Southern China Winter Storms: Stranded on the Way Home

Just before the 2008 Lunar New Year, rare freezing rain and snow hit large parts of southern and central China. The storms arrived in the middle of the busiest travel season of the year, and railways, roads and the power grid all failed at once.

ABC News reported on January 28 that some areas had seen their heaviest snow in 50 years and that rail and air traffic had been disrupted for more than two weeks, with food and coal stuck on icy roads. In Guangzhou, about 200,000 people waited outside a packed railway station, and the number of stranded passengers was expected to reach 600,000.

Al Jazeera reported on January 29 that ice had brought down power lines, and rail disruption meant power stations were receiving less than a quarter of their normal coal supplies, causing blackouts in many places. Soldiers were deployed around Guangzhou station to keep order. Premier Wen Jiabao flew out to hard-hit Hunan, but his plane had to divert to Hubei and he continued by train. Railway officials took the rare step of offering full refunds for cancelled trains.

For millions of migrant workers, the New Year holiday is the only chance all year to go home. Reporters described people waiting for days in the cold rain outside Guangzhou station, and some finally giving up on going home at all.

By February 4, rail services in Guangzhou were returning to normal. Citing Xinhua, Al Jazeera reported that more than 300,000 troops and nearly 1.1 million militia and reservists had been mobilised to clear ice and repair power lines; at one point, more than 10,000 vehicles were stuck in a 75-kilometre queue on an icy expressway in Hunan.

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The Wenchuan Earthquake: A Magnitude 8.0 Disaster and a Nationwide Rescue

At 2:28 pm on May 12, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Wenchuan in Sichuan province. It was felt as far away as Beijing and Hong Kong, and was one of the most destructive earthquakes in the history of the People's Republic.

The magnitude was first reported as 7.8 and later revised to 8.0. People recorded what was happening in the disaster area with videos, photos and posts: Xinhua reported on May 17 that Tudou alone hosted more than 4,200 earthquake videos, and YouTube's official blog wrote that raw footage shot on mobile phones appeared online within hours of the quake. The internet played an unprecedented role in spreading information about the disaster.

The State Council declared May 19–21 days of national mourning. Flags flew at half-mast across China and at embassies abroad, and at 14:28 on May 19 the whole country stood in silence for three minutes.

According to China News Service on September 25, as of noon that day the earthquake had killed 69,227 people, injured 374,643 and left 17,923 missing. Rescuers had saved or evacuated 1,486,407 people; donations from home and abroad totalled 59.468 billion yuan; all 677,131 temporary homes had been installed by September 10; and 31,222 aftershocks had been recorded in the main quake zone.

On August 5, just after the Olympic torch had finished its relay through the disaster area, a magnitude 6.0 aftershock struck Sichuan. Al Jazeera noted that the May earthquake had drawn international rescue teams and an enormous domestic relief effort.

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The Beijing Olympics: One World, One Dream

At 8 pm on August 8, the 29th Summer Olympic Games opened at the Bird's Nest national stadium. For the next 17 days, Beijing was the centre of the world's attention.

The Associated Press reported that some 91,000 spectators filled the Bird's Nest and about 15,000 performers took part in the opening ceremony; US President George W. Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the many world leaders present. Fireworks burst over the stadium in the shape of a red flower. At the end of the ceremony, former gymnast Li Ning "flew" around the stadium roof to light the cauldron.

On August 16, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won the 100 metres in 9.69 seconds, a world record. World Athletics began its report that day: Beijing was struck by a "Bolt of lightning". Four days later he broke the 200 m world record in 19.30 — the next day was his 22nd birthday. Sohu Sports quoted him: "I'm not Superman. I'm just me."

A Xinhua editorial on August 22 counted 38 world records so far; Michael Phelps had won 8 golds and set 7 world records; teams such as Mongolia, Togo, Afghanistan and Tajikistan had won their countries' first gold medals or first medals; and China had topped the gold medal table for the first time.

The Games closed on August 24. China finished with 51 golds at the time, first in the medal table (some medals were later withdrawn after doping retests).

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Shenzhou 7: China's First Spacewalk

On the evening of September 25, Shenzhou 7 lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center carrying astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng. The mission's goal was China's first spacewalk.

On September 27, Zhai Zhigang, wearing the Chinese-made Feitian spacesuit, opened the hatch, stepped out into space and waved the national flag. Liu Boming, in a Russian-made Orlan suit, helped from the hatch while Jing Haipeng stayed in the return module. Space.com reported that the spacewalk lasted about 20 minutes and was broadcast live on television.

During the spacewalk Zhai retrieved a sample of solid lubricant that had been mounted on the outside of the spacecraft before launch. China became the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to master spacewalks on its own.

On September 28, the Shenzhou 7 return capsule landed in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, and all three astronauts returned safely.

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The Sanlu Milk Scandal: Melamine and a Dairy Crisis

In September, baby formula made by the Sanlu Group was found to contain melamine, and large numbers of infants developed kidney stones. The case quickly grew into a crisis for China's entire dairy industry.

Reuters reported on September 15 that Chinese media had revealed on September 10 that babies had fallen ill after drinking the formula; the next day Sanlu recalled products made before August 6. Chinese officials said Sanlu had started receiving complaints in March. Sanlu's foreign shareholder, New Zealand's Fonterra, said it had known since August. Taiwan immediately banned imports of Sanlu dairy products.

