We asked Co.Labs writers to describe the technology products they want, but which don't actually exist yet. There were flying cars and cancer vaccines in their Christmas lists, and a few playful oddities, but also less sci-fi requests like a U.S. high-speed rail network and a "real" Apple TV. Welcome to the Co.Labs Curiosity Shop.

Flying Chameleon Clothing

Massimo Barbieri

A "Real" Apple TV

Tom Small

Here's a succinct summary of Professor Walrus's Apple TV:

1. The TV is a dumb monitor--video only.
2. The Apple TV Hub provides all device interfaces--video, audio, wifi--and it's an iOS device.
3. Something like an iPod touch, built specifically for the Apple TV Hub, provides remote control.
4. Bust up iTunes and include all new Apple TV software for the Hub. iTunes is reasonably efficient as an interface for purchasing media, but it's a terrible multi-media library. "

A Love Machine

Camdiluv

A High-Speed Train Network

Roger Wollstadt

A Mood Manager

Twanda Baker

Electronic Skins

Jorge Gamaliel Frade Chávez

Battle Robots

See-ming Lee

An Everlasting Smartphone

DaveonFlickr

Animal Migration Aid

Joris Goddijn

Asteroid Mining

Dave Mathis

Technically speaking, LG's Chromebase isn't very impressive. With a lower-end Intel Celeron processor, only 2GB of RAM and a spare 16GB of flash storage, the forthcoming all-in-one desktop would barely qualify for a bantamweight brawl. What it does do, however, is offer a clear direction for the Chrome OS: in its announcement of the Chromebase, LG states that they hope the desktop is well-received in "schools, hotels, and call centers, and other business settings."

LG's Chromebase marks the second major attempt at marketing a desktop Chrome machine. The first would be Samsung's Chromebox, first released in early 2012 and updated twice since. But no one is talking about it. Interest in the desktop has been rapidly declining since it launched, and it hasn't gained nearly as much traction as the company's more popular Chromebook--a consistent top-seller on Amazon.

What may ultimately make the Chromebase an easier sell is its sleek, all-in-one form factor and a clear focus on adoption in places like schools, businesses, and other public spaces. Given that Dell--the only major PC manufacturer that hasn't made a Chromebook--is marketing its Chrome OS debut squarely at the education market, it's a good indicator that this will be the M.O. for Chrome as an OS in 2014.

Such a focus may finally give the OS some traction in the marketplace, as schools and other public workspaces render all the things Chrome OS can't do moot. You don't want to download or store anything on a machine that isn't yours, and the majority of the laptop-toting student crowd can easily do much of what they need to do using Google Drive apps.

Of course, tablets are more popular than ever and more versatile than Chrome as well. As affordable and popular as they are, a device that comes with as many strings attached as Chrome OS does may not become much more popular than it already is.

Dolphin Zero, a new privacy-focused mobile browser, is the latest to jump into the Snapchat way of life. The standard version of Dolphin is already a popular third party option with ~82 million installs. But MoboTap, the company behind the mobile browser, is trying to offer an easier and ready-made solution for novice users concerned with leaving a trail of data behind.

The way Dolphin Zero focuses on privacy is more passive than active. It won't store or collect any data and exiting the app automatically deletes any history, cookies, and other traces left behind. Do Not Track is turned on by default and instead of Google search, the browser uses the privacy-centric Duck Duck Go search engine. Zero is a noble first step towards consumer privacy, but the app still feels like it's missing an extra layer of real security. As a Harvard student learned this week, even using Tor can't protect you from a little old-fashioned detective work; after receiving a campus bomb threat, Harvard IT was able to pinpoint the student on the network who had downloaded the Tor browser just before the threat was called in. From there it was easy to confirm the source.

A less purpose-built browser than Dolphin Zero is probably appropriate even for the most paranoid Internet users. Opera's experimental iPad browser, Coast, is probably the most forward-thinking about Internet surfing on mobile. Coast also promotes privacy in a friendly yet passive way, suggesting that this will be part of the norm going forward. When using Coast, simply closing a browsing screen clears its cookies and the history. Settings can also be changed to clear browsing history on app launch, but these do have to be changed by the user and aren't on by default.

Those looking for real privacy will likely want to look deeper. Orweb, available for Android, supports Tor browsing as well as a host of additional privacy features including: whitelisting of cookies, no local history, disabling Flash, and requiring only Internet permissions.

On iOS, the Onion Browser is one of the more popular options to support Tor browsing. The app has been around for a while, but has been updated for iOS 7.

We have little doubt that "privacy" will continue to be a buzzword of 2014, and even though privacy focused browser isn't breaking new ground, its defaults are still reason to get excited. Hopefully more companies will follow suit.

Sometimes the data doesn't tell the story you want. For years, evidence about the "danger" of second-hand smoke has been somewhat (wholly?) fabricated by policymakers and lobbyists. Now a new study confirms again that second hand smoke causes no damage.

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, who tracked more than 76,000 women, found a strong correlation between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, "but found no link between the disease and secondhand smoke." Jyoti Patel, MD, an expert quoted in the report, goes on to explain that while "passive smoking" may lead to problems like asthma or cardiovascular disease, ultimately "the strongest reason to avoid passive cigarette smoke is to change societal behavior." In other words: the best reason to fight other peoples' cigarette smoking is because you don't like it, not because it's hurting you.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has yet to update any of their data, reporting that, "secondhand smoke causes an estimated 3,400 lung cancer deaths among U.S. nonsmokers each year." The CDC's site doesn't cite any of the studies which conflict with these findings.

For some, the research is unsatisfactory proof. (Similar conclusions were drawn from a 1998 study by the World Health Organization, after all). Anti-smoke opinions have come out of the woodwork denying the JNCI's findings, competing with each other for the mantle of most scientifically-based. Nicely-named Redditor chiefconspiratard said: "Anybody that has even just basic scientific training knows that finding no link in a study that was not designed for secondhand smoke does not mean there is no link." In response, Chumbaniya posted that, "Anybody that has basic scientific training knows that the findings of a study and what is absolutely the truth 100% for real this time are not the same thing." We'll have to table this discussion until the next study is released--in the meantime, anyone want to step out for a smoke?

Telegram, a two-month-old messaging app for iOS and Android, promises heavily encrypted, self-destructing messages and an open data protocol--and it's putting up some cash to prove its mettle.

To win, hackers must intercept a daily message between Telegram founders Nikolai and Pavel Durov containing a secret email address, and send them a message explaining how for a $200,000 prize to be paid in Bitcoin. Regardless of whether or not someone is able to pull it off, Telegram and its users win, argue the Durov brothers--who previously created VKontakte, Russia's largest social network.

This an approach that several tech companies are adopting in order to make their digital security airtight. But it has its critics, and it has had them for a long time. In 1998, cryptographer Bruce Schneier wrote about the effectiveness of contests as a metric for security:

"Contests, if implemented correctly, can provide useful information and reward particular areas of research. But they are not useful metrics to judge security. I can offer $10K to the first person who successfully breaks into my home and steals a book off my shelf. If no one does so before the contest ends, that doesn't mean my home is secure. Maybe no one with any burgling ability heard about my contest. Maybe they were too busy doing other things...Maybe they did break into my home, but took a look around and decided to come back when there was something more valuable than a $10,000 prize at stake. The contest proved nothing."

Durov acknowledges this, and to that end has stated that the contest will remain open--with a cash prize that increases over time--for this very reason. But skeptics on Hacker News point out that the contest asks hackers to follow specific rules--rules that a legitimate attacker or government agency wouldn't play by.

However, contests are still regularly held by tech companies all the time, and they do result in exposed vulnerabilities despite their limitations. January of this year, Google held its third annual Pwnium competition, offering up to $150,000 to hackers who were able to exploit Chrome OS in its own high-stakes hacking challenge. While no one was able to fully exploit the OS by the deadline, a competitor known as Pinkie Pie was able to submit a partial exploit, which won him $40,000. Google, of course, patched his exploits promptly.

Also similar is the Zero Day Initiative, which seeks to reward security researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities. They've partnered with Dragos Ruiu of the CanSecWest security conference--whose recent work has led to the discovery of "airborne" computer viruses--to host Pwn2Own, a contest that challenges hackers to exploit any unknown vulnerabilities they can find in a range of software and mobile devices for a cash prize. A number of winners claimed prizes this year, as did several in the mobile-focused spinoff contest in Tokyo last September.

But past winners of such contests haven't always spoken well of them. Three-time Pwn2Own winner Charlie Miller has criticized the structure of the contest, stating in 2011 that several competitors who don't win according to the guidelines still leave with viable exploits. This came one year after Miller refused to hand over more than 20 vulnerabilities he found in the prior contest, telling Computer World that it doesn't result in any real progress in security.

"We find a bug, they patch it," said Miller. "We find another bug, they patch it. That doesn't improve the security of the product. True, [the software] gets incrementally better, but they actually need to make big improvements. But I can't make them do that."

Hat tip: The Next Web

The smog situation in China isn't good. Lots of photo reports have captured the dramatic and stunning imagery of the thick pollution that's putting people's health in serious question. In October, an emergency smog crisis shutdown the capital of Heilongjiang province affecting 11 million people. The air quality index has reached a level of 1000, while a mere 300 is considered hazardous. Still, it hasn't stopped people from Instagramming selfies.

Some people are intentionally snapping Instagram shots to show the pollution, while others are getting photobombed by the haze, which shows up in pictures whether people want it to or not. Beyond health concerns, Shanghai's picturesque cityscapes are a common background, though that too has been affected by the smog.

Tourists trying to capture the city skyline are often defeated by the smog. It's so pervasive that it's on the brink of becoming a meme, along the lines of "I visited China, but all I got was a picture of smog." Hopefully for the health of those involved, however, snapping smog selfies doesn't become the unavoidable norm.

We love Kickstarter for its wild ideas that actually see the light of day--even if we have to wait till next year. Here are some Kickstarter deliveries that are right around the corner in 2014.

1. Kano Kit Computer

It might be the most obnoxiously cute model to channel the "get kids to code" cause célèbre, but this computer-in-a-box is well-thought out from box presentation to bright, distinct parts. With a Raspberry Pi model B and preprogrammed lessons to have tykes coding within the hour, the Kano box is a cool, cheap, preconstructed way to get kids off and running in the code game without stressing over lesson plans, device compatibility, part sourcing, shipping, instructions...

