blog.

I like most people have read the countless amounts of predictions for 2012, most, if not all, mention how mobile is going to make a large impact on the future of online. I wrote a blog article last year saying that sites should consider mobile to complement desktop development. This year companies will see that they need to evolve their web presence to incorporate mobile or be missed by a large number of visitors. Visitors will spend less time, visit fewer pages and bounce more from sites they cannot view through mobile devices.

Smartphone and iPhone use in the UK is growing at a huge rate almost on a daily basis – I saw a figure this week that over 6m iOS devices were registered on Christmas Day, imagine the figure for Android devices!

People are also coming round to the idea of tablets; many were sceptical if there was a marketplace for such a device. I was one of these…until I got my iPad. I hardly use my laptop now.

Another big change, maybe not to web development, but to the way people interact with online is going to be smart TV’s. They’ve been around for a while, but this year it’s going to enter the mainstream. With the Olympics, Euro 2012 and the Diamond Jubilee retailers are going to be slashing prices and pushing us all to buy that new 50” TV. There have been some interesting developments this week from the CES conference...talk of a Google TV, Apple TV set and an Angry Birds app! I have a TiVo box from Virgin and I can now watch YouTube videos, catch up on missed programs or radio shows through the iPlayer, I could even view photos on Facebook or post updates to Twitter – all through my TV.

Online is being integrated into our lives on a daily basis and 2012 will bring with it many changes – some of which could be game changers whether we are users, web developers or designers……interesting times ahead for us all!

Now THIS IS A BRILLIANT IDEA. Ever had a row with your partner / friend / acquaintance about whether or not they should drive home after having had a few?

"I'm NOT too drunkkk, of COURSE I can drivvve..." they say as they sway unconvincingly in front of you.

We'll, thanks to this clever little app from Becks and Leo Burnett Belgrade, you need worry no longer about the inevitable wrestling of keys off said drunk friend.

The app does it all for you. Becks Sobriety Test asks the user to maintain holding a key over a keyhole for 25 seconds, as it moves around the phone's screen. If you do it fine, you're good to go! If not, however the phone clocks your location and rings the nearest taxi company to you, to pick you up.

Brilliant! Not quite a physical restraint, but come on... it is still just a phone...

OK so it's no secret we're all addicited to our iPhones at Focus Towers, we can't help it, they've changed our lives (literally). As summer inches ever closer that normally means a new iPhone model launch, but with the launch of the iPhone 5 or the 4S as it may be called postponed until September, what new features can we expect, that are worth resisting the really tempting upgrade to the iPhone 4 that I'm being offered?

Well rumor has it that it's going to be more gamer orientated with the same graphical power of the iPad 2. The CPU speed will be twice that of the previous iPhone with the graphics being up to 9 times quicker, which is phenomenal considering how snappy they are currently. There's also talk of a camera upgrade to 8MP which for me is a big draw, the camera quality on the 3GS does sometimes frustrate me - afterall I like my Facebook pictures sharp! What's most exciting is the talk of 4G technology in iPhones but that's being delayed until 2012. 4G technology, also refferred to as LTE technology, being the next generation of faster data technology.

All that sounds great but secretly (or maybe not so secretly) what I really care about is how it's going to look and reports say it's likely to have the same design as the iPhone 4 but a bit slimmer.

So I guess it's not worth risking upgrading before September but I know I'll be scanning the gizmo rumor sites daily until then! Let's just hope Apple have figured out all the bugs before the launch this time .....