Melamine is an industrial chemical that was added to milk to make its protein content look higher in tests. CNN reported in December that Sanlu had recalled about 700 tons of milk powder, and that according to Xinhua the scandal killed six babies and sickened about 290,000.

Investigators found melamine in nearly 70 dairy products from more than 20 companies. The head of China's quality watchdog, Li Changjiang, resigned, and at least 18 people were arrested in September. In late December, Sanlu filed for bankruptcy at a court in Shijiazhuang.

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The Bag Ban and Odd-Even Driving: For a "Green Olympics"

In 2008, two new rules aimed at cleaning up the environment for the Olympics changed everyday life: supermarket bags were no longer free, and Beijing's private cars could only drive on alternate days according to their licence plates.

From June 1, shops and supermarkets across China stopped giving out free plastic bags, and ultra-thin bags under 0.025 mm thick were banned. The environmental news site Mongabay reported that the rule aimed to cut "white pollution" and save up to 37 million barrels of oil used to make bags; China's biggest maker of thin bags, Huaqiang, had already shut down, but many shopkeepers did not yet know how to respond.

On June 20, Beijing announced its traffic measures for the Games. PBS reported that affected drivers would be compensated with three months of road and vehicle tax exemptions, costing the city about 1.3 billion yuan, and that three new subway lines had been built, with about 4 million extra riders expected each day.

From July 20 to September 20, Beijing ran its odd-even scheme: cars with odd-numbered plates drove on odd days and even-numbered plates on even days. Gasgoo reported that day that more than 10,000 cameras and sensors had been installed, and that about half of the city's 3.3 million vehicles would be off the road; the rule did not apply from midnight to 3 am.

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Four Trillion Yuan: China's Response to the Financial Crisis

On November 9, the State Council announced an economic stimulus package of about 4 trillion yuan to boost domestic demand as the global financial crisis hit Chinese exports.

AFP reported that day that the measures had been approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao. A statement on the government website said China would "adopt an active fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policies" to foster fast but steady growth by expanding domestic demand.

The plan would spend about 4 trillion yuan (586 billion US dollars) by the end of 2010, mostly on infrastructure and related areas. Growth had slowed to 9 percent in the third quarter, the lowest in about five years, and the central bank had already cut interest rates three times since September, reversing its earlier tightening.

The State Council had also recently approved spending about 2 trillion yuan on new railways by 2020. "Four trillion" went on to become one of the most consequential phrases in China's economic history.

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The "Three Links": Direct Flights, Mail and Shipping Across the Taiwan Strait

On December 15, mainland China and Taiwan launched daily direct flights, direct shipping and direct mail, ending decades in which all traffic between them had to pass through a third place.

AFP reported that the first direct flight from the mainland left Shenzhen for Taipei that morning, followed by a commercial service from Taipei to Shanghai. Without detours through third-party airspace, the Shanghai–Taipei flight was cut by more than an hour to about 80 minutes. At least 12 airlines from both sides were expected to run more than 100 flights a week.

At a ceremony for the first direct shipping service in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's leader Ma Ying-jeou said: "From now on, dialogue will replace opposition." At a ceremony in Tianjin, Wang Yi, head of the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office, said: "Today is another important day in the history of cross-strait relations."

Taiwanese officials estimated that direct links would save airlines and passengers about 3 billion Taiwan dollars a year and shipping firms more than 4 billion. Trade across the strait was then worth about 100 billion US dollars a year.

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The Olympic Flame: From Olympia to the Top of Everest

On March 24 the Beijing Olympic flame was lit at the ancient site of Olympia in Greece, starting a relay of about 137,000 kilometres that would also climb the world's highest mountain.

The Associated Press reported that day that the flame was lit with the sun's rays inside the stadium where the ancient games were held. The plan was for the torch to reach Beijing on March 31, travel through 20 countries, then return to mainland China — including a trip to the summit of Everest — on an 85,000-mile journey ending at the opening of the Games on August 8.

The ceremony was briefly interrupted: as Liu Qi, president of the Beijing organising committee, gave his speech, protesters slipped past more than 1,000 police onto the field and unfurled a banner, and three members of Reporters Without Borders were detained. A Greek government spokesman condemned "every attempt to interfere with the ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame."

At 9:16 a.m. on May 8 the Olympic torch was lit on the summit of Everest. The British mountaineering magazine grough reported that a team of 19 climbers left their camp at 8,300 m at around 3 a.m. and climbed for just over six hours through cloud and snow to the 8,848 m summit, where Tsering Wangmo, a 21-year-old Tibetan student from Lhasa, held the torch aloft live on television.

The torch was specially designed to withstand high winds, low temperatures and wet conditions; the flame was carried up in a container in a climber's rucksack. A Chinese national flag and two Olympic flags were unfurled at the top. High winds and heavy snow had delayed the attempt earlier in the week.

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The Beijing Paralympics: A Second Great Games

Two weeks after the Olympics closed, Beijing hosted the Summer Paralympics. About 4,000 athletes from 147 countries and regions competed over 11 days.

The Paralympics closed on the evening of September 17 in front of a sellout crowd of 91,000 at the Bird's Nest. According to the Associated Press, China topped the medal table with 89 golds and 211 medals in all, ahead of Britain (42 golds, 102 medals) and the United States (36 golds, 99 medals). Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, called them "the greatest Paralympic Games ever."

Two South Africans stood out: swimmer Natalie du Toit, who lost her left leg in a motorcycle crash in 2001 and had also competed at the Beijing Olympics, won five golds; sprinter Oscar Pistorius, running on carbon-fibre legs, won the 100, 200 and 400 metres.