Sure, we'll have to wait until June or July for the projected shipping date, but that'll leave all summer for teachers to toy with their Kanos and get it ready for Fall 2014.

2. Heirloom Chemistry Set

The chemistry set has become an antiquated toy--but it doesn't have to be. Alongside the flashier "teach kids to code" projects, chemistry sets allow the young to learn about all the weird stuff they can do with microscopic nature, and the Heirloom Chemistry Set is the best we've seen in decades. While it's a little pricey--full materials are $175, full equipment is $225, and the master set with lab book is a whopping $550--but judging by its over 400% funding level, lots of folks want to bring the chemistry magic into the home or classroom.

Sure, we'll be impressed by DIY masters getting us simplified tech, but there's something exceptionally badass about the Heirloom Chemistry Set's founder offhandedly assuring us that he will "synthesize, purify, and/or formulate and package all of the chemicals" in the set. Further, his assurance that anything broken will be replaced and more benign chemicals can be swapped for the scarier ones assures us that this guy (and his awesomely named shop, H.M.S. Beagle) is all about his backers having a good time.

3. Rocki

We'll skip the trendy Kickstarter vid and go straight for the guts: ROCKI is a WiFi receiver that plugs into any speaker with 3.5mm or RCA cables--meaning your existing sound setup likely works just fine--and lets you control your tunes via their smartphone (both Android and iOS) or desktop apps. At $49, it's inexpensive to network several systems (one ROCKI per, each operating as their own WiFi hotspot), and there's even an $89 option to include TOSLink optical and HDMI audio connections.

Since they hit their stretch goals, the ROCKI app will feature Spotify and Deezer integration, but the coolest feature might be the API they're releasing in January; while it isn't open source, the conversation room they've opened is at least an area for dialogue between independent devs and ROCKI programmers. These guys are claiming a January ship date, which we'll believe when we see it (but oh god please send soon).

4. The Porta Pi

Yeah, we've seen these "retro arcades" in SkyMall catalogs for years, but never one this cute--or this damned hacky. The full Porta Pi with all the buttons and whistles will run you $280, but for the more adventurous DIYers out there, the cabinet itself sells at the baseline $50 level and $155 gets you the cabinet an appropriately sized HD screen.

Which seems a bit much, especially since none of these price points includes a Raspberry Pi (the model B, recommended, costs about $40), but the guy behind the Porta Pi is all about the hacker spirit: you can stick almost any old console in there and it will fit.

We'll believe you, Portable Arcade Hacker Guy, especially since his story (outlined in the Kickstarter) describes his Porta-Arcade hobbying all the way back to 2008. More impressively, his first Kickstarter campaign failed at ⅔ of his $36,000 goal, so he streamlined every part of the process and, wouldn't you know it, is already at 150% of his $13,000 goal.

5. The Eye Mirror

Take 360-degree videos with your DSLR? Awesome. Take 360-degree videos with a GoPro, even underwater? Phenomenal. Enter Eye Mirror. The secret is in the mirror, which is high-grade (read: not plastic) enough to capture spectacular quality that the software translates into movies you can pan around while you're watching, adding a crazy dimension of immersion. Oh, and they have bonus software for £55/$89 to convert recordings into Oculus Rift-friendly video. Because of course.

The "Eye Mirror 1" is a 67mm lens that screws right on your DSLR threads and costs £235/$380 with a £40 optional mount for non-67mm cameras. The GoPro version, GP360, comes in two models (A and B, both £160/$260) respective to different GoPro editions, some of which require "lens loosening" to refocus and work with the GP360, while other editions require a replacement with their custom lens (increasing the price to £230/$373). (Eye Mirror promises to fix & replace if you bungle your GoPro in the process of these mods, though they haven't lost a lens to date.) The "wet lens" underwater version runs £199/$322 and works with 67mm or a modded GoPro case. Whew!

Eye Mirror blew past its funding goals and will take pre-orders till Jan 4. Ideally, the Eye Mirror 1 will ship at the end of February and the GP360 at the end of March.

6. The PowerPot X

Some of us are outdoors folk. Some of us thrive in cities. All of us boil water. And while we've been enamored of USB-charging-by-fire for some time, the PowerPot X claims to charge at 10w--far above the 2w average of most fire chargers. That's enough to charge a tablet, or two smartphones, or four GoPro cameras at once. We can probably trust them on this one since they already Kickstarted an earlier version, the PowerPot V, last year. Backpackers and stovetop chargers, consider this a dependable alternative to edgier Kickstarter campaigns. The PowerPot X is available for pre-order until Jan 15 and plans to ship in May 2014.

7. The Auug

The Auug Motion Synthesizer is an odd duck. Lock your iPhone/iPod Touch into a handgrip that looks like the most attractive child of the Nintendo Power Glove, run another music app (like GarageBand) in the background, launch the Auug app, and you've turned your phone into an eight-key instrument with fancy effects when you wave it around. Poof, you're a digital musician!

All right, it looks kind of silly waving around there--but consider the myriad music apps (like GarageBand) that customize the sound output your gripped phone can pump out. After all, the Auug app just translates your motions and button presses into sound, meaning it can be used as an instrument over WiFi to a laptop or MIDI cable to non-digital devices. And since the Auug app is essentially a translator of your button and motion presses...yeah. Game controller, baby. Or, uh, whatever Minority Report-style button/motion controls you want to set up.

The Auug was just successfully funded, but you can still pre-order an Auug system on their official site for $99 (regular $110), which is expected to ship in May 2014.

8. The Glyph

Virtual Retinal Display. Wait, what? "It means that there's no screen. There's no LCDs, OLEDs, or emissive panels in here. What Virtual Retinal Display does is project light right into your eye," said Avegant CEO Ed Tang about the Glyph audiovisual headset. Oculus Rift? Super yesteryear. The 3D goggles of tomorrow will beam images into your eyeballs.

When it's not blowing your mind with future vision, the goggle portion sits upright like a headband for fairly pricey headphones. The Glyph is expected to hit Kickstarter on Jan 22 with a starting price of $499.

Snapchat quietly released a major update to the popular photo and video messaging app Friday night, with the following additions described in its release notes:

• Smart Filters - Add data overlays to your Snaps!
• Visual Filters
• Replay
• Special Text
• Front-Facing Flash
• Up to 7 Best Friends

"What am I doing wrong?" I thought to myself. I even tried uninstalling and re-downloading the app, thinking I had encountered a caching bug. That didn't work. It took a friend on Twitter to inform me the new features had to be enabled deep within the settings.

I wasn't the only one. My Twitter feed was filled with people asking how to enable the new features. My Snapchat friends replied to my filter-enhanced snaps curious about how I had acquired my newfound powers. Clearly, people were confused as the tech community quickly jumped in, criticizing the rollout and changes to the product.

Without a doubt, Snapchat 6.1 did a poor job of communicating its new features and how to use them, causing a lot of confusion. Many questioned the changes as the antithesis to the nature of its ephemeral, intimate communications. Snapchat was once so very simple and pure. Filters introduce more toggles and obscure the raw, unedited visuals. Replays destroy ephemerality, allowing users to view snaps more than once.

But of course, Evan Spiegel and Team Snapchat didn't release the update on a whim. All of this was very intentional and despite what critics say, more brilliant than boneheaded. Here's why.

1) New Snapchat Gives Users Control

Immediately after release, Hunter Owens posted the update on Product Hunt and Adam Besvinick, Ryan Lawler, Will Dennis, Owen Williams, Josh Elman, Buster Benson, and others added their thoughts.

Typically, product creators release new updates to everyone, enabling new features by default. Snapchat took the exact opposite approach, disabling new features by default, requiring users to dig into the settings to enable them. Why? Josh Miller said it best:

They probably put it in Settings because addicted users will turn them on and test their value for everyone else. That way you can be experimental without adding feature baggage (cough cough Facebook).

Reality is, people that want to use the new features will find and use them. Snapchat hid these in the settings to avoid potentially compromising the experience for existing users. We're all familiar with the inevitable backlash that occurs when popular services make a change, even when it's clearly for the better. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many other widely successful companies ebb and flow through backlash. Snapchat avoided this by giving its users complete control. Those that don't want the new features don't have to use them.

2) New Snapchat Inspires Word Of Mouth

As previously mentioned, I struggled to find out how to use Snapchat's new features, turning to my friends on Twitter to help. By making it non-intuitive, Snapchat got me and many others talking. It inspired word-of-mouth (WOM), spreading news of the update and re-engaging users. This isn't the first time they've used similar WOM growth tactics.

Did you know Snapchat has offered filters for several months already? After capturing a snap, enter the words "B&W..." to transform it into a black-and-white photo or video. When unknowing users receive these B&W snaps, they become naturally curious, asking how it was done. Easter eggs like this can spike engagement and user acquisition by encouraging WOM.

3) New Snapchat Provides More Context

Snapchat is about communication. Photos and video provide far more context than traditional text or emoticons. Unlike Instagram and most photo and video-sharing services that allow users to load media from one's camera roll, snaps are captured within the app and shared within the moment to communicate one's current status.

Smart filters provide even more context, allowing users to layer the temperature, time, or even speed (MPH) of the object captured into the conversation. It's unique, fun, and a preview of the product's long-term direction.

4) New Snapchat Reduces Inhibitions

Some argue that filters don't align with Snapchat's narrative, devaluing the authenticity and intimacy of its unedited communication. I disagree. Snapchat is the fastest way to visually communicate with others. Physical speed--the time it takes to launch the app and share a snap--isn't the only key to its innovation. Cognitive hesitation is arguably more important.

Disappearing photos and videos is a core component of Snapchat's design, reducing inhibitions to create and share. This is especially important when sharing intimate selfies (admittedly, I share few Frontback selfies because of my self-consciousness). Filters further reduce inhibitions by masking our baggy eyes, pimples, and other imperfections that introduce hesitation to share.

