2015: The Year in Tech
In the years to come, the AI historians among our future robotic overlords will look back on 2015 with fondness. We were such an entertaining species, what with our misbehaving drones and detonating hoverboards and Ashley Madison hacking scandals.
Here we take a month-by-month look back at the year’s biggest stories, and Yahoo Tech’s most popular virtual page-turners.
JANUARY: Augmented reality a reality
Microsoft offered a glimpse into a more hopeful Star Trek-style future — think holodeck — with the Windows Holographic computer platform and the HoloLens device. At the annual CES extravaganza, we spied additional space-age devices like the spherical TV. Meanwhile, Mexican authorities busted a drug-dealing drone in Tijuana and a new chapter was written in the epic tragedy that is Comcast customer service.
February: Memes gone wild
Modified image of The Dress courtesy of Slate
In February, it was announced that IBM’s artificial intelligence system, Watson, will soon be wirelessly beamed into cuddly toys that will babysit our kids. That news kind of slipped under the radar, though, since we were all so busy managing our Trivia Crack addiction and trying to figure out the color of the Dress. Clearly, the machines know just how to distract us. Hey, look! It’s Taylor Swift versus Etsy!
MARCH: Somber goodbyes, thrilling hellos
March brought a somber moment when Microsoft announced the imminent death of the Internet Explorer browser. Well, somber might not be the word. Over at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, HTC and Valve unveiled their high-end Vive VR headset, which by all indications will explode our collective eyeballs next year. Oh, and a humbly endeavoring technology company celebrated its 20-year anniversary.
APRIL: Watch party
Photo: Reuters
The long-anticipated Apple Watch finally made its debut in April, prompting millions of loyal Apple customers to ignore it. Actually, we don’t know sales figures because Apple’s not telling, but the company’s aversion to telling is … telling. In a related development, a disgruntled Apple employee did plenty of telling, resulting in a viral blog post. Meanwhile, Elon Musk kept busy by releasing the Tesla Powerwall home-battery system, designed to store and distribute solar power.
MAY: Lots of self-driving rubber hits the road
Some odd news from America’s roadways surfaced in May when Daimler Trucks North America put the first licensed self-driving 18-wheeler onto highways in Nevada. (Don’t freak out, there’s still a driver behind the wheel. For now.) Back on the big city streets, several Uber users discovered hackers had hijacked their accounts to arrange and sell free rides. On the gaming front, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — an unassuming release from a small Polish studio — began its stealth run to Game of the Year.
JUNE: Hellooo! La la la.
After much controversy and legal wrangling, the USA Freedom Act — sequel to the delightful 9/11-era Patriot Act — was signed into law, overhauling several domestic surveillance policies. Apple Music staged an offensive into the occupied lands of online music subscription services. But these developments paled in comparison to the glorious announcement that all 180 episodes of Seinfeld would be made available for streaming via Hulu. It’s a Festivus miracle!
JULY: Windows is back, Flash is trash
Things in the tech latitudes heated up in July, as they tend to do elsewhere: Windows 10 dropped to generally enthusiastic reviews. Android users got a scare with the disclosure of an OS security flaw that could be circumvented with a simple text message. This dude became an instant folk hero when he shot a drone out of the sky with his shotgun. A powerhouse lineup of tech industry leaders issued an open letter concerning killer robots. Also, more dirt was shoveled onto Adobe Flash when security exploits in the plugin were made public after the databases of the Hacking Team, a surveillance technology company, were hacked.
AUGUST: Unfaithful exposures
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 hit shelves in August, eventually winning the runner-up prize in our Smartphone of the Year competition. Then the Internet went supernova with the infamous Ashley Madison hack. Repercussions on that one are still playing out in courtrooms and bedrooms. (And if you need conclusive evidence of mankind’s insanity, check out this update.) August also brought some sad news regarding the aging text-speak veteran known as “LOL.”
SEPTEMBER: Apple’s new toys
With its annual product-unveiling event, Apple more or less owns September, and this year was no different. Amid newly unveiled tablets, watches, and TV boxes, we were introduced to the iPhone 6s, the ultimate winner of this year’s Smartphone of the Year prize. In other news, an army of online rascals offered further mathematical evidence that Photoshop + the Internet = funny.
OCTOBER: Hoverboards and ‘hoverboards’
Back in the world of public policy, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, reared its controversial head. Samsung dropped the Gear S2, which played spoiler by winning our Smartwatch of the Year over the hyped Apple Watch. Microsoft defied oddsmakers as well, with the debut of its surprisingly rockin’ Surface Book laptop. Then there was the phenomenon of Back to the Future Day, which helped spark 2015’s unexpected preoccupation with hoverboards and, later, fire.
NOVEMBER: Rockets and video games
That giant rending sound you heard in November came from Silicon Valley, where venerable industry giant Hewlett-Packard officially split into two corporate entities. In an interesting counterpoint, the tech industry simultaneously turned its gaze to the future with the successful launches — quite literally — of two hugely ambitious projects, Blue Origin and SpaceX. Meanwhile, the holiday shopping season triggered the release of a historically good batch of video games, leading with the long-awaited post-apocalyptic freakout that is Fallout 4.
DECEMBER: Drone wrangling and Zuckerberg family money
The final month of the year came in on an unexpectedly sweet note when Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was a new dad — and that he planned to give away 99 percent of his fortune to make the world a better place for kids. Meanwhile, accelerating safety concerns prompted the FAA to issue new rules requiring the registration of most drones and UAVs. Finally, Netflix made a strong case that the subscription streaming model has officially supplanted network television — by getting Bill Murray to do a holiday special. Nothing wrong with that!
Glenn McDonald writes about the intersections of technology and culture at glenn-mcdonald.com and via Twitter @glennmcdonald1.