About 100,000 volunteers staffed the venues. President Hu Jintao said the Games would push the government to improve care for disabled people. The report also recalled the Paralympics' origins: in 1948 the German neurologist Ludwig Guttmann organised a competition in England for soldiers wounded in the Second World War.

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Gulf of Aden: China's Navy Sails for Somali Waters

On December 26, a Chinese naval task force of two destroyers and a supply ship left Sanya on Hainan Island for the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, to escort passing ships.

Somali piracy surged in 2008. AFP reported on December 18 that foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said seven ships linked to China had been attacked in the Gulf of Aden in the first 11 months of the year; a Chinese merchant ship had fought off pirates only the day before. The UN Security Council had just voted unanimously to give nations a one-year mandate to act against pirates inside Somalia. "China welcomes the international cooperation on cracking down on Somalia pirates," Liu said.

According to the BBC (as carried by the Tehran Times), the task force's mission was to protect Chinese vessels from pirates and work with warships from other nations already patrolling the area. It was the Chinese navy's first operation beyond the Pacific, with the first patrol planned to last three months. "Piracy has become an international scourge," said defence ministry spokesman Huang Xueping.

Rear Admiral Du Jingchen said his crews were ready for a complicated, long-term mission. The report noted that China had no bases in the region, so resupplying the ships far from home would be a major challenge.

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Lehman Brothers Collapses: The Financial Tsunami Breaks

On September 15, the 158-year-old investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection. The subprime crisis became a financial tsunami that swept the world.

Bloomberg reported that day that Lehman Brothers Holdings, having failed to find a buyer over the weekend, filed a Chapter 11 petition in the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, listing more than 613 billion dollars of debt. It dwarfed the collapses of WorldCom in 2002 and Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1990, becoming the largest bankruptcy in US history.

NPR reported that Wall Street faced a complete restructuring: the same weekend, Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch, saving it from collapse, while shares of AIG, one of the world's largest insurers, fell 50 percent.

In the weeks that followed, Congress passed an emergency rescue law and central banks around the world cut rates together on October 8. "Bailout" became Merriam-Webster's word of the year.

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Obama Elected: America's First African American President

On November 4, 47-year-old Democratic senator Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain to become the 44th president of the United States.

PBS NewsHour reported on November 4 that around 70,000 supporters in Chicago's Grant Park erupted when the networks projected Obama's win, and he told them that "change has come". Fuelled by huge turnout, he captured battleground states such as Florida, Ohio, Indiana and Virginia.

Obama became America's first African American president, ending eight years of Republican control of the White House under George W. Bush. Speaking in Phoenix, Arizona, McCain congratulated Obama and conceded.

Born in Hawaii, Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, studied at Columbia University and Harvard Law School, and worked as a community organizer in Chicago. His keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention made him a national figure, and he campaigned on "hope" and "change". He took the oath of office on January 20, 2009.

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The Large Hadron Collider: The First Beam Goes Round 27 Kilometres

On September 10, CERN's Large Hadron Collider successfully sent a proton beam all the way around its ring for the first time, starting up the world's most powerful particle accelerator.

CERN's press release that day said the first beam was steered around the full 27 kilometres of the accelerator at 10:28 am. The historic event marked the transition from more than two decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery.

LHC project leader Lyn Evans said: "It's a fantastic moment, we can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe."

Before the start-up, a rumour that the collider would create a black hole and swallow the Earth became a popular topic online. Nine days after it started, the LHC was shut down by a magnet failure and did not run again until late 2009; in 2012, scientists there discovered the Higgs boson.

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Phoenix: Finding Water Ice on Mars

On May 25, NASA's Phoenix lander touched down in the Martian arctic. Its mission was to dig into the soil and look for water and conditions that could support life.

Soon after landing, Phoenix's robotic arm uncovered white material in a trench it had dug. When the trench was photographed again a few days later, the material had vanished — it had sublimated into the thin air, showing it was ice rather than salt.

NPR reported on July 31 that NASA announced Phoenix's TEGA instrument, which heats samples and analyses the gases they release, had confirmed water in a soil sample. Icy samples were "very clumpy" and stuck in the scoop, so the team delivered drier soil instead — and the instrument still detected ice. Principal investigator Peter Smith said you only had to scrape away about two inches of dirt to see it.

NASA then extended the mission to the end of September. As winter came to the Martian arctic, contact with Phoenix was lost in November.

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Euro 2008: Spain Win a Major Title After 44 Years

On June 29, Spain beat Germany 1–0 in the Euro 2008 final at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium, winning their first major title since 1964.

The tournament was co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland. In the 33rd minute of the final, Liverpool striker Fernando Torres ran onto a through ball from Xavi, got past Germany's Philipp Lahm and chipped the ball over goalkeeper Jens Lehmann for the only goal of the game.

Spain controlled the match and Germany never managed a real comeback. The win vindicated 69-year-old coach Luis Aragonés, and Spain's short-passing "tiki-taka" style went on to dominate world football for years.

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Disasters and Conflict: Nargis, the Russia–Georgia War and Mumbai

2008 was also a year of grief. A cyclone, a war and a terrorist attack took many lives in three countries.

Cyclone Nargis (May): On May 2–3, Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar's low-lying Irrawaddy Delta. NPR reported on May 6 that the death toll had reached 15,000 with another 30,000 missing, 10,000 of the dead from a single town; Myanmar's military government was slow to grant visas to international aid workers. Later counts put the dead and missing at about 138,000.

