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FASHION
& SCi-tech
WHAT a year that was! Scientists found something that had been in existence for 13 billion years! Still they were not absolutely sure, just a 99.9997 certain that they had created and observed the Higgs Boson at the CERN supercollider. Yes, it created a great deal of excitement in the world, not in the least because it had been named the God particle. Even as we were exploring the origins of the creation of the universe, NASA landed its Mars probe Curiosity. In the subsequent four months, Curiosity has analysed the surface of the Red planet, and also sent many beautiful pictures back to the Earth. On the tech front, we got better e-readers, tablets and even phones, with every manufacturer competing with each other to bring in more and more innovation to tempt us. This was a fun time to be a consumer, unless you bought something at the beginning of the year and by the end of it realised that it had lost its cutting edge-status! The iPad family created the expected buzz. The new iPad, officially designated as iPad 4, came with a better screen and more powerful hardware, but that was to be expected. What was unexpected was the impressive showing of Microsoft's Microsoft Surface, a touch tablet with a folding keyboard as a cover. Surface had the wow factor, that iPad lacked, even though Microsoft muddled through by offering a less-than-impressive operating system, the RT, along with its paradigm-shifting Windows 8, a definitely out-of-the box OS. Apple opened another front, by launching a smaller iPad, a 7.9 inch iPad mini. It gives the same iTunes access as other iPads and is easy to navigate. The resolution of the iPad mini isn’t as high as its bigger brothers, but then, most people love the price and the size. Yes, the 7 inch form factor has become rather attractive with the success of such devices as Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 underscores this fact. Samsung, when it was not engaged in defending itself in various courtrooms all over the world, especially in the US, was launching new products. Samsung Galaxy S3 set new standards for smartphones. Apple came in with iPhone 5, with a bigger screen, better processor and more features a few months later. It is selling in record numbers, even though critics were underwhelmed. The S3 has held its own and actually dominated the sales charts. As if this was not enough, the bigger and better Galaxy Note 2 became a bestseller, even as people debated whether it is truly a phone or a tablet. On the other hand, previous iPhone models are being sold at various price points, thus broadening Apple’s reach. Nokia Lumia 920 earned many points for its build, looks and even the software that is gaining some traction. It, however, failed to impress buyers and consequently features as an impressive also-ran. Now we all know that smart screens are smart because of the applications that they have. And we want them free. WhatsApp Messenger, so popular with teenagers, is the best-selling app of 2012, and the most downloaded free iPhone and iPod touch application of 2012 was YouTube, owned by Google. Skype continues its reign as a communication app. The comeback of the year prize goes to`85Google Maps, now triumphantly back of iPhone. Data, music, pictures, all are moving to the cloud and away from the devices. As connectivity improved, cloud computing became more and more ubiquitous. As we see, people want utility, innovation and seamless integration with their device. And often they got it all.
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