It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone, but 2014’s days are numbered and we’re already looking ahead to 2015 for our coverage.
So much happens in the technology world in a year that it seems impossible to cover all ourselves – so thank goodness for our team of Community Bloggers at ITBusiness.ca! This group of dedicated volunteers not only were featured as finalists for the Canadian Online Publishing Awards this past year, but they wrote some very well-read articles too.
We’ve rounded up your top 10 favourites of our bloggers’ work, based on number of views an article received over the year.
10. Apple Numbers vs. Microsoft Excel: spreadsheet differences and compatibilities
You could call it just one more page in the ongoing story about the fight between Apple and Microsoft. Robert Cordray took a look at the spreadsheet programs that both tech giants are offering and considers which one is best across a variety of factors. Robert doesn’t give a definitive answer about which spreadsheet crunches rows and columns the best, but gives some recommendations based on what you need from your software.
9. Corporations 101 for tech pros: Provincial or federal incorporations
Sometimes a blog post is popular because it is a timely headline, fleshing out more of the story about a hot item in the news. Other times, it’s about a sexy new product that everyone wants to know about. Then other times still, it’s about the legal intricacies about incorporating your business. Our resident legal expert Monica Goyal wrote this incredibly useful analysis of when your startup should incorporate federally vs. provincially proved to be an example of the latter. Look out for Monica’s other popular blog post later in this list too.
8. 6 challenges 3D printing has yet to overcome
3D printing is one of those technologies that always seems to be on the cusp of a breakthrough. We heard a lot of buzz about the new micro-manufacturing method this year – and yeah, maybe you even printed out a physible on your buddy’s new Maker Bot – but 3D printing just hasn’t become mainstream yet. In this blog post. Ana Gale looked at some of the challenges that are stopping 3D printing from taking full form.
7. 7 smart watches from CES 2014
At the beginning of each year, the tech world turns much of its attention to Las Vegas to see what will come out the annual mega-conference of CES. This year, former CIO Catherine Boivie attended with an eye for the latest trends to report on for those of us that couldn’t be there in person. Picking up on the smart watches trend, Catherine highlighted several high-tech time pieces. Take a look at this list from January and compare it to the latest smart watches that we’re talking about, and see if you notice a difference.
6. CES recap: Top 7 trends of the Consumer Electronics Show
For the past couple of years, Future Shop communications manager Elliot Chun has volunteered his efforts to report on some of the coolest gadgets at the show. In this post, he recaps some of the tech trends that were indeed at play throughout 2014 – from 3D printing to wearable tech.
5. 9 Canadians to watch in digital technology in 2014
Way back at the beginning of the year – it was Jan. 2 in fact – Karim Kanji turned his eye to some of the tech scene luminaries in Canada and forecasted who might be most interesting to follow. Looking back on some of his picks, he had a good eye for a story. His selections included Thalmic Labs CEO Stephen Lake, Twitter exec Kirstine Stewart, and HootSuite founder Ryan Holmes. All three made some major moves this year. Also don’t miss Karim’s mid-year follow-up to his people-to-watch forecast.
4. Canada’s anti-spam law, all hype or something to watch out for?
If Heartbleed was the tech security story of 2014, then CASL was the tech legal story of 2014. Canada’s anti-spam legislation went live July 1 and many companies that send out regular emails, texts, and social media messages are still trying to fully understand how to comply with it and what it means for marketing communications. Monica Goyal used her legal expertise to highlight some of the differences between CASL and other similar legislation elsewhere, and a few best practices to stay on the right side of the law.
3. Decoding buzzwords: big data, predictive analytics, business intelligence
In the year that Weird Al’s Mission Statement was a popular song, it’s no surprise that a blog post about corporate buzz words in the tech realm would also do well. Cindy Gordon helped us understand where the differences and similarities lie when we talk about big data, predictive analytics, and business intelligence. The first of a three-part series about predictive analytics, an emerging capability being offered by software companies, Cindy helped us answer some of the basic questions and shared some eye-opening statistics about just how much data there really is to crunch in 2014.
2. How to stop Heartblood: 7-stop checklist to fix OpenSSL security bug
On the morning that many of us were waking up to learn about what the Heartbleed bug was and how it affcted sites using Open SSL, Claudiu Popa already had a go-to guide published to patch the problem. Heartbleed may have caused the Canada Revenue Agency to push back its income tax submission deadline, but it sure didn’t slow down Claudiu.
Heartbleed was the security story of the year and Claudiu’s quick response to it didn’t go unnoticed. He was asked to appear on broadcast media several times to discuss the flaw that affected as many as two-third of websites. Claudiu’s blog posts have always been chalk-full of hands-on and useful information and this one was no different. It was also as timely as you can get.
1. Asus debuts Windows 8 T200 hybrid PC at Computex
Computex serves as one of the premier technology events on the annual calendar, with the products of many Asia-based manufacturers for the first time. Since blogger Eric Floresca was travelling in Taipei during this year’s Computex, he made a point of visiting the popular trade show the experience paid off.
Thanks to Eric, we got a very early glimpse at a brand new product in Asus’ lineup. The T200 hybrid was the sequel to the notebook device that many say defined the hybrid form factor. Eric’s photos and early impressions of this device were a huge draw both for people searching for information on the product and our regular gadget fanatics at ITBusiness.ca.
