Year in Review: Top tech stories of 2009

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Johnson has refused to halt the extradition, which is set to go ahead soon – of course, that’s what we thought at this time last year, so it’s a fair chance to say this story has a while to run.

Like many of his supporters, IT PRO readers overwhelmingly think McKinnon should be given a job, not a jail sentence.

Oracle to buy Sun, if the regulators let it

In April, Oracle announced it was buying Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion, beating rumoured favourite IBM to the punch.

Of course, such a deal needed a look-in from regulators first… While the US approved it, the EU initially rejected it. After negotiations, they seem to be warming to the deal, however.

Regulators weren’t the only ones needing encouragement, though, as Sun shareholders filed a class action suit against Oracle to try to stop the deal.

Twitter’s big year

Launched in 2006, Twitter took off this year. Not only did it add millions of users – lead by celebrities like Stephen Fry – but it was crowned the word of the year, too.

It’s no surprise, either. While it has fewer users than Facebook’s 350 million, it’s emerged as a powerful communications tool this year – and not just to let us share our lunch details with the world. It also helped Iranian protesters communicate and spread the word about Trifugara’s injunction.

It wasn’t all good news though. The site was hit by a massive denial of service attack in August, and this month a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army hacked the site.

Apple tries to fend off Palm Pre with iPhone 3GS

Apple again upgrade its iconic iPhone this summer, bringing in the speedy 3GS. It included a host of business-friendly features, including the long-awaited ability to copy and paste.

While previous generations have sold well, the 3GS has even hotter, shifting a million phones in three days.

But Apple wasn’t the only firm with a cutting edge smartphone hitting shelves this year. The well-reviewed Palm Pre arrived in October, as did BlackBerry’s new Bold 9700.

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