The Online Magazine Focused on App Design, Branding & Marketing

Gartner, a leader in global information technology research, recently released its list of top technologies going forward for 2012. The research can be summarized in one word: “mobility.” Diving a little deeper, we learn that mobility consists of three primary groups: media tablets, mobile apps and contextual and social interfaces. But you already knew this right?

The importance of media tablets should not come as much of a surprise given the recent market activity in this segment. To recap: Google purchased Motorola Mobility, giving it manufacturing capabilities and intellectual property protection for its Android products; Amazon recently launched its Kindle Fire, taking the iPad and AppStore ecosystem head on; and of course, the schoolyard bully of the media tablet world, the Apple iPad with a whopping 85% market share. The finalists, if you will.

More after the JUMP… More after the JUMP…

(Welcome to Mobile News Round-up, the weekly column where we tell you about all of the cool stuff that didn’t get is own post during the week.)

Curious which phone carrier provides the fastest service for your iPhone on a state-by-state basis? This map should sort out your inquiries. Spoiler alert: it’s probably AT&T and if it’s not AT&T, it’s Verizon. Sorry, Sprint fans…but at least you’ve got that unlimited data plan, right?

What’s the future of Google+? Are you still on it? Is anyone still on it? Does it still exist? Apparently. The reasonably new social network had its public launch on September 20th and it’s traffic spiked 1,200%, which sounds great, until you hear about the part where it then plummeted 60% in the ensuing weeks. The current traffic levels are slightly higher than they were before the big launch, but a whole lotta’ people got a taste and decided to retreat to the familiar land of Facebook. Can Google+ survive as a niche network? It’s obviously not as big as Google wanted it to be, so how long until Google attempts a reinvention or pulls the plug? Google engineers accidentally letting their negative feelings on the platform known doesn’t help.

Hey there. Yes, you. The monocle and top hat wearing billionaire who also happens to be an Apple enthusiast. Have you seen this gold plated, diamond encrusted MacBook? I think it’s right up your alley.

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