5) New Snapchat Opens Doors To Monetization

As far as we know, Snapchat has yet to make its first dollar, practicing monetization abstinence in favor of engagement and growth. But that doesn't mean they aren't thinking about it. In an interview on June 2013, Evan Spiegel revealed that, "In-app transactions will come first. We think we can build really cool stuff people want to pay for. The app is now a part of everyone's day-to-day lives. That means that they will--I at least would--pay for a more unique experience."

Talk is cheap but Snapchat 6.1 is a clear step in that direction, giving users a very limited number of advanced features to enhance their experience. It's not hard to imagine Snapchat charging for additional filters, fonts, and other ways to uniquely express oneself. Like a drug dealer, the first hit is free as its most avid users become accustomed to the fun new toys, seeking more. This is common practice in freemium gaming where players are given small amounts of virtual currency to purchase in-game content--just enough to hook them. It's not malicious, it's smart and that's exactly what Snapchat will do.

The tech community continues to criticize and speculate about Snapchat since its inception, and that's a good thing for Evan Spiegel and team. The most transformative products are usually polarizing. Many didn't think Facebook could expand beyond its college roots. Twitter's 140-character status updates were discounted as a pointless distraction. People perceived Instagram and its photo filters as a flash in the pan.

Snapchat will continue to breed speculation but only time will tell whether Snapchat 6.1 and its future updates will evolve in the right direction.

Given concerns about NSA mass surveillance, the general public has taken an interest in privacy as never before. In response, developers have worked on beefing up the security of their privacy tools as well as making them more user-friendly. The list below is by no means exhaustive, but it provides a glimpse into some of the most impressive and impactful privacy software of the year. When discussing privacy tools, it's always important to remember that none of these is a magic bullet--but they do provide significant improvements over the technologies we would normally use and that they replace or augment.

SecureDrop

Freedom of the Press Foundation, run by Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Trevor Timm, manages SecureDrop: an "open-source whistleblower submission system that media organizations can install to securely accept documents from anonymous sources." This write-up at Forbes by Runa Sandvik (who knows a thing or two about security, having contributed to both Tor and TrueCrypt) lays out the rationality behind SecureDrop very clearly:

In the past couple of years, the U.S. government has spied on media organizations, ordered journalists to testify against their confidential sources and filed charges against an increasing number of whistleblowers. As a result, more and more news organizations have enlisted a system to enable sources and journalists to anonymously and securely handle sensitive documents.

SecureDrop was originally coded by the late Aaron Swartz; Freedom of the Press Foundation took over development in October, seeing a clear need for such a tool.

Cryptocat

There's been a trend following Snowden's revelations, with a number of existing privacy and encryption tools really kicking their development into high gear. Some have made usability improvements, while others have squashed critical security vulnerabilities. Cryptocat, being user-friendly from its inception, worked on the latter after a major security flaw was discovered this summer. With the slogan "private conversations for everyone," Cryptocat's aim is to make the OTR encryption protocol accessible to a wider population. Users install Cryptocat as an extension for Firefox, Chrome, or Safari and can join encrypted chats with other users by simply entering the same chatroom name. Unlike many encryption tools, Cryptocat seems to have met its usability goals, and it's reportedly being used by a large number of non-technical users.

arkOS

I reported on arkOS last month during its crowdfunding campaign. ArkOS aims to address a key privacy problem: the general public's reliance on major corporations (which have generally complied with the NSA) for hosting our personal cloud services. The arkOS solution makes it dead simple to run open source replacements for Dropbox, Google Drive, and eventually even email, all from a cheap computer running inside your own home. By the time arkOS is feature complete, installing each of these services will be--it's hoped--as simple as using an app store. Fortunately, the crowdfunding campaign was wildly successful, bringing in several thousand dollars more than its $45,000 target. That money will allow lead developer Jacob Cook to work on arkOS as a full-time job in 2014 and make a self-hosted cloud something the average Internet user could actually run themselves.

TextSecure (with CyanogenMod)

TextSecure is both an app and protocol for Android phones. It provides an encrypted text messaging solution that is as dead simple as regular SMS and MMS. The major catch, like with PGP email encryption, is that both users have to be using TextSecure in order for it to work. That significant barrier was recently removed when TextSecure integrated with CyanogenMod, the popular open source custom Android build. Now all CyanogenMod users (of which there are reportedly 10 million) effectively use TextSecure as their default messaging app. Now whenever one CyanogenMod user messages another, their messages are automatically encrypted. The same applies for a CyanogenMod user messaging someone running the TextSecure app on stock Android.

Tor

Tor is one of the tools you'll see mentioned anytime online privacy gets mentioned. And for good reason--it's one of the most powerful tools out there, as evidenced by a document the Guardian released showing that Tor is apparently a major headache for NSA eavesdroppers. Tor is often referred to as an Internet anonymizer, but what it actually does is disassociate your originating IP address from the destination of the IP address you're browsing to. The result is that sites you visit can't tell who you are, while entities snooping on your Internet traffic can't tell what sites you're browsing to. That's great, but it's important to remember that you also have to change your practices when using Tor to preserve your anonymity (no magic bullets!). Naturally, it's been a busy year for Tor. There was a critical vulnerability found in the Tor Browser Bundle (actually a bug in the version of Firefox that the bundle used), which has since been fixed. That's important since the browser bundle is the most user-friendly way that a general Internet user can run Tor. Just last week TorServers.net, a group that runs high-bandwidth Tor relays, was awarded a $250,000 grant to help strengthen the Tor network. In addition, there has been some talk of incorporating Tor into the next HTTP standard, making it a part of how everyone conducts web traffic--but these conversations are still preliminary.

Syme

Syme is a relative newcomer to the privacy world and is hoping to become a sort of private encrypted social network. There have been a slew of ill-fated attempts at creating alternatives to Facebook for social networking, including the much-publicized Diaspora*, the Free Software Foundation's GNUsocial, Appleseed, and Riseup Collective's apparently abandoned Crabgrass. The merit of Syme is that it's not trying to replicate Facebook, as some of the open source spin-offs above do. Rather, its use case seems to be for ad hoc groups of friends that you want to connect to for a specific purpose--not en masse sharing with hundreds of Facebook friends. It's currently available as an extension for Chrome, with one for Firefox on the way. We'll see next year if the combination of living in the browser as a plugin and a focus on more targeted sharing can be the answer to the social network privacy problem.

Google has released a map of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) that took place around the world this year, and there were a lot (especially from China) in 2013. Since this has been such a busy year for hackers, we've put together the list below of the most notorious e-criminals of the year. Some got caught up in the law while others continue to evade it; some had political reasons, others just wanted to chase that paper. What unites them is their disregard--for better or worse--of laws and regulations and their unimpeachable skills at getting computers to bend to their will.

Disclaimer: "hacking" has a meaning beyond just cracking computer systems, and usually on this site we write paeans to the best of them. But for the purposes of this list, we're talking about people who use computers to break the law-and break the law using computers.

Aaron Swartz

The year 2013 began with the tragic news of Aaron Swartz's suicide. Swartz was being prosecuted for using a Python script to bulk download articles from the academic database, JSTOR. Although Swartz legally had access to JSTOR, he was charged under several counts of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for exceeding his authorized use. JSTOR, for its part, said it was not going to press civil charges, but federal prosecutors indicted Swartz anyway. Looking at up to 35 years in prison, Swartz took his own life on January 11th. Thanks to the tenacious investigations of Kevin Poulsen at Wired, we now know about the files that the Secret Service kept on Swartz as well as the video surveillance footage that incriminated him. In a sane society, Swartz would not be considered an outlaw. But he was, and as a result we lost one of the brightest luminaries of the Internet age.

Jeremy Hammond

Jeremy Hammond, an Anonymous-affiliated hacktivst, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release. He was prosecuted, also under the CFAA, for hacking into the servers of private intelligence firm Stratfor and revealing that it was spying on members of grassroots social movements around the world. I reported from the courtroom on the day of Hammond's sentencing. Controversially, the sentence was given by Judge Loretta Preska, whose husband reportedly worked for a Stratfor client and had his email account compromised as part of the hack.

The Jester

Not all hacktivists are motivated by the same ideals or politics of transparency. A hacker known as the Jester, who is a former military contractor for Special Operations Command, took aim at Edward Snowden and Julian Assange this summer. In doing so, he has taken responsibility for denial of service attacks on websites affiliated with the Ecuadorian, Bolivian, and Venezuelan governments, which have all considered offering asylum to Snowden. He has also flirted with the idea of forcing Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and onto British soil by remotely setting off the building's fire alarms. Given his close alignment with the U.S. government, he's more akin to a vigilante than an outlaw.

The Messiah

Following the implementation of new online censorship laws in Singapore, a hacker calling himself the Messiah vowed in a YouTube video (since taken down) to attack websites of the Singaporean government. His opening salvo was to deface the website of a town council, and he moved on from there to hack the prime minister's website. In mid-November a 35-year-old man named James Raj was arrested on suspicion of being the Messiah.

Syrian Electronic Army

The Syrian Electronic Army is a loose network of hackers supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War. The SEA uses the familiar tactics of denial of service and defacement to attack opponents of the Assad regime, as well as good old-fashioned phishing. Some of the group's high-profile attacks this year include hacking the Twitter accounts of the Associated Press and the Onion. Amid the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Syria, the group hacked the Marine Corp's website and posted a message urging American soldiers to refuse their orders if deployed to Syria.

Red Hack

Just across Syria's northern border is Red Hack, a leftist anti-government hacker network in Turkey. This year the group released information leaked to them by a soldier relating to a car bomb in the Turkish border town of Reyhanlı that killed 51 people. During the Gezi Park protests in Turkey this summer, the group carried out a number of DDoS attacks as part of Anonymous's #OpTurkey.

Target Retail Hack

And of course, not all hackers have political motivations. Some are just straight up in it for the money. The most recent big hacker news to break is that some 40 million shoppers at Target have had their credit cards stolen in a skimming attack on the cards' magnetic stripes. We don't know who is behind the Target hack (and may never will). But we do know that they've likely landed a boatload of cash.

Though every cloud storage service wants to simplify and unify your digital life, it can seem like they're all just making things more fragmented. You have documents and maybe some photos in Drive, a mess of random files in Dropbox, and 7GB of music stored on an obscure cloud service that offered you a promotion once for 10GB free. If you really want to bring it all under one roof, or at least develop a cogent system for controlling the chaos, you need to make an informed choice so you get the features you want. And if you're trying to split off from the iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3 pack you have to venture out into the wild a little bit. Browse our picks below and share your favorite cloud service in the comments if you love one we missed.