The Russia–Georgia war (August): According to an Amnesty International briefing on August 12, Georgian forces launched an offensive on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, in the early hours of August 8, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent in more troops. Through the mediation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, both sides accepted a six-point peace plan. On August 26 Russia recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, drawing condemnation from the G7.

The Mumbai attacks (November): On the evening of November 26, gunmen launched coordinated attacks on several sites in Mumbai, India, laying siege to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, the Oberoi-Trident hotel and the Nariman House Jewish centre. Al Jazeera reported that Indian forces retook the Taj on November 29, ending the last siege; police said there had been 10 attackers, nine of whom were killed and one captured alive, and the dead included foreigners from Israel, the US, France, Australia and elsewhere.

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Changes of Power: Kosovo's Independence, Castro Steps Down and Medvedev Is Elected

In the first months of 2008 the political map shifted several times: Kosovo declared independence, and both Cuba and Russia got new leaders.

Kosovo declares independence (Feb 17): Reuters reported that day that Kosovo's assembly in the capital, Pristina, adopted a declaration of independence by a show of hands, with all 109 deputies present voting in favour; 11 deputies from ethnic minorities, including Serbs, were absent. Prime Minister Hashim Thaci read the text in parliament. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called Kosovo "a false state" in a televised address, and Russia called for UN Security Council consultations, while the United States and most EU members were expected to recognise it quickly.

Castro steps down (Feb 19): Fidel Castro, 81, announced in a letter published in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma that he would not accept a new term. He had ruled Cuba since 1959, the longest of any head of government in the world. He had handed power to his brother Raúl after intestinal surgery in July 2006, and Raúl, 76, was expected to take over formally when the National Assembly met on February 24. "My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro wrote.

Medvedev elected (Mar 2): On election night, the Associated Press reported that with two-thirds of polling stations counted, Dmitry Medvedev had about 69% of the vote and Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov about 18%. "We will increase stability, improve the quality of life and move forward on the path we have chosen," Medvedev said. He was expected to rule alongside his mentor Vladimir Putin, who would become prime minister. On March 7 the Central Election Commission announced the final result: 70.28% for Medvedev.

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The Movies of 2008: The Dark Knight, Red Cliff and If You Are the One

In 2008 a late actor's Joker shook Hollywood, John Woo's Red Cliff rewrote the box office record books for Chinese-language films, and Feng Xiaogang's If You Are the One closed the year's holiday movie season.

The Dark Knight (July): AFP reported on July 22 that Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, released in North America on July 18, took 158.4 million dollars in its opening weekend, beating Spider-Man 3's record of 151.1 million and helping the overall North American box office to a record 260 million that weekend. Heath Ledger, who played the Joker, had died of an accidental overdose in New York in January; it was his last completed film, and reviewers said his performance deserved a posthumous Oscar nomination. "I think you have to credit this to a large extent to Heath Ledger," said analyst Jeff Bock.

Red Cliff (July): On July 10, John Woo's Red Cliff (Part I) opened in mainland China. The Taipei Times, quoting a China Film Group spokesman, reported that it took 16 million dollars in its first four days — a record opening weekend for a Chinese film in China, ahead of Curse of the Golden Flower and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The report called it "the most expensive movie made in Asia."

If You Are the One (December): On December 18, Feng Xiaogang's comedy If You Are the One, starring Ge You and Shu Qi and telling the story of a wealthy middle-aged man looking for a wife, was released. According to Screen International it took 80 million yuan in its opening weekend and 302 million yuan by January 6, 2009, making it the second-biggest Chinese-language film ever after Red Cliff — on a budget of only 50 million yuan. Donnie Yen's Ip Man was also released in the same holiday season.

The year's box office: Screen International reported that mainland China's 2008 box office reached 4.22 billion yuan, up 26.7% on the year before, with local films and co-productions taking 61%. Red Cliff was the year's top film with 312 million yuan, followed by Painted Skin (230 million), CJ7 (202 million), The Forbidden Kingdom and Kung Fu Panda. As of December the country had 1,545 cinemas with 4,097 screens.

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iPhone 3G and the App Store: The Age of the App Begins

On June 9, Apple unveiled its second iPhone, the iPhone 3G. A month later the App Store opened alongside it, giving phones an official store where you could download software anywhere.

Apple's press release was headlined "Twice as Fast at Half the Price": the iPhone 3G supported 3G networks twice as fast as the original, had built-in GPS, and ran iPhone 2.0 software with Microsoft Exchange email and third-party apps. In the US it cost 199 dollars for 8GB and 299 dollars for 16GB with a two-year AT&T contract.

The iPhone 3G went on sale on July 11 in 22 countries and regions including the US, UK, Japan and Hong Kong, with Apple planning to reach more than 70 countries that year. Mainland China was not on the list; the official version only arrived in 2009 through China Unicom.

On July 14, Apple announced that users had downloaded more than 10 million apps in the App Store's first weekend. More than 800 apps were available, over 200 of them free and more than 90 percent costing under 10 dollars. Steve Jobs said: "The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days."

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T-Mobile G1: The First Android Phone

On September 23, US carrier T-Mobile announced the G1, the world's first phone running Android. Made by HTC, it had a slide-out keyboard and a trackball.

