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Smartphone usage continues to climb in the U.S. More than three out of five (61%) mobile subscribers in the U.S. owned a smartphone during the most recent three-month period (March-May 2013), up more than 10 percent since smartphones became the mobile majority in early 2012. When it comes operating system preference, Apple remained the top smartphone manufacturer in the U.S., while the majority of smartphone owners used Android OS handsets. Fifty-three percent of smartphone owners used the Android OS, and 40 percent owned iPhones.

It's official: Samsung has announced the Galaxy S4 Zoom, the most powerful smartphone-camera hybrid on the market today. Check out its front side, and you'll see a device very similar to a Galaxy S4 Mini. It has a 4.3-inch qHD display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of storage memory (expandable via microSD cards, and a 1.9-megapixel camera. On the back, it's a full-fledged camera, with a 16-megapixel sensor and 10x optical zoom, which is far better than on any other smartphone or smartphone-camera hybrid we've seen.

"Google Maps is the most popular mobile app, used by 54% of the global smartphone population last month, according to a recent survey by GlobalWebIndex. However, the mobile apps for YouTube and Google+ were used by 35% and 30% of smartphone users respectively, which means that Google owns three of the four most widely used apps"

BY DECREE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS IT SHALL HENCEFORCE BE ORDERED THAT AMERICANS SHALL NOT UNLOCK THEIR OWN SMARTPHONES. PENALTY: In some situations, first time offenders may be fined up to $500,000, imprisoned for five years, or both. For repeat offenders, the maximum penalty increases to a fine of $1,000,000, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.* That's right, starting this weekend it is illegal to unlock new phones to make them available on other carriers.

"Twitter announced on Monday that its long-awaited Vine app for Android smartphones will soon be available. Vine requires Android 4.0 or higher, and though many features from the iOS app are currently missing, Twitter says that the Android version will soon have all of the features currently available on iOS. Things such as front-facing camera support, search, mentions and hashtags, and even Facebook sharing are planned to arrive in the coming weeks. But Android users are getting one unique feature that's not available for iOS: zoom. Twitter also alluded to future features that "can only exist on the Android platform.""

The big takeaway here is pretty clear, in terms of the top two players: Android is on fire because of choice, availability and price point in emerging markets focused on shifting to smartphones from feature phones on limited budgets. That means it's even more crucial to watch what Apple debuts this fall in terms of a low-cost iPhone device, which is rumored to be based around the iPhone 5 and sport a plastic back that's cheaper to produce.

"I don't know who's going to send out transcripts - kids are already appying for rolling admission, so I have no idea. And some schools require a letter from a guidance counselor. So I don't know what we're going to do." "I found this app for their smartphone, which helps them search scholarships, and I got really excited. And then I got really depressed, because I'm trying to replace a guidance counselor with a dollar smartphone app."

"Louis C.K.'s daughters won't be getting cell phones anytime soon, because the famous dad/funnyman explains as only he can, phones take away his kids' ability to just feel sadness. It's a valid point; when was the last time you were able to sit idly doing nothing without reaching for your iPhone to check Twitter or something? Louis says smartphones distract us from the sadness and despair that we're all meant to feel sometimes. Sigh. Maybe it's too early in the day for existential dread, but at least his delivery is perfect."

""Going forward, IDC expects that tablet shipments will surpass desktop PCs in 2013 and portable PCs in 2014, according to IDC. "In 2013, worldwide desktop PC shipments are expected to drop by 4.3 percent and portable PCs to maintain a flat growth of 0.9 percent. The tablet market, on the other hand, is expected to reach a new high of 190 million shipment units with year-on-year growth of 48.7 percent while the smartphone market is expected to grow 27.2 percent to 918.5 million units.""

"Perhaps the easiest visual medium for most communicators to grasp and use is photography. There is a growing school of thought that with an iPhone or Nexus smartphone, a communicator is well equipped to meet the needs of the visual thirsty stakeholder. Don't kid yourself. Every communicator needs a real camera."

"The University of Delaware employs a fleet of students to engage prospective applicants through social media. So-called "Social Media Ambassadors" are adorned with their own BlueHen Twitter accounts and are encouraged to share their student experiences online and talk to parents and students interested in the school."

"There are a lot of gadgets out there, right? Shiny new products with fun, useful, or amazing capabilities are being churned out at quite the clip. They're available for use in workplaces, schools, and at home, and the scope of what we can do with all these neat devices is only expanding. So, we know that students are connected - Very Connected. They have computers, smartphones, tablets, and a variety of devices in between. But just how connected are they? And what does this mean for teachers?"

"Just the other day I was observing at a restaurant in Palo Alto that's popular for many business lunch meetings, that most, if not all, of those engaging with other humans were also equally engaged in their digital devices. I watched three different tables and in a time period of 15 minutes, every person at every one of those tables averaged checking their smartphones and responding to something at least three times."

"with nothing more than this anonymous location data, someone who wanted to badly enough could easily figure out who you are by tracking your smartphone. Patterns of our movements, when traced on a map, create something akin to a fingerprint that is unique to every person."

As long as you're just looking to record your consensual conversations with coworkers, you should be fine, but for everyone else, it's a good idea to brush up on when it's legal to record calls first. That being said, you have a few options.

"Our flipped school model is quite simple. Teachers record their lectures using screen-capture software (we use Camtasia) and post these lecture videos to a variety of outlets, including our school website, and YouTube. Students watch these videos outside of class on their smartphone, in the school computer lab (which now has extended hours), at home or even in my office if they need to. Now, when students come to class, they've already learned about the material and can spend class time working on math problems, writing about the Civil War or working on a science project, with the help of their teacher whenever they need it. This model allows students to seek one-on-one help from their teacher when they have a question, and learn material in an environment that is conducive to their education. To change the learning environment even further, we've used Google Groups to enable students to easily communicate outside of class, participate in large discussions related to their schoolwork and learn from each other."

"A company you've probably heard of before called Always Innovating is working on a pretty awesome little project for smartphones. It's called the MeCam and is essentially a mini helicopter they're calling a Nano-Copter complete with video recording and streaming capabilities. The MeCam is designed to follow you around and record every moment. You can stream that video right to your Android phone and even share it to your social site of preference or YouTube."