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Almost three-quarters (74%) of smartphone users are what the Pew terms "connected viewers," compared to just 27% of feature phone owners. The most common reason that people turned to their phones while watching TV was to occupy themselves during ad breaks, with 38% doing so. Among other activities people did in the prior 30 days: *23% used their phone to exchange text messages with someone else who was watching the same program in a different location *22% used their phone to check whether something they heard on television was true or not *20% used their phone to visit a site that was mentioned on television *11% used their phone to see what other people were saying online about a program they were watching, and 11% posted their own comments online about a program they were watching  *6% used their phone to vote for a reality show contestant

"Almost as many Americans (236.5 million) watched TV on their phones during the second quarter of 2012, as watched it on a conventional TV set (283.3 million), albeit for much shorter durations. While the average American spends nearly 145 hours per month watching TV on a traditional TV, Nielsen didn't even report the average time they spend watching on their phones. But mobile subscribers watching video on their phones -- a smaller sub-segment of about 37 million Americans -- spend an average of five hours and 20 minutes watching TV on their phones each month, an increase of 31 minutes over the second quarter of 2011."

There's an easier way to recycle your old mobile phones and receive instant cash in exchange. Users can drop off their used device at an ecoATM, which can automatically detect the phone model and determine its working condition. It can evaluate the phone on the spot and give the user a market value based on its assessment. If the consumer is happy with the price, then they have the option to either take the cash or donate the money to a charity.

Now that it has hooked up with Nokia phones, Microsoft hopes to connect its phone software to the Xbox this year too.

The U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority has belatedly banned a Phones 4U print ad showing a cartoon Jesus winking and giving the thumbs-up sign. Touting "miraculous" deals on Samsung Android phones, the ad ran in April, just before Easter, and the client quickly pulled it following complaints. The official censure five months after the fact resurrects a controversy and raises it to new heights.

 accept mobile payments form NFC-enabled phones by tapping the phone on the vending machine. A small display on the vending machine lets the customer "spin the bottle" to see nutritional information while a larger display can display videos and advertisements.

"Clarity, a division of Plantronics dedicated to making communication devices with amplified audio for those with impaired hearing, has teamed up with a company called ClearCaptions, which provides text transcription captioning services for phone calls to create the Ensemble. The Ensemble packs a one-two punch for people who have trouble hearing: It provides sophisticated amplified audio like a hearing aid, and real-time text captioning of the ongoing conversation on a seven-inch screen."

Firefox OS phone

"According to the study, which surveyed nearly 10,000 U.S. adults, around half of whom owned some sort of mobile device, a full 64 percent of tablets owners and 62prcent of smart phone owners said they used their devices for news at least one per week, meaning that one third of adults in the United States get some kind of news on a tablet or phone on a weekly basis, if not more frequently."

Shopping malls wanting to track cell phone signals for survey purposes cancel the project over privacy concerns. The only way to opt out was to turn off the phone.

Add on lens for your camera on your phone

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"Ian Heidt, director of product management for Qualcomm Labs, said the technology pulls in information from a variety of sensors on the phone, how consumers use the phone, including the camera, and location to create a unique fingerprint. "In early trials in Japan, we've seen improvement on targeting," he said. "It shows how mobile and content change the behavior of consumers." Trials conducted by Blogwatcher in Japan found that consumers were three times more likely to click through and respond to WITYU notifications and offers as compared with non-contextualized and non-personalized offers. Click-through rates rose by more than 60% when specials and offers were delivered to consumers."

"Sony's new high-end televisions have a neat trick, enabled by Miracast and NFC, that allows users to simply tap their Xperia device with the TV's remote control to mirror the smartphone display on the big screen. Sony says all of its new high-end televisions (W800 or better) will have Miracast and an NFC-enabled remote control. We got a chance to check out the technology in action on the show floor, and to put it simply, it's really cool; it takes a few seconds of holding the remote to the back of the Xperia Z to connect the smartphone to the television, at which point the TV displays whatever you've got open on the phone. It's one of the best television screen-sharing implementations we've seen, as it makes screen sharing nearly effortless. To disable the mirroring, users just need to re-tap their phone to the remote control."

eMarketer:  The research firm estimates that the total transaction value for mobile payments in the U.S. will be $640 million this year, but that will grow to more than $62 billion in 2016 as a bigger segment of the population uses their phones to buy medium-ticket items, including fast-food restaurants. The average user of mobile payments will spend $62 a year with their phones in 2012, but that grows to $1,294 in 2016, according to eMarketer's estimate.

"Facebook is making strides towards becoming a multi-media communication juggernaut, its head of Messenger David Marcus announced today at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Out of Messenger's one-billion users, 300 million people use its audio and video calling features each month. That's around the size of Skype's entire user base. Facebook is uniquely well-suited to disrupting traditional home and mobile phone voice calling and their successor, video calling. It has the most complete social graph of family, friends, and acquaintances - going beyond what's in most people's phone contacts. It has a one-billion user chat app where people are already spending tons of time. And it has the technology infrastructure to support high-bandwidth transmissions."

Rewards program gives free cell phone talk time to poor Indians whenever they use a public toilet.

another take on the tesco virtual storefronts Through a partnership between P&G and Mall.cz, Prague's four busiest subway stations now include virtual grocery stores that offer shopping by phone for delivery at home.

Smartphones are on a fast track to become the primary device for both creating and consuming digital content. According to the Pew Internet for the American Life Project, already a full 31% of Americans who own internet-capable phones browse the web primarily from their phones. These numbers are actually higher in emerging markets. What's more, there are at least three other factors at work here. First, images are global. They eschew all language and cultural boundaries. Photography is the only true universal medium. Nothing comes close. Second, images are distributable. The bandwidth required to transmit photos is minimal, yet the opportunities for quick, creative expression are plentiful. As of this writing, Apple's App Store alone has over 10,000 iPhone apps in its photo category -- many of them for editing. Photoshopping has been democratized. Finally, images are digestible. You can glance at a picture for as short or as long as you want. Photos are a non-linear, shared consumption experience. The same can't be said for video or even text.

Among the findings: Overall, 29% of video service customers watch paid video content via handheld device. Some 18% of customers use tablets for viewing paid video content, making them the most-often-used handheld device, up from 11% in 2011. The use of wireless phone customers has increased to 16% in 2012, up from 14% a year earlier. Viewing of paid content via desktop and laptop (PC/Mac) has declined to 39%, down from 48% in 2011.