Mobile phone operating systems and a reheated web browser war: that’s how we’ll recall the year 2008 when it comes to software. From brand new to revamped browsers and mobile platforms and apps, 2008’s been good to technophiles who like their data in the cloud and accessible wherever they are. Let’s take a look back at this year in software, and some of the best new and improved applications, web services, and mobile platforms that were born in 2008. Looking back at the last 12 months, these are the apps that get a gold foil-wrapped chocolate coin from us this year. Photo by Gaetan Lee.
Not only did you swoon over the release of Firefox 3 because of the “AwesomeBar” and the rest of the “Had no idea I needed this but now I love it!” features it offers, but because the launch itself was a grass-roots community-driven effort towards making software history. Indeed, on June 17th of this year, the makers of Firefox set a new Guinness World Record for most software downloads in a given day, at more than eight million downloads of the new browser iteration in 24 hours. If you haven’t dug into the advanced functionality Firefox has to offer, check out our power user’s guide to Firefox 3.
While Mozillians and Firefox users celebrated across the globe over the summer, no one knew that search powerhouse Google was in the software development lab cooking up their own lean, mean browsing machine that would forsake all of the fox’s bells and whistles (and extensibility) to run Javascript-based applications lightening-fast. On September 2nd, Google released the first beta of Chrome, their new web browser which they hope you’ll make your window to the web and all its apps. Our own in-house browser speed tests show that Chrome is indeed speedy, and we’re seeing a significant uptake on Chrome usage by Lifehacker readers. (Last month’s browser breakdown for Lifehacker readers was 62% Firefox, 22% IE, 8% Safari, and 6% Chrome. Not bad for a browser that’s been out only a few months.) For more Chrome goodness, see our power user’s guide to Google Chrome.
Yeah, yeah, the iPhone launched in 2007, but this year the iPhone 2.0 software and the new iPhone 3G model with a faster data plan and GPS came out to hype almost as big as the original iPhone launch. The combination of an operating system that finally ran third-party apps officially plus pinpointy GPS goodness set the bar for what users can expect to get from the next generation of smartphone with a fast internet connection, full-on browser, and spot-on location-awareness. Plus, dozens of the apps available for the phone are free. At first, we were in love. Later, we had our doubts. The iPhone 2.0 launch did start to show some of the cracks in the Apple armor—several of the earliest versions of the software were crash and freeze-prone, requiring many users to uninstall apps and reset their phone software to fix maddening keyboard delays and application crashes. Meanwhile, Apple’s approval-only App Store left a few applications out in the cold. Still, the iPhone 2.0 software created a compelling mobile platform and app marketing campaign that made Aunt Bertha really want to try that Neil Diamond song out on Shazam.
What with the App Store limitations and Apple’s insistence on ruling over what you can and cannot do on your phone, it’s not surprising the enthusiastic “jailbreak” community soldiered on this year, continuing to offer installers and non-Apple-approved applications for your iPhone even in the face of the mainstream iTunes App Store. We take our hats off to these intrepid hackers, who offer such lovely functionality as the ability to SSH into, theme, and download video clips to your phone; if you haven’t jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch, here are a few of our picks of best iPhone 2.0 jailbreak apps you can’t find in the iTunes Store.
Google’s answer to Apple’s proprietary iPhone hardware and software came in the form of their very own touch mobile phone operating system, Android, which launched this past October. Unlike the iPhone, this new mobile platform is open source and will run on various handsets going forward. Right now Android’s first release is only available on the HTC G1 handset; you can see our hands-on first look at Google Android running on the G1 here. As an iPhone user frustrated by limited apps, crashiness, and lack of copy and paste, Android is like a breath of fresh air. Even though the mobile OS is still very new, its open-source nature has led to hundreds of new apps. See our pick of best Android apps to boost your mobile productivity.
One of the few software apps on this list that’s not open source or made by a ginormous company, new instant messenger client Digsby took chatters by storm with its ability to consolidate your IM, email, and social networking in one place. Even though the Digsby beta only went public in February, by April it was already one of our readers’ top five favorite instant messaging tools.
We were really late to the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) party when we showed up last year and installed it on our old classic Xbox, but since then we’ve been hooked on this rich, open-source media center. Luckily, just because those old black boxes are becoming obselete doesn’t mean the XBMC software project has died off. Just the opposite: XBMC has forked into several neat branches that run on various hardware platforms so you can enjoy the same media center goodness without hacking an old Xbox. Check out a few launches from various factions of XBMC developers this past year that have warmed our hearts:
Another year, another Ubuntu release, and they just keep getting better. Seriously, you have to love the free, open source operating system that manages a new major release on a yearly basis—something Apple and Microsoft, companies you pay hundreds of dollars to for the privilege of using their software, don’t pull off. If you’ve tried Linux on your desktop before and killed the partition in frustration, only to slink back to Windows, it’s time to give it another go. This year’s flavor, version 8.04 Hardy Heron makes Linux worth another look.
Our favorite web application on the internet, Gmail, continues to burn down barns and rip up the competition with continual iteration and feature adds. This year, Gmail added a “Labs” section to your account, a safe way for power users to enable “experimental” power features to their email while keeping everyone else’s safe from harm. Truthfully, when I attended the Google press event announcing Gmail Labs back in June, I had my doubts about whether or not the featureset would ever expand beyond the initial 13, and if it would go beyond eye-candy games like Snakey to, you know, actually useful stuff. Turns out it did. Six months later, ten more Gmail Labs features are available in your account, including a super-useful Gadgets feature that lets third parties embed their apps into your inbox. (Like Bit.ly or Basecamp.) Later, Gmail launched themes as well as a Google Desktop gadget. In the midst of all this, the Gmail security team took the time to respond to a breach that several users had experienced and blogged about online. Clearly there’s someone home at Gmail; this is a rapidly-evolving product that any webapp developer should use as an example on how to iterate quickly.
The three biggest pay-per-views in mixed martial arts were headlined by someone who had never even fought for the UFC before 2007, Brock Lesnar, and gained most of his fame as a pro wrestler, although he never pro wrestled during the year.
The biggest pay-per-view event in pro wrestling was headlined by one of the biggest names in boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who never boxed during the year.
And the biggest event in boxing was headlined by what most were calling a mismatch, Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, with one fighter, Pacquiao having to jump up several weight classes for a bout heavily criticized beforehand. It turned out to be a mismatch, but not in the way most had predicted going in.
But when the dust settled on an unusual year, the biggest news of 2008 was the emergence of Lesnar as the year’s pay-per-view king. Lesnar’s 2.2 million buys over three fights made him the most-watched PPV fighter in 2008. His total was the second highest total in UFC history, trailing only Tito Ortiz, who did 2.25 million in headlining three events in 2006.
Lesnar, a former NCAA wrestling champion who had only one mixed martial arts fight before signing with UFC at the end of 2007, drew an estimate 1,010,000 buys for his heavyweight title win over Randy Couture at UFC 91 on Nov। 15. He also drew in the 600,000 buy range for both a February loss to Frank Mir and an August match with Heath Herring (which was part of a double headline event that also included Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch for the welterweight title), which were the fourth and fifth biggest PPV totals of the year.
| Top 10 North American PPV buy rates, 2008 |
| 1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000 |
| 2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000 |
| 3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul “Big Show” Wight, March 30, 670,000 |
| 4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000 |
| 5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000 |
| 6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000 |
| 7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000 |
| 8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000 |
| 9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000 |
| 10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000 |