Google's official blog wrote that day that it marked an important milestone in the young history of Android — less than a year after Google and more than 30 technology and mobile companies formed the Open Handset Alliance on November 5, 2007.

The same day Google released the Android 1.0 SDK. The blog said developers had already built more than 1,700 applications for the Android Developer Challenge, and that Google Search, Gmail and Google Maps were all available on Android.

Google stressed that Android was open: apps could use all of the phone's functions, and the Open Handset Alliance would open-source the whole platform by the end of the year so that "everyone will be free to adopt and adapt the technology". Few people then imagined it would become the most widely used phone operating system in the world.

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Nokia: The King of Phones and Its First Touchscreen

In 2008 Nokia was still the undisputed king of mobile phones. But the touchscreen wave set off by the iPhone pushed the Finnish company to launch its first mass-market touchscreen phone in October.

According to Gartner figures reported by Digital-Lifestyles in September, 32.2 million smartphones were sold worldwide in the second quarter of 2008, up 15.7 percent and 11 percent of all phone sales. Nokia sold 15.3 million of them, holding first place with a 46.5 percent share.

In ABI Research's figures for the whole of 2008, Nokia had 38.6 percent of the global phone market and Samsung 16.2 percent; newcomers RIM (BlackBerry) and Apple had just 1.9 and 1.1 percent.

On October 2, Nokia announced the 5800 XpressMusic (codenamed "Tube"). HEXUS reported it was the first retail handset running S60 5th Edition, with a 3.2-inch 640×360 resistive touchscreen, a 3.2-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 3.5 mm headphone jack — widely seen as Nokia's answer to the iPhone. Nokia vice president Jo Harlow said it turned a "user interface" into a "human interface".

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The Netbook Craze: Small Computers, Big Wave

Screens of about 10 inches, low-power processors and low prices — in 2008 the "netbook" became the hottest new kind of PC.

The trend was started by the Asus Eee PC. Citing IDC figures, iTWire reported on October 17 that netbook sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa had "literally exploded" in the third quarter of 2008.

Thanks to netbooks, Acer almost doubled its shipments compared with a year earlier and became the region's top PC vendor for the first time. Asus, riding the continued success of the Eee PC range, shipped more than 2 million units in the quarter and rose to fourth place; the Eee PC's fame also boosted sales of its regular notebooks.

By contrast, HP was unable to take advantage of the demand for netbooks, while Dell's late and limited netbook launch held back its notebook sales.

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MacBook Air: The Laptop in an Envelope

At Macworld on January 15, Steve Jobs slid the MacBook Air out of a manila envelope — "the world's thinnest notebook", as Apple called it.

According to Apple's press release, the MacBook Air was just 0.16 inches thick at its thinnest point, and its maximum height of 0.76 inches was less than the thinnest point of competing notebooks.

It had a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight camera and a trackpad with multi-touch gestures such as pinch, rotate and swipe. The standard model had an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory and an 80GB hard drive, with an optional 64GB solid-state drive.

To get so thin, the MacBook Air dropped the optical drive, offering an external SuperDrive instead. The choice was controversial at the time, but it pointed the way laptops would go for the next decade.

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The Year of the Handheld: PSP-3000 and Nintendo DSi

In autumn 2008 both big handhelds were refreshed: Sony released the PSP-3000 with a better screen and a microphone, and Nintendo released the camera-equipped DSi.

On August 20, Sony announced the new PSP-3000. Its 4.3-inch LCD offered higher contrast and a wider colour range, with anti-reflection technology for better visibility outdoors, and a built-in microphone for Skype calls. It launched in October in Japan, Asia, North America and Europe.

Reporting from the Leipzig games convention, The Register noted that the PSP-3000 matched the PSP-2000 in size and look, and would go on sale in Europe and the US on October 15 in game bundles, in white, black and silver.

Nintendo unveiled the DSi at a press conference in Japan in October. Gamasutra reported on October 31 that it had two 0.3-megapixel cameras, larger screens and a 12 percent thinner body, replaced the Game Boy Advance slot with an SD card slot, and could download games and play AAC music. The DSi launched in Japan on November 1 with 200,000 units shipped, and Satoru Iwata said it would reach the West before autumn 2009.

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The 4th-Generation iPod nano: Nine Colours, Shake to Shuffle

On September 9, Apple introduced the fourth-generation iPod nano. Its tall, slim shape was back, and nine bright colours made it the most eye-catching music player of the year.

Apple's press release called it "the thinnest iPod ever", with a curved aluminium and glass body in nine colours: silver, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, (PRODUCT) RED and black.

A built-in accelerometer switched to Cover Flow when you turned it sideways and shuffled to a new song when you gave it a light shake. The new Genius feature built playlists of similar songs from your library. It played music for up to 24 hours and cost 149 dollars for 8GB or 199 dollars for 16GB.

TechCrunch's verdict: "tiny and colorful, like a baby cockatoo" — although the writer wished Apple had done more with the accelerometer.

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Shanzhai Phones: Huaqiangbei and the Golden Age of "Bandit" Handsets

Dual SIM cards, eight speakers, TV tuners, flashing lights — around 2008 China's "shanzhai" phone industry was at its peak, and Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei electronics district was the hub for phones sold across China and beyond.

Reporting from Shenzhen in July 2009, CNN cited Beijing's CCID Consulting: of the 750 million handsets made in China in 2008, about 150 million — one in five — were counterfeit or off-brand. Over 51 million were sold in China, and the rest were exported to dozens of countries in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Typically selling for around 100 dollars, they pushed down the prices of brand-name phones and began taking their market share.

