Besides the name dispute, the iPad refresh comes with a extremely better camera, new graphics engine on the same processor and 4G LTE.

Apple started the announcement ceremonies with a new version of Apple TV,  complete with: full 1080p high-definition resolution, HD movies and TV shows in iTunes, HD versions of Netflix, Flickr and Vimeo, iCloud integration and the same $99 price as the current model. Notability missing from Apple TV is YouTube in HD; in fact, Google wasn’t even mentioned once during the keynote presentation.

The new version of Apple TV will be available on March 16.

While improvements to Apple TV are nice, the real announcement was for the third-generation iPad (Apple dubs it the “new” iPad). The announcement included a wide-range of elements in the iPad 3: from the surprised (4G LTE, new graphic processor) to the expected (updated camera and retina display) to the puzzled (same price as previous models) to the dissatisfied (no quad-core processor).

Apple also had several of its’ own apps updated (iMovie, iWorks, GarageBand) and introduced new ones (iPhotos).

The updated apps should be available now and the “new” iPad will be available on March 16.

EPB, the publicly-owned utility that services Chattanooga and surrounding area including northern Georgia, became the first ISP in the United States to offer 1Gbps internet access for Chattanooga residents and businesses for $349.99/month, thus nicknaming the city “Gig City”.

Now the city wants to capitalize on extremely ridiculous speeds and get people to work and live in Chattanooga. When you hear about the prizes being offered to get people to Chattanooga, you might think the gigabit network got into their mindset.

Let’s start with the people that have a start-up. If you don’t mind living in Chattanooga for 14 weeks (Yes, WEEKS!) and your start-up wins:

• $15,000 investment capital just for being selected
• $100,000 grand prize
• Access to a network of entrepreneurs, VCs and angel investors

While this does sound good, there is a catch if you read the 4th question in the FAQ section:

In return for our investment of both cash and mentoring, CO.STARTERS and our mentors collectively receive 7% of the founding level equity in your startup. Additionally, you will have the discretion to incentivize your mentors with an additional 3% of equity(more, or less, if you so choose). We recommend that some percentage be given to mentors, but again, this is your choice. Note that the cash investment may be spent any way the startups desire as long as it guides the Starters towards reaching milestones and the mentors “sign off” on the use of funds.

I haven’t participated in these investment competitions so I don’t know if this normal or not. If you have done these events, please leave a comment.

But what if your a student with an idea, they want you as well. If you’re get selected and can live in the city from June until August, you get:

• Housing provided (not travel and food)
• Access to a network of entrepreneurs, VCs and angel investors
• $50,000 cash prize

While other cities may quip that they have the same thing, if not better, this is where Chattanooga have the best advantage. If you suggest someone enter the competition, they enter and get selected, you win $1,000.

$1,000 just for suggesting someone to go Chattanooga!!!

If this excites you and want to enter, take advantage of the leap day as tomorrow is the last day to register.

While this contest is exciting, I hope the fine folks in Chattanooga running this contest have some sense of reality and that while the hidden message is to get people to re-locate to Chattanooga; contestants will instead use those funds to move to Silicon Valley, where the real money is located.

Both drivers walked away without injuries.

If you’ve been watching FOX during the three-day Daytona 500 (rain on Sunday and finished before 1AM Tuesday morning), the network heavily promoted the #Daytona500 hashtag as well as FOX pit-reporter’s twitter account and the driver’s twitter account.

It was all Twitter and nothing about Facebook.

What’s interesting is what happened during the red flag as driver Brad Keselowski brought his phone in his race car and began tweeting and answering questions during the red flag.

He gained 55,000 Twitter followers in the first hour of the red flag, according to FOX broadcast. (UPDATE: The final total during the red flag is either 185,000 to 200,000 new followers)

Not on Facebook but on Twitter instead.

And you have to wonder why Facebook is getting all the attention.

This is the first award for both William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, first award for Moonbot Studios and maybe a first Oscar for a Louisiana-based movie studio.

Here’s video of producers William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg accepting the award:

The Times-Picayune has the story on how big the billboard will be and the technology used to display it but I’m sure the company doesn’t know that the system can be used for mischievous reasons.

Entergy spokesman Alex Schott told the Times-Picayune:

“It’s about the engagement with the audience. If it’s related to LSU or the game itself, or if they want to say hi to their mom and see their Twitter handle up there, I think that would be pretty cool up on a building.”

To borrow a phrase from the Simpsons, ” . . . nothing can possably go wrong” (video makes it work but I can’t find it)

If the company believes users are only going to tweet “Geaux Tigers”, “Roll Tide” or “Hi mom”, they really need a reality check as most of the messages will probably be: deals for bars in the French Quarter, irate fans calling each coaches’ mother a prostitute, Nick Satan, links to a naked Tyrann Mathieu (a.k.a the Honey Badger), New Orleans natives tearing Entergy about how high their utility bills are and how long it takes for the company to restore power after a thunderstorm or sportswriters that want a playoff system.

Should be fun to watch tonight (early preview for the NFC wildcard game between the Saints and Detroit Lions) and again on Monday night!

