2016 was a roller coaster ride in the tech world. This year we saw so many gadgets exploding, how numbers game can change everything and tech giants going lengths to protect their egos(!). Here we listed the top seven tech stories that broke the headlines: 

Apple Vs. US Government

Apple's defiance towards a request of FBI to unlock a phone of a terrorist was indeed one of the biggest incidents in first quarter of 2016. FBI wanted to access the iPhone 5C of the shooter of San Bernardino while Tim Cook, CEO legally refused the California court order stating this will create a unfortunate precedent which will act as a door way for trampling civil liberty.   

Exploding smartphones

This was the most disastrous year for Samsung, the tech giant that turned 78 in 2016. A few early adopters of Samsung Note 7 were reporting that their smartphone literally exploded while it was being charged. The exact causes of the battery faults are still not publicly known. Samsung tried to recall the devices but when things went out of hand it had to discontinue it permanently. There were other phones that exploded too, but more on it later.

Device, device, device

This year was the year of devices. From Google's very own Pixel to Microsoft's Surface to Apple's Macbook Pro with touch bar- we saw a leap in device engineering and design. And these were not necessarily limited to mobile phones alone. From swarming drones to flexible OLED screens to 170 inch modular TV- what wasn't there? We also saw particular growth in Internet of Things (IoT) devices as well. 

Facebook or fakebook

World largest social media and third most used search engine Facebook took quite a hit this year; both positively & negatively. We saw Facebook rolling out AIs, going deep with Free Basics and VRs. But most notably this year was the year of fake news on Facebook. It became such a nuisance for the company that they had to go back to the drawing board to chalk out ways to combat fake stories on timeline. 

VR & AR all the way

VR and AR- thanks to Facebook we all know what the terms are. This year we saw a dramatic rise in VR & AR content. Starting from mobile games to movies to educational content- everywhere VR is making a bold move. All the prominent device makers are stepping in this arena. We believe by 2018 at least 10% of the smartphone users will be interacting with some sort of AR or VR content on a regular basis.

US elections & Data science

We know Data can manipulate outcomes in many ways. But can we guess how much and what extent can? Look at the US elections. A series of damaging e-mails about Hilary Clinton were investigated at the right moment making the shift of public opinion from Democrat to Republican. And Trump and his team of data scientists exploited the numbers by delivering what people what to hear rather than what people need to hear. And the results of this data manipulation? Well we all know who the president-elect is now!

Hacked off

If you have been following the news then surely you know about the Yahoo hack. The security breach compromised more than 1 Billion user's accounts – making it the largest breach in the history. We also saw hackers engineering the Bangladesh bank heist, bitcoin exchange heist and hacking of major public figures including Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Jack Dorsey and many more. 

And these are just the high profile ones that we are mentioning here.