You can't win 'em all, right? Sure, 2012 saw its share of high points, but there were plenty of missteps along the way from companies both large and small. Unfinished products, serial delays, lawsuits and layoffs -- after the break, we've got a list of some of the not-so-pretty moments in tech.
David Beckham is lining up a great wall of money by playing in China.
Already known across the vast nation as Gold Globes ? the Mandarin version of Goldenballs ? the former England skipper is in talks with a Chinese Super League club.
And if the Far Eastern promise ?arrives, Becks will pocket eye-watering riches from the world?s second-biggest economy.
A contract with Super League team Shanghai Shenhua would net a minimum ?250,000-a-week pay packet.
Long commute: David Beckham would face a 11,000-mile round trip ?
But it?s the haul from merchandising deals that would be the greatest ? estimated by experts at ?20million.
It would take Brand Beckham ? already worth ?190 million ? to world domination.
The move is being personally masterminded by TV?s Pop Idol mogul Simon Fuller, a close pal and business associate of the Beckhams.
Shanghai Shenhua owner Zhu Jun has already lured former Chelsea strikers Didier Drogba, 34, and Nicolas Anelka, 33.
Big money: Becks would earn ?250,000 a week ?
The deal would give David, 37, and wife Victoria the chance to sell their brands in a nation of nearly one-and-a-half billion people.
Becks has a bodywear range with fashion chain H&M and his own aftershave, while Posh, 38, has her fashion range.
A source close to David told the Sunday People : ?He has cracked Europe and America, he now has the chance to become huge in China and the Far East. This is a huge decision for him.
?While David wants one final challenge in football, a move to China is about more than that. It will push Brand Beckham to a whole new level.?
Poster boy: Becks is already very popular in the Far East ?
Becks announced he was leaving American Major League Soccer team LA Galaxy last month after nearly six years there.
Shortly after, Victoria began house hunting in south-west London so the family could relocate to the UK.
Her husband had been linked with a move to Paris St Germain or Monaco. But both options have faded away in recent days.
He has already had a taste of Becksmania in China when he was mobbed while making his debut for Spanish side Real Madrid against a Chinese Select XI Beijing in 2003.
Becks?s move to Shanghai, which is estimated will be the richest city in the world by 2030, would mean commuting from England to China.
That?s an 11,000-mile round trip which takes 11 hours each way.
Sources close to the star suggest he is keen to take up the challenge. Negotiations are likely to continue when the Beckhams return from their Christmas family holiday.
David is likely to be offered between ?250,000 and ?350,000 per week and will also be entitled to a large percentage of replica shirt sales that are sold by the Shanghai club.
One source said: ?David always said he wanted one more challenge and he loves the idea of playing in China.
?It will undoubtedly make him a global star. He won?t have just conquered Europe and America, but the Far East too. It is also appealing to Becks as it is very different to anywhere he has played before and he is keen to promote football in places where it isn?t particularly high-profile.
?He is so passionate about the game and likes the idea that he can share that with people who don?t already appreciate it.
?Talks have begun and while he is on his Christmas break he and Victoria are ?discussing it as a very serious option.?
Media and brand commentator Mark Borkowski thinks a move to China will take the Beckhams to a new level.
He said: ?The Beckham Brand, or dynasty as it is now, will always have huge impact while David can play football.
?So if he can have an impact in China it is a great move. I?m sure he?s looking for the best deal in his autumnal playing years.
?It is a very smart move indeed. Simon Fuller is no fool and his team are great so they will be thinking about this carefully.?
Simon, 52, who runs international talent firm XIX Entertainment, introduced Victoria to David when he managed the Spice Girls and is a close adviser to the couple.
Borkowski added: ?Big entertainment brands don?t think they have a hit until they have cracked China. It is a massive market. So for Beckham the old world is coming to an end and the new world is calling.
?People expected him to fail in Spain, then America, but he confounded them all. His next move will be no different.?
Victoria has been looking at London schools for sons Brooklyn, 13, Romeo, 10 and seven-year-old Cruz. Harper, 18 months, is also likely to enrol in a nursery in the capital.
It?s likely David would sign for Shenhua next month in time for the Chinese Super League?s season which begins in early March and finishes in November. But the massive commute would make life difficult.