Baton Rouge lost a sports station with local programming as 1210 WSKR-AM flipped to gospel music “Hallelujah” 1210AM WLRO-AM at midnight Sunday. WAFB-DT has the story on how and when radio personalities were informed of the decision. Also gone in Baton Rouge is a Fox Sports Radio affiliate as well as Jim Rome. No word yet if positions at other stations have been offered to those laid off but reports indicate that Jimmy Ott, who already has a show on Pelican Sports TV, has a new home in New Orleans on WIST radio.

Speaking of WIST, the station has a new sports network affiliate with Yahoo! Sports radio (formally called Sporting News Radio) after losing its’ Fox Sports affiliation [more on that later]. Added to the lineup is Steve Czaban in the morning and Tim Brando in mid-morning (9 – 11AM) and whoever does the evening shift on Yahoo! Sports Radio.

So far the biggest move in the New Orleans radio market has to be 106.1 WTMI dropping the “True Oldies” format and re-branding as a Fox Sports Radio affiliate (with, perhaps, the longest title for a station – Fox Sports Radio on FM 106.1 the Ticket) and becoming the 5th station to serve as the flagship station for the New Orleans Hornets.

WTMI also brings back national syndicate shows Dan Patrick and Jim Rome, who hasn’t been on the New Orleans airwaves since 2008, as well as Hornets radio color analysis Gerry Vaillancourt (also known as Gerry V.), who had a popular radio show (according to Wikipedia) on WODT-AM from 2004 to 2006.

2. The death of Steve Jobs

When news broke that Steve Jobs submitted his resignation to the company on August 24 because of his ailing heath, the tech community began to accept the realization of Apple without Steve Jobs. When his death was announced on October 6, it came as a shock to many and Apple stores across the country became a place to mourn. Many compared the death of Steve Jobs to the night John Lennon was killed because both had a lot in common: they had a huge impact on society, had followers that had a cult-like atmosphere and people tried to imitate them.

READ MORE: Steve Jobs leaves behind an incredible legacy

When Steve Jobs died, people though of him as a revolutionary visionary that made our lives easy. After his authorized biography was release the following week, the opinion of Steve Jobs changed to an arrogant, self-centered, hippie lifestyle, workaholic person that did drugs.

What happens to Apple without Steve Jobs remains a mystery but one thing is certain: Steve Jobs left the company continuing to innovate, not leveling out or plateauing.

1. Political protests fueled by the Internet

I’m curious as to what the year 2011 will be remembered for ten years from now because I’m certain history will remember it as the year people were mad and vented their anger towards those in power.

And the Internet played a major part.

With the help of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and uStream, the Internet helped toppled dictators in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya; caused massive protests in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Iran, Greece, the United Kingdom and China; and showcased police brutality during mass demonstrations during the #occupy movements.

Some state governments tried to block access to the site, some went a step further with a ‘nuclear’ option of isolating.

Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak read the chapter on seizing the state-run broadcast stations from the opposition rebels’ handbook and used that technique in a new way by ordered Internet Service Providers as well as wireless phone service in the country to serve all contact from the rest of world.

Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi also severed all Internet access in the country when the Arab spring uprisings entered his country.

Both examples did not stop the protests, it only further the calls for action and demanded a new government. Internet access was eventually restored in Egypt and Libya and both dictators are no longer in power.

2011 showed us that the Internet, especially social networks, isn’t about hooking up with long-time friends from high school or announcing what you had for breakfast but as a tool for voicing your opinion and demanding freedom from a dictator that has ruled with an iron fist for several decades.

6. HP/RIM

Research in Motion and Hewlett-Packard have to be glad that 2011 is over and a new year begins, although both companies have an uncertain future in 2012. Both companies tried to get into the tablet market, both flopped. Hewlett-Packard even tempted with the notion of selling of the computer division, the part that generated most (besides printer ink) of its’ revenue. Both companies had management shakeups: HP went through two CEOs; RIM decided to keep both (Yes, TWO!) CEOs and added two Chief Operating Officers to the executive team.

2011 was especially cruel to HP with its’ tablet, the HP TouchPad, becoming the biggest product flop ever. The company shuttered the tablet division in August and slash the price from $499 to $99 for the 16GB model and $599 to $149 for the 32GB model. The discontinued tablet quickly became a hot seller: retail stores quickly sold out of the TouchPad, some cases as soon as the store opened and lines were formed at some Best Buy stores across the country.

The company decided to change its’ tune after the discontinued tablet grabbed the second spot in terms of market share after the iPad and decided to put the operating system (WebOS) as open source and let the community manage the operating system. Even with the move to open source, WebOS still has a cloudy outlook.

5. Natural disasters cause disruption

Two natural disasters in 2011 not only caused billions of dollars in damage and a massive death toll but caused worldwide disruptions of electronic components used in computers, hard drives, mobile phones, consumer electronics and automobiles: the Japan earthquake/Tsunami and the Thailand floods.