1. Copy

For cheap storage Copy is solid. The service gives you 15GB in the cloud for free (comparable to Google Drive and pretty good compared to Dropbox's 5GB), and charges $10 a month for 250GB. Drive only gives you 200GB for the same price. Copy is also nice because it works on Android, iOS, Windows, and Linux, so you can really use it with everything. For the stingy among us, Copy has a feature called "Fair Storage" that lets you and friends or colleagues go dutch. If you're sharing a 10GB folder with someone, Copy can charge each of you for 5GB instead of the whole bill going to one person. In terms of security, Copy is made by the IT security company Barracuda, so they never use third-party servers, and all of the data has AES 256 encryption, the same encryption used by companies like AgileBits for 1Password. It's unclear whether AES is NSA-proof, but it seems to be holding up for now.

2. Wuala

Speaking of privacy, Wuala (pronounced like voilà but with a "w") is an interesting option because all of the service's servers are in Germany, Switzerland, and France, countries with stricter privacy regulations than the U.S. against government snooping. The service also uses AES- 256 encryption and other standard protocols for signatures and integrity checks. Wuala is owned by LaCie and comes on some LaCie portables. Storage is kind of expensive at 5GB free and up to $12/month for 100GB.

3. ADrive

The most free storage we could find comes from a basic account on ADrive, which gives you a very legit 50GB. ADrive has Android and iOS apps, online document editing through Zoho, and some features specifically targeted at making international sharing easier. There's a big drawback, though. You're getting all of that storage, but your data isn't encrypted. Repeat: no encryption, no SSL connection. Upgrading to premium, which adds standard encryption back into the mix, is $7/month for 200GB. You get what you pay for, right?

4. Younity

Younity's goal is to eliminate syncing from your life. Instead of worrying about which files you've stored in the cloud or which folders you have set to sync and at what times, Younity indexes whatever parts of your computer you direct it to, and then allows you to browse that index on any device. When you pick the files you want, they stream from your computer to whatever device you're on. This setup is useful and good for privacy because it means you don't need cloud storage at all, you just continue to manage the local storage on your different devices. And Younity recently added a new feature, the "Snapchat" of file sharing, that lets you share a locally stored file with someone else so they can access it but not permanently download it. The default time limit on their access is seven days, but you can set it to whatever you want. Currently Younity is Windows, OS X, and iOS only.

5. SpiderOak

With only 2GB free, it seems like SpiderOak wouldn't have a lot going for it, but the draw is a big emphasis on privacy. The service provides encryption on all sides and secures the keys used for decrypting data so they aren't accessible except for data retrieval by you. The service also claims a 0.0000% margin of error for maintaing backups no matter what. As with Copy or any service using encryption methods that are included in government standards, it is possible that data may not be totally secure, but SpiderOak makes a serious effort. The service plays nice with iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, and Linux. BlackBerry and Windows Phone apps are coming soon. $10/month or $100/year for 100GB.

6. Cubby

It might seem pretty standard, but Cubby is interesting because the service incorporates cloud storage with direct sync between devices that allows for a lot of flexibility in what files are stored where and how they are accessible. You can use "Cubby Locks" as an extra privacy measure to password protect certain files and you can use it as a backup with unlimited versioning of files you are editing or changing over time. Cubby is for Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android.

It's a tradition to spend some time at the end of a calendar year and reflect a bit on what happened in the last 12 months. And indeed Facebook did just that with a year-end blog post about how people made use of its service in 2013. However, we felt their post didn't tell the whole story, so here are a few of the less glamorous highlights.

Graph search

Facebook began the year by redefining the rules by which its billion-plus users are connected. Announced on January 15th, Graph Search effectively quantified users' likes and activities, free-associating profiles with their respective Likes and posts in order to make individuals easier to find and connect with each other. However, the Graph Search rollout was slow, and wasn't fully available to all English users until early August. Also, it wasn't entirely complete--several features like including comments or posts in Graph Searches wouldn't show up until the end of September. Naturally, this led to privacy concerns, as long forgotten and potentially embarrassing comments or photos were now fair game once more.

Facebook Cards

January also saw the launch of the Facebook Card, a somewhat-universal gift card that would allow users to send others gift balances to be used at select retailers. At first limited to a few launch partners like Target, Olive Garden, and Jamba Juice, the Facebook Card eventually led to an overhaul of Facebook's gift system: The social network would ditch physical gifts over the summer in lieu of expanding Facebook Card support. The company would also foray into providing a method for users to make charitable donations before the year ended. In mid-December, it launched a "Donate Now" button for nonprofits to include on their profiles. In return, the social network would collect the credit card information donors provided for its own purposes.

Backend Acquisitions

Though none would grab headlines the way the purchase of Instagram did one year prior, a handful of acquisitions made by Facebook in 2013 would indicate the company's priorities for 2013 and beyond. Its purchase of popular advertising suite Atlas would bring the ad campaign and analytic software used by companies who advertise on Facebook right under its own roof, hoping to make even more money from advertising. Also purchased: mobile app backend service Parse, which may have proved instrumental in increasing the social network's rapidly growing mobile developer footprint.

DOA Redesign

The look and feel of Facebook has changed many times, and user backlash to these changes has become a bit of a tired old trope at this point. In March, CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced yet another redesign for the News Feed, but this time things played out a bit differently. Nine months later, Mike Issac of AllThingsD reported that "engagement with the new design has stalled," and it sent the company's designers back to the drawing board. It's a first for Zuckerburg, and, as Isaac writes, the caution on display is indicative of the company's new, potentially precarious relationship with the content providers that are grossly benefitting from the News Feed.

Facebook Home

Perhaps the most puzzling move made by the social giant and its second major misfire this year, it's hard to properly describe what Facebook Home is supposed to be. Described as less than a mobile OS, but more than an app, Home was an Android skin of sorts that could be downloaded to turn your phone into a social hub, with Facebook front and center. Announced in April, it took the blogosphere exactly one month to pronounce it a flop after the first phone to come with Home baked in was quickly discontinued. The last time Home exhibited any signs of life was in October, when support for Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and Flickr was announced.

PRISM

Arguably the tech story of the year,Mark Zuckerburg responded to the NSA surveillance scandal by saying he'd never heard of it, assuring the public that Facebook has never released anything approaching bulk data to the government. Other implicated tech companies like Google and Microsoft echoed Zuckerburg's sentiment, some even more strongly. Further reporting from the Washington Post gave credence to the claims of Zuckerburg et al., but the Internet was irrevocably changed--privacy was now on everyone's mind. A little over two months later, Facebook would release a Global Government Requests Report, which would list the amount of requests the company received from individual governments, the number of profiles implicated, and the percentage of requests that resulted in data being produced. Further details were not included, although the company would continue to call for further transparency in a petition to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Autoplaying ads

It's happening and we're sure you're thrilled about it. Will this be the route to new revenue streams for the now-public company? Will it help Facebook unseat cable TV as the number-one time-wasting innovation in human history? Or will it be the final straw that drives Facebook's begrudging first-world usership to finally ditch the big blue network? We're betting the latter.

The tech world trades in potential. Shiny new devices and services come with the promise to change things, make other things easier, and become a regular part of our lives. But for every company that succeeds in any of those goals, many more do not. Here are nine companies that had a lackluster 2013 that will most likely result in a very quiet 2014.

Myspace

At the tail end of 2012, Myspace made a splash for what may be the very last time. With a closed beta that debuted a striking new design and some cultural cachet from celebrity investor Justin Timberlake, the once-popular social network received a lot of attention and a lot more skepticism. The company soldiered on regardless, officially ending its beta period this past summer with a $20 million ad campaign and a renewed focus on creatives and editorial content. It never really caught on.

In November of this year, Valleywag reported that huge layoffs had hit the company, and the prognosis doesn't look good. The reasons why 2014 won't be the year Myspace got its groove back are many and complex, but the simplest one? Probably that it still calls itself Myspace.

Patch

December was when Patch, AOL's long-troubled hyperlocal news venture, seemed to meet its demise. Known for being AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong's pet project and for its unrealistic approach toward covering local news, It looked as if AOL was finally going to cut Patch loose. Leaked memos and further news coverage suggested the opposite, though--Patch isn't over yet. Despite Armstrong's continued optimism, it would be quite the surprise if 2014 doesn't finally put Patch out to pasture.

Ouya

Like most exciting Kickstarter projects in tech, Ouya was supposed to be disruptive. In reality, it was exceedingly polite, receiving a tepid critical consensus upon its launch over the summer and listed as a disappointment at the year's end. It may be a bit premature to call the console a lost cause--as CNET points out, the console has the support of indie game developers and the company has continued to update the OS since release--but if we hear from Ouya at all in 2014, it will probably be after the company spends a lot of time back at the drawing board.

Sony

With the holiday launch of the PlayStation 4, Sony's place on this list may seem puzzling. But Sony does much more than make game consoles, and none of their consumer technology can seem to find traction. In 2012 the company tried to improve performance in the consumer electronics market by streamlining its product line and renewing its focus on the premium market. While finances improved, demand remained stagnant and Sony Electronics president Phil Molyneux will be stepping down in the new year. In an effort to further streamline its immense sprawl, the company is also considering the sale of audio-recognition service Gracenote. Sure, in 2014 Sony will have its name attached to plenty of games and movies and join in on current hardware trends at CES, but the electronics maker that gave us the Walkman doesn't seem like it's ever going to rock the consumer gadget space again.

Airtime

The latest venture from Napster founder Sean Parker, Airtime sought to inspire conversations and connections through a mostly random video chat service. Officially launched in the summer of 2012, it only took four months before its user base began to stagnate and its executives began to leave. However, in March of this year Parker indicated that he was prepping for a relaunch--but nothing ever seemed to materialize. Don't hold your breath.

