2011: The Year in Tech
GORANI: From "Angry Birds" to angry customers, 2011 was a big year for technology. CNN's Dan Simon reports from San Francisco.</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 2011 was the year of the tablet, as device makers scrambled to catch up with Apple's iPad. But nearly all of them were flops, including the Playbook from Blackberry. And speaking of Blackberry, the one-time king of smart phones saw its reputation damaged amid a highly embarrassing worldwide outage. Millions of its users couldn't send and receive e-mails for more than three days forcing the company's CEO to deliver an online mea culpa.</s>MIKE LAZARDIS, FOUNDER, RESEARCH IN MOTION:  UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You expect better from us and I expect better from us.</s>SIMON: The Netflix brand took a hit as well after users complained bitterly over a 60 percent price hike in their movie rental service.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shame on you, Netflix.</s>SIMON: And the PR only got worse.</s>REED HASTINGS, CEO, NETFLIX: We think that the DVD service needs its own brand so that we can advertise it so we've named our DVD service Quickster.</s>SIMON: Customers hated the idea and CEO Reed Hastings reversed himself. Netflix stock, meanwhile, plummeted. But some brands saw their fortunes soar. "Angry Birds" went from being just a popular iPhone game to a merchandising bonanza. Investors got excited this year with new tech IPOs like LinkedIn and Groupon. Silicon Valley had flashbacks to the dot.com bubble era. But the interest in stock prices have faded. We saw social networking this year become front and center on the global stage as pro-democracy demonstrators in the Middle East used it to organize and spread their messages. At one point Egyptian leaders shut down Internet access during the height of the revolution. 2011 was also a big year for hackers. The term hacktivism became part of the vocabulary as groups like "Anonymous" lost politically motivated attacks. It also became clear that smart phones would represent the next frontier for criminals.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who is your friend?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still AT&T; network.</s>SIMON: The cellular phone industry also made headlines with a proposed merger between AT&T; and T-Mobile, but the Justice Department said "no go" amid concerns it would harm competition in the U.S. wireless market.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With iCloud.</s>SIMON: this year cloud computing became in vogue.</s>STEVE JOBS, APPLE: And we're going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.</s>SIMON: Of course the biggest tech story of the year was the loss of Steve Jobs.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": People around the world are mourning the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs.</s>SIMON: The Apple CEO lost his long-time battle with pancreatic cancer. Never before had a company chief executive had such a loving fan base.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we announce innovations.</s>SIMON: The company had a smooth transition with Tim Cook taking over CEO duties, and Apple once again had another major hit on its hands with its new iPhone, the 4S which took voice recognition to a whole new level with Siri.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Find me an Italian restaurant in North Beach.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok.</s>SIMON: So it was a big year in technology and with innovation continuing at a rapid pace, 2012 looks to be the same. Look for Facebook to go public. Look for Apple to come out with the iPad 3, the iPhone 5 and maybe if the rumors are true, a television. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.</s>GORANI: Well, we're following lots of developments in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in with Joe Johns -- Joe.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey Hala, Newt Gingrich said he wasn't going to go negative in this campaign, but it's crunch time here in Iowa and he's calling out Romney. We'll have that report coming up next.</s>MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mohammed Jamjoom in Cairo. Arab League observers were supposed to fan out to other flash point cities in Syria today. We're told now those plans have been delayed due to logistical reasons. I'll have more details for you at the top of the hour.</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange. More than 12 states now recognize or have legalized gay marriage, but all of those happy couples are in for a big tax headache this year because the federal government and the IRS still don't recognize them. I'll explain in the next hour -- Hala.</s>GORANI: Thanks, Alison and to all of you. Also coming up next hour, retracing the path of the Titanic 100 years after it hit an iceberg and sank. It's not for research. It's for vacation. Would you shell out $5,000 to book a trip on the memorial cruise? We're talking to the managing cruise director next hour.