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Top 10 Most Popular News of 2008
Techtree News Staff, Jan 08, 2009 0900 hrs ISTWhile this might not reflect the technology trend this year, this is what our readers lapped up and posted opinions about
2009 is here, finally! Being the start of another tech-year for us, we at the Techtree News Team thought of compiling the most popular events that made news last year.
Here's a list of the articles that ended up being the Top 10, most-read articles on the site this year. While this might not actually show the technology trend this year, this is what our readers lapped up and posted opinions about. Some of the stories might seem an oddity, if you think keeping a global tech perspective in mind - anyway, here we go.
1. 10+ Reasons Why You Should Hate the iPhone
Grabbing top spot is our story on the iPhone 3G. About the time when the much hyped device was about to be launched, we ran a piece on the same detailing 10 plus reasons on why you should hate the iPhone 3G. The article detailed many shortcomings of the popular device which got the 3G treatment last year. However, apart from slight differences, major shortcomings still remain unpatched. Simple features like SMS forward and lack of multitasking ability remain. So did the lack of copy-paste and video recording. If the article itself made news, it was the comments section where various viewpoints clashed.
2. BlackBerry Storm to take on iPhone
The Blackberry Storm took the limelight away from iPhone for a while in 2008. Our little snippet on the Blackberry Storm taking on the iPhone 3G turned out to be extremely popular for the same reason. The first touchscreen device from the RIM stables looked like the perfect iPhone killer and had the looks and the pedigree to take on the Goliath from Apple. How far it has succeeded in doing so is anybody's guess. While the Storm did hit some quality and firmware related roadblocks, it has managed to help RIM remain in the green while most other manufacturers are reeling under the economic downturn.
3. Large Hadron Collider Goes Online
On September 11, 2008, we did a story on the Large Hadron Collider experiment which had commenced the day earlier. On 10th September, what was purported to be the world's largest experiment began amidst fears of doom and destruction. The objective was to "create a big bang" - in a controlled environment. Now, the last time a big bang happened, it resulted in the creation of what we now know as the Universe. The doom theories stemmed from the doubt that if something went wrong, would we see a new Universe being born? The article went on to become the third most popular article on Techtree last year.
4. AirTel Launches Digital TV
Digital TV seems to be getting bigger by the day. With the addition of new players into the field in 2008, the DTH segment is seeing unprecedented competition. Companies are trying to woo users with lower prices and better packages. One of our most popular stories was the launch of the Airtel DTH service in the country. The communication giant's new venture coincided with the launch of Reliance's Big TV and we did see some sparks fly. That's our fourth most popular story for you.
5. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Comes to India
Sony Ericsson's touted iPhone killer, the Xperia X1, made it to India after a much "looked forward to" launch. When it was finally announced on November 13, Techtree carried it first. We also informed you about its launch price of Rs. 45,000. That's a whole 10k over the iPhone. People drooling over it for over a year had only one question left in their minds. Why SE, Why? We don't know if it was the price or the fan following the X1 had - but whatever it was, the story takes number 5 spot for the most popular story last year.
6. Apple Brick is No Gadget
This happens to be an unlikely contender for the most popular story - but here it is any way. Much before we knew there were new Macbooks coming or how they would end up looking like, we carried a story about Apple's new "Brick". Now, at that time even we were bewildered on what could this be. Around the same time, rumor mills were filled with talks of the new Macbook platform being reportedly based on an entirely new manufacturing process. The brick, as we later confirmed, referred to the entire aluminum brick from which the Macbook casings have been carved out. Fast forward to January 2009, we now have the 17 inch Macbook Pro too getting the same "brick" treatment. This one's at number six.
7. Chandrayaan Sheds New Light on Lunar Surface
India's space program got a major boost this year with the launch of the Chandrayaan, back in October. While we did stories on the actual launch and followed it up with details on the various manoeuvers that led to the successful injection of the craft into the lunar orbit, the most popular story in the Chandrayaan series was our little article on the Moon Mineralogy Mapper. The M3, as it was codenamed, was used to map in detail 'never mapped before' areas of the moon. While we still await for the images from the craft to be released, the story went on to become one of the most popular of our 2008 articles.
8. Vox Populi: PIL vs Google Earth Fans
India witnessed one of its worst years of terrorism in 2008. Various cities including Jaipur, Bangalore and Delhi came under attack. The final blow came in the form of the Mumbai attacks, which claimed the lives of countless innocents. As usual, the terrorists made ample use of technology to execute their plans. What started with hacking of wi-fi networks concluded with the usage of Google Earth for coordinating and virtual analysis of the terror target venues. This led to a PIL that called for the ban of Google Earth - a popular application used by millions. Our article asked people if it was right to block technology use to prevent misuse. The comments sections are filled with opinions and animated discussions, which clearly indicated the popular sentiment - banning a certain software doesn't help prevent terrorism in any way.
9. Intel Launches Core i7 Processors
After the launch of the path-breaking Core2Duo platform in 2006, Intel has virtually never looked back. In November 2008, one of the most-awaited Bloomfield (the micro-architecture is codenamed Nehalem) processors made its way out. The Core i7, as we now know it, promised faster speeds, better data rates and a lot of improvement over the current crop of processors. These new processors have on-chip memory controllers and new LGA1366 sockets. For the new LGA1366 socket, one will have to use the Core i7 processors with Intel X58-based motherboards. Being the next big thing after the Core2Duo, this undoubtedly turned out to be one popular story.
10. YouTube to Sell Games
Grabbing the tenth spot is our story on YouTube supposedly planning to sell games, music and movies to users. The Google venture ended up collaborating with Amazon.com and iTunes to sell music. Amazon.com was reportedly also helping the sale of games via YouTube. The very fact that there seems to be a fairly large number of people buying original media might have prompted Google for this move. In these days of torrents and restriction-less media, it is heartening to note that there are folks, whom techies might refer to as dummies, who purchase original DRM media.
So, there it is! These ten articles made it to our Top 10 list last year. Year 2009 will undoubtedly see bigger news, better products, more controversies. We hope to bring a comprehensive list next year as well. A Happy New Year from all of us at Techtree!
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