As technology users welcome 2012 everywhere, it’s clear the year that had just passed was filled with no little controversy and memorable incidents.

From Steve Jobs’ death to the delay of the much-awaited iPhone 5, from the rise of Android devices to Nokia’s return with its Windows Phone devices, and finally, with the potent mix of mobile devices and social media that  helped ignite protests in the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, but also encouraged the thuggery of the London riots, 2011 was a big year in technology.

The next 12 months look to be just as interesting, as existing technologies mature and grow, while other new trends emerge. Here are five things to look out for in 2012: …

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has accused Yahoo! of “free-riding” on the print publisher to drive up page views and maximise advertising dollars, as a much-watched legal tussle between old and new media rumbled on in Singapore on Wednesday evening.

In a statement to the stock exchange hours ago, SPH said the United States Internet company had plagiarised its articles by “substantially reproducing the words and expressions used in SPH’s articles without permission”.  …

If you missed Part I, where we listed the top watched community videos by Singaporeans in 2011, you can check it out here.

According to YouTube, this is the top list of most watched music MTVs by Singaporeans in 2011. Enjoy, and check it out:

1. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock

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According to YouTube, here are the most-watched community videos of 2011 by Singaporeans:

1. Nice Guys
2. Daily Life of Rustin Hieber
3. Yam Ah Mee Election Club Mix (GE 2011)
4. Strangers, again
5. plastic bottle heartbreak on valentine’s day (Original)
6. Angry Birds Rio Trailer
7. Nyan Cat [original]
8. POKEMON IN REAL LIFE!
9. The iNavigator
10. Greatest Marriage Proposal EVER!!!

It’s an eclectic mix. The only two really Singaporean videos are the Yam Ah Mee Election remix and the plastic bottle heartbreak video. I would have expected more content from Singaporeans, but these are the stats from YouTube.

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With a successful initial public offering and the recent opening of its Asia Pacific (APAC) headquarters in Singapore under its belt, professional networking website LinkedIn is gearing up for more growth in the coming year despite a projected economic downturn looming on the horizon.

In fact, you might even say the company is counting on it.

“Talent remains key to how companies compete,” said Arvind Rajan, Managing Director and Vice President of LinkedIn in Asia Pacific and Japan. LinkedIn aims to elevate the role of these “talents” to be an important source of competitive advantage for companies.

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It can’t be said that Singaporeans don’t have a sense of humour.

The recent SMRT debacle has provided lots of juicy fodder for spoofs of every sort.

Rather than stew in anger or rage in impotence, some people have gotten creative instead.

This #SMRT YouTube parody has been steadily clocking in tens of thousands of views — currently around 62,000-odd — since it was launched two days ago on December 18th. Watch:

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Google Singapore has unveiled its list of top search terms used by Singaporeans in its annual Zeitgeist that offers a glimpse of the year’s major trends and events.

Topping the list of personalities were Tin Pei Ling, Nicole Seah and George Yeo, underscoring the nation’s interest in the watershed General Election 2011. Searches on the elections also figured prominently in this year’s top news searches. …

Every once in a while, a technology emerges that makes you wonder why you haven’t thought about it before. The Singapore-made Orastream app is one such example.

It enables music players to stream the songs at as high a quality as possible, depending on the network that is delivering the songs. This means you always enjoy the highest quality music, without worrying about the dreaded break in transmission – a boon to future music services on the go. …

Google will retire its Wave collaboration platform for good next year in an “off-season spring cleaning” exercise.

In a e-mail to Google Wave users yesterday, the search giant said all waves will be read-only by January 31, 2012, followed by a complete shut-down of the service on April 30, 2012. Users can continue to export individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off. …

Singapore is set to see a rare face-off between old and new media, after news emerged yesterday that Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) had sued Yahoo!, claiming that the digital media company had reproduced 23 of its articles without permission from November 2010 to October 2011.

Yahoo! has since denied the claims, with managing editor for Southeast Asia Alan Soon saying yesterday that the company intends to “vigorously” defend itself and that its editorial business model is proven.

The case pits the old against the new. In one corner is SPH, one of the most profitable media companies in the world that publishes a 166-year-old newspaper called The Straits Times; in the other, Yahoo is a “grandfather” of dot.coms but still a relatively young company when it comes to media and content.

More importantly, it highlights the increasingly tough competition facing the online content business in Singapore, especially as established media giants like SPH, which just reported S$1.25 billion in revenues, seek to defend their turf against “over-the-top” or online challengers with leaner operations.

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