Computer history - 2016
Major computer events in 2016
On March 12, 2016, AlphaGo, a DeepMind AI (Artificial Intelligence) from Google, beats Go champion Lee Se-dol for the third time in playing the ancient Chinese board game of Go. Although AlphaGo won the championship, Lee did win the fourth game.
On October 11, 2016, Samsung announced it was permanently discontinuing the production of the Galaxy Note 7 after several of the early and recalled versions were catching on fire. The company says the decision could cost as much as $3 billion.
2016 computer and technology top terms
The following are some top computer and technology-related terms in alphabetical order that were introduced or popularized in 2016.
New computer products and services introduced in 2016
On January 5, 2016, the video game streaming service Mixer was released.
Kotlin was released on February 15, 2016, by JetBrains.
In March 2016, Amazon introduced the first version of the Amazon Echo Dot.
On March 30, 2016, Microsoft released the developer edition of the Microsoft HoloLens.
Vivaldi was released on April 6, 2016.
The game Overwatch was released by Blizzard on May 24, 2016.
Apple introduced macOS X 10.12, code-named Sierra, at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) on June 13, 2016. Apple also announced that "Mac OS" would now be called "macOS." The operating system was made available for everyone on September 20, 2016.
DTube, a decentralized video-sharing platform, was released in July 2016.
Pokémon GO was released on July 6, 2016, for Android phones and iPhones. Within a week, it was downloaded more than 10 million times and became the fastest-growing app in history. According to SurveyMonkey, the game also became the most active game in July when it surpassed 21 million active users.
The open source operating system Fuchsia was released on August 15, 2016.
Google Duo was released on August 16, 2016.
Google released Android version 7.0 (Nougat) on August 22, 2016, and introduced the Google Daydream View.
On September 16, 2016, Apple announced the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and that they had discontinued the 3.5mm headphone jack with the introduction of AirPods.
The Apple Watch Series 2 was released on September 16, 2016.
Comma.ai released openpilot in 2016.
MetaMask was released in 2016.
Microsoft released Office 365 and Excel 2016 in 2016.
Microsoft released Word 2016 in 2016.
Microsoft released Excel 2016 for Mac in 2018.
TikTok was released in September 2016. 
On October 4, 2016, Google introduced the Google Pixel smartphone, new Wi-Fi routers, a virtual reality headset, new Chromecast devices, and the Google Home.
The second generation of the Amazon Fire TV Stick with the Alexa Voice Remote was released on October 20, 2016.
Mastodon was introduced in October 2016.
Microsoft Flow was released in October 2016.
AMD introduced the Infinity Fabric system bus technology in December 2016.
Bridgefy was introduced in 2016.
Google introduced Google Assistant in 2016.
Houseparty was introduced in 2016.
Notion was released in 2016.
In 2016, HTC diversified from smartphones, partnering with Valve Corporation to create the HTC Vive, a Virtual Reality headset known as the HTC Vive.
The Moto Z was released in 2016.
Microsoft released the Surface Studio in 2016.
The Oculus Rift VR (Virtual Reality) headset was released in 2016
Samsung released the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and Samsung Family Hub in 2016.
Bitmoji was acquired by Snap in 2016.
Fluster began being developed in 2016, and the project became Ruffle.
Google Podcasts was released in 2016.
Wallpaper Engine was introduced in 2016.
WireGuard was authored by security engineer Jason Donenfeld beginning in 2016.
Dell released the XPS 8910 in 2016.
Computer and technology-related events in 2016
IBM purchased the Weather Company's product and technology assets on January 29, 2016.
The Google Chrome browser stopped supporting the SPDY network protocol in May 2016.
On June 20, 2016, the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer from China topped the list of the world's most powerful computers. The computer can perform around 93,000 trillion calculations per second.
The IFTF (Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation) is a nonprofit organization founded on June 30, 2016.
Ethereum Classic, a cryptocurrency, was released in July 2016.
YouTube Go was released in September 2016.
In October 2016, the Dirty CoW vulnerability in the Linux kernel was discovered that exploited a race condition in its copy-on-write mechanism.
On October 20, 2016, Otto and Budweiser completed the world's first shipment by a self-driving truck.
At approximately 7:00 A.M. EST on October 21, 2016, Dyn began experiencing a DDoS attack. The attack was highly distributed and involved tens of millions of IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. Affected companies include Twitter, SoundCloud, Spotify, Netflix, Reddit, Disqus, PayPal, Etsy, GitHub, Time, and Sony.
