2017 is just a few days from now and this provides the perfect opportunity to look back at all the controversies that mired the successful run of the tech industry this year.
Here are just five of the most talked about tech issues of 2016:
Amazon Employee Jumps Off Building But Survives
Eyes fell on Amazon after an employee tried to commit suicide by jumping off a 12-story building at the Seattle headquarters of the company. Before jumping, the man emailed Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos. This led many to question the working conditions at the company. It was reported before that a female former employee was placed in an Employee Improvement Plan after divulging that she had breast cancer. The jumper asked to be transferred to another department but was placed in the plan.
Facebook Accused of Proliferation of Fake News Leading to Donald Trump's Presidential Win
The whole world was stunned when Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidential Elections even if he lost the popular vote. Many quickly pointed accusing fingers at fake news. After dismissing the claims, Mark Zuckerberg finally realized the severity of the situation after the Pizzagate conspiracy turned violent. Facebook has since taken steps to ensure no more fake news spread through their pages.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Goes Up in Smoke
A short time after releasing its new flagship smartphone, Samsung was forced to recall and later stop production altogether of the Galaxy Note 7. This came after numerous reports of the device catching fire with at least one incident ending with a burned down vehicle.
After numerous speculations, Instrumental discovers that the incidents were caused by a thin separator that allowed the negative and positive layers inside the batteries to touch causing an ignition. Instrumental also pointed to the company's lack of "rigor" in testing the batteries.
Hacking Issues Get Worse and Worse
In what is now considered the worst hack attack in memory, Yahoo discovered that around 1 billion accounts were compromised in 2013. Prior to this, the troubled company also divulged that 500 million accounts were hacked.
A series of cyber attacks back in October shut down a number of major websites temporarily. The DDoS attack took down Netflix, Twitter, Amazon and a host of other sites on Dyn's servers.
The Case of the Missing Headphone Jack
Despite Apple's claims of being courageous, the removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone is a big no-no - for now. Legendary Steve Jobs once described his refusal to run Adobe Flash on the iPhone as courageous. Only time will tell if people fully embrace this move but right now, patrons are having a hard tie accepting the thought of buying dongles.
