Since word of Apple's $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics broke several weeks ago, the high-profile deal has been dissected, debated and hashed over six ways to Sunday. The formal announcement on Wednesday brought a fresh round of analysis and interpretation.

A cool avatar rendering technology lets my virtual self be both more like me and more unlike me at the same time. Yup -- mobility, messaging, and connectivity tug at some deep questions about who we want to be and how and why we want to connect with one another.

With more than half of U.S. smartphone users engaging in mobile banking, the major banks are increasingly competing to cater to us on our handsets (and tablets). But when it comes to the five major U.S. retail banks, there isn't a whole lot of difference among them, according to an annual benchmark study by Forrester.

The launch of the very useful MMA Case Study Hub reminds us that handhelds and tablets have enormous creative potential even if the basic technology and mobility of the channel favors DR.

Exactly what "mobile" means in the context of consumer electronics has been a matter of debate for some time. The shifting definition of mobile was highlighted in a December letter from Google to the Securities and Exchange Commission made public this week. It came in response to the SEC's request for the search king to disclose how much revenue it generates from mobile devices.

Mobility is finally making good on its real transformative promise. Watching how people interact with brands on such a granular level is at once humbling for many brands and the place where more rewarding relationships begin.

For all the enhancements to smartphones in recent years, there's one thing that hasn't gotten better: voice quality. A recent Consumer Reports analysis found that none of the more than 100 smartphones tested had better than a good score for voice quality, and a significant number were only fair. The growing amount of hardware -- radios, cameras and sensors -- packed into smartphones themselves comes at the expense of voice quality.

Twitter has taken pains to position itself as the social media tool of choice for the TV industry, so perhaps it's only fitting that the company is adopting one of TV's greatest innovations: the mute button. How to get "unmuted" once zapped is another question.

The effectiveness of gamification in advertising demonstrates how mobile media and touch interfaces provide tiny pleasures. In this case, these ad units provide the weird sense of satisfaction from overcoming a challenge that isn't really a challenge, but passes for one somewhere in our heads.

Isis, the mobile wallet venture backed by Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile, released some user data this week following the national rollout of the service last November. It said it activated 20,000 new accounts over the prior 30 days, doubling the level of uptake from the prior month. The numbers suggest the Isis wallet, preloaded on 14 smartphones and supported on 68 mobile devices in total, is gaining some momentum