On November 21, 2016, Oracle announced it had purchased Dyn.
In 2016, in the final year of his two terms of office, U.S. President Obama delivered the keynote at SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive.
MLG (Major League Gaming) was purchased by Activision Blizzard in 2016.
The OnePlus 3 and 3T smartphones were released in 2016.
In 2016, the company Phoebe started using the brand name Airlink101.
Major security vulnerabilities were discovered in the way ImageMagick processes file names. Nicknamed "ImageTragick," these security holes potentially allowed RCE (Remote Code Execution) by an attacker on the server.
In 2016, over 70 selfie deaths occurred in India when people were taking pictures near railroad tracks and unaware of oncoming trains.
In 2016, Forbes magazine called Unit 8200 "Israel's secret startup machine."
In 2016, Ubuntu 16.04 introduced a segregated development model that satisfies the ZFS license terms and began including ZFS support as a kernel module.
The community-focused blockchain Steem, the first app to use Steem (Steenut), was introduced in 2016.
Computer company events in 2016
AddThis was sold to Oracle on January 5, 2016.
On January 14, 2016, Nokia announced it had taken control of Alcatel to form Alcatel-Lucent.
Microsemi acquired PMC-Sierra on January 15, 2016.
Bit9 + Carbon Black changed its name to Carbon Black on February 1, 2016.
Google parent Alphabet passed Apple's market cap to become the world's most valuable public company on February 2, 2016.
In February, the FBI requested Apple create an iOS version to bypass the iPhone 5C security to investigate the holiday party massacre in 2015.
Time Inc. announced on February 11, 2016, that it would acquire Viant, the parent company of Myspace.
On February 16, 2016, Apple notified its customers about the U.S. government's demand that Apple create a tool to break or circumvent iPhone encryption.
EZchip Semiconductor merged with Mellanox Technologies on February 23, 2016.
Activision Blizzard closed its acquisition of King (developer of the Candy Crush Saga game) on February 23, 2016, for $5.9 billion.
Intel announced its plans to lay off 12,000 workers, or 11% of its workforce, as it moved into other businesses.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was enacted on April 14, 2016. Any individual or business that handles personal data had until May 28, 2018, to begin following the GDPR rules.
Lexmark announced on April 20, 2016, that Apex Technology of China would acquire it for $3.6 billion.
Nokia announced it had acquired Withings for €170 million on April 26, 2016.
On April 29, 2016, Rovi announced it would buy TiVo for $1.1 billion and use the Tivo name for its company.
Joshua Brown became the first person to die in a self-driving car accident while driving his Tesla Model S on May 7, 2016.
Western Digital announced its approval to purchase SanDisk on May 10, 2016.
HPE announced in May 2016 that it would sell its enterprise services division to CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation) for $8.5 billion, which would help form DXC Technology.
The iMesh website and service shut down on June 9, 2016.
After almost 14 years of operation, Gawker Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 10, 2016.
On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced it had agreed to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion.
On July 14, 2016, Rhapsody was rebranded as Napster.
SoftBank announced its plans to buy ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) Holdings for $32 billion on July 17, 2016.
Verizon confirmed it would purchase Yahoo for $4.8 billion on July 25, 2016.
Carbon Black acquired Confer, an antivirus company, in July 2016.
Corel acquired Mindjet MindManager from Spigit in August 2016.
Nordic Games changed its name to THQ Nordic in August 2016.
On September 6, 2016, 130 ITT Technical Institute campuses closed, affecting more than 40,000 students and 8,000 employees.
On September 12, 2016, Hewlett Packard announced it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Samsung's printer business.
On September 15, 2016, Logitech announced it had purchased Saitek from Mad Catz for $13 million in cash.
Snapchat Inc. shortened its name to Snap Inc. on September 24, 2016.
On September 30, 2016, Avast announced it had acquired a majority stake in AVG and would be operating as a single company as of Monday, October 3, 2016.
On October 31, 2016, THQ Nordic announced its acquisition of NovaLogic's franchises.
In October 2016, LDiscovery announced the acquisition of Kroll OnTrack and changed its name to KrolLDiscovery.
On November 1, 2016, HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) announced that it had completed its acquisition of SGI.
On November 14, 2016, Samsung Electronics announced plans to buy Harman for $8 billion.
On November 21, 2016, Symantec announced it had purchased the LifeLock company for $2.3 billion.
