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The makers of Gorilla Glass, the glass that's used in touchscreen gadgets such as iPhones, iPads and more than 500 other models of electronic gadgets, has officially unveiled a thinner and more touch-sensitive version of their product.

As far as years in technology go, 2011 was one for the record books. It wasn’t just about big battles like Apple vs. Samsung, Microsoft vs. Google, AT&T vs. the world, or Hewlett-Packard vs. itself. It wasn’t just about the growth of apps and the ever-increasing pervasiveness of the Web in our daily lives, though there were plenty of amazing developments both these realms. It wasn’t just about hardware or software. And it wasn’t just about towing the line or trying to hold onto it.

There have been some newsworthy failures over the last couple of years in the photo-sharing field. Facebook has pretty much replaced the need for stand-alone apps because it does everything that most people want, allowing sharing to be relatively seamless between smartphone and profile. After years of searching, I've finally found an app worth using.

Google's senior VP of mobile devices Andy Rubin asserts in a Google+ post that the company is now activating 700,000 Android devices a day. That would be 255 million devices a year. Or a billion every four years. That would be, in short, a whole lot of phones and tablets.

Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp narrowly lost a patent battle with Apple Inc on Wednesday, as the International Trade Commission found that HTC had infringed on one of Apple's patents.

The Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone that arrived in Verizon Wireless stores on Thursday, is huge -- and not just because of its unusually large size. The new Android phone, which has been available in Britain for weeks, is the first to run Android 4.0, the latest version of the popular mobile operating system that also goes by the adorable name Ice Cream Sandwich. This is a very significant update to Android for smartphones.

Nokia is getting back into the U.S. smartphone business with an entry-level model powered by Microsoft's latest Windows software and sold by T-Mobile USA. The Lumia 710, one of two models that Nokia has launched in Europe, is slated to go on sale Jan. 11 for $50 after a rebate and a two-year contract. The Lumia 710 retails for €270 ($351) in Europe.

Huawei honors the hacker community, releases "demo" Android Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for their Honor smartphone.

Hewlett Packard donates its mobile system software, WebOS, to the open source community and says it will continue to invest in the project. The tech company acquired the software when it bought the smartphone maker Palm for $1.2bn (£767m) last year. HP used the code to power its short-lived range Touchpad tablet computers before it abandoned the product line.

Motorola Mobility can try to force Apple to remove its products from Germany's stores after winning a patent case against the iPhone-maker.