Cover image via SAYS
1. It's not a rumour anymore – Finnish smartphone brand Nokia is looking to reclaim its place as the king of smartphones in 2017!
Image via Phone Arena
Yes, new Nokia phones will be announced within next year's first half! After a disastrous relationship with Windows, the smartphone company has turned to Google's Android to revamp its line of handsets.
**The new Nokias will be manufactured by Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile and sold by a Finnish company led by veteran Nokia executives called HMD Global.**
2. The Note 7 worldwide recall that left Samsung bruised and battered
Image via Android Authority
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was supposed to be one of the best smartphones of 2016 but its lifespan was shortlived after cases of exploding batteries started emerging in many parts of the world.
**The company had no choice but to permanently discontinue the Galaxy Note 7 with losses estimated to be around USD17 billion**.
3. Nintendo's Pokémon GO took the world by storm but the hype died down just a few months later after its release
Image via Upload VR
One of the most anticipated mobile games of this year, Pokémon GO, was released in July in a number of countries before it was made available in Malaysia a month later.
**But the craze slowly fizzled away, so much so that more than 10 million users worldwide have [stopped playing](http://says.com/my/news/more-than-10-million-users-have-stopped-playing-pokemon-go) the game just a few weeks after the release**.
4. Who could forget Apple's courageous year?
Image via Mirror
Apple shocked the tech world when it announced that **the 3.5mm headphone jack would not be making its way to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.**
When describing this change, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said it was a "courageous" move.
5. Google announced its very own line of smartphones
Image via CNET
The search giant and creator of the Android operating system debuted its two newest flagship phones – the Pixel and the Pixel XL – back in October.
**No word as to when the handsets will be released in Malaysia.**
6. Facebook opened its office in Malaysia, continues to dominate Southeast Asia
Image via NST
The social networking giant set up operations in May to "help Malaysians and businesses connect in more meaningful ways."
**The local team is based in KL Sentral**.
7. webe, a telco that offers unlimited data launched in Malaysia
Image via Glassdoor
webe, a subsidiary under TM (Telekom Malaysia) unveiled its mobile data service that will not have any quota restrictions on Internet usage for as low as RM79 in August.
**The data plan does not come with a contract which means users can cancel the plan whenever they want to. Other features of the plan include unlimited data usage, free calls and text messages.**
8. The most-subscribed YouTuber in the world, PewDiePie, threatened to delete his account
Image via NY Mag
PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, released a video lamenting some of the issues he has had with YouTube recently, saying he would delete his YouTube channel once he reaches 50 million subscribers.
**Well, Kjellberg did kind of fulfil his promise by deleting his second channel, Jack septiceye2. The PewDiePie channel remains on YouTube with just over 50 million subscribers.**
9. Tech-savvy thieves have been using a "relay attack unit" to steal cars with push-button ignitions
Image via Etoni
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a nonprofit insurance industry organisation in America, warned about **the "mystery device" that could be used to steal cars with push-button ignition.**
10. Netflix extended its service to 130 countries including Malaysia
Image via Business Pundit
Netflix's arrival in Malaysia was part of a huge global push that saw the service going live in more than 130 countries yesterday, **covering almost the entire globe except China.**
11. Japanese auto supplier Takata began recalling its faulty airbags in a number of cars
Image via Atkins And Markoff
Back in June, a 44-year-old driver of a Honda City died after a shrapnel pierced her in the chest. Her car was involved in an accident with a Mercedes-Benz.
**Car brands like Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Subaru were involved in the major recall.**
12. The world's first driverless taxi kicked off in Singapore
Image via City Am
Back in August, select members of the public were able to hail free rides through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup.
**nuTonomy hopes to eventually open the trial to a "few dozen" more people in Singapore before making the service commercially available here in 2018.**
13. Leading memory card maker SanDisk unveiled the biggest SD card in the world – a prototype card with an outrageous 1 terabyte of memory
Image via SanDisk
Western Digital, SanDisk's parent company, dropped the one terabyte bomb at the Photokina 2016 photography show back in September.
**The product currently still only exists as a prototype, but will probably be released soon. There's no pricing information available yet, but it certainly won't be cheap.**
