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The Web and Internet

January

Grooveshark sued, Spotify limits free music to 10 hours per month

Reddit prepares for anti-SOPA blackout, others may follow

Microsoft overtakes Yahoo in U.S. search market

ICANN selling custom top-level domains for $185,000

Jerry Yang resigns from all his positions at Yahoo

Roundup: PIPA collapses, SOPA hearing to resume in February

MegaUpload shut down by US government, four execs arrested

MPAA threatens Congress over SOPA, says blackout "abuse of power"

Amazon merchant bribed buyers with refunds in exchange for reviews

February

Facebook finally files long-rumored $5 billion IPO

French courts fines Google for offering free mapping services

You might be a terrorist if you have two cell phones, use Web proxies

Double Fine Kickstarter campaign raises over 700k in one day – make that 1+ million

Facebook introduces Timeline for Pages

March

U.S. says it can seize any .com domain, regardless of where it is registered

Acer Iconia Tab A510 unveiled, packs Tegra 3 and ICS

Angry Birds Space suma 10 millones de descargas en tres días

April

Arizona legislation will make cyberbullies, Internet trolls criminals

Non-profit ISP start up promises fully encrypted, private Internet

Pew: 20% of adults avoid Internet, smartphones closing digital divide

Google Drive released, offers 5GB free, 25GB for $2.49/mo

May

After five days, Facebook ranks as worst IPO flop of the decade

June

German cable ISP hits 4.7Gbps Internet speeds via existing infrastructure

Internet "Bill of Rights" proposed by anti-SOPA lawmakers

Comcast refuses IP lookups, calls anti-piracy case a 'shake down'

Scientists hit wireless speeds of 2.56Tbps using light vortex beams

Google creates neural network, teaches itself to recognize cats

July

EU Court: digitally-distributed software, games can be resold as used

Google veteran Marissa Mayer named Yahoo CEO

YouTube offers face blurring in one click

YouTube to cut spam by asking you to comment with your real name

August

Steve Wozniak predicts lots of problems for cloud storage

Google expands Knowledge Graph, trials Gmail content in search

Microsoft Xbox 720 developer kit sells for $20,100 on eBay

Ecuadorian government grants Wikileaks' Julian Assange diplomatic asylum

Editorial: Why I Left Facebook After 7 Years, But Was Forced Back In

Infographic: The Internet 10 years later

How ants have used the Internet's TCP algorithms for ages

September

Researchers: Your IP is logged within 3 hours of downloading a torrent

California residents stocking up at Amazon ahead of sales tax deadline

17-year-old eBay unveils new logo to reflect changing marketplace

10-15% of online reviews will be paid for by companies in 2013

Digital Music Index report reveals the top 10 BitTorrent countries

Happy birthday: The emoticon turns 30 years old today

Iran blocks Google due to video controversy, readies own Internet

W3C: HTML 5.0 to be finalized in 2014, HTML 5.1 coming in 2016

October

Best Buy stores to match Amazon's prices through the holidays

The Pirate Bay ditches its servers to become raid-proof

Survey shows first ever decline in Internet usage, but there's a catch

Amazon Web Services outage takes down Reddit, Netflix, Pinterest

November

Gmail finally overtakes Hotmail as world's top email service

Demonoid's tracker flickers to life, website remains dark

Syria pulls the plug, Internet traffic comes to a halt

December

Nielsen Social Media report shows Pinterest grew by leaps and bounds

Yahoo updates e-mail client, revises apps for Android, iOS, Windows 8

Google updates image search algorithm, makes it harder to find porn

Pristine Apple I computer sold for $630,000 to anonymous buyer

Facebook is experimenting with paid messages sent to strangers

Congress cuts amendment banning warrantless email snooping

Tech Culture

January

File sharing recognized as an official religion in Sweden

Reddit prepares for anti-SOPA blackout, others may follow

Wikipedia joins others in 24-hour blackout to protest SOPA

Kodak files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

February

You might be a terrorist if you have two cell phones, use Web proxies

Double Fine Kickstarter campaign raises over 700k in one day – make that 1+ million

