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Rather than taking a vacation to get away from email, cell phones and computers, new research suggests having easy online access is now a prerequisite for many travelers. Michigan State University researchers say the digital divide appears to have disappeared given the proliferation of personal information devices. And technology provides new ways to share memorable vacation events.

The impact of Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies will not center only on the business - their capabilities will also increasingly become integral to future generations of management architecture, according to Gartner, Inc. "We are already seeing the adoption of 'big data' within the IT and operations management [ITOM] industry. In particular, software-as-service [SaaS] management providers now have to collect and synthesize large volumes of data," said Milind Govekar, managing vice president at Gartner. "We also expect more next-generation analytics to come to the forefront to address an increasingly hybrid cloud environment. On the social front, IT service desk social management tools will establish an interactive relationship with end users, enhance end-user productivity, provide a platform to share information and ideas, and market the value of IT to the business." In the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner identified the 10 technologies and trends that will have the biggest impact for most organizations in 2012. They are: 1. Media tablets and beyond, 2. Mobile-centric applications and interfaces, 3. Contextual and social user experience, 4. The Internet of things, 5. App stores and marketplaces, 6. Next-generation analytics, 7. Big data, 8. In-memory computing, 9. Extreme low-energy servers and 10. Cloud computing.

Josh Marinacci says 90% of users will rely on mobile devices, but 10% will still need desktops.

ON A recent visit to Washington, DC, Babbage and a companion tried to hail a cab just after rush hour in pouring rain. Taxis would slow, drivers would ask if your correspondent was headed to Virginia (a lucrative run and the destination of many bureaucrats) and then promptly speed off on learning that he wasn't. Finally, one cabbie took mercy, but not before the hapless hailers were thoroughly drenched. Babbage should have used Uber. Tap a button on a phone app and Uber magically summons a private car. It does this by engaging yield-management principles that tie together smartphones, GPS locations, existing licensed drivers, user ratings, all-in-one billing and back-office organisation. Uber maintains an inventory in the form of potential rides and uses demand-based pricing to increase supply during peak periods. "The yield-management creates a new market opportunity that didn't exist before", says Travis Kalanick, Uber's co-founder.

Infographie illustrant l'impact du numérique sur le tourisme

Just when you thought you'd paid the last booking fee and covered the final rental car transaction, you're suddenly hit with an outstanding roaming charge. Harummph. Connected travelers who can't go without their mobile devices are facing associated fees that seem to be higher than ever - or maybe it's because they're using more data than ever before. Either way, travelers have found ways to get around the dreaded roaming charge, or at least, reduce it as much as possible. Communications app textPlus surveyed 500 respondents who use their mobile devices when traveling both domestically and internationally. The company created the infographic below based on its findings

The final frontier. --- It's coming sooner than you think, but we must overcome these 4 barriers. Non-invasive: No needles, no blood, no biopsies.  Non-sampling:No urine, no stool, no saliva.  Non-contact: The device cannot contact the body.  Non-cooperative: The patient must not be presumed to cooperate.

We're at the early stages of a massive wave of innovation in the payment industry. It's like when Apple launched the iOS platform for mobile developers. The platform in this case is the payment network. Software developers will add new capabilities to cards by programming the payment network to link online applications to specific payment events. Consumers will be able to effectively "drag and drop" apps to their smart cards in the same way that they add apps to their smart phones today.

Les français utilisateurs d'Internet mobile consomment plus de 7 heures de médias par jour. Après avoir détrôné la TV, le PC ne représente finalement que le second poste de consommation média avec 113 minutes par jour : c'est en effet le mobile qui arrive en tête puisqu'il représente 27% de la consommation média quotidienne des français, avec 116 minutes. A noter que 51% des français pratiquent le multi-tasking devant leur poste de télévision.

"The adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) by doctor practices and hospitals is one of the most exciting developments in health - and the iPad is playing a big part. Up till recently, the typical EMR system was a PC-based enterprise software suite deployed in a large, public hospital. But thanks largely to the iPad, EMRs are finding their way into tens of thousands of small to medium medical practices. Today, EMR vendor drchrono is releasing a report about EMR adoption and impact. In a phone interview, I discussed the findings with drchrono CEO Michael Nusimow and COO Daniel Kivatonos."

"Communications regulators, drawing on recommendations from a recent mobile health task force report, look to launch initiatives that will facilitate broadband-enabled healthcare technologies, particularly for mobile apps."