As the year comes to an end it's time to look back at the most interesting and relevant tech stories of 2012. Numerous trends consolidated during 2012: Apple's dominance in the sector, mobile growth, fast-paced releases on the smartphone world, the Windows 8 launch, only to name a few.

This year we have divided stories in 12 heavily packed categories, with nearly 500 hand-picked headlines total. Feel free to jump around between your favored topics, but try not to miss the tech culture section where we revisit some of the most entertaining stories we covered this year. Here's our take on 2012...

Hardware Apple The Web CPU/Graphics Google Tech Culture Software Microsoft Gaming Mobile Patent Wars Security

 

Hardware

January

Cooler Master unveils astronomically- sized Cosmos II chassis

Lenovo shows off K91 Smart TV, world's first with Android 4.0

Vizio bursts into PC market with thin laptops, all-in-one PCs

Intel talks future Ultrabooks at CES, teases gesture controls and voice recognition

Alienware unveils X51 small form factor gaming PC

Victorinox unveils Swiss Army knife with an LCD and 1TB of storage

February

Hard Drive Pricewatch: Three Months Into the Thai Floods

Multiple monitor use on the rise despite declining desktop PC sales

Dell: We're no longer a PC company

$35 Raspberry Pi computer goes on sale, promptly sells out

March

FXI's $199 Cotton Candy is the 'world's smallest computer'

AMD buys low-power server maker SeaMicro

IBM's Holey Optochip capable of 1 terabit per second transfer speeds

Advances in touch screens promise 1ms input lag instead of 100ms

Commodore unveils Amiga Mini PC with i7-2700K, Blu-ray

LG to ship first 55" OLED TV in May for $7,928

LG's flexible, plastic e-ink display hits mass production

April

Google X reveals "Project Glass", an augmented reality visor

Intel Z77 Motherboard Round-up: Asrock, ECS, Gigabyte & Intel

May

Raspberry Pi: The TechSpot Review + How-To Setup Guide

Lenovo announces world's thinnest Ultrabook, ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Leap Motion reveals super-accurate gesture control system for $70

Google, Samsung unveil Chromebook, Chromebox with Chrome OS 19

June

Hard drive prices to remain above pre-flood levels until 2014

Apple announces complete MacBook refresh, thinner 'Retina' MacBook Pro

New Asus ROG Tytan gaming PC transforms at the push of a button

iOS 6 brings new Map app, Siri updates, FaceTime over 3G, more

Inflated prices produce record revenue for hard drive makers

Ultrabooks vs. 13" MacBook Air: Is the Apple Tax Real?

Working hard drive innards recorded at 1000fps, a thing of beauty

Acer founder: Microsoft's move into tablet hardware is just temporary

iMac vs. Windows All-in-Ones: Apple Tax or Not?

July

OCZ's Flagship SSD: Vertex 4 256GB Review

PC shipments sluggish in Q2 despite ultrabook push

USB Power Delivery spec capable of 100W, could make chargers obsolete

August

Apple still tablet king, regains #1 PC sales spot (counting iPads)

Samsung unveils impressive Exynos 5 Dual Core SoC

Logitech unveils K310 washable keyboard, shipping this month for $40

LG shows off extra-wide 29-inch, 21:9 monitor at IFA

September

Intel expands Ivy Bridge CPU lineup, adjusts prices

Helium-filled hard drives will increase capacity and efficiency

Intel says 22nm manufacturing process is exceeding expectations

Dell intros S Series monitors with edge-to-edge glass, IPS panels

JEDEC finalizes DDR4 spec, coming to a PC near you in 2015

Hitachi unveils quartz-based storage, data may last 100 million years

October

PC shipments fall for first time since 2001

Teen electrocuted while salvaging parts from a computer

Ultra High-Definition: CEA gives a new name to 4K resolution TVs

November

LG releases 29-inch ultra widescreen IPS monitor with 29:9 aspect ratio

Thailand flood still inflating hard drive prices after one year

Titan supercomputer displaces IBM's Sequoia as world's fastest

Everspin first to ship ST-MRAM, claims 500x faster than SSDs

The Best Sub-$100 SSDs Tested, Reviewed

AMD: The Rise, Fall and Future of an Industry Giant

Sharp unveils 4K 32-inch IGZO LCD monitor, yours for just $5,500

CPU and Graphics

January

MSI demos Thunderbolt-based external GPU solution

Radeon HD 7970 hits shelves, 7950 coming in February

Intel caught faking Ivy Bridge DX11 demo, explains itself

Intel launches new CPU replacement plan for hardcore overclockers

February

AMD will focus less on desktop CPUs, more on mobile APUs

Intel Core i7-3820 Review: Sandy Bridge-E for the masses

AMD's Mainstream Graphics: Radeon HD 7770 and 7750 Reviewed

AMD approached Nvidia before ATI acquisition in 2006

IBM makes huge stride toward developing scalable quantum computer

March

Nvidia reclaims performance crown with GeForce GTX 680

April

Testing Ivy Bridge: Intel Core i7-3770K Reviewed

AMD drops Windows 8 support for Radeon HD 4000 and older

May

Kepler Strikes Again: Gainward GeForce GTX 670 Review

AMD revamps APU offerings with Trinity

AMD CEO says every laptop on the planet has enough processing power

June

Intel: Android just isn't ready for multi-core processors

AMD Goes For The Crown: Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review

