Windows 7 goes....somewhere

Although the replacement for the much maligned Windows Vista operating system had been in public beta testing for what seemed like years, it finally launched in October, literally to queues of adoring (or desperate) fans at PC World. Matt Warman

Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs

3.

Apple:

Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs

When not speculating on possible products, the tech press speculated on the possible problems of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. His early January admission that he was suffering from a "hormonal imbalance" struck some as less-than-forthright. The skeptics were later validated when a dead-of-night June Wall Street Journal article revealed his liver transplant.

Apple tablet PC repotedly delayed unit 2H10, with OLED model now

Apple's mystery tablet was rumored to be announced at MacWorld, at WWDC, at September's music announcement, and any other time an Apple executive was giving a public presentation. (The latest rumor has it, now rumored to be called the iSlate, being announced January 26th.) This November headline from laconic Taiwan-based publication Digitimes no doubt broke geek hearts when it predicted that the never-official tablet's never-announced launch date would be delayed.

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Google's announcement that it was creating a cloud-based operating system raised eyebrows and confirmed that Silicon Valley's once-scrappy do-gooder had shifted focus from web search to total device domination. Chrome was an arrow aimed directly at Microsoft's heart -- its Windows operating system -- and a flag-planting arrival of Google onto the desktop.

Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet

The September leak of Microsoft's "late prototype" tablet, er, "booklet" computer made a splash that has had surprisingly few ripples since. The device, named "Courier" (perhaps after the font you used to pad your college term papers?), has yet to be announced.