Grace Hopper (Posthumously), Bill Gates, and Margaret Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 22, 2016.
On November 30, 2016, Fitbit announced plans to purchase Pebble for as much as $40 million.
Apple released the Apple AirPods wireless headphones on December 13, 2016.
In December 2016, Platinum Equity acquired Emerson Network Power from Emerson Electric and officially renamed the company to Vertiv Holdings Co.
Apple introduced the Touch Bar in 2016.
Bell Labs was acquired in 2016 by Nokia and renamed Nokia Bell Labs.
Bethesda.net was introduced in 2016.
Datamax-O'Neil became part of Honeywell International Inc. in 2016.
Fairchild Semiconductor was purchased by and dissolved into ON Semiconductor in 2016.
L-3 Communications Holdings changed its name to L3 Technologies in 2016.
Microchip Technology, Inc. agreed to acquire Atmel in January 2016.
Figma was released in 2016.
Savoir-Faire Linux released Jami in 2016.
In 2016, QLogic was acquired by Cavium Technology for approximately $1.3 billion.
Analog Devices agreed to buy Linear Technology for 14.8 billion dollars in July 2016.
Linktree came online in 2016.
Sony rebranded the Vegas Pro series of products as "Sony Vegas" in 2016.
In 2016, OwnCloud development was split, and many original developers forked the source code to create a competing product called Nextcloud.
Sunbeamtech went out of business in 2016.
Vertiv was founded in 2016.
Security breaches and leaks in 2016
In August 2016, Dropbox began to force password resets after discovering that over 68 million accounts were shared from an earlier 2012 attack.
On September 26, 2016, Yahoo confirmed that hackers stole account information of around 500 million users in a network breach in 2014.
A hack on Uber happened in 2016 where hackers downloaded the names, e-mails, and phone numbers of 57 million app users, along with 600,000 driver's licenses. The hack went undisclosed until 2022, when the hackers testified that they agreed to sign an Uber nondisclosure agreement. Instead of disclosing the hack, Uber wrote it off as a bug bounty.
Computer-related TV shows and movies released in 2016
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, was released on January 23, 2016. The show is about Werner Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world.
The documentary film Traceroute, directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner, covered nerd culture's history, politics, and impact and was released on April 28, 2016.
The documentary Zero Days talks about Stuxnet and was released on July 8, 2016.
The movie Hidden Figures was released on December 10, 2016. The movie is about the true story of a team of female African-American mathematicians (human computers) who helped NASA during the early years.
8 Bit Generation: The Commodore Wars documentary about Jack Tramiel and his invention of the Commodore was released in 2016.
Dark Net documentary TV series, which explores the broader reaches of the Internet and its users with a look inside the vast cyber netherworld, was released in 2016.
Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee documentary about John McAfee, who made millions from his antivirus software and his scandalous lifestyle, was released in 2016.
The movie Hacker was released in 2016. The movie is about a computer hacker who turns to a life of crime and identity theft.
The documentary Silicon Cowboys discussing the start of Compaq and its battle with IBM, was released in 2016.
The movie Snowden was released in 2016. The movie is about the story of Edward Snowden's disclosure of NSA's (National Security Agency) illegal surveillance techniques.
Discontinued products and services in 2016
Microsoft ended support for Windows XP Embedded on January 12, 2016.
Google announced that it would shut down Picasa on March 15, 2016.
On October 27, 2016, Twitter announced it would discontinue the Vine mobile app in the coming months.
Apple discontinued the 3.5mm headphone jack and introduced AirPods.
Apple confirmed in 2016 that it no longer intends to support or update QuickTime on PCs (personal computers) running Windows.
Mozilla discontinued the Firefox OS (Operating System) project in 2016.
In 2016, Project Ara was canceled, and all development of the modular Android smartphone was stopped.
Computer pioneer deaths in 2016
Peter Naur passed away on January 3, 2016 (Age: 87).
Edward Yourdon passed away on January 20, 2016 (Age: 71).
Ray Tomlinson passed away on March 6, 2016 (Age: 74).
Andy Grove passed away on March 21, 2016 (Age: 79).
Harold Cohen passed away on April 27, 2016 (Age: 87).
Solomon Golomb passed away on May 1, 2016 (Age: 83).
Seymour Papert passed away on July 31, 2016 (Age: 88).
Jay Forrester passed away on November 16, 2016 (Age: 98).
Hugh Loebner passed away on December 4, 2016 (Age: 74).