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In his first full year as Google CEO, Larry Page had plenty to brag about. The company he cofounded with Sergey Brin in 1998 saw its stock hit record highs; its mobile operating system has 1.3 million activations a day; and its first Nexus-branded tablet debuted to strong reviews.

But even if he wanted to brag, for much of the year he wouldn't have been able to. In the summer, Page was hit with a still-unspecified illness that caused him to lose his voice. The bug caused him to sit out the Google I/O developer conference as … Read more

Steve Jobs described Jony Ive as his "spiritual partner" at Apple, as the person who had more operational power than anyone else at Apple except him. In the year following Jobs' death, the pipeline of Jobs-Ive creations launched, including the iPhone 5, iPad Mini, and new iMacs, and Ive gained additional powers under Apple's new leader, Tim Cook. He is not only in charge of Apple's award-winning hardware design, but also the look and feel of the software across all products, following the forced departure of iOS software chief Scott Forstall in October.

The British-born Ive … Read more

Kim DotCom is one of the most visible Internet personalities, yet he remains out of reach of U.S. law enforcement. DotCom generated more than $175 million from MegaUpload, the cloud-storage service he founded and a company accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of being an illegal enterprise. The DOJ alleges DotCom and six others encouraged millions from across the globe to pirate movies, TV shows, and other media and then store their booty in MegaUpload's digital lockers.

In January, the United States began trying to extradite him from his home in New Zealand. Since then, DotCom'… Read more

Every now and again, you have to rebuild the Internet from scratch. That's what began in earnest in 2012, as many Net powers powered up their sites on a next-gen network technology called IPv6 that's got vastly more room for individual devices than the current IPv4 that's been used since the Internet began.

With the world running out of IPv4 Internet addresses, network engineers have to use various tricks to accommodate all the new mobile phones, PCs, and servers joining the Net every day. IPv6 makes room for them and for all the Internet-enabled fire alarms, pet … Read more

It's rare to see a genuine surprise at a big event like Google I/O, but the Nexus Q was exactly that. There were virtually no hints of Google's mysterious, glowing orb until hours before the show, but its announcement raised more questions than answers. What does it actually do? Why does it cost $300? Can it double as a shot put?

Unfortunately for Google, the answer was the Nexus Q really didn't do much, except serve up a pretty LED light show. The device was such a flop, Google quickly discontinued it and sent pre-orderers a … Read more

Unlike 4K, there are no OLED TVs available today -- but they were the star of the Consumer Electronics Show last January, when both Samsung and LG revealed the first big-screen (55-inch) models to use organic light-emitting diodes.

Despite repeated appearances at trade shows, the OLED TVs never materialized in the marketplace in 2012 due to manufacturing difficulties. But they'll figure it out soon, and when they do, OLED will inevitably replace plasma and LCD as the flat-panel TV technology of choice. Stunning picture quality combined with ultrathin form factors -- LG's prototype OLED was just 0.157 … Read more

We may not love Symbian, but CNET editors did marvel at the way the Nokia 808 PureView's 41-megapixel camera blasted past preconceptions to deliver an artistic smartphone photo experience worthy of a standalone camera.

Its enormous camera sensor and module are hardly practical for toting around, but Nokia's 808 stands out as a proof-of-concept device that smartphone camera technology can grow by leaps and bounds, not just little steps. You just may have to compromise on svelteness. Don't expect Nokia to give up on the massive sensor just because the 808 didn't sell with a U.… Read more

A mere three years ago, 3D was heralded as the future of television, bolstered by the overwhelming popularity of a certain James Cameron film starring blue-skinned aliens. Now it's "just another feature" on today's mid- and high-end televisions, and barely anyone watches it.

The main problem is lack of content. There are still only a handful of 3D channels, which show plenty of repeats, and even massive 3D rollouts like the 2012 Summer Olympics met with yawns (it didn't help that the 3D events were delayed until a day after the live ones aired). Films … Read more

The iPad 2 was nearly a technically perfect device: what could be added to the equation on the next go-around? Apple went ahead and did what some thought would be impossible: cram a previously unheard of 2,048x1,536 resolution into a 9.7-inch screen, with the type of crispness, color and detail that most HD displays only dream of. The Retina Display iPad kicked off a new war in tablet screen resolution much like the Retina Display iPhone did previously, and the technology eventually bled into Apple's MacBooks by midyear. For media such as digital magazines and photos, … Read more