The 9.0 earthquake struck the coast of northern Japan on March 11, spawning a 130ft tsunami wave that destroyed coastal cities in Japan and caused damage in Hawaii, California and some parts of Chile. While the damage was mainly concentrated in areas north of Tokyo and did not effect the industrial part of the country, the quake still caused manufactures to shut down for days, in some cases – months, because of the limited electricity supply in the country. The shut down affected all electronic products but the automobile industry was the hardest hit as manufactures could not produce components used in some cars, resulting in the prices of used cars to be higher than newer-made models.

Another global disruption occurred when monsoon rains flooded Thailand from July to December that closed several industrial parks in Bangkok that made critical parts used to run hard drives, resulting in sky-rocking prices of hard drives. Even though hard drive manufactures rushed to open factories in the Philippines to resume production closed by the floods, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the demand for hard drives. Some stores even placed a limit on the number of drives customers could purchase.

Both disasters show how much our world has become a globalize market and how floods in Thailand can effect your next computer purchase in the United States.

4. The death of Bin Laden announced on Twitter

The White House sent out an urgent press release on a quiet Sunday night, only saying that the President would be making remarks about national security. It was anybody’s guess as to what it could be: a new terror threat, raising the terror alert, or breakup of a terror plot. Americans went into a nervous fret, wondering what the announcement would be. We finally found out what the announcement would be when former Keith Urbahn, former chief of staff for Don Rumsfeld announced the death of September 11th mastermind Osama bin Laden.

As word spread about the death of bin Laden, an average of 3,440 tweets per second were sent across the network, making it the most tweeted event at the time. One user unexpectedly live tweeted the Bin Laden raid from Abbottabad, Pakistan.

While Twitter was the new place for leaning breaking news, the death of Bin Laden moved Twitter to became the replacement for cable news channels as the new place for learning breaking news.

3. Playstation hack

What turned out to be a regular story about personal information obtained by hackers not only became the biggest hacking story of 2011 but a huge black eye for Sony and the Playstation network as the network was down for months. Hackers were able to obtain credit card numbers and account details (including passwords) for 70 million users. It was an embarrassment for Sony and the company spend much of the time apologizing at E3 and gave away two free games when the service went back online.

The final two stories of 2011 come tomorrow.

10. Duke Nukem Forever finally released

Dubbed Duke Nukem fornever for the numerous proclamations of a coming release date with no official tailor or images, Duke Nukem Forever was finally released in the Summer of 2011 after spending 12 years in development, the original game studio no longer in development after sucemming to bankruptcy and an unknown future of a release date, leading for a call for the game to be released as open source code.

The reviews of Duke Nukem forever were mainly negative (1up.com gave it a F), while some were mediocre (GameInformer game it 6.75 out of 10). The Redner Group, the PR firm hired by 2K games, did not like how the press reviewed and threatened to cherry-pick which media outlet would get advance copies for the future games based on reviews of Duke Nukem Forever.

2K Games later issued a press release, saying the Redner Group would no longer represent the company.

9. Spotify enters the United States

The popular music service that swept most of Europe finally entered the United States in the Summer of 2011 by invitation-only after spending numerous years getting agreements from the major U.S. record companies like Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. The company even had a creative way for visitors to snatch an invite by checking their social networking score through klout, through Coca-cola or signing up with a UK address and changing it to the United States.

Car-manufacture Chevrolet even got in the Spotify invite game by gave away free premium accounts simply by liking their Facebook page.

Now that Spotify has entered the United States, the excitement has faded and an uncertain future is looming: Indie labels are pulling out and some performers are not allowing new albums to stream on Spotify.

8. The end of the space shuttle era

The last flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-135, blasted off from the Cape Canaveral on July 8, 2011, ending 30 years of sending humans into outer space. The US space program now depends on Russia to send people and supplies to the International Space Station while will continue to send rovers to distant planets and satellites in space. What happens to the space program, as well as NASA in general, is anyone guess: will NASA return with a new space shuttle? Will NASA even survive? Will other emerging countries, like China, leap-frog the United States and become the dominant force in space exploration? Will the private sector take over space exploration?

7. Netflix fallout

Of all the companies that are truly glad the year is over (besides those listed in the next number) is Netflix. First, the company announced a 60% price increase and separation of DVD and streaming service, meaning you can sign up for either DVD and no streaming, streaming with no DVDs or both. Only problem is that customers were not happy with the price increase as well as the separation of streaming and DVD rentals and left in droves. CEO Reed Hastings tried to stop the gash wound of mass cancellations by announcing that the DVD rental side would become a separate company called Qwikster.

It didn’t get better: it got worst!

Customers still left in droves, their agreement with Starz! won’t be renewed in 2012 and the company continued to be ridiculed for the Qwikster move, mainly because the company didn’t secure the Qwikster Twitter handle and instead became an amusing diary of a pot-smoking user.

In the end, Netflix saw the writing on the wall and abandoned its’ Qwikster plans. Even the bad management plan, it still have huge positives for the year: they signed a streaming agreement with cable channel AMC to stream episodes of Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Mad Men and announced they will stream new episodes of Arrested Development in 2013.

Part two comes tomorrow.