Tech exploded this year. There’s little to argue that gadgets and gizmos, social media and apps all had huge years as everyday life moved a step closer to becoming completely tech-driven for many in western society. What can we expect to see growing as the next big thing in 2012? That’s the question that our friends at GPlus took on in the infographic below. From group buying to crowdfunding, the trends of 2011 showed winners and losers in the tech industry for what they really were. 2012 should show no less of a boom. If anything, the explosions will be even louder. Click to enlarge. …

In the past, the best way to review the year was to look back through newspaper headlines and pick out the stories that were thought to be the biggest. It wasn’t an exact science and required intuition and subjective reasoning to decide what was most important to the people that year. Today, social media gives us a relatively-accurate indicator about what the general population finds interesting enough to discuss. 2011 was loaded with major events from falling regimes to natural catastrophes. Celebrities made foolish mistakes. Politicians tanked their careers. Tech companies rose. Tech…

Every year, Google composes a Zeitgeist report that attempts to capture the essence of the year and give a glimpse of what we can expect in the coming year. This year’s message was simple but fitting: “we made it.” It matches the sentiment shared by many through the tumultuous revolution around the sun known as 2011. We saw notable deaths that marked the end of eras, the end of regimes, and the end of legends. Disasters from above and below rocked the world in ways we haven’t seen in decades. People rebelled, occupied, and even found themselves in situations where the only way to make things seem sane…

The past year in technology was among the more surprising ones we’ve had. Even the most astute, insightful tech observers would have had trouble predicting some of the things that happened this year. The iPad and Kinect have become the fastest selling electronic devices in history. Android exploded at a rate few could have seen coming. Facebook and Twitter kept up their blistering expansion rates, while Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7… is actually good. But what about this coming year? What events and happenings will not only define 2011, but also cause tech-heads to look back in a year from now…

To say social media will be bigger in 2011 is like saying a 5-year-old will be bigger when she’s 6-years-old. It is still in its infancy and while many people are engulfed in some form of social media, there are still billions of people who haven’t been on Facebook or its kind before. As 2010 draws to a close, every website is faced with different questions that they need to answer next year. For some, it’s a matter of turning a good profit. For others, it’s a matter of staying alive to see 2012. Nobody has the luxury of having only one major question to answer, but we’ve selected seven big ones that each must…

Microsoft has announced pricing and release dates for Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. After the preview a few weeks ago, Microsoft has announced that it’s Office for Mac software will be available for consumers in October. Pricing is predictably middle of the road, with the Home and Student version available for $119 and Office for Home and Business for $199 or $279 for two installs. An academic version is available for $99, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and Messenger. Office for Mac 2011 is the first Mac version of Office to ship with Outlook rather than Entourage for email since…