Craigslist

Funny thing about Craigslist: Good year or bad year, its rare to hear anything about the actual company. With only 40-odd employees on its payroll and the same man in charge since 2000, the company has become known for not talking much about financials and its lack of interest in maximizing profits. However, recent trends like the rise of Airbnb and the sharing economy are beginning to cut into the only two kinds of listings that Craigslist makes money off of: housing and jobs. Whether or not they pose a legitimate threat to Craigslist's continued success remains to be seen--but chances are the company will stay quiet about it either way. In New York, at least, Craigslist went from being the centralized clearing house for everything to, well, a shitty alternative to other apartment rental and classified goods sites. And where New York goes, the rest of the world usually follows.

Clinkle

Technically, we should be expecting to hear from Clinkle in 2014, because we barely heard about it in 2013. After raising $25 million in investment funds this past summer, 22-year-old Lucas Duplan quickly became a fixture on tech blogs for his forthcoming app, which promised to "modernize mobile payments." But that's a crowded field, and Duplan's product--or lack thereof--has been criticized for the excess of hype behind it when its launch date remains entirely up in the air. As the new year draws closer, Clinkle's situation appears more worrisome. The company laid off a quarter of its staff in December, and rumors that the app isn't all it's cracked up to be continue to persist. It wouldn't be shocking if all Clinkle has to show us in 2014 is this painfully tone-deaf ad.

BlackBerry

After BlackBerry 10, the mobile OS that was supposed to revitalize BlackBerry in an iOS and Android world, completely flopped, the company's hope of recapturing much of the smartphone market share seemed to sink with it. But the former mobile king isn't quite dead in the water just yet. Right before the year's end, the company struck a new five-year deal with manufacturer Foxconn to develop a new smartphone and boost its presence in Far East markets. There is also a small but potentially viable interest in BlackBerry from smaller businesses and cross-platform app development that could help buoy the floundering company.

BlackBerry will stick around, but in quieter corners of the smartphone market.

Zynga

Once the king of social gaming with the then-ubiquitous FarmVille, Zynga has been steadily losing ground for almost two years. In April, the company would be beaten at its own game by King, makers of the wildly popular Candy Crush Saga. Layoffs and management shake-ups would soon follow. Unfortunately for Zynga, the social gaming landscape is now a much more crowded place, and while the next year may see it push out a major new release, it's going to have to try a lot harder to get anyone's attention.

Chromecast

Google swung and missed big time with its Google TV initiative, trying to build a simple web browser into an expensive TV. With Chromecast, however, Google went the opposite way and chose to compete against an HDMI cable. For $35, the Chromecast has been lighting up holiday shopping and finally providing people with a decent way to browse the Internet on a TV. Even with the limited functionality or small problems people have with the device, almost everyone agrees it's worth the price.

Drizwaldo1 on the XDA Developers forum outlines new app updates for the dongle, which was originally released with limited app compatibility.

• Plex is a great little app but this feature will be rolled out FIRST to premium subscribers.
• RealPlayer cloud opens the door to streaming video from their online storage (2GB free - more than that = paid) and is limited to 15 minutes to discourage piracy.
• aVia indexes photos on Picasa, Dropbox, and Facebook, allowing users to show any of their photos on any of these services on their TV but alas you need to be a paid subscriber for this service also.
• Now play podcasts via BeyondPod and enjoy the Washington Post's PostTV, online music service Songza, RedbullTV, Revision3, Vevo, and Viki on your little dongle of delight.
• Here is the full list of available apps

For those with technical problems, Google has an FAQ set up addressing things like router compatibility. Even though the small device is easy to move and travel with, the biggest potential drawback is not being able to use it if "client isolation" is enabled. This is a standard security practice at places like hotels, school, and other public locations.

Nexus 5

Nexus phones direct from Google used to be the best mobile Android experience hands down, but that's not necessarily true anymore as Samsung and HTC step up their game. The Nexus 5's real draw comes from it low-cost unlocked price. And everyone knows, the best way to give someone a phone as a gift is contract free. Sampling Twitter, the reactions aren't skewed in any direction, but most people seem to like the device.

Beyond the plain aesthetics of the device, the main complaints users had with it were the squishy buttons, poor camera performance, and a quiet speaker. As of December 13th those issues should now be resolved. The camera, for instance, received a software upgrade which seemed to satisfy most reviewers. The things that couldn't be fixed with software have received a slight physical makeover, including sturdier buttons and larger speaker grill. The updates and fixes have not resolved any battery life issues, unfortunately.

Fitness Trackers

Wearables that track your activity are a huge business because people love being able to quantify things, especially their own personal data. The little devices keep getting better at tracking different movements, which makes them even more useful.

As a broad overview, The Wirecutter recommends the Fitbit Force. An updated take on Fitbit's Flex, the Force includes a small display which can also act as a watch. A few people in the post's comments disagree with the choice, but most just add finer points or details for the editors to consider in their critiques.

The biggest complaint from users on Fitbit's official forums has to do with the device's wrist strap not staying on or fitting properly. Even still, the number of problems and issues on the company's official site are very low and most could be seen as outliers in the data.

There's also Jawbone's new tracker, the UP24. There's a helpful thread on Jawbone's forums about purchasing an UP24 through Jawbone rather than a third-party store. According to multiple users, Jawbone will replace defective units from all locations, but is much more helpful with refunds when purchased through its online store.

Jawbone had to recall its original UP band due to widespread problems. Those have since been solved, but compared to other similar devices, the UP product line still appears to have more issues overall.

FiftyThree's Pencil

Makers of the popular drawing app called Paper decided that it needed its own hardware stylus so it made one called Pencil. The most noticeable feature about Pencil is its design, mimicking an actual pencil, complete with a dedicated eraser.

Pencil is a little more of a niche product than any old stylus, needing buyers to also be users of the Paper app to get the full benefit. Those that are users have been happy to throw down the $50+ to get a richer drawing experience.

There usually aren't too many technical issues with a stylus, but Pencil incorporates Bluetooth to get better sensitivity while using the Paper app. Connecting a Pencil also unlocks the app's pay features including color blend and more writing utensils.

A user named Steve on FiftyThree's message board mentions his issue of having Paper mistake his finger and Pencil, which is the most echoed problem.

Pencil somewhat frequently mistakes my strokes for a finger and instead blends. It seems unrelated to amount of pressure and angle at which it's applied.
Are others seeing the same thing?

Unlike other sites and companies, FiftyThree is very responsive and each post, so far, has had an employee adding comments.

Nest Protect

The Nest Protect features a dozen or so little bells and whistles that make the occasional run-in with a smoke detector much nicer. The biggest selling point might be its motion sensor which lets you wave at it, instead of trying to rip it down to shut it down when the oven accidentally sets it off.

The consensus from mainstream consumers is positive. Those shopping on the mainstream sites like Home Depot are happy with the product, citing its easy installation and voice prompts to get it set up.

Out of the box, installed, connected to my wifi, and popped up on my Nest app within the scope of ten minutes.

However, one Protect owner on Home Depot's site did mention having trouble connecting it to his Nest network.

On Amazon, the reviews are more evenly spread from poor to great. One owner pointing out a few interesting tidbits to keep in mind before buying a Protect.

1. The Protect doesn't use standard wired interconnect, meaning it won't talk to or alert smoke detectors that aren't from Nest.
2. It only uses the optical method of smoke detection, rather than both ionization and optical.
3. The Protect uses a CO detector that will expire in 7 years before needing to be replaced.

Another Amazon reviewer also pointed out that the setup needs to take place from iOS or Android and can't be installed from a Windows device (phone or tablet).

Xbox One

Because the Xbox 360 was plagued with overheating and red rings, you can be sure the Xbox One is plenty cool inside. This generation's console has faced other problems though, like optical discs inserted into the system not working properly.

One Amazon user explains his experience with a broken Xbox One:

I received my XBOX. I updated the device and all appeared well initially. Then, I put a game disc in. The optical drive made a mechanical "whirring" noise for about 2 seconds and then was silent. Nothing happened for about 30 seconds, and then a message was displayed stating that it couldn't read the disc and requesting that a game disc, Blu-ray, or DVD be placed in the device. I placed a Blu-ray disc in the device and the same thing happened.

It's hard to get an idea exactly how widespread the issue of non-functioning consoles is because the media likes to pick up stories of ongoing issues. TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino was one of those affected and detailed his firsthand experience on Twitter.

• Order Xbox One Day 1 on Amazon
• Broken
• Amazon replaces with a non-day 1
• Broken
• @Microsoft replaces it with this

PlayStation 4

While there hasn't been any single point of failure, or major issues, for new PlayStation owners, new hardware always brings some quirks.

Sony has outlined a checklist of potential problems for those experiencing a blinking blue light while trying to power on the console. The 800+ comments on the thread indicate the problem is beyond a fluke or isolated to a single source. There's no definitive answer as to what the problem is, but appears to involve the HDMI port not functioning properly.

IGN setup a "PS4 Problems" page that links to a handful of the most common problems users are seeing. Sony's phone number is listed encouraging users to report if their console isn't working properly. Also mentioned is Sony's expected failure rate of 0.4%, which may be as high as 1%.

For more discussions, upcoming rumors, and helpful tips, new PS4 owners might want to try Reddit's PS4 community. In addition to other gaming sites, Reddit's list of links tends to provide a more rounded overview of what's going on and, of course, the better chance for a hilarious GIF.

Despite all the issues, both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been continually selling out and consumers have been more than willing to spend the cash.

Apple's App Store which once again cemented its app dominance in 2013 with 63% of the international app market, versus Google Play's 37%, according to app analyst firm Distimo in its 2013 Year in Review report.

So which apps were the year's most popular? And what do they say about changing consumer habits over the past 12 months? With help from Apple's recently released iOS "Top 10" list, and additional data from Distimo's recent report, we've combed through the available info for insights about the app year that was 2013.

The Games We Played

When it comes down to sheer number-crunching dominance, make no mistake about it: Games developers ruled the App Store roost in 2013. Breaking the figures down, an incredible 63% of iOS revenue was generated through games--with Candy Crush Saga, Temple Run 2, and the ubiquitous Angry Birds apps all raking it in. (Angry Birds holds the distinction of being the first App Store video game property to have its movie rights snatched up by a Hollywood studio.)

Launched in April 2012 for Facebook and November 2012 for smartphones, Candy Crush Saga was 2013's most notable hit for two potentially important reasons. For one thing, it is a free download, meaning that its impressive status as the year's "highest grossing" app on both iPhone and iPad comes purely from in-app purchases. To developer King cofounder and chief creative officer Sebastian Knutsson, Candy Crush Saga's success also says something about the broadening casual user base of mobile platforms.

