2012: A year in technology. Keeping tabs on the furious rate of technological development happening all around us is no easy task and the passing of another year provides a good excuse to reflect and take stock of the major milestones we've seen.
So sit back in your power-generating rocking chair, crack yourself a self-chilling beverage and enjoy our take on the significant trends, technological victories and scientific bombshells of 2012. View all 3D printing switches on While 3D printing hasn't exactly struck us like a bolt from the blue, 2012 was definitely a watershed year for the technology. Consumer access to 3D printers has boomed as systems have simultaneously dropped in price and gained in performance. New avenues are also opening up to access the technology without having to buy a printer yourself. Even more intriguing is the explosion of different objects coming out of 3D printers. Things are set to get even more impressive though – self assembly could soon be the new 3D printing.
Higgs Boson discovery. Starbucks turns to social media to attract job applicants. People interested in working for Starbucks can apply for jobs there on Facebook.
Want to apply for a job at Starbucks? Check Facebook. Starbucks recently starting using a new system that lets potential job applicants use their social networks to search for jobs. The system, called Branch Out, is aimed at helping job seekers take advantage of their extensive social media connections to help them find a job. “It makes it easy for candidates and partners to find out about career opportunities,” said Sara Parker, who works on Starbucks’ employment brand team. The move is one of many ways companies and their employees are engaging with social media, something the Puget Sound Business Journal examined in last week’s special social media report (subscription required).
Tim Cook Cleans House At Apple - Scott Forstall Is Out. There's huge news coming out of Apple on Monday, as two top execs are leaving the company, including one, Scott Forstall, who some had viewed as a potential future CEO of Apple. Forstall will stay on as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook through the end of the year but then he's gone, Apple announced. Also leaving is John Browett, who joined as head of Apple's retail operation only ten months ago, in January 2012. What's going on? Apple of course won't say. But Cook is a notoriously tough boss, the kind who doesn't waste time getting rid of problems. Problem Children? And make no mistake, both Forstall and Browett were problems.
Browett simply was a terrible fit. And, right then, the countdown on Browett began. As for Forstall, maybe he just figured out he is not going to become CEO, and so has bailed. Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem? Forstall demoing Apple's new Maps app FORTUNE -- There's no shortage of embarrassing instances where Apple (AAPL) Maps "fell short" -- as Tim Cook's public apology put it -- but on Friday Canadian reader John Garner pointed me to a particularly striking one.
Jason Matheson, a fellow Canadian with a knack for Mac programming, ran a quick Xcode script that compared the iPhone 5's map of Ontario with an official list of the province's cities and towns. Of 2,028 place names, Matheson reports, 400 were correct on Apple's Maps app, 389 were pretty close, 551 were clearly incorrect and 688 weren't on the map at all. "There's no excuse," Garner writes.
"Quality control on Apple Maps had to have been terrible to not get this right. Garner is not alone in pointing the finger at Forstall, the senior vice president for iOS software and the Apple executive -- after Cook -- most often described as an heir apparent to Steve Jobs. At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future. It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low.
Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space. These are just a few of the dreams being chased at X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. In interviews, a dozen people discussed the list; some work at the lab or elsewhere at Google, and some have been briefed on the project. Although most of the ideas on the list are in the conceptual stage, nowhere near reality, two people briefed on the project said one product would be released by the end of the year, although they would not say what it was.
“They’re pretty far out in front right now,” said Rodney Brooks, a professor emeritus at M.I.T.’s computer science and artificial intelligence lab and founder of Heartland Robotics. About IDEO. “Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”
—Tim Brown, president and CEO Thinking like a designer can transform the way organizations develop products, services, processes, and strategy. This approach, which IDEO calls design thinking, brings together what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. It also allows people who aren’t trained as designers to use creative tools to address a vast range of challenges. Google's Peter Norvig: 'I have the best job in the world' "I already have the best job in the world at the best company in the world," says a note on Peter Norvig's personal website warning recruiters not to bother contacting him.
The job: director of research. Sources inside Microsoft say a clash of personalities led to Sinofsky's departure. The abrupt departure of Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky this evening has surprised many in the Microsoft community considering that he's hot off the launch of Windows 8 and Surface, two of Redmond's most important products in the last decade.
There had been persistent rumblings that the man who oversaw the launch of Windows 8 was in line for a larger role in the company, perhaps even as the heir to CEO Steve Ballmer. However, multiple sources within Microsoft describe Sinofsky as abrasive and off-putting, aggressively maintaining his control over products and putting up roadblocks for products that would have any potential to diminish the Windows (and therefore his) power — an attitude rumored to be shared by Apple's recently-deposed iOS chief Scott Forstall. Sinofsky's future path as an executive at Microsoft was essentially at an end Chris Ziegler contributed to this report. Related Items steven sinofsky Microsoft.