2011, the year tech heads will come to mark as the death of Steve Jobs. It’s been a crazy year in tech, and not just for that reason. We’ve had Siri, tons of startups, Facebook Timeline and we even saw a tablet war! Here are my personal favorite moments from 2011.

Facebook Changes to Timeline

Facebook changes have become almost meme-able every time they happen. With the Game of Thrones “Winter is Coming” meme on the rise, the announcement of Facebook Timeline was accompanied with a laundry list of complaints (mostly from folks not yet affected by Timeline itself). Facebook managed to totally change the way we use it in just a few short months, and can you even remember what it was like before all those blue corners and news tickers?

Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs Bio makes Mac Fanboys Cry

A certain podcast I heard referred to Walter Isaacson as “the wrong guy” for refusing to document more of the corporate life of Steve Jobs. The “unanswered question” of what made Steve unique was (and probably never will be) answered. Rather than accept this study of human life, Techmeme carried a ton of headlines from tech writers bashing the bio, and Daring Fireball’s Gruber agreed with the most scathing of them.

After wading through WEEKS of news about Jobs, it was really amusing to learn that not even his bio was good enough to fill the void.

Tablet Wars

The Kindle Fire is an Android powered device, but you’d never know it by looking at the screen. Thus ends this year’s spin on tablet wars, but with the iPad 3 looming the stage is set for one hell of a shake up. Next Christmas people might be tweeting angrily about not getting a Kindle Fire for Christmas instead of a Camaro.

“Arrow in the Knee”

If you’re not a gamer, you don’t know what it’s like to have repetitive music and dialogue thrown at you in a controlled environment while you struggle to figure out what to do next. Since there are only a set number of canned phrases an NPC can speak, it becomes a sign of pride to speak these phrases to others and share in the experience. This year’s meme of choice goes to Skyrim guards, who apparently all came to their current profession after having taken an arrow in the knee.

Everything Microsoft Did

Google and Apple are boring compared to the crazy stuff happening over at Microsoft this year! Microsoft dropped an entirely new dashboard on Xbox Live users that dramatically favors Kinect interaction (and advertisers), Windows Phone got Xbox interconnectivity and a new boss and Windows 8 was revealed and totally blew people’s minds!

On the flipside, Windows Phone 7 continues to suck.

Siri… I Guess

I don’t know. Everyone else thinks Siri is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Having used it, and met with 4S owners that “use” Siri every day, I find the feature is ultimately useless. Isn’t that what everyone likes to bash Google over?

What were your top moments?

Fellow representatives,

I come to you today, a simple man.  I’m not a “nerd” as some might speculate.  I don’t know things about Halo, I’m not “good at it” as people like to allege that I am.  I’m just an average American.  Now I know that because I’m not good at Halo, those that are must be scheming against me. 

Nevermind your so called strategies, or using cover… If God had intended me to do it, I surely would have, as I’ve prayed on this very dilemma almost daily for the past several years.  My fellow representatives, I do not represent the interests of some other party.  I’m not asking you to curb some Halo players that I might get a chance at undue victory. 

I am simply positing that a man such as myself ought to have the inalienable right to be good at Halo.  That no man shall hold weapons more powerful than I do, or strike a headshot when I am not able to.  I urge you to disregard the testimony of other Halo players that would have you believe my argument is mere whining. 

This is a serious problem, and if we don’t do something we will probably continue to lose forever.

Americanly yours,

—
Richard Bashara
Wordsmith

Counselor Bashara,

I fail to agree with you as to being good at Halo being expressly a right? As chairman Newbie, I do not see any bill in the Commandments of Halo Wednesday where it says that you have the right to be good at it. There are game producers out there that work tirelessly to make the game challenging so they may see the fruits of their labor, only to be robbed of their hard work because of your sense of entitlement to being good at Halo. Any sources explicitly or implicitly associated with hacks such as Wallers and Aimbots are a serious threat to the XBOX Live community at large, and we must severe the problem at the limb to keep the infection from spreading.

We are not doing this to punish Americans. We are not doing this to control Americans. We are doing this because fair laws of equal gaming are being broken every minute by deviants who believe that just because these hacks are downloaded as a long string of ones and zeros, they are not really hacks. And, just because they found them somewhere else in the world, that these items are exempt from the United States of XBOX Live Fair Online Gaming Policy. Not only are these fair laws being broken, but disregarded.

Thank you for your letter. I look forward to future correspondence with your team.

Forever your Guest and Player Two
C.N. Jeremu, 5150th committee.

Last year, around this time, I was headed to Montreal to work with a group of people I’d never met in real life on a project I’d only just begun to get a handle on.  I’d never been in the snow, and I was vetting the city to see if it would be a place I’d like to hang my hat.  I stayed for three weeks, learning not just about the city, but about my French Canadian co workers. I saw their art, I heard their stories and I met one of the writers I work with. 

That early test would define my relationship with Softcity.  Steve Jobs talked about achieving an emotional connection between user and product; I suppose had this with my company.  Softcity gave me opportunity and when I doubted my abilities they told me to reach higher.  They tested me, and gave me even more responsibility when they saw that I could fly.  I will never forget the time I spent working with such an amazing group of people, and it’s with a heavy heart that I release the community that I’ve helped build into the wild.  I hope the internet will treat it fairly, and maybe even add to it.  I’d love to see it grow =)

As for me, I plan to spend a bit more time playing with my cats while I take on my new found freelance projects. 

I hope you’ll stick with me during my crazy adventures!