The industry was made possible by the Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek. A 2020 retrospective by PingWest explains that around 2005 MediaTek introduced a "turnkey" package that bundled the processor, baseband, Wi-Fi, GPS, FM radio and Bluetooth, even the software, dramatically lowering the barrier to making phones. The article calls 2008 Huaqiangbei's heyday, quoting a report from that year that nearly 5,000 traders applied to rent stalls in a single day when the Mingtong Digital Mall opened, with lots drawn one in ten. iSuppli estimated China's shanzhai shipments at about 101 million units in 2008.

Macworld reported in August 2009 that Chinese markets sold miniature iPhones, phones that doubled as shavers, phones shaped like cigarette packs, and near-perfect look-alikes of the iPhone and Nokia N97. But the copies sometimes lacked the original's functions, could come with malware pre-installed, and had safety hazards such as exploding batteries. CNN noted that Nokia said it was working with the Chinese authorities against counterfeit phones.

At the same time, Chinese MP3 and MP4 players filled the same markets and the little shops outside schools — together with shanzhai phones, they were many students' first gadgets.

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China Leads the World Online: 253 Million Internet Users

In July the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) reported that by the end of June 2008 China had 253 million internet users — more than the United States, and the most in the world.

DigiTimes reported on July 29 that CNNIC's half-yearly survey counted about 252.9 million users, making China the country with the largest online population for the first time.

iTWire reported that the number of Chinese users had grown 56 percent in a year, but only 19.1 percent of the population was online, far below the roughly 71 percent in the US — plenty of room to grow. For comparison, Nielsen counted about 223.1 million US internet users in June 2008.

Many Chinese users first went online in internet cafés: signing up for a QQ number, playing online games, posting in forums. By the end of 2008 the number had risen to 298 million.

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The Social Network Battle: Facebook Overtakes MySpace

Social networks were the hottest topic on the internet in 2008. That year Facebook caught up with and passed the reigning giant, MySpace, in worldwide visitors.

TechCrunch reported on June 12, citing comScore data, that April 2008 was the milestone: Facebook officially caught up to MySpace in unique monthly worldwide visitors, both attracting about 115 million people a month. In the US, though, MySpace still led easily with 72 million monthly visitors to Facebook's 36 million.

By September the gap had widened. TechCrunch reported on October 29 that Facebook drew 161.1 million unique visitors worldwide that month against MySpace's 117.9 million — a gap of 43.2 million, more than Facebook's entire US audience. Facebook led in France and the UK, while MySpace was ahead in the US, Germany and Japan.

In China the same year, Kaixin001's "buy and sell friends" and "parking wars" games became an office craze, and Xiaonei was a must for university students. CNNIC's timeline of China's internet in 2008 notes that from May, as Kaixin and Xiaonei spread rapidly, social networking became one of the most popular internet applications of the year.

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Online Video: Hulu Launches and Tries Licensed Streaming

2008 was a breakout year for online video. In a world ruled by YouTube, two big US media companies joined forces to launch Hulu, a site built on licensed shows.

On March 12, Hulu — a joint venture of News Corp and NBC Universal — opened to the public. Advanced Television reported that it launched with full episodes of more than 250 TV series and more than 100 films, plus licensing deals with the NBA and NHL.

One of Hulu's innovations was letting viewers choose their ads: pick one of three commercials, or watch a film trailer before a show in exchange for no ad breaks. Chief executive Jason Kilar said: "We want to put users in control."

Fortune noted that unlike YouTube, full of unauthorised clips, all of Hulu's content came from deals with entertainment companies. Many people had mocked the idea, saying "old media doesn't get the internet", but most critics who tried the site changed their minds. In China, sites such as Youku, Tudou and 56.com were competing hard at the same time.

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Born in 2008: Stack Overflow, Spotify and Taobao Mall

Many websites and services still in use today were born in 2008: the programmers' Q&A site Stack Overflow, the music streaming service Spotify, the code-hosting site GitHub, and China's Taobao Mall (later Tmall).

Taobao Mall (April): ITBear reported in April 2008 that Taobao had begun testing a business-to-consumer service; vice president Huang Ruo said it would be "a Walmart that never closes, 24 hours a day". The mall had a "3+3" rule (no more than six sellers per brand), required 100 percent genuine goods with invoices, and offered seven-day no-questions-asked returns. Nearly 3,000 brands had already joined, including Procter & Gamble, Motorola, Adidas, Lenovo, Aigo and Li Ning.

Stack Overflow (September): Co-founder Joel Spolsky announced on his blog on September 15 that after a very short five-week private beta, Stack Overflow was open to the public. Every question, he wrote, should be like the Wikipedia article for some extremely narrow programming question, with the best answers voted up to the top.

Spotify (October): On October 7, Spotify launched in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Norway and Sweden, with licensing deals with Universal, Sony BMG, EMI, Warner and others. Users could stream millions of tracks on demand, with a free ad-supported version and a monthly premium subscription.

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The Bitcoin White Paper: A Message to a Cryptography Mailing List

On October 31, as the financial crisis swept the world, someone signing as Satoshi Nakamoto posted a message to a small cryptography mailing list with a paper attached: "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".

The message, titled "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper", was sent at 14:10 US Eastern time. Nakamoto wrote that he had been working on a new electronic cash system that was fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.