The source added: ?David is a very hands on father and loves spending time with all of his kids. He and Victoria don?t like employing nannies.
?They prefer to care for their own children so him playing so far away will be difficult for both of them.
?But David wants one more chance to achieve a new challenge before he has to retire. A 22-hour round trip is a long journey but they have always made sacrifices for one another.?
Since they began dating in 1997, Posh and Becks have carefully pioneered their way to become one of the world?s most successful and lucrative brands.
In the New Year Victoria will launch an online fashion boutique which will sell her denim range, accessories and her popular range of sunglasses.
And earlier this month, the Beckhams? middle son Romeo was unveiled as a new face of Burberry for their spring/summer 2013 campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Recalling the shooting rampage that killed 20 first graders as the worst day of his presidency, President Barack Obama on Sunday pledged to put his "full weight" behind legislation aimed at preventing gun violence.
Obama voiced skepticism about the National Rifle Association's proposal to put armed guards in schools following the Dec. 14 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The president made his comments in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press."
Instead, the president vowed to rally the American people around an agenda to limit gun violence, adding that he still supports increased background checks and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity bullet magazines. He left no doubt it will be one of his top priorities next year.
"It is not enough for us to say, 'This is too hard so we're not going to try,'" Obama said.
"I think there are a vast majority of responsible gun owners out there who recognize that we can't have a situation in which somebody with severe psychological problems is able to get the kind of high capacity weapons that this individual in Newtown obtained and gun down our kids," he added. "And, yes, it's going to be hard."
The president added that he's ready to meet with Republicans and Democrats, anyone with a stake in the issue.
The schoolhouse shootings, coming as families prepared for the holidays, have elevated the issue of gun violence to the forefront of public attention. Six adult staff members were also killed at the elementary school. Shooter Adam Lanza committed suicide, apparently as police closed in. Earlier, he had killed his mother at the home they shared.
The tragedy immediately prompted calls for greater gun controls. But the NRA is strongly resisting those efforts, arguing instead that schools should have armed guards for protection. Some gun enthusiasts have rushed to buy semiautomatic rifles of the type used by Lanza, fearing sales may soon be restricted.
Obama seemed unimpressed by the NRA proposal. "I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools," he said. "And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem."
The president said he intends to press the issue with the public.
"The question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away," Obama said. "It certainly won't feel like that to me. This is something that - you know, that was the worst day of my presidency. And it's not something that I want to see repeated."
Separately, a member of the president's cabinet said Sunday that rural America may be ready to join a national conversation about gun control. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the debate has to start with respect for the Second Amendment right to bear arms and recognition that hunting is a way of life for millions of Americans.
But Vilsack said Newtown has changed the way people see the issue. "I really believe that this is a different circumstance and a different situation," Vilsack said on CNN.
Vilsack said he thinks it's possible for Americans to come together. "It's potentially a unifying conversation," he said. "The problem is that these conversations are always couched in the terms of dividing us. This could be a unifying conversation, and Lord knows we need to be unified."
Besides passing gun violence legislation, Obama also listed deficit reduction and immigration as top priorities for 2013. A big deficit reduction deal with Republicans proved elusive this month, and Obama is now hoping Senate Democratic and Republican leaders salvage a scaled-back plan that avoids tax increases for virtually all Americans.
In addition, he issued a defense of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who has been mentioned as one of the leading candidates to replace Leon Panetta as defense secretary.
Hagel, who opposed President George W. Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq, has been criticized in conservative circles for not being a strong enough ally of Israel. Also, many liberals and gay activists have banded against him for comments he made in 1998 about an openly gay nominee for an ambassadorship
Obama, who briefly served with Hagel in the Senate, stressed that he had yet to make a decision but called Hagel a "patriot."
Hagel "served this country with valor in Vietnam," the president said. "And (he) is somebody who's currently serving on my intelligence advisory board and doing an outstanding job."
Obama noted that Hagel had apologized for his 14-year-old remark on gays.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy have created a solar cell that can convert 44 percent of sunlight hitting it into electrical energy, setting a new record for solar cell?efficiency. But it was only achieved by multiplying the power of the sun by nearly 1,000.