July

Graphics card overclocking record broken – rig looks like a sci-fi movie set

Best of Graphics Cards: Gaming at 1920x1200 and 2560x1600

Microsoft details Windows 8's improved graphics performance

August

Nvidia Geforce GTX 660 and 650 expected in September, GTX 660 Ti reviewed early

Best in Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review

AMD plans new round of Radeon price cuts, Sleeping Dogs bundle

New details emerge on Intel's upcoming Haswell CPU

September

Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Review

October

AMD A10-5800K APU Review: Trinity Comes to the Desktop

AMD FX-8350 and FX-6300 Review: Desktop Flagship Series Refresh

November

AMD: The Rise, Fall and Future of an Industry Giant

The Best Graphics Cards: Full AMD and Nvidia GPU Comparison with Latest Drivers

December

AMD Radeon HD 8000 series could be delayed until Q2 2013

Engineers use heat to create 100-million-cycle flash memory

Dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 8990 specifications leak online

25-GPU cluster can brute force Windows password in record time

Intel Haswell CPU lineup leaked online, led by flagship Core i7-4770K

Mobile Radeon HD 8000M GPUs announced, shipping now

Software

January

Windows 8 adds RAID-like storage pooling and fault tolerance

OnLive Desktop brings Windows 7 and Office to your iPad

ReFS, Microsoft's next generation file system revealed

McAfee turns customers' PCs into spam servers, patch incoming

Ubuntu 12.04 to replace traditional menus with new HUD

February

Microsoft experiments ahead of Windows 8's public beta, is the Start button going the way of the dodo?

Adobe demos content-aware move and extend tools in Photoshop CS6

March

Google Chrome breached at Pwn2Own and Pwnium

Mozilla outlines 2012 Firefox plans, seamless updates, new UI and more

LG to ship first 55" OLED TV in May for $7,928

April

Chrome OS updated with Aura UI, looks more like a traditional desktop

Israeli double agent planted Stuxnet work using a memory stick

Kaspersky CEO says Mac security is 10 years behind Microsoft

Ubuntu releases 12.04 Precise Pangolin LTS Linux

May

Chrome, IE market share creeps upward, Firefox losing ground

DICE says some upcoming Frostbite 2 games will require 64-bit OS

Exploit allows command prompt to launch at Windows 7 login screen

June

Tech Tip: Install Windows 8 Using a USB Drive, Dual-boot It

Torvalds blasts Nvidia over Linux support, gives them the middle finger during speech

July

Windows 7 surpasses 50 percent global OS market share

EU Court: digitally-distributed software, games can be resold as used

Firefox dev claims rapid release schedule tarnished the browser's rep

Firefox 14 released, adds secure search, opt-in plug-in activation

Microsoft Office 2013 drops support for XP, Vista

Microsoft details Windows 8's improved graphics performance

Mountain Lion available now, free upgrade codes not working for some

August

Windows 8 goes gold, will hit MSDN and TechNet on August 15

Full version of Windows 8 leaked to file sharing sites

Steve Wozniak predicts lots of problems for cloud storage

BitTorrent says upcoming uTorrent update will feature ads

New MPEG standard cuts video bandwidth requirements in half

Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 Benchmarks: Microsoft's Latest OS Put to the Test

Workaround lets you upgrade from Windows 8 betas to the RTM

September

Zuckerberg says Facebook wasted two years betting on HTML5

Microsoft Office 2013 pricing and packages announced

Apple responds to customer backlash over new Maps app

Intel CEO believes Microsoft is releasing Windows 8 before it's ready

October

AMD's Radeon-branded RAMDisk software now available for download

Bill Gates on Windows 8: "It's an absolutely critical product (for the future of the company)"

Microsoft Windows 8, The TechSpot Review

November

It's official: Skype will replace Windows Live Messenger soon

Editorial: Has Windows Search Got Any Better Over The Years? Hint: It Hasn't

Mozilla releases Popcorn Maker 1.0, written entirely in web standards

Microsoft: 40 million Windows 8 licences sold so far, 85% launch the desktop on day one

Microsoft Security Essentials bombs tests, loses AV-Test certificate

December

Editorial: Adobe's Flash Updater is Bloated and Shady

25-GPU cluster can brute force Windows password in record time

Reset Windows passwords in minutes without extra hardware or software

New Windows chief explains why Microsoft redesigned Windows

Firefox 64-bit will live on through nightlies after user backlash

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