The message listed the system's main properties: double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network; there is no mint or other trusted party; participants can be anonymous; and new coins are made from Hashcash-style proof-of-work, which also secures the network against double-spending.

The paper's abstract explained further: the network timestamps transactions by hashing them into a chain of proof-of-work, and the longest chain proves both the sequence of events and that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as honest nodes control most of that power, they will outpace attackers; nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will.

For the last two months of 2008, Bitcoin was still just a paper and a thread of discussion on a mailing list.

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Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1

In 2008 most computers in China still ran Windows XP. That year Microsoft released an important service pack for both XP and Vista.

On February 4, Microsoft announced that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 had been released to manufacturing and would reach customers from March, starting with volume licensing customers. The announcement said SP1 brought improvements to reliability, security and performance. Windows Server 2008 was finished the same day.

On May 6, Windows XP Service Pack 3 was released. The SANS Internet Storm Center's analysis that day said SP3 mainly bundled all updates since SP2, but also brought some Vista features to XP, such as Network Access Protection and black hole router detection, and added WPA2 wireless security. Users who had upgraded to IE7 could no longer go back to IE6 after installing it.

XP SP3 was the last service pack for XP. Many people stayed on XP until Windows 7 arrived in 2009.

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Microsoft's Year: The Yahoo Bid Fails and Bill Gates Leaves Full-Time Work

Two big things happened at Microsoft in 2008: a takeover battle that gripped Silicon Valley came to nothing, and founder Bill Gates ended his full-time career at the company.

On January 31 Microsoft made an unsolicited offer for Yahoo at 31 dollars a share. USA Today reported on May 4 that after three months of back-and-forth, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in Seattle and raised the offer to 33 dollars a share (about 47.5 billion dollars), but Yahoo held out for 37.

On May 3 Microsoft withdrew its offer. Ballmer's letter to Yang said a proxy fight could take months and did not make sense, and Microsoft said it would pursue other online efforts. Yang said: "This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position."

June 27 was Bill Gates's last day as a full-time Microsoft employee, after 33 years at the company. Newser, citing the Seattle Times, reported that more than 800 employees, family members and friends gathered at the corporate conference centre in Redmond to see him off. A tearful Ballmer said: "We've been given a enormous opportunity, and Bill gave us that opportunity." Gates, also tearing up, said: "My life's work really is about software and working with incredible people."

The local Herald wrote that Gates would "still be plenty involved in the company", but would focus on the Gates Foundation in Seattle and its "wide-ranging work to solve a variety of the world's ills."

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The Browser Wars: Firefox 3 Sets a World Record, Chrome Arrives

In 2008 Internet Explorer still had most of the market, but two new browsers changed the game: Firefox 3 set a Guinness world record, and Google launched its own browser, Chrome.

Mozilla named June 17, Firefox 3's release date, "Download Day". On July 2 it announced a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours: 8,002,530. Fans around the world had made more than 1.7 million pledges to download it.

InfoWorld reported that the flood of visitors crippled Mozilla's servers, delaying the US start by about two hours; at the peak there were 17,000 downloads a minute. Firefox users held 757 parties around the world. By comparison, Firefox 2 had 1.6 million downloads on its first day.

On September 2 Google released the Chrome beta in more than 40 languages and published its full source code as the Chromium project. Chrome's selling points were a clean interface and a multi-process design that ran each tab separately; it later became the most used browser in the world.

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Chinese PC Essentials: The "Free Forever" Antivirus War

In 2008, the first thing you did after reinstalling Windows XP was install QQ, TTPlayer, Baofeng, Xunlei, Sogou Pinyin and an antivirus program. That year, the antivirus market went through a "free" revolution.

An analysis of the 2008 antivirus market called "free" the year's biggest topic. Early in the year Rising offered six months free; then Kaspersky, together with 360 Safe Guard, gave out six-month free activation codes; newcomer Dr.Web offered a three-month free trial.

In July 2008 Qihoo launched 360 Antivirus, "free forever", smashing the floor of the price war and setting off a heated debate between "free" and "paid". On July 24 Rising announced the permanently free Rising Kaka 6.0, bundled with a year's free use of Rising Antivirus 2008 and its personal firewall. Rising vice president Mao Yiding said the free strategy had won the company more than 30 million free users.

Viruses were exploding too: 9,306,985 new viruses appeared online in the first ten months of 2008, 12.16 times as many as a year earlier, with more than 7.76 million Trojans and backdoors. Mid-year, Rising, Trend Micro and Kaspersky all launched "cloud security" products.

Over the next few years paid antivirus faded from China's consumer market, and "free plus ads" became the most common business model for Chinese software.

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Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: Bringing Linux to Everyday Computers

In April, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, codenamed "Hardy Heron", was released. This long-term support release gave many people their first try of Linux on their own computer.

Network World reported that Ubuntu 8.04 aimed to make Linux as desktop-friendly as Windows or Mac OS X. Newcomers could use Wubi to install Ubuntu from inside Windows without repartitioning.

On the desktop, it added PulseAudio for per-application sound control, Xorg 7.3 with dynamic screen configuration, PolicyKit permissions and AppArmor and SELinux security; the server edition added KVM virtualisation, iSCSI support and Active Directory integration.

Issue 88 of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter also reported that PC makers in several Russian cities had started selling computers with Ubuntu preinstalled.

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Grand Theft Auto IV: The Biggest Entertainment Launch Ever

On April 29, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV came out on Xbox 360 and PS3. Players took the role of Eastern European immigrant Niko Bellic in Liberty City, a version of New York.