"We were aiming to have a Top 10 game: That was the ambition," he told the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper. "We exceeded our ambitions by quite a margin! The truth in the industry at that stage was that casual games could never be the top game: you could have a nice hit, but you could never be number one. We disproved that by making a game that hit the top and kept growing."

A similar "freemium" tactic was adopted by strategy video game Clash of Clans, created by Helsinki, Finland-based uber-developers Supercell. The pay-to-advance concept behind Clash of Clans (and fellow Supercell stablemate Hay Day) meant that Supercell was reportedly generating $2.4 million per day for the company in the first half of 2013.

The Year Of Productivity

Games may have come up trumps, but that's not to suggest that communication and productivity apps didn't also have their place in 2013.

It was a good year for short-form videos and photos over text--with Snapchat, Vine, and Instagram all receiving more downloads than the "old guard" represented by Facebook: which reportedly made Snapchat's founders a $3 billion acquisition offer earlier this year. Twitter did not feature on the App Store Top 10, although it should be noted that it does own Vine. What Snapchat, Vine, and Instagram have in common is their ability to streamline the way we communicate: something I have written about several times over the past year.

While the most popular social networking tools proved overwhelmingly to be free ones (88% of all downloads in this category were free apps), productivity apps proved able to monetize well--with 70% of downloads being for paid apps, versus the freemium business model which did so well for gaming representing just 29% of downloads.

Given the larger form factor of the tablet versus the smartphone, it is little surprise that productivity apps were more heavily downloaded for iPad than iPhone. Multimedia note-taking app Noteworthy cracked the Top 10 Paid iPad Apps (no. 6), while Pages (no.2) became the de-facto mobile word processor for iOS, and iMovie (no. 8) hinted at a possible audience for the kind of higher-end paid creative apps that might one day make the rumored iPad Pro a reality.

Navigation apps, while not cracking the Top 10 most downloaded in any app categories, proved highly lucrative as business models: with by far the highest percentage of any app category (24%) falling into the "paid app, with in-app purchases available" category. (As a point of comparison, the majority of categories for this business model hover at around 3%.)

Appy New Year

Speculating about what next year holds for the App Store is a dangerous thing. After all, this year's highest-grossing app had only been available for a couple of months when 2013. Who is to say what the next monster app will be?

But there are also a few hints about how things might change. For one thing, there will likely continue to be breakout apps. As Distimo points out about 2013, this was a year in which more apps caught on more quickly than ever before: with a number of new titles reaching 1 million downloads within only a couple of days of release.

The freemium trend for free apps with in-app purchases will also continue to speed up--with paid apps representing a smaller and smaller percentage of total App Store purchases. This will only be exacerbated as fast-growing markets like Japan, South Korea, and China (all of which have shown more of a preference for freemium over paid than is even seen in the U.S.) represent an increased proportion of the overall customer base.

But thankfully 2013 has shown that smart innovative productivity apps do monetize well--and even in a world where Apple gives its software away for free, and the App Store has more than 1 million apps available, users will still pay for the right app so long as it does something they need.

Full List: Apple's List Of Top Apps For 2013

iPhone App of the Year: Duolingo

iPhone Game of the Year: Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption

iPad App of the Year: Disney Animated

iPad Game of the Year: BADLAND

Top Free iPhone

1. Candy Crush Saga
2. YouTube
3. Temple Run 2
4. Vine
5. Google Maps
6. Snapchat
7. Instagram
8. Facebook
9. Pandora Radio
10. Despicable Me: Minion Rush

Top Paid iPhone

1. Minecraft - Pocket Edition
2. Heads Up!
3. Temple Run: Oz
4. Angry Birds Star Wars
5. Plague Inc.
6. Afterlight
7. Free Music Download Pro - MP3 Downloader
8. Bloons TD 5
9. Sleep Cycle alarm clock
10. Plants vs. Zombies

Top Free iPad

1. Candy Crush Saga
2. YouTube
3. Temple Run 2
4. Calculator for iPad Free
5. Skype for iPad
6. Netflix
7. Despicable Me: Minion Rush
8. iBooks
9. Facebook
10. The Weather Channel for iPad

Top Paid iPad

1. Minecraft - Pocket Edition
2. Pages
3. Temple Run: Oz
4. Plants vs. Zombies HD
5. Angry Birds Star Wars HD
6. Notability
7. Angry Birds Star Wars II
8. iMovie
9. The Room
10. Bad Piggies HD

Top Grossing iPhone Apps

1. Candy Crush Saga
2. Clash of Clans
3. Pandora Radio
4. MARVEL War of Heroes
5. Hay Day
6. Big Fish Casino
7. The Simpsons: Tapped Out
8. Modern War
9. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North
10. The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth

1. Candy Crush Saga
2. Clash of Clans
3. Hay Day
4. DoubleDown Casino
5. Big Fish Casino
6. Modern War
7. Bingo Bash HD - Free Bingo Casino
8. The Simpsons: Tapped Out
9. Slotomania HD - FREE Slots
10. GSN Casino

In about a week, you're going to swear up and down to take better care of yourself. But without a realistic menu of activities in mind, you'll quickly get bored or lose hope. FastCo.Labs decided to look over some of the available tools to draw up Quantified Self fitness resolutions for 2014.

Resolution 1: Walk 10,000 Steps Per Day

Research shows that walking 10,000 steps each day will significantly improve your health--building stamina, burning excess calories, and generally improving heart health. (Let's also be honest: It's a pretty straightforward form of exercise that can be done almost anywhere, at any time, and can physically get you places.) To put the "10,000 steps" figure in context, consider that the average person walks between 3,000 and 4,000 steps per day--with 1,000 steps being roughly the equivalent of 10 minutes of brisk walking.

In terms of monitoring this progress, you're going to need a pedometer such as the Fibit Zip. Not only will this passively track your walking data--it can actually positively influence it, too. According to a 2007 study carried out by researchers at Stanford's School of Medicine, people who used pedometers generally added around one mile (or over 2,000 steps) of walking each day.

Of course, Fitbit isn't the only player in the quantified exercise game. Nike (named Fast Company's most innovative fitness company for 2013) has created both sensor-embedded shoes, which can measure not just running activity but also the size of jumps, and the Nike+ FuelBand, a lightweight rubber wristband which can track fitness levels. Combined, the tools don't just make data tracking a personal experience--but also link to social networking for scoring some admittedly nerdy bragging rights.

MapMyHike, meanwhile, offers a fitness tool for those who prefer their exercise in the form of a countryside ramble. Using your smartphone's built-in GPS, the app doesn't just provide information about speed, pace, elevation, and categories burned--but also where you've walked. (If you're a mountain or road cyclist, try Strava, which will track both walking/running and cycling.)

Chalk the popularity of these tools up to our love of numerical, video game-style achievements if you want, but making sure you record 10,000 steps each day--however you do it--is one of the most important quantified fitness steps you can take in 2014.

Resolution 2: Take Control Of Your Nutrition

Not everyone is going to have the same ideas about where we would like our bodies to be in terms of BMI, muscle, and toning--but everyone can likely agree that they would want to be within the healthy spectrum. Tools such as the Daily Burn Tracker will start the year by asking where you want to end up, with the construction of a profile featuring height, weight, and health goals.

The app will then determine how many calories you should be consuming each day. It allows you to track three different metrics: your nutrition, your workouts, and your weight. Foods can be added easily by way of built-in barcode scanners (for the iPhone version at least), while workouts are a matter of entering which exercises you did and for how long--at which point the app calculates the number of calories burned. It can even recommend routines for you.

Barcode scanning is also behind an app like Scan Alert, which records users' dietary preferences (based on avoidance, allergies, and medical prescriptions) and then alerts them if they try to buy something incompatible on a trip to the supermarket--even recommending substitutes. That pesky gluten intolerance which makes you feel bloated and fatigued at the gym? Banished, thanks to the data conveyed by a simple barcode.

Resolution 3: Make Decisions Based On Your Mood

While monitoring the number of steps you take each day, or what foods you put into your body, are all fairly recognizable as data points, the question of emotional well-being is something that can easily be overlooked. However, it's also the field of a growing number of Quantified Self apps--based on science's increasing awareness of the role that emotional health plays in physical health.

MoodPanda, for example, is a mood tracking website and iPhone app, which asks users to regularly rate their happiness on a 0-10 scale--thereby putting into context how your emotions look in the aggregate. In a recent paper on the Quantified Self movement, the authors--from Intel Labs--discuss the plight of a young woman called Angela, who set an app to "ping" her multiple times a day.

As the authors write, "After a while, she discovered that her 'mood score' when she was at work was not particularly good, and on the basis of this evidence, she realized that she was not as happy as she had thought, and eventually quit the job."

Similar tools are made by HeartMath, a tech company that creates both hardware and software to promote what they call "coherence"--referring to moments when the body's breathing patterns and heart rate falling into rhythm with each other. As Gizmodo wrote in its review, the result is "Like meditation training wheels."

Resolution 4: Commit To Wearing These Devices

The key to fitness tracking isn't simply that you have the necessary tools, however, but that you commit to wearing them at all times. This is, after all, the only way that you're going to get the kind of high-quality data that allows you to keep tabs on the progress you've made.

It's for this reason that phone apps, while good, perhaps shouldn't make up the major part of your quantified self New Year's resolution plan--since while we often have our phones with us, they are more likely to be on desks or in bags than they are physically on our person.

Instead you're better off with a wearable that attaches to yourself in the form of a watch, bracelet, or something similar. Deborah Rozman, CEO of HeartMath, also points out that--while it's hardly the most data-driven response--we need to make sure that we are choosing devices that we are happy to wear 24 hours a day, no matter what we're doing.

"We're not yet at the point where wearable technology is woven into the clothes that we wear on a regular basis," Rozman says. "Until we reach the point where wearable tech is completely inconspicuous--people are working on band-aid sensors, for instance--the question of how something looks is important. As a woman, I might not what to wear a watch that's chunky and unattractive, for example. Most people also aren't happy wearing the equivalent of three or four watches, all doing different things. Find one or two devices you're happy with--and stick with them."

