From Apple and Android to Anonymous and Egypt

In 2011, the increasingly mobile and socially networked world of technology became more intertwined than ever with politics and the law. These are the IDG News Service?s picks for the top technology stories of the year:The PlayStation Network hack, Anonymous and the rise of hacktivismApril attacks on Sony?s Play- Station and Qriocity networks knocked out service for millions of users for two months, compromised personal data of some 70 million subscribers and cost Sony US$170 million to clean up. Anonymous, the most highprofile hactivist group, this year claimed or was believed to have launched attacks against entities as disparate as security firm HBGary, child-porn sites, Koch Industries, Bank of America, NATO and various government websites.AT&T?s deal to buy T-Mobile unravelsWith AT&T still reeling from the U.S. Department of Justice?s August lawsuit to block its US$39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, staff at the Federal Communications Commission in November announced they found the deal against the public interest. Government officials say it would create the largest concentration of market power in the U.S. mobile industry, reducing competition, raising prices and crushing innovation. The carriers say the deal is necessary for them to bring LTE (Long-Term Evolution) broadband to nearly all of the U.S. Under heavy fire, though, the deal will quite possibly fall apart for good.attacks on Sony?s Play- Station and Qriocity networks knocked out service for millions of users for two months, compromised personal data of some 70 million subscribers and cost Sony US$170 million to clean up. Anonymous, the most highprofile hactivist group, this year claimed or was believed to have launched attacks against entities as disparate as security firm HBGary, child-porn sites, Koch Industries, Bank of America, NATO and various government websites.Apple sues Samsung: Android under siege againApple?s lawsuit against Samsung, launched in the U.S. in April and eventually involving courtroom battles in Germany, France, Australia and elsewhere, focused on a patent for list-scrolling software and three smartphone and tablet design patents. The real threat to Apple, however, is not only Samsung but Google?s Android.

While Samsung, which sells Android devices, became the world?s biggest smartphone vendor this year, Android?s market share surpassed 50%, comprising 60 million devices from multiple vendors. Android?s success makes it a target.

Google suffered a direct legal attack in 2010 when Oracle filed a lawsuit charging that Android infringes Oracle patents and copyrights related to Java. Microsoft, also gunning for Android, signed a crosspatent deal with Samsung in September that grants it royalties from Samsung?s Android-based smartphones and tablets. Stop Online Piracy ActIntroduced in October in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, would give U.S. law enforcement the ability to obtain court orders to stop search engines, payment processors and other entities from doing business with websites accused of enabling copyright infringement. The Act would also allow copyright holders to obtain court orders to block allegedly infringing sites under certain conditions.Japan devastated by massive earthquakeThe 11 March earthquake in Japan, the biggest in its history, took its toll on the country?s electronics industry. The earthquake constrained the supply of raw materials and components such as NAND flash memory, microcontrollers and LCD parts. Prices soared after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which damaged facilities belonging to Sony, Freescale, Fujitsu, Texas Instruments and other companies.The HP Follies: Apotheker?s bungled restructuringBarely a year into his tenure as Hewlett-Packard CEO, Leo Apotheker was ousted in September soon after announcing that the company would seek to spin off its US$40 billion PC business, the largest in the world. Apotheker, who had been fired from SAP in February after the ERP maker fumbled its move to cloud technology, had little experience with hardware. Apotheker himself took up the reins at HP after the ouster of Mark Hurd, who resigned following an investigation into claims of sexual harrassment. ICANN hands out last IPv4 addresses, sets clock ticking for IPv6In February, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, handed out its last IPv4 addresses, allocating the final five blocks of 16 million addresses to each of five regional Internet registries (RIRs). The imminent depletion of IPv4, which provided 4.3 billion addresses, is a sign of how quickly the Internet has grown, and puts pressure on ISPs and companies to switch to its successor, IPv6. Though some regions might not exhaust their supply of IPv4 addresses for several years, Internet communications could break down over time unless network managers migrate to IPv6, which allows for better security, better network management and what?s thought to be an inexhaustible supply of addresses.Microsoft moves to ARM with Windows 8Microsoft took advantage of the CES spotlight in January to announce that Windows 8 will run on system-on-chip architectures including ARM-based processors, part of its effort to get Windows used on tablets. Other features of the upcoming version of Windows, which will continue to run on Intel chips and PCs as well, include the new Metro interface, which emphasizes touch and a Windows app store. However, the many businesses still migrating to Windows 7 are unlikely to upgrade again soon. With Microsoft?s history of coming from behind in markets to eventually grab a dominant position, though, Windows 8 should not be counted out before it ships.