The momentum has been shifting for a while, but now the trend is emphatic. People now spend more time in mobile apps than they do online. There are more than 500 million Android and iOS devices on the market, and giant countries like China and Indonesia are only just getting started in their smartphone and tablet push. Global mobile 3G subscribers are growing at over 35 percent, year on year, and there's a lot more room to move - there are 5.6 billion mobile subscribers on our fair planet. Even in developing countries, cheap smartphones will soon rush into the market. And who here doesn't think tablet sales are going to go gangbusters pretty much everywhere?

These days, Twitter is a powerhouse for marketing, communication, business, and even education, letting people from around the world work together, share ideas, and gain exposure. It has become a staple at many online colleges and campuses as well, leaving many academics wondering just how and if they should be using Twitter both in the classroom and in their professional lives. So we've revised our our original 2009 list to get you started or up to date.

"What follows is an explanation of the Flipped Classroom Model, a model where the video lectures and vodcasts fall within a larger framework of learning activities. (Note: I am titling it the Flipped Classroom Model to get folks' attention given the Flipped Classroom popularity right now.  It really is a cycle of learning model.)  It provides a sequence of learning activities based on the learning theories and instructional models of Experiential Learning Cycles - http://reviewing.co.uk/research/learning.cycles.htm and Bernice McCarthy's 4MAT Cycle of Instruction- http://www.aboutlearning.com/what-is-4mat/what-is-4mat.

It never ceases to amaze me how Google has become such an integral part of our lives. Search has evolved in such colossal proportions and especially with the advent of Google instant my belief that Google can actually read my mind has only been fortified. Search Marketers around the world are always on their Toes and as Google states "Don't try to follow our algorithm but try to think about the direction in which we are heading, build content for the users and not the search engines". I sometimes wonder if Google was actually a person he would be an amazing election candidate. But then again the high and mighty also have their share of secrets, secrets that should never come up, what I am about to reveal can be touted as one of the many chapters of the Da Vinci of Google.

So you want to get on the front page of Google? What business does not want to get there - ideally ranking in the top-ten? One secret of getting on Google's front page is simple. Splash the cash - and keep defending your spot by continually outbidding your competitor, irrespective of cost. Or, there is a far more frugal solution, according to Sydney-based small business strategist Robert McAnderson, author of the new book DNO the SEO Revolution: a how-to-guide for achieving permanent page-one rankings for under $100. 

Yesterday, Microsoft unleashed a desktop sync app for SkyDrive. Today, Google followed by finally launching Google Drive - after a series of early appearances hinted that it was going to be arriving very, very soon. So now that the dust has settled, how do the two new services stack up with the current king of cloud storage and sync, Dropbox? Let's take a look.

Twitter has become so much more than the "I'm hungry" kind of service. It contains 140's of what we are. This content is hidden somewhere behind the small avatar and last tweets in a user's timeline. We are here to make it visible.  We take a bag of tweets, analyze them, and create a profile page which show-casts the person behind them. Currently we focus on behavior patterns, Famous words, Top Followers, Links, Replies, Songs, Pictures and Check-ins. 

It is commonly recognized that our nation's progress depends on improving learning, thereby creating healthier communities and a stronger workforce. In today's world, that requires us to take advantage of new learning tools to ensure that our children's learning is practical and prepares them for the challenges of the 21st century. The advantages of digital media now greatly outweigh the disadvantages and require that schools update their thinking and policies to provide guidance on the use of these tools to improve student learning and achievement.

Thanks to technologies like GPS and QR codes, these games combine real-world experiences with virtual information. The games can capture geo-tagged audio recordings, for example, or photos and videos that student players can view when they reach a particular place or meet a particular character. Characters can talk with students, provide information, exchange items or respond to tasks. Authors can also create virtual items that players can retrieve and exchange. The key is the ARIS platform, which enables teachers, designers, artists, and students to create place-based narratives. Game designers say the open-source platform is easy to use; educators don't need a programming background to get started because the work is done with an online authoring tool.

MentoMob enables users to create slide like curated web content.  "Creating and editing Learning Playlists is a free and easy process. Not only does it show the world what you know, but it opens your knowledge to people who share your skills so they can help you refine it by adding and editing your Learning Playlist. Each Learning Playlist can be rated, bringing the best ways to learn to the top of the charts."

The following infographic from business consultant Zintro does a decent job summarizing the numbers, pros and cons, and what makes each network different. While it is not exhaustive (where's Pinterest?!), it's helpful.

Listen to relaxing music, ambient atmospheres and astonishing sound effects. Just click on an image below to start chilling. If you want, you can even create your own atmospheric sound mix, online and for free. Every audio template can be easily edited for your own needs.

This new beta search engine has lots of interesting features including; * choice of search provider * results appearing in a full featured search window * a Multiview search option * capability to share search results and modify the menu bar * capability to search blogs and twitter

"Blippar™ is the first image-recognition phone app aimed at bringing to life real-world newspapers, magazines, products and posters with exciting augmented reality experiences and instantaneous content.  The company launched in the UK in the Summer of 2011 and will be expanding globally throughout 2012. "

Americans are finding their credit card bills and bank statements riddled with a mounting tab of new charges for digital books after sales of eReaders and tablets exploded at the end of last year.

We're at the dawn of the tablet era now. Earlier this month, Apple sold 3 million of its new iPad during the opening weekend, with some analysts expecting over 60 million of the tablets to be sold worldwide. What's more, e-book readers are selling even more briskly than tablets. People are using those e-readers, too. On Amazon.com, books for its Kindle outsell its paper books. What's more, the explosion of e-books is putting pressure on publishers between demands for price cuts on one hand, and competition from independent authors like Amanda Hocking, who earned over $2 million selling e-books on her own before signing with a major publisher. It's no surprise, then, that publishers are turning to the app as a possible product for books moving forward.  This has led to another movement towards enhanced books, particularly as apps for iPhone, Android, and other tablets. Are tablet apps the book of the future?

YouTube is the largest video repository known to (wo)man. The global looking glass has changed the way we view and share news, culture, politics, our world.  It's changed the way we learn, both formally and informally. Sometimes we don't manage this monster of content as powerfully as we might.  Though there are many others, here are an assortment of tips and tricks that may improve your YouTube experience, because .  . .

Mobile technology. Fifteen years ago, most home computers weren't even linked to the Internet. Today, our computers are both linked and, in many cases, mobile. With more than five billion mobile users worldwide and a massive global network, small mobile devices with significant computing power have become a routine part of day-to-day life for people of all ages. The combination of a smartphone's intuitive interface and thousands of apps for iPhones and Androids aimed at young children has fast made it a child's favorite plaything. And as the smartphone market continues to explode, more parents are passing their phones to their offspring as tools to educate or gadgets to pacify.

Booktrack creates synchronized soundtracks for e-books that automatically matches music, sound effects and ambient sound to your reading speed to create an immersive reading experience. 

Teens love their cell phones. Duh! But just how often are they using their mobile phones and why? Leveraging the data provided by the recent Nielsen study, "New Mobile Obsession: U.S. Teens Triple Data Usage", FunMobility decided to explore cell phone usage patterns further. The result of our FunChat and FAADChat customer survey with over 10,000 respondents generated even more interesting data points. The survey found teens are spending more time on mobile devices than any other media device, and 40 percent are spending more than four hours per day on their mobile devices. And that's just the beginning. We turned this data into an infographic: "Generation OMG: How Teens Use Mobile Devices", that we just announced and was recently covered by ZDNet's iGeneration blog.