2011

A research note from an investment bank today sees an iPhone 5 coming this fall and sees strong growth for Apple's popular phone in the coming quarter.

The iPhone will comprise roughly 50 percent of Apple's total revenue in the next reported quarter, wrote Tavis McCourt of Morgan Keegan.

"We expect iPhone revenues to represent 47.5% of Apple's total revenues in [the December quarter], up from 38.8% in the Sep. quarter, and up from 39.1% in the year ago period," he wrote.

And he is upping his iPhone shipment estimate for the … Read more

If somebody was nice enough to get you an iPad for the holidays, make them proud by decking it out with all the best apps.

We've rounded up our favorites so you don't have to wade through hundreds of thousands of apps in the iTunes App Store.

There's no question that the iPad is a great entertainment device, but there's more to it than just games if you know which apps to get. In this collection of Best apps for iPad, we've got several categories of apps to choose from, including productivity, entertainment, social networking, … Read more

TOKYO--Downed a few too many beers this holiday season? No problem. Just tuck your organ into this electronic diaper for men and you won't have to get out of bed to visit the loo.

Japan's Unicharm Humancare recently showed off its new Robo-Humany Urine Aspiration diaper at the Eco-Products 2011 trade show in Tokyo. … Read more

We learned a few things in 2011 about the industry Steve Jobs left behind.

We learned that tech is more resilient, more dynamic than the overall economy. OK, maybe we already knew that, but it's a lesson that was certainly reinforced. We learned that innovation has truly passed from the desktop to what fits in your hand. And we learned those folks at Sun Microsystems were right, if more than a few years too early: The network really is the computer; we just call it the cloud now. And your data, your music, and your life are moving there.… Read more

Welcome to another Yuletide episode from The 404 Podcast! We'll be publishing these podcasts, videos, and rerun episodes until we return on January 10 for a block of live shows from CES in Las Vegas!

This time we're running through all the big tech news from this year, including the launch of the iPad 2, Facebook Timeline, and the death of Steve Jobs.… Read more

Cloud, schmoud. I like my music the old-fashioned way: in MP3 format, stored on my hard drive and/or smartphone. Especially when it's free.

Today I've rounded up four great audio freebies, including some Christmas music, a best-of-2011 collection, and even a Sherlock Holmes collection. Take a look:

Audible, one of my favorite sources for spoken-word audio, is offering The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, unabridged, for free. (Okay, technically this isn't an MP3, but still.) This nine-hour collection includes 12 of Holmes' "most famous cases." You do need an Audible account to get this (and … Read more

This was the year of mobile startups, but not all the best ideas for new businesses were based on smartphones or mobile devices.

There are more ways to make money than by building a product that immediately hands 30 percent to Apple or Google. Here are the best startup ideas or models from 2011.

Make it a platform As Facebook and Salesforce.com have shown, a tech company's proprietary data can be valuable as a substrate to other businesses. Build a tool that other people can build upon and then collect the rent when they do.

The best examples … Read more

Last year, we introduced our Top 10 Downloads of the Year lists, presenting the most popular Windows and Mac software on Download.com.

In 2011, we've taken the honors up the proverbial notch with the Top 11 Downloads of 2011, featuring the 11 most popular software apps each for the Windows and Mac platforms, along with the 11 most popular programs in each of the 11 most popular categories in Windows and in Mac.

Security Software is unsurprisingly the most downloaded software by Windows users; Mac users, perhaps also predictably, elevate the MP3 & Audio software category to the … Read more

We saw some pretty cool monitor innovations in 2011. A new panel technology debuted, the thinnest panel yet was revealed, as was a monitor that functioned fully, without requiring a physical connection to a PC.

Going into 2011, we'll likely continue to see thinner monitors with more power baked into them, cheaper IPS monitors, more monitors that are completely self-sufficient (no PC required, necessarily), and be on the lookout for DisplayPort to finally take off in a big way.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Right now now it's time to take a look back at 2011 and the most impressive monitors that came through CNET Labs. … Read more