Reuters (via NBC News) reported that publisher Take-Two sold about 3.6 million copies worldwide on launch day and some 6 million in the first week, earning more than 500 million dollars — beating the 400 million dollars set by Halo 3 the year before.

Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said: "Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date."

Engadget reported that sales on April 29 alone came to about 310 million dollars. Take-Two was facing a takeover offer from Electronic Arts at the time, and the results became a central point in the negotiations.

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Metal Gear Solid 4: Solid Snake's Final Mission

On June 12, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots launched worldwide as a PS3 exclusive. An aging "Old Snake" faced the last mission of the series.

Solid Snake, his body aging rapidly, takes on one final mission: to stop his nemesis Liquid Snake from seizing control of the world's private armies. The disc also included the online game Metal Gear Online.

Konami announced that it shipped more than a million copies in Europe in the first week, and the limited edition of 25,000 sets — with a making-of Blu-ray, soundtrack CD and "Old Snake" figure — sold out almost immediately. In the US, NPD data put it at the top of June's chart with about 775,000 copies, and it drove PS3 sales to their highest level outside the holiday season.

Engadget reported in November that the game had sold 4.33 million copies worldwide in its first four months — 38 percent of all Konami games sold from April to September 2008.

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Nintendo's Year: The Wii Rules the US Charts

In 2008 the Wii and its motion games found their way into countless living rooms. The four best-selling games in America that year were all on the Wii.

According to NPD's annual figures, published by Shacknews in January 2009, the best-selling US games of 2008 were Wii Play (5.28 million), Mario Kart Wii (5 million), Wii Fit (4.53 million) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (4.17 million); Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360 came fifth.

Wii Fit came with a balance board for yoga, push-ups and balance games. NPD's June report noted that even with limited supply, Wii Fit was the fourth best-selling game that month.

The US games industry took in 21.33 billion dollars that year, including 10.96 billion from console software, up 26 percent from 2007.

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The Autumn Blockbusters: Fallout 3 and Wrath of the Lich King

Autumn 2008 was a feast for gamers: Spore (September), Fallout 3 (October), World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (November) and Left 4 Dead (November) came out one after another.

Bethesda's Fallout 3 launched in North America on October 28 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Gamasutra reported on November 6 that it shipped 4.7 million copies worldwide in its first week, worth potentially more than 300 million dollars, with midnight launches at more than 2,000 stores in North America.

On November 13, Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft's second expansion, opened the continent of Northrend and raised the level cap from 70 to 80. PC World (via ABC News) reported that Blizzard sold more than 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours — about 400,000 more than The Burning Crusade — making it the fastest-selling PC game ever, with 15,000 stores holding midnight launch parties.

Blizzard also said World of Warcraft had more than 11 million subscribers before the expansion launched. In China the game was run by The9 and was one of the most popular games in internet cafés.

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Indie Games and Player Creativity: Braid and LittleBigPlanet

In 2008 small teams and player-made content took centre stage in gaming for the first time.

On August 6, Jonathan Blow's independently developed Braid came out on Xbox Live Arcade. Players control a tie-wearing gentleman who can manipulate time, travelling through six worlds to rescue a princess, each world with its own rules of time.

Engadget's review round-up on August 7 listed IGN at 88, Edge at 90 and Eurogamer at a perfect 100. IGN wrote: "Xbox Live Arcade needs more games like Braid... Imaginative, innovative, and engrossing, Braid is a spectacular achievement."

On October 27, Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet was released in North America. Sony's press release explained that players guide the lovable Sackboy and can use the same tools as the developers to build their own levels and share them with the world through PlayStation Network — "Play, Create and Share".

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Chinese Online Games: The Rise of CrossFire and Dungeon Fighter

In 2008's internet cafés, alongside World of Warcraft and Audition, more and more people were playing two Korean games newly brought to China by Tencent: CrossFire and Dungeon Fighter Online.

Games portal 17173 wrote on October 23 that Tencent had launched several new games in 2008, "the most eye-catching of which were CrossFire and Dungeon Fighter Online". At the sixth China Online Game Expo, which opened that day at the Beijing Exhibition Center, Tencent showed games including Xunxian, Dungeon Fighter Online, CrossFire and QQ Xianjing.

On November 14, 17173 announced the results of its eighth China Online Game Market Survey. The survey began in September, collected 650,000 valid responses and covered 300 games.

The "top 15 online games by market share in 2008" were, in order: World of Warcraft, Audition, Zhengtu, Dungeon Fighter Online, Fantasy Westward Journey, Zhu Xian, Tian Long Ba Bu, KartRider, The Legend of Mir 2, Mo Yu, JX Online World, Hot Blood Jiang Hu, QQ Huaxia, CrossFire and Perfect World International. In its first year, Dungeon Fighter was already in the top four.

Away from the internet cafés, primary-school children got an online game of their own: Mole's World (Mole Manor), a browser game for kids from Shanghai's Taomee. Players become a little mole, make friends around the manor and raise a pet called a Lahm, all without installing anything. According to an October 2009 report in Cyzone magazine, the game was aimed at 7- to 12-year-olds and opened its public beta in May 2008, reaching 2 million registered users within three months; a 10-yuan monthly membership followed in November 2008. To reassure parents, the game suggested eye exercises or a stretch after every 45 minutes of play, and its servers shut down from midnight to 6 a.m. By autumn 2009 Mole's World had 30 million registered users and about 10 million active users.

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