Because, of course, once you do you're able to put all of these resolutions together to:

Resolution 5: Make An Awesome Data Visualization Of Your Progress

As David McCandless discussed in his memorable TED Talk--and data scientists Fernanda Viegas and Martin M. Wattenberg have argued elsewhere--turning complex data sets into attractive diagrams not only makes the information more engaging, but can also be used to tease out unseen patterns and connections in situations where that relationship may be unclear.

If you're anything like me, both of these sound useful when it comes to fitness. Unless you're the kind of person who knows personal training like the back of their hand, it's useful to have a tool which can spell out your progress in a way that feels a bit more quantifiable. While many of the newer QS apps feature data visualization tools in place of simple numbers, an increasing number also allow you to upload your data to other devices to play with as you choose. The possibilities are pretty limitless, dependent only on how far you're willing to push it and the number of metrics you collect. The Basis B1 band, for instance, lets you track your pulse, sleep patterns, body temperature, and even how much you sweat. Its follow-up, the Body IQ, can do all of this--plus work out when you start running or cycling.

Regardless of your grounding in sport science, using the right data viz techniques means that before long you'll begin to have an understanding of just what it was that you were doing--and just how your body reacted to it. When it comes to fitness, that understanding and visual evidence can be a powerful motivator for continuing on your chosen path.

Add that to the trend toward social networking--making sticking to your resolution less of a solitary activity--and you may just keep your fitness regimen going throughout 2014.

Good luck!

Like anything in life, starting up has stages. How many is up for popular debate. Some say there are six steps; others say there are four stages. We've got our own formula that feels just right, and here are some of the best posts we've published about each.

The Hypothesis Stage

How To Prototype Your App With People (Using Mechanical Turk)

Five Successful Startups That Started As Blogs

The Wisdom Of The 20-Minute Startup

Validating Core Ideas With Users

Why You Should Find Product-Market Fit Before Sniffing Around For Venture Money

Want Proof That Market Fit Is Everything? Test Your App In The Slums Of Sao Paulo

How To Validate Your Startup Idea In One Day

Earning Early Traction With Your Product

What's Missing From Your "Growth Hacking" Strategy

What Do Your App's User Retention Numbers Really Mean?

Responding To Early Users

Mailbox's Gentry Underwood: What Hackers Should Know About Design Thinking

In-Depth: How To Pick The Right Revenue Model For Your App

Gaining Efficiency And Scaling Up

Finally, Three Ways To Automate iOS App Testing

Startups: Yes, You Can Move Fast Without Breaking Things

Unfortunately, not every promising product winds up delivering on the promise of high technology. Looking back on 2013, there were more than a few failures of innovation that many of us mistook for potentially great things.

Everpix

For as long as high-speed Internet has been the norm, the online backup space has been continually growing. A relatively new subset of that has been companies that focus on solely backing up a users' photos. Everpix was one of those companies until it shocked its users by announcing that it had run out of money before it could become sustainable. Offering unlimited photo backups from mobile and desktop devices, Everpix was an attractive option for people looking to expand their iPhone's onboard storage.

The Everpix mobile app was attractive and packed with photo features beyond just extra storage. There were a lot of elements that made for serendipitous rediscovery of your own photos, and a feature that let users sort photos based on which device they were uploaded from.

Even though most people who used Everpix saw the potential and the need for such a service, the company still faced the hard reality many startups do: The storage and personnel costs grew too quickly to make it work. Detailed in a behind-the-scenes look by The Verge, the Everpix team has been open about how it spun the business down.

Bump

Bump was a file transferring service dressed up as a social experience. Two users would touch their phones together to transfer pictures or other data. Bump had been around a while, but 2013 saw the company dissolve into Google. The announcement on Bump's blog gave all indications that the company had been bought for the talent, rather than the product itself--the dreaded acquihire. The very first line of the blog post made note that Bump's team was joining Google and later mentioned the product would continue to work until further announcement.

In February of this year Bump was still plugging away, improving the product and adding an accessible web component to the previously mobile only transfer solution. It's hard to fault Bump's traction. Even Samsung's implementation hasn't fared well and Apple's Airdrop hasn't made waves either. I've never seen either in use in the wild.

Samsung Galaxy Gear

If you spend any amount of time in places that sell electronics or watch a fair amount of TV, you've seen Samsung heavily marketing its new smartwatch. But if you went by real-life word of mouth, you might not even know Samsung made the Galaxy Gear, because no one is buying them and even fewer people are talking about them. To outside observers closely following the tech space, it appears to be a classic move of another company trying to beat Apple to the punch based solely on rumors. HP fell victim, pre-announcing a Windows slate device ahead of Apple's first iPad event and failing to capture any interest.

There have been lots of rumors that Apple will be entering the wearable computing market at some point in the near future, most speculating that it will be a watch. It's possible Samsung is just trolling Apple, trying to be first to market just to be able to say it was first. Whatever the motivation for putting out a watch, the Gear fails to deliver where smaller companies like Pebble have been at least semi-successful.

Sony aimed broader with its smartwatch, working with most Android phones, while the Gear only works with a few of its own devices. Saddled with a camera in the wrist strap and the promise of third-party apps, Samsung's watch came out of the gate trying to do it all, but not really doing much.

Samsung Shape M7

It's still early for Samsung's entry into wireless speakers, but so far it's failed make a dent against the market leader, Sonos. Aiming for the high end, $399 for a wireless speaker places it outside a lot of consumers' budgets. The Shape M7's biggest disadvantage is its limited music source selection. Samsung only lists Amazon, Pandora, Rhapsody, and TuneIn as current Internet options compared to the dozen or more that Sonos makes available.

The biggest reason for the Shape M7's lackluster debut is that Samsung hasn't pushed the product the way it's pushed others. There's a good chance you didn't even know about it, given the minimal marketing Samsung has done for it.

HTC First (aka Facebook Phone)

As Facebook grows and captures a sizable portion of the world's population as active users, the company needs to find new ways to engage people. Making timid entry into the phone business earlier this year, Facebook and HTC partnered to introduce the HTC First, an Android phone skinned with a Facebook layer on top. With modest hardware, the phone was all about the Android launcher, which Facebook called Home. The new software puts status updates front and center and offered "chat heads" intended to get people to Facebook message instead of text.

Whether people didn't care for the hardware or the software, it's uncertain, but the device tanked. Roughly a month after announcement and a speculated 15,000 units sold later, the First was discontinued. Such breakneck speeds from cradle to grave usually don't elicit confidence and will probably give Facebook pause to get into the hardware space on its own. Maybe the First failed because teens aren't using Facebook as much anymore and everyone else needs a real smartphone.

Ubuntu Edge Phone

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, envisioned its Edge phone as a jumping-off point for the new mobile OS Ubuntu Touch. Unfortunately, the company didn't get to make the kind of splash it wanted, failing to crowdfund $32 million and make it happen. The roughly $19 million the phone did raise made it the most crowdfunded project to date, but provides little comfort to those who wanted the extremely high-end device.

The Edge phone was attempting to speed up convergence and combine a user's computing device with their mobile phone. The phone was meant to be docked and used with the built-in desktop environment so that a user's information lived in their pocket. Packing 128GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, and a top-of-the-line display, the Edge had mobile phone enthusiasts drooling over the sleek device. The phone could dual boot Ubuntu Touch as well as Android, which made it a safe bet for most pledges, but the vaporware factor remained the high goal to fund the entire project.

$600+ isn't expensive for a mobile phone, especially for the hardware being offered, but it's still more costly than consumers were willing to cough up. The Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system won't disappear, but it's unlikely we'll ever see the Edge.

Chromebook Pixel

The Pixel is a $1,300 device that's made for surfing the Internet. In fact, that's pretty much all it can do. You could argue that Google's Pixel Chromebook is merely an indulgence for the company, and you'd be right, but that still doesn't make it any less of a bombed product. For the money you get a high resolution touch-screen laptop that's modeled closely after Apple's MacBook computers, a big upgrade over the other budget Chromebooks.

The idea of Chrome OS, a browser-based operating system, isn't necessarily flawed. It's just scary for most people. The built-in 4G wireless radios make this a go-anywhere Internet machine, but that won't be truly appealing until we've all converted entirely to the cloud.

YouTube Video Music Awards

YouTube had one of the biggest opportunities to disrupt entrenched awards shows, but failed to make a meaningful impact. An Internet broadcast from the world's most popular streaming site and online music source sounds like a guaranteed success, yet hardly anyone tuned in. Reports put the numbers at around 200,000 live viewers, a piddling few basis points of the billion streams the site gets daily.

AOL Reader

Almost six months after Google Reader shut down, AOL Reader still hasn't launched its mobile app--only a placeholder that reads "coming soon." The mobile apps it does sync with is currently limited to vReadr and Feeddler, omitting the biggest player Reeder. AOL does run a host of content sites and so building a reading tool isn't beyond reason, but it begs the question: Why try and promote RSS to mainstream consumers?

Digg Reader

It also makes sense that Digg would get into the game of building an RSS reader, hosting a site focused on aggregating content. Now that Digg owner Betaworks also owns the reading service Instapaper, an RSS syncing platform appears to be a perfect fit in its puzzle. The problem Digg faces, like AOL, is that it's taken a long time to bring a fully functioning option to market. Most users will have found a new RSS platform (Feedly, anyone?) and be fully immersed in it by the time Digg Reader is ready to go.

These new offices of 2013 are the foundations for dreams. If you're someone whose work environment dictates their productivity, these offices will put you into overdrive.

GitHub

"The front waiting area of GitHub's new headquarters in San Francisco conveys a sense of quiet strength superpower, in fact as it is an actual replica of the White House Oval Office.

