Just before Thanksgiving, Path released v2 of their app. After months of listening to their users and sweating the details, they reinvented themselves with a brilliant interface (aesthetically and interaction-wise) and a few new directives to their intimate social networking app.

At the start of this week, a storm brewed when it was uncovered that they'd been digging around in our address books and downloading the contacts to their servers - all without user permission. There was a resounding cry from the interwebs that this is not cool.

I'm calling 2012 the year of the craftsman (or craftswoman!). We're seeing a resurgence of small batch, handmade products in the food industry in particular--with craft beers, small batch coffees, and small organic farms becoming popular. Niche craft items even have their own ecosystem, centering around sites like Etsy.