Well, this is it. 12 hours to go and then we’re in a new year.
2018 was a hectic and eventful year for us all. Not only in
technology we had a lot of improvements, but also changes
in the way we act together. And this Blog woke up again…

So while 2018 is ending, let’s have a look at what changed:

• Apple released new gadgets: The Apple Watch Series 4, the new Mac mini, the iPhone XS and XR and the new MacBook Air.
• Intel has introduced the 8th and 9th-gen Core i3,i5,i7 and i9 processor lines!
• AMD has introduced the new Ryzen series and the Threadripper has been launched as a real processor beast!
• NVidia has released its Geforce RTX series. Raytracing for everybody!
• Sandisk has officially announced a 512GB microSDXC card. A LOT of storage on small room!
• Seagate has announced 16TB HDD.
• SSDs with 4TB size become affordable.
• 4K displays widely available, 8K on the go!
• Dolby Atmos de-facto standard for every new home-cinema amplifier.
• Broadband internet with Gigabit speed becomes available to more and more people.
• Salt in Switzerland has announced 10Gbps line for home usage (WHAT THE F***!!!).
• 5G mobile network will be launched in 2019 in various countries. Tests successful!
• New crypto-miner-trojan-horses ecrypt your computer AND demand you to pay.
• Nasty virusses that nest within your BIOS infect your computer even after fresh install.

Sad news ahead:

Some famous actors and celebs have passed away:

• Stephen Hawking, extremely talented and highly intelligent astrophysicist, († March, 14^th)
• Dieter Thomas Heck, famous german entertainer and showmaster, († August, 23^rd)
• Barbara Bush, wife of former U.S. President George Bush, († April, 17^th)
• George H.W. Bush, 41^st President of the United States, († November, 30^th)
• Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General († August, 18^th)
• Gary Kurtz, director and film maker (Star Wars!), († September, 23^rd)
• Gilberto Benetton, fashion stylist and Formula1 team owner (Benetton fashion), († October, 22^nd)
• Paul Allen, Co-Founder of Microsoft, († October, 15^th)
• Graciano (‘Rocky’) Roccigiani, world-famous pro box champion, († October, 1^st)
• Joseph Jackson, father of Michael Jackson, († June, 27^th)
• Wolfgang Völz, famous german actor and voice actor, († May, 2^nd)
• DJ Avicii, famous DJ, (April, 20^th)
• Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA Sweden, († January, 27^th)
• Dolores O’Riordan, main singer of “The Cranberries”, († January, 15^th)
• Burt Reynolds, famous american actor, († September, 6^th)

Well… that’s quite a lot that has happened in the last 365 days.

But now let’s look ahead and while New Zealand is now celebrating the new year, the team of Netsparks Blog has to fill another 12 hours and the USA have to wait another 18 to 21 hours until they can celebrate!

The team of Netspark’s blog is now signing off and wishes all of you a happy new year!

See you in 2019!