March

Facebook threatens legal action against password-demanding employers

Americans lost $30 billion worth of mobile phones in 2011

New self-repairing plastic 'bleeds' and 'heals' like human skin

April

EA voted the worst company in America, awarded a Golden Poo

Valve's new employee handbook is chock-full of awesome, read it now

May

Tech Fail! Biggest Flops of The Last 10+ Years

Virgin Media censors Pirate Bay in UK, results in 12 million more visitors

Religious websites are three times riskier than porn sites for malware

Nevada embraces driverless cars, issues autonomous vehicle licenses

Genetically-engineered viruses may power devices of the future

Kodak maintained an underground nuclear reactor for over 30 years

IBM bans Siri from the workplace, cites privacy concerns

June

IBM supercomputer overtakes Japan's Fujitsu as world's fastest

July

The first picture ever uploaded to the web and the story behind it

Qualcomm teams up with Renault to trial wireless electric car charging

TPB fines to be used to fight more piracy cases, not refund artists

August

Dell tries to sell extended warranties using questionable tactics

Editorial: Why I Left Facebook After 7 Years, But Was Forced Back In

Judge refuses to change $675,000 fine in music downloading case

How ants have used the Internet's TCP algorithms for ages

Majority of Americans believe bad weather affects cloud computing

September

Opinion: The stalemate against piracy in PC gaming doesn't help anyone

QR code is largest on record, Minecraftian feat spans 7 acres of corn

World of Warcraft secretly embeds user data in screenshots

Google says driverless cars are coming within the next five years

NZ Prime Minister apologizes to MegaUpload's Kim DotCom

October

The CD turns 30: Time is ticking as the compact disc eyes obsolescence

PC shipments fall for first time since 2001

Americans could lose the right to resell their own possessions

Physicists may prove we exist in a computer simulation

Teen electrocuted while salvaging parts from a computer

Beautiful photos of Google's data centers will blow your mind

Jailbreaking smartphones remains legal. Tablets? Not so much.

November

Every laptop display should be 2560x1600, dreams Linus Torvalds

MasterCard to release credit card with display and keypad in 2013

SEAL Team Six members disciplined for sharing secrets with EA

Police raid targets 9-year-old pirate, Winnie the Pooh laptop seized

Elon Musk outlines plans to build an 80,000 person colony on Mars

Dad creates video-equipped quadrocopter to walk son to the bus stop

December

Phones to play a key role in Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks show

'Calm Act' regulating TV commercial volume levels now in effect

Pristine Apple I computer sold for $630,000 to anonymous buyer

WOF: Biggest tech failures of 2012

Weekend Open Forum: Technology predictions for 2013

Sony stops shipping the PlayStation 2 in Japan after nearly 13 years

Gaming

January

Microsoft Flight will be free-to-play, set for spring takeoff

Nintendo shows off new Wii U at CES

Witcher 2 developer apologizes for pay-or-else scheme

Paradox: DRM is a waste of money, only pleases investors

February

Digital game purchases: do we really "own" them?

The PlayStation Vita ships worldwide, reviewed

March

Mass Effect 3 reviews: Some casual observations

SimCity reboot announced at Game Developers Conference

Dead or alive? PC gaming generates a record $18.6 billion in 2011

Mass Effect 3 Tested, Benchmarked

Angry Birds Space downloaded 10 million times in first three days

April

Capcom is proud to charge you extra for game content that's on the disc you already paid for

Commodore founder, tech pioneer Jack Tramiel dies at 83

Diablo 3 demo accidentally made available, Blizzard shuts down servers

Valve confirms Steam and Source engine for Linux

May

Diablo III server debacle demonstrates the problem with 'always-online' games

Diablo III becomes the fastest-selling PC game in history

June

E3 2012 PC game trailer roundup

Max Payne 3 Performance Tested, Benchmarked

Next-gen engine from Square Enix shows what future games could look like, tech demo video inside

Decade-long game of Civilization II leads to post-apocalyptic nightmare

Max Payne 3 multiplayer cheaters forced to play with each other

Weekend Open Forum: Best and worst video game sequels?

John Carmack isn't excited about next generation gaming consoles

July

Ouya takes to Kickstarter to fund Android-based gaming console

Fortnite will be the first Unreal Engine 4 title, PC-exclusive at launch

Infographic: The difference between Torchlight and Torchlight II

August

Star Wars: The Old Republic going free-to-play in November

Valve: L4D2 runs 20% faster on Ubuntu than Windows 7

The best and worst PC gaming franchises as voted by readers

Microsoft Xbox 720 developer kit sells for $20,100 on eBay

Play Nintendo 64 games in your browser using this new emulator

Opinion: The subscription MMO is dead - long live free to play?

September

Angry Birds spinoff 'Bad Piggies' set to launch this month

Opinion: The stalemate against piracy in PC gaming doesn't help anyone

Interview with 'Ravaged' indie developer, 2Dawn Games

World of Warcraft secretly embeds user data in screenshots

Download of the Week: Black Mesa 1.0

Borderlands 2 GPU & CPU Performance Test

October

Custom UT2004 bots are more human than real-life players

Hackers use exploit to massacre entire cities in World of Warcraft

EA gives away thousands of free games in promo code blunder

November

Team Fortress meets Minecraft in upcoming game Ace of Spades

Halo 4 Review: Master Chief is Back

Call of Duty: Black Ops II generates $500 million in 24 hours

Final issue of Xbox World reveals details on Microsoft's Xbox 720

Wii U Review: Nintendo's Latest Is Out the Door

December

Far Cry 3 Tested, Benchmarked

Data shows Windows 8 hasn't stimulated PC gaming as anticipated

Valve readies living room PCs to rival next-gen game consoles

Steam suspends "The War Z" sales due to gamer outcry

Sony stops shipping the PlayStation 2 in Japan after nearly 13 years

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