched - and sold out\r\nWe have recently listed Google's Nexus 4 as one of the six best smartphones of 2012. Not only is it beautiful and powerful, but it comes with an insanely low price tag of $299 for the 8GB model and $349 for the 16GB model. The only issue? Good luck finding one, as Google is struggling to adjust its supply chain.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year we discovered Ashton Kutcher and Steve Jobs could look alike\r\nAshton Kutcher is playing Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic that is set to premiere at Sundance Film Festival next month. Based on early pictures published on TMZ, he was definitely a good casting choice.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Nintendo put its hopes in the Wii U\r\nNintendo is hoping to sell 5.5 million of its Wii U by the end of its fiscal year, which comes on March 31. YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon\u00A0apps are now available on the new console.\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: TORU YAMANAKA / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year McAfee became a fugitive\r\nTNW's Alex Wilhelm described the tale of John McAfee as &amp;quot;one of technology's more\u00A0bizarre\u00A0moments of the year.&amp;quot; The US internet security pioneer is now back in the US after his attempt to find asylum in Guatemala failed. He is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of his neighbor. He has been using the Internet to defend himself from these suspicions.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: Luis Soto / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n\r\n2012: The year Pope Benedict XVI (aka @pontifex) sent his first tweet\r\nPope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet from the Vatican on December 12, 2012, using the handle @pontifex to bless his hundreds of thousands of new Internet followers.\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: VINCENZO PINTO / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\n2012: The year PSY's Gangnam Style reached 1 billion YouTube views\r\nPSY's Gangnam Style was the first video to reach one billion views on YouTube. The South Korean mega-hit was also Google\u2019s top trending video in its YouTube Rewind retrospective for 2012, and led the Pocket's most-saved video ranking.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nImage credit: GREG WOOD / AFP / Getty Images\r\n\r\nDon\u2019t miss our other 2012 lists for more great recommendations."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/12/27/2012s-biggest-tech-news-in-pictures/>