This is one of those news items that makes you scratch your head and wonder, "Wait, they weren't already doing this? What's wrong with them?" It seems Nintendo is finally taking the astoundingly obvious step of becoming a mobile game developer (as the company should have done five years ago) through an alliance with Japanese mobile game maker DeNA. Yes, that means iconic Nintendo characters like Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and Pokemon may finally be coming to mobile games for smartphones and tablets.

Let us count the ways. Marketers at OMMA@SXSW not only told us that mobile ads suck; they told us why. And some of the blame rests with their own companies, not just the mobile ecosystem.

I freely admit to being a Luddite, but there's one thing I'm definitely not going to miss: paper boarding passes. Happily for people like me, boarding passes are about to take off (get it?) according to a new forecast from Juniper Research, which predicts that 1.5 billion boarding passes will be distributed via mobile devices by 2019.

Here's a can't-lose argument for kids trying to get their parents to buy them a new smartphone or tablet: It's educational! In fact, 81% of college students surveyed by McGraw-Hill Education said they use mobile devices to study, up from 40% just a year ago. And 77% said technology had a positive effect on their grades.

Google is said to be considering acquiring India-based mobile ad firm InMobi, according to the India Times, which first reported the news yesterday, citing sources with knowledge of the discussions. The acquisition is hardly a done deal, as the two sides are only now entering the technology diligence phase, otherwise known as "opening the geek kimono."

Do you ever worry that there just isn't enough digital media in your life? Sure, we all do! Fortunately for us, Apple's new smartwatch will make sure that we never have to experience another moment of quiet introspection again, by filling our days and nights with an endless stream of alerts, updates, and notifications -- all conveniently located on your wrist, making them well-nigh inescapable!

Smartphone penetration is much, much higher among multicultural mobile customers than the overall population. This is a scenario that has played out throughout the digital era. But now "multicultural" represents the American "mainstream."

No matter how you feel about the cutesy portmanteau name (I think it sounds kind of gross, somehow) there's no question phablets, the mid-size devices combining the best of smartphones and tablets, are taking the mobile world by storm. And that's good news for both publishers and advertisers, who are getting a little more space and flexibility for their content and messages thanks to the larger screen size.

The new PGA Tour iPad app is a golf geek's dream. Imagine Strat-o-matic Golf. It's also one of those rare second-screen apps that may have a chance, mainly because it could prove more exciting than the main broadcast.

More people are using mobile devices to access the Internet, but this doesn't mean desktop is in decline. In fact, desktop Internet usage continues to grow too, albeit at a slower rate than mobile Internet usage, according to comScore co-founder Gian Fulgoni, who gave an overview of recent trends in online behavior at Borrell Associates' Local Online Advertising Conference.