Microsoft is blaming Yahoo for a mobile "data drain," which appears to be affecting a small number of Windows Phone 7 devices. "Microsoft suggested an 'inefficiency' between Yahoo Mail and the Windows Phone Mail client is causing Windows Phone 7's unexplained data drain for some users," eWeek reports. Microsoft has spent the past few weeks investigating complaints of smartphones "devouring" users' data, even when not running apps or surfing the Web. Late last month, the software giant claimed to have discovered the culprit. Rafael Rivera, proprietor of the Within Windows blog, wrote this week that he discovered Yahoo's Internet …

By 2015, people will send 26 times more mobile data than they do now, The Los Angeles Times reports, citing Cisco's annual Global Mobile Traffic Forecast. "That's the equivalent of every man, woman and child on Earth sending 1,000 text messages every second," Suraj Shetty, Cisco's VP of worldwide service provider marketing, tells The Times. No, that's no actually what mankind will be doing in 2015. Rather, according to Cisco, two-thirds of that data traffic will come from mobile video, as more people begin making video calls, sending each other clips they've recorded, and watching longer-form television and movies …

For the next month, seven top airlines have agreed to offer Facebook on their in-flight Wi-Fi networks for free. As USA Today explains, it's part of a promotion with Gogo Inflight Internet, which presently serves 1,100 commercial aircraft -- or about 3,800 flights a day -- and 5,000 private planes. Promotion aside, the price of Gogo's in-flight service ranges from $4.95 for short flights to $12.95 for longer journeys. The free Facebook service will be available on North American flights for Virgin America, United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, AirTran, US Airways and Alaska Airlines. "Those who wish to use …

Dear Employees, "Only connect." There are 352 pages in E.M. Forster's Howard's End, but those two words—129 characters under the limit for Twitter—buried in the twenty-second chapter of the novel have such power. Even people who have never read it have heard of its message. Forster's novel was published in 1910, but its issues are today's headlines: an increasingly fragmented society and, at the same time, the emergence of new communication tools, new ways to forge new relationships. "Only connect"—Forster's solution—had all the markings of a breakthrough idea. It was original, memorably expressed and instantly understood. It cut deep. Content …

Travel inside the Smithsonian or Museo Reina Sofia from a computer desktop. Google unveiled a new tool Tuesday that puts more than 1,000 works of art within reach. Google Art Project provides a selection of high-resolution images of famous art works, as well as more than a thousand other images, by more than 400 artists. Street View technology provides a virtual tour inside 17 of the world's most art museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York, The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Tate Britain & The National Gallery in London, Museo Reina Sofia …

The Interactive Advertising Bureau this morning named IDG Communications CEO Bob Carrigan chairman of its board, succeeding 24/7 Real Media Chairman-Founder David Moore, who will remain active in the IAB.

Dentsu Network West, the New York division of Japanese agency conglomerate Dentsu, has acquired independent digital creative agency Firstborn. Terms were not disclosed, but Dentsu said Firstborn would continue to be managed by its current team. Founded in 1997, Firstborn has 65 employees.

Independent media services agency TargetCast tcm today announced a new division that will service other independent agencies outsourcing some or all of the media services, and named long-time Madison Avenue media executive Larry Orell to run it. Two independent agencies, MMB and imc2, are clients of the new service. imc2's roster includes Procter & Gamble, Pfizer and WorldVision. MMB, founded by former Hill, Holiday executives Fred Bertino and Jamie Mambro, handles such accounts as Subway, ESPN and Tractor Supply Company. Orell, who was most recently at WPP's MediaCom unit, joins TargetCast on Feb. 15.

Consumers may be working their way back to optimism, but new research from Nielsen shows they're also wary, redefining the way they see value in this uneven recovery. While U.S. consumer spending is climbing faster than expected—with the U.S. Commerce Department reporting that spending is rose at its fastest pace in three years--Nielsen reports that shopping habits are quite different by income level. Among households earning $100,000 or more, the number of shopping trips are up 5%, and the amount spent on each trip is up 4%, Nielsen's James Russo, VP/Global consumer insights at Nielsen, says in a presentation. …

Driven by wider smartphone adoption and regular mobile Web use, the number of Americans banking by mobile phone will jump from 10 million today to more than 50 million by 2015, according to a new Forrester report. But the research firm warns that financial institutions face a key challenge reaching that target: convincing customers that they can do something new and different with their mobile phones than they can't do online. In a recent Forrester survey of more than 3,000 consumers, for example, the main reason (37%) given for not using mobile banking was that customers saw no value …