When Facebook launches it initial stock offering, a few people who placed their bets a while back are about to get very rich. The list of big winners in the Facebook stock fall out might surprise you with everyone from characters in the movie The Social Network to one of the other giants in the digital kingdom.

The biggest sporting event of the year draw nearly 11 million viewers and hundreds of thousands of Tweets, Facebook postings and more.  An official Super Bowl Media Center is open for business during football’s holy grail moment staffed by 50 people. They will be looking out for terrorists and the way to find the best pizza in Indianapolis and everything in between.

iPhone 4S

Maybe next year we should let whoever is running Apple deliver the State of the Union Address because their state is certainly solvent and has more cash than the good old US of A! During the 4th quarter of 2011 alone The Boys from Cupertino hustled 37+ million iPhones following the introduction of the iPhone 4S and Apple also said it sold nearly 15.5 million iPads during the same time, up 111% from the same time last  year.

When Timeline first appeared on Facebook it created a big backlash.  Looks like none of that matters to Mark Z and his minions because we are all going to get to like it, like it or not.  By early February we will all look the same (in terms of general layout) on FB.  Sure you can individualistic, as long as it’s their way.

Kim "Dotcom" Schmitz

The head of Megaupload was cornered by New Zealand Police inside his armed fortress.  The FBI has accused Kim “Dotcom” of earning $42 million from pirated material in 2010 alone.  ”New Zealand police said two firearms and several luxury cars were removed from Dotcom’s mansion.” according to the Wrap.  The license plates on the cars were “Mafia”, “Hacker” and “God”, Seriously?!  Seriously?!

Blogger Ed Bott makes a business of reading EULA’s (End User License Agreement).  You know, the things that pop up when you install software and you automatically click “agree” without reading a word!?  According to Bott, Apple’s license for its new iBooks publishing software essentially says that it owns whatever is published with it!

iBooks 2.0

Jan. 17th Apple unveiled their next move toward world domination…OK this time the target is the world of academics.  iPads are immensely popular among students and teachers alike and now Apple is providing the tools to bring the stuffy world of academia into the interactive 21st Century.

Irate scalpers rioted outside the Beijing Apple store shortly before the doors were to open for sale of the iPhone 4S. Apple declared that it was just trying to protect its salespeople and other customers from the wealthy thugs who gobble up the phones and sell the prestigious smartphones for big ¥’s!  Here’s a video report.

Here’s a preview of CES 2012, traditionally THE event for launching new tech products.  This year, however will be the swan song for Microsoft at the big Vegas show. More and more big tech companies are eschewing the ginormous costs of exhibiting in favor of their own Developer’s Conferences.

Tron-Legacy-lightcycle

Science raced ahead at ever quickening pace in 2011.  Check out this list of the 10 most exciting discoveries of the past year which will impact our lives for years to come. Extreme Tech Slide Show.