A Year in 12 Posts

When we started Goojet (our Mobile Social Media adventure before Scoop.it) in 2007, neither iPhone nor Android existed and Nokia ruled the world. Their N95 was the best device then for mobile internet. And now they're gone. Talk about a market disruption initiated by Apple! Check today's phone market shares. Impressive performance by Samsung.

Speaking disruption, 2013 was a turning point for three major evolutions:

• Bitcoin. Its price increased 100x ! What does it mean for the finance world and the world in general? Read more on Investors Europe Stock Brokers' topic.
• The MOOCs, which address the most important asset: knowledge. Lots of good reading on MOOCs on Scoop.it
• 3D Printing which changes the rule of the production game, some going as far as calling it the third industrial revolution.

These, plus IoT and Big Data: some fundamental changes, not mere buzz, emerged or exploded in 2013. Thinking of something else? 

5 Oscar, including best actor for Jean Dujardin. And first best-picture award for a silent film since first ceremony in 1929. A Touching film, with daring choices (black and white, silent) and great actors. And also probably a superb marketing campain.

Google get clearance for its $12.5B bid on Motorola. Seems to me like Google went into mobile just yesterday. The pace at which the mobile world is reshaping is amazing ; the Android v. Apple battle is epic.

And for the geekiest : IBM getting closer to Quantum Computing! (can someone please explain this ?).

No deal so far. But clearly a milestones for the Social Web. Shanghai Web Designers had this great infographic "What's happening on the web in 60 sec". E.g.: 694,445 queries on Google, 695,000 status updates on Facebook, 98,000 tweets.

Huge success (its IPO valued Twitter $30b+). As a multiple of sales, it's more than Facebook. 1600 Twitter's employees will become millionaires and the government pockets $2b+ in taxes.

Some believe that the price is too high, but we at Scoop.it ran a survey [infographics] and found that, relative to its interest to Small and Medium Businesses, Twitter is cheaper than Facebook or LinkedIn! The sure thing is, this simple concept of 140 characters communication changed how we consume information and therefore, the world we live in.

Another mindblowing event in the digital economy this month: Evan Spiegel saying no to Facebook $3B offer for Snapchat. 

Oh, the photo in this post is not Twitter nor Snapchat related. This is the famous Three Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon. This November, it sets a new world record price for an art work at an auction, at a mesmerizing $142m.

With armed conflicts in so many countries, it's almost impossible to catch the good news. Well, things are going better in Myanmar! D. Cameron, British P.M., called for suspension of sanctions; the European Union does it and Japan will write off the debt.

April also saw the mega acquisition of Instagram by Facebook for $1B! Instagram was a 2-year old, 12-people, no revenue company. Its founder, Kevin Systrom, 27-y old, pockets $400M.

Mark Zuckerberg then claimed "Not much will change with the service". I wonder if Instragram's users would agree with this statement today.

After a  352 million miles, 253 day journey from Earth, Nasa's heavy-weigth (1 ton) rover Curiosity lands on the red planet! One of the mission is to collect data for a manned mission!

Paul Doherty has a great video explaining what (Carbon) - and how - the rover is searching. Must watch.

Things to know when planning your next trip to Mars.

And if you want more good news from the stars, discover Guillaume's topic. And keep traveling!

On the business front, it was decision time for the Apple v. Samsung patent trial. Apple won.

I love the design of Apple's products. And I believe that patent rights are a necessary protection of R&D investments. But things are getting absurd. E.g. a "rectangle with rounded corners"; or "a tap is a zero-length swipe". Come on Apple, please...

Irony? Same month, a diamond planet is discovered! More good news from the stars.

Ok, it's summer time. Let's relax and forget the bad news. Everybody should have watched these two wonderful time lapse videos (1 & 2). Full screen, breath, and travel. Life is good :)