Consumers Ignore Most Apps on their Smartphones

"Of smartphone owners, 68% open only five or fewer apps at least once a week, finds a survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Seventeen percent don't use any apps. About 42% of all U.S. adults have phones with apps, Pew estimates."

Prisoners Making Threats Via Facebook

"Violent criminals in British prisons have been using Facebook to taunt and threaten victims and their families from jail, officials allege."

Stanford Takes Online Schooling To The Next Academic Level

"Last year, Stanford University computer science professor Sebastian Thrun — also known as the fellow who helped build Google's self-driving car — got together with a small group of Stanford colleagues and they impulsively decided to open their classes to the world."

Study: Web Hinders Youth Social Skills

"Young girls who spend the most time multitasking between various digital devices, communicating online or watching video are the least likely to develop normal social tendencies, according to the survey of 3,461 American girls aged 8 to 12 who volunteered responses."

Tablet, e-Book Ownership Soaring, Study Finds

"A report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project set to be released today finds that 29 percent of Americans owned at least one tablet or e-reader as of the beginning of this month. That's up from 18 percent in December."

YouTube Hits 4 Billion Daily Video Views

"YouTube, Google Inc's video website, is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, a 25 percent increase in the past eight months, according to the company."

Phone, Tablet Users Spend More Time With Apps Than Web

"Phone and tablet owners used to spend most of their time surfing the Web. Now they're using apps, according to data from Flurry Analytics."

iPad a Solid Education Tool, Study Reports

"In a partnership with Apple, textbook publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt performed a pilot study using an iPad text for Algebra 1 courses, and found that 20% more students (78% compared to 59%) scored 'Proficient' or 'Advanced' in subject comprehension when using tablets rather than paper textbook counterparts."

Amazon Kindle Owners Are “Borrowing” Nearly 300,000 Electronic Books A Month

"According to the company, customers borrowed nearly 300,000 (295,000 to be exact) KDP Select titles in December alone, and KDP Select has helped grow the total library selection."

Political Ads Go Digital and Social

"Republican presidential candidates are turning to the Internet, spending million of dollars on political ads with Google, Facebook and Twitter, analysts say."

IBM Scientists Create Smallest Magnetic Memory Bit With 12 Atoms

"Today, to store a single bit — the most basic piece of information a computer understands –a disk drive needs one million atoms. Heinrich and his team have successfully shown that data can be stored in as few as 12 magnetic atoms. That’s 12 versus 1 million and it means a hundred times more information can be stored in the same space."

PC Losing Traction as Half of all Computing Devices Sold are Mobile

"The world of personal computing is changing as smaller, sleeker and more capable devices are replacing the bulky desktop towers and heavy laptops that formerly dominated. . ."

Brave New Work: The Office of Tomorrow

"Imagine a technology wonderland filled with cool toys like 3-D printers, hologram tables, and office windows that turn into media screens. The best part? It's your office, circa 2022."

The Top 10 Looming Computer Security Threats of 2012

"Cyber-security no longer means only protecting your computer from ne'er-do-wells. Hackers are cracking codes on all sorts of devices and getting sneaky about breaking into everything from cell phones to car systems."

5 Higher Ed Tech Trends for 2012

"As the new year begins, education technology experts look at what's ahead for learners and educators."

Some Countries Are More Social Than Others, Survey Finds

"In the big cities of India and China, it seems, people can't help being social. Nearly everyone who uses the Internet there is also active on social networks, according to a global survey by Forrester Research, and three out of four write blog posts or upload pictures and music."

Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World’s Bandwidth, and Gap Is Growing

"The world’s congested mobile airwaves are being divided in a lopsided manner, with 1 percent of consumers generating half of all traffic. The top 10 percent of users, meanwhile, are consuming 90 percent of wireless bandwidth."

Students of Online Schools Are Lagging

"The number of students in virtual schools run by educational management organizations rose sharply last year, according to a new report being published Friday, and far fewer of them are proving proficient on standardized tests compared with their peers in other privately managed charter schools and in traditional public schools."

Study: E-Textbooks Saved Many Students Only $1

"Despite the promise that digital textbooks can lead to huge cost savings for students, a new study at Daytona State College has found that many who tried e-textbooks saved only one dollar, compared with their counterparts who purchased traditional printed material."

Startups Aim to Bring Education Industry Into 21st Century

"For many educational institutions, financials have limited them in bringing technology into classrooms, but some argue the formality and rigidity of these places have created an uphill battle to integrate new technology. A handful of education technology startups are looking to change this. . ."

Digital Music Sales Top Physical Sales

"For the first time in history, digital music sales topped the physical sale of music. According to a Nielsen and Billboard report, digital music purchases accounted for 50.3% of music sales in 2011. Digital sales were up 8.4% from the previous year, while physical album sales declined 5%."

Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools

"Agora is one of the largest in a portfolio of similar public schools across the country run by K12. Eight other for-profit companies also run online public elementary and high schools, enrolling a large chunk of the more than 200,000 full-time cyberpupils in the United States."

IBM's Top 5 Technology Predictions for the Next 5 Years

"Crystal-ball forecasts, fanciful or otherwise, are a staple of year-end conversations, but IBM, the computer-services giant, has a research arm that makes them as a matter of course. Every December, it puts out a '5 in 5' list -- five predictions for the next five years."