Last gasp of 2008 still offers some excitement

What a year it has been for technology. From Blu-ray winning the high-definition format war to Google launching Street View on an unsuspecting Australian public, there has been no shortage of pivotal events.

This year will also be remembered for introducing Australians to the Apple queue; first with the Sydney Apple Store launch in June, then with the frenzy surrounding the iPhone 3G launch in July. Not since the release of Windows 98 have Australians seen such diligent single-file camping for the release of a technology product, not to mention organised queueing just to see the insides of a glass-front store.

This is also the year we became familiar with "cloud computing", which describes running applications and storing files on the internet rather than on our computers. Apple's MobileMe service was meant to be cloud computing wrapped in a consumer-friendly shell but the Mac-maker underestimated the difficulties of launching a push email service worldwide. It released this at the same time as the iPhone 3G, which requires activation through the iTunes service, and the subsequent meltdown stopped MobileMe in its tracks.

Apple's been beavering away at it ever since but it's still not the BlackBerry-style push email service it set out to be. At the very least, MobileMe raised awareness of cloud computing and I am looking forward to how online services such as this develop throughout 2009.

All said and done, though, 2008 really belonged to the smartphones. It's a category of products previously reserved for uber-geeks and power business users but the iPhone changed all that. It became obvious that smartphones could be so much more than an elitist business tool - they could be an elitist consumer toy, too. While sending emails and opening office documents may not be terribly exciting, adding third-party applications that turn an iPhone into a lightsabre or virtual glass of beer suddenly made smartphones cool to own.

Then there's the fancy multi-touch interface, which spawned a host of imitators and would-be iPhone killers. Most resorted to a conventional single-touch screen, however, which kind of missed the point.

As far as smartphones are concerned, the year isn't over yet, with more models to come before Christmas. Looks like we're going out with a bang.

What was your favourite tech event in 2008?