The ongoing research is being done at the III-V Multijunction Photovoltaics group at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where the previous record of 43.5 percent was set. So while it's not a huge leap in efficiency, it's still a record.
The researchers achieve these high efficiencies by stacking multiple "junctions" into a single solar cell, each of which absorbs light at a slightly different wavelength. The "III-IV" in the name refers to the fact that the elements used?come from the third and fifth columns of the periodic table.
A new material with many desirable properties was?discovered by accident (gallium arsenide diluted with nitrogen), but proved extremely difficult to manufacture. Researchers needed to use a technique called molecular beam epitaxy to minimize impurities in the material ? but no one in the world could do it.
Solar Junction, a company started by researchers from Stanford University, decided to take up the challenge. With a few million dollars in funding, Solar Junction and NREL managed to make the new process work. The result was the "SJ3" cell, which has been breaking records ever since.
The catch is that it's not like a traditional solar cell, which simply receives sunlight on its surface and creates a modest charge from the photons. The SJ3 cell requires the power of the sun to be multiplied by special lenses, creating a beam of light hundreds of times brighter than ordinary sunlight.
In this kind of system, the power is measured in "suns": A beam 10?times brighter than the sun would be described simply as 10 suns. And?the previous efficiency record was set by a lens system that created 415 suns. The latest record was set using 947 suns.
Naturally, one may wonder if such a design is practical ? after all, how often does the sun shine a thousand times brighter than normal? But the lenses actually take normal sunlight that might have hit in a diffuse way on normal cells and concentrate it onto the more efficient SJ3 cell. So in the end it's just using the same area of sunlight in a different way.
The NREL emphasized in the report describing the record that the SJ3 design can easily replace solar systems used in satellites and other space-bound machines ? but it's lighter and more efficient, reducing rocket load and allowing for more onboard electronics.
What's next? Tweaking the design to include a germanium layer used previously could raise efficiency as high as 50 percent ? definitely?a major landmark in solar power, if researchers?can achieve it, although applying it to everyday power needs is another project?altogether.
Information on other research being done by the NREL, including other forms of solar cells and systems, can be found at their webpage. More technical details about the SJ3 cell are in?the NREL article describing the record.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.
If you just received a Galaxy S III or a Note II this holiday season, you could do yourself a favor and register it on Samsung's Facebook page to get even more goodies from Santa Sammy. What do you get in exchange for handing over some personal details and giving the Korean company access to your timeline? Why, a free flip cover and six TecTiles, which usually go for about $15 for a pack of five. We haven't heard much about wide adoption of these programmable NFC tags, but maybe it'll gain some traction after a recent 3.0 app update and this promotional giveaway. We're not sure why the offer doesn't extend to other Samsung phones, but maybe they just don't have enough of those pastel covers to go around.
Android: If you have a new Samsung Galaxy Note II (like I do) you probably enjoy Smart Rotation, a feature that rotates your display based on where the front-facing camera detects your face instead of using the accelerometer. Now any Android user can have this option with GMD Smart Rotate.
The app can also keep your screen from turning off while you're looking at the display, force rotations on applications you normally cannot, and in the pro version you can specify which apps should and should not rotate.
It is that last feature that is causing me to consider paying the modest $1.99 for the pro unlock key even though the other features already exist in my Galaxy Note II. Non-Galaxy owners should definitely consider the app.
GMD Smart Rotate | Google Play Store via Addictive Tips
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has approved a $60.4 billion emergency spending package for Hurricane Sandy recovery that was backed by Democrats.
The 61-33 vote Friday sends the measure to the House, where the bill faces uncertain prospects. House GOP leaders appear reluctant to move quickly on a big spending bill in the final days of a lame duck session that's being dominated by talks to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.
Republican leaders favor a smaller aid package to pay for immediate Sandy recovery needs, saying they need more time to consider any additional aid.
Sandy battered the East Coast in late October. It was the most costly natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and one of the worst storms ever in the Northeast.
Android: If you have a new Samsung Galaxy Note II (like I do) you probably enjoy Smart Rotation, a feature that rotates your display based on where the front-facing camera detects your face instead of using the accelerometer. Now any Android user can have this option with GMD Smart Rotate.