'We want our visitors to feel important,' said Tom Preston-Werner, who is cofounder and CEO of the very well funded startup, which runs a social network that computer programmers can use to manage and collaborate on software development." - "In through the oval office: GitHub HQ opens," by Patrick Hoge

"We have basically full control over all of the building systems in the new building and I'm really fascinated to see what we end up doing with that. The number of times that I've had to describe API to (building contractors) I almost ripped my hair out."- "Inside GitHub's Super-Lean Management Strategy," by Chris Dannen

Evernote

"Evernote's coffee bar and break areas are clad with Douglas fir plywood, the texture and grain of which provides its own graphic patterns. Forgoing expensive interior branding, Evernote instead hired chalk artist Dana Tanamachi to draft a wall-sized representation of the company's identity, complete with its tagline, 'Remember everything,' and elephant logo. Low-maintenance, water-conserving plants on an adjoining wall contribute to the reception area's look of unforced spaciousness." - "Inside Evernote's New Redwood City Offices," by Office Snapshots

Square

"Through the clean, white lobby adorned with little more than a backlit Square logo, glass double doors open onto the "Boulevard" -- the main artery traversing the length of the office's main floor and acting as the anchor of the office's open floor plan. The street metaphor is not incidental: The entire office is consciously organized like a city. The conference rooms along the front wall are named in alphabetical order after San Francisco city streets and designated as 'intersections' based on which floor they inhabit." - "At One of Tech's Hottest Startups, a Huge New Office Aims Small," by Marcus Wohlsen

"The design of the office 'motivates people to move around the office and interact in casual, unscheduled ways,' Chris Gorman Square's head of office experience explains--just like the well-planned public spaces of a great city. Early concepts for the office were motivated by old 18th-century maps of cities." - "Why Square Designed Its New Offices To Work Like A City," by David Zax

Trip Advisor (Singapore)

"'The world is one big playground. We want to emulate a fun environment likening to a travel experience in the office considering the travel and leisure scope of its business and industry. As a result, employees go to work as if they're on a trip every day, revitalised and renewed to tackle on their work,' explains design firm Kyoob-id's associate director, Maggie Yeo." - "The New TripAdvisor Office In Singapore," by Office Snapshots

Co-Working

Even if your startup can't get into an office space quite yet, don't fret. There are plenty of shared spaces that could make for a sweet temporary setup. Here are two of the nicest-looking new ones in Chicago and L.A.

The Warehouse

"The Warehouse will be located within Lightbank's office space and offers anyone who is starting a company the ability to rent one desk or more for around $300 per month. The agreement is month to month, and allows for a designated desk with access to a phone, high-speed WiFi, printers, copiers, fax machines, conference rooms, and more. Coworkers in The Warehouse will also be able to access some of the perks that Lightbank employees get, such as shuttles to public transportation in Chicago and discounted gym memberships." - "Lightbank Launches A Coworking Space In Chicago," by Leena Rao.

Be Great Labs

Startup incubator accelerator, Be Great Labs announced plans for nine new co-working spaces across Los Angeles with the newest one opening in Culver City. $295/month gets you a permanent workstation and the usual host of amenities like Internet, snacks, and printing.

How About The Lamest Office?

There's the impressive and there's the lamest, Dashlane was given the lamest startup office award by Fast Company. A badge of honor Dashlane was a good sport about, knowing a building doesn't make a company, but it's the product and team inside that does.

"The workplace amenities (or lack thereof) in its New York SoHo office wouldn't attract many prospective employees--at least not those looking for the storied Silicon Valley (and Alley) perks. The carpets have coffee stains, office security consists of a life-size Bruce Lee cutout, and employees have fashioned curtains out of cardboard boxes." "See The Lamest Startup Office In America," by Rebecca Greenfield

Since its launch in mid-2010, transportation-on-demand startup Uber has grown from its San Francisco roots to more than 60 cities across six continents. And according to widely circulated internal documents published by Valleywag in early December, the company is on track to beat investor expectations and bring in more than $200 million in revenue by the end of 2013.

But as popular as the service has been with investors, Uber has tangled more or less continuously with existing transportation businesses and regulators who've sought to shut the service down. In response, Uber's waged an aggressive public relations campaign to defend its business and pricing models.

The company, founded by serial tech entrepreneurs Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, launched its service in May 2010 under the name UberCab, offering San Francisco customers a digital cross between a taxi company and a car service. Users could summon a car through an iPhone app, Uber's website, or by text message. Then as now, the cars and drivers come from traditional car services, but Uber's system uses GPS systems to locate and dispatch a nearby vehicle and let customers track the car's approach through the app.

"Once you make a request to an UberDriver you can watch his exact moves to your arrival," the company explained on a frequently-asked-questions page posted at the time. "This means that you can count on his arrival and be confident to make your flight or meeting on time."

At the end of the ride, Uber's systems seamlessly bill the passenger's credit card based on the time and distance traveled, charging rates then advertised as being about 1.5 times the cost of an equivalent taxi ride.

From the launch, Uber made clear its plans to disrupt the taxi industry in San Francisco, where residents have often complained that the low number of taxi medallions has led to long waits and poor service.

"Garrett's big idea was cracking the horrible taxi problem in San Francisco--getting stranded on the streets of San Francisco is familiar territory for any San Franciscan," Kalanick wrote on the company blog in December 2010. The FAQ page, too, distinguished the service from other taxi-summoning apps, since it bypassed the medallion cab system altogether.

"Other apps are build [sic] upon a broken taxi system. Their customer experience regardless of how great the app is will be terrible," the page explained. "Our network of limo drivers and car services are clean and professional, providing an on-demand and elite experience."

The service quickly got rave reviews from tech luminaries like TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who compared the service to other disruptive startups like payment processor Square and vacation rental marketplace Airbnb.

But, just as Airbnb has incurred the wrath of regulators who say it illegally circumvents hotel safety regulations and restrictions on short-term apartment rentals, Uber quickly drew the ire of the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency and the California Public Utilities Commission. The agencies alleged the company was illegally operating without either a taxi or car service license and warned of the possibility of thousands of dollars in fines and even potential jail time for Uber officials.

Uber said at the time it believed it was in compliance with the law and intended to continue operating in San Francisco. And, "to avoid confusion," the company removed "cab" from its name, after the Public Utilities Commission cited a rule barring car services from advertising their businesses as taxi companies.

"We will continue full speed ahead with the mission of making San Francisco city a great place to live and travel," the company wrote on its blog .

As Uber expanded into more markets, it faced more challenges from local transportation regulators. In Washington, the D.C. Taxicab Commission fined an Uber driver and even impounded his Lincoln Town Car in January 2012, saying that under Uber's pricing plan, car services were illegally charging by the mile, a privilege reserved for taxis.

Struggling Its Way Across The Country, Uber Wins Victories

Later that year, local and state officials in Cambridge, Mass., ticketed an Uber driver for operating without a proper license and for using Uber's GPS-based meter, which hadn't been approved by the state's weights-and-measures regulators. And in Vancouver, authorities required Uber to adhere to limousine-service regulations setting a minimum price of $75 per ride--a rule Kalanick told local media other car services ignored.

In each case, Uber and its executives responded aggressively, speaking to the media and using social media to mobilize customers to contact regulators and express their support for the company.

"Cambridge, MA home to Harvard, MIT and some of the most anti-competitive, corrupt transportation laws in the country," Kalanick tweeted after the incident in that city.

There and in D.C., the company vowed to keep operating and encouraged customers to tweet and to contact officials with their thoughts. Similarly, in Vancouver, Uber posted contact information for city and provincial officials, urging customers to tell them to "abolish taxi protectionism."

In many cases, these efforts seem to have worked: Soon after Uber mobilized its Boston-area base, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's official Twitter account announced a change in tune, with regulators determining the GPS-based meters could be legally used, since they were under evaluation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In D.C., the city council amended its regulations to legalize the service after hearing from constituents.

Also in 2012, Uber introduced a lower-priced service dubbed UberX, using hybrid cars rather than luxury sedans to better compete with traditional taxis, along with SUVs, which cost more but could fit more passengers and luggage. In Chicago, the company that once boasted an experience superior to the common cab added ordinary taxis to its lineup.

"Everyone thinks that Uber is the anti-TAXI, in a battle against an old system, fighting for innovation, competition and free enterprise," Uber said in a blog post. "Though that makes for exciting and controversial headlines, it's just not what drives us."

After some initial regulatory hiccups, Uber is also participating in a New York "e-hail" pilot, letting users summon the city's iconic yellow cabs through its app.

At the same time, Uber's has faced new competition from "ridesharing" services like Lyft and Sidecar that let ordinary people pick up fares in their personal cars, with rides arranged through smartphone apps. In some cities, Uber's added a ridesharing component to UberX.

In California--where Uber's resolved its disputes with state officials and new regulations legalize and regulate carsharing services--Uber's reportedly offered Lyft drivers incentives to switch to driving for UberX and even run ads mocking the distinctive pink mustache logo Lyft drivers use to mark their cars. In other places, Uber's worked to get customers used to its ridesharing feature by giving customers free rides, even as all of the ridesharing companies gear up for new regulatory battles over the service.

Even as Uber's added lower-priced services, it's faced persistent criticism that it's an inherently elitist service, one of a breed of San Francisco startups catering primarily to the type of affluent young men who work for San Francisco startups. As a Digital Trends story pointed out, a promotion offering Uber helicopter trips to the Hamptons may not have helped the company's image.

Uber's also come under fire for its "surge pricing" system, where fares go up when there aren't enough cars available to meet demand, such as on holidays like New Year's Eve or, sometimes, during bad weather. Uber argues that raising rates brings more drivers onto the street, since they're seeking a bigger payout.

"We don't just charge to make a buck though, we take a small fee of the transaction, but the vast majority goes to the driver so that we can maximize the number of drivers on the road," Kalanick wrote in a letter to an aggrieved customer he posted on his Facebook page. "The point is in order to provide you with a reliable ride, prices need to go up."

Critics say it may run afoul of state price-gouging laws and consumers' ideas of fairness. After Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast in 2012, Uber faced widespread criticism for instituting surge pricing and, for a time, paid drivers the surge rate while charging customers the normal cost. Uber reverted to its usual surge policies a few days after the storm hit, saying picking up the difference in fares cost it more than $100,000 per day.

Still, the company's managed to win more positive attention with creative promotions, like letting app users occasionally summon ice cream trucks, holiday toy drive pickup vans, and even, for "National Cat Day," cuddly kittens.

Earlier this month, Uber announced expansions into Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, and Hyderabad, along with a petition drive to loosen car service restrictions so the service can fully operate in Nashville.

"With this change, Nashville will join the world's leading cities that offer innovative and stylish transportation choices," according to Uber's blog.