2012

When you think of a typical Mac user, you may imagine a young Silicon Valley go-getter type with hipster glasses and a tongue-tying Starbucks order involving half-caff, soy milk, and foam. According to an unscientific composite created by app maker BlueStacks, you'd be way off base.

BlueStacks compiled data from Nielsen and 1.1 million Facebook fans to determine what the typical Mac lover looks like. It turns out that Ms. Mac 2012 is a freckled, T-shirt wearing lady with long, black hair.

Ms. Mac also happens to be from North America. She's under 20, has OS X Lion installed on her Mac, wears jeans, and rocks a pair of sneakers. There are no geek hoodies to be found anywhere on the infographic, though.… Read more

The evolution of the Web is a messy process.

We do so much with the Web today that it's easy to take it for granted. Banking, social networking, word processing, travel planning, education, shopping -- the Web is reaching to new domains and tightening its grip where it's already used. To match that expansion, the Web is evolving.

But the Web is built by countless individuals -- browser engineers who enable new technology, Web developers who bring that technology online, and standards group members who iron out compatibility wrinkles. With so many constituents, it's no wonder there'… Read more

If there was one thing you could say about Twitter's 2012, it was that it wasn't boring. Over the course of the year, the service became bigger than ever, hosted major events like a Q&A with President Obama and another with Pope Benedict XVI, and became an essential tool for those looking for information about everything from Hurricane Sandy to the civil war in Syria.

But 2012 was also contentious for Twitter. The microblogging service put new restrictions on what it would allow third-party developers to do, and then had to deal with a rebellion by … Read more

Social media hit new heights this year; Facebook reached 1 billion users, many people in developing nations are logging in to social networks as soon as they get Internet access, and the companies behind these digital communities are starting to make money off the sites.

The big players of social, namely Facebook and Twitter, are ubiquitous in everyday life. Mainstream news outlets cite the social networks as sources of information and commentary on live events. The Olympics, the presidential election, disasters such as Hurricane Sandy -- social media has become an integral part of how such events are recorded and … Read more

Looking to bat your way through a sticky wicket? Then you might have found the right app. Though you'd expect a top-notch experience since it's officially tied to the ICC World Cup, this game delivers mediocre graphics. However, for a simple game, T20 ICC World Cup 2012 is enough to fill your cricket fix on the cheap.

This paid version of T20 ICC World Cup 2012 includes all 12 teams involved in the 2012 tournament. The names have changed, but your favorite club will still play like you expect it to. If you're expecting premier graphics, you … Read more

Let's face it: Twitter is an integral part of everyday life. And while that's been true for some time, 2012 was the year the microblogging service became truly mainstream. It was a vital tool during catastrophes, it was the medium of choice for presidential candidates, and it was at the center of political turmoil around the world.

2012 was also a year of business battles for Twitter, with strife between it and Instagram ramping up slowly over the course of the year, and a standoff between Twitter and developers.

But in the end, Twitter's biggest moments of … Read more

The past 12 months have seen a lot of action in the mobile market.

Google Android and its biggest device partner, Samsung, had a very good year as they surged ahead of Apple and the iPhone. Meanwhile other players in the mobile market, such as Microsoft, Nokia, and Research In Motion, still struggled to make a dent against Google and Apple. And the impending "spectrum crunch" has driven a bevvy of wheeling and dealing on the carrier side.

What will 2013 bring? I suspect Android will continue to get stronger. But we'll finally see whether a true &… Read more

Amazon, the e-commerce juggernaut, will likely keep steamrolling every category it can possibly deem relevant to its business strategy. These are my top five predictions for next year.

1. Reaping what's sown Amazon has been building up its services in the last few years: opening more fulfillment centers, adding hardware as a way to spread its content, and investing in production studios to release original content. Although the company had some disappointing earnings this year, it will start to see its investment in these projects return in 2013. It's a typical cycle for Amazon: spend lots of money … Read more

Amazon spent another year invading everyone's territory and pushing the limits of its business strategy.

The e-commerce company continued to dabble in book publishing and Web site hosting and tried its hand at video-gaming development. Anything slightly related to its business -- Amazon jumped on it.

That's not surprising given Amazon's history with identifying and mimicking both services and products to strengthen its bottom line. Here are the five biggest Amazon stories of 2012:

1. Go big on hardware or go home

Amazon beefed up its hardware selection this year, releasing three new devices to add to … Read more