As if people who drive while under the influence and people who send and read text messages while driving weren’t bad enough, along comes a report of increasing number of pedestrian sending text messages while walking.

According to the findings by a team of researchers from the University of Washington, pedestrians sending text messages were almost four times more likely to disregard traffic lights, cross the street where they’re not supposed to, or fail to look both ways before crossing. The study observed some 1,102 people in Seattle.

Before you promptly dismiss the study’s findings as exclusively true for Seattle residents, I would like to point out that you are also likely to see Metro Manila residents texting away while negotiating the city’s ill-maintained streets and pathways.

Too often have I seen people fully engrossed, sending or reading text messages on their mobile phones. And I have witnessed all kind of people doing this in different parts of the metropolis.

I have seen people doing this in shopping malls. More often than not, these texting pedestrian would bump into other pedestrians, benches, or kiosks. Yet, people continue to send and read text messages while walking, unmindful of their and other people’s safety.

Makati office workers are just as likely to send and read text messages while walking as the road repair crew working along EDSA. Apparently, lack of common sense transcends people’s socio-economic status.

Mobile Trends, 2013

It’s that time of the year when soothsayers of all stripes come out in the open and tempt fate with their bold predictions.

For its part, the high-tech market doesn’t lack in seers. There are enough market research firms that periodically forecast the market’s future trends.

Juniper Research, one of those research companies, recently released its Top 10 Mobile Trends for 2013 whitepaper, which lists what the company believes will hot topics for the mobile world in the coming year.

Topping the list is the company’s prediction that Big Data will become bigger, followed by an increase in product announcements related to smart glasses and wearable computers, and the continuing rise of the bring-your-own-device trend.

iPhone 5 Goes to China

After traversing a tortuous route, Apple finally launched the iPhone 5 in China last week.

And the smartphone’s coming to the world’s most populous country could have not come at a better time. Apple dropped to sixth place in the China smartphone market during the July–September quarter, data from IDC shows.

Things, however, are looking good for the Cupertino company, with more than 300,000 iPhone units pre-ordered on one mobile carrier alone. But Apple’s future in China depends a lot, perhaps too much, on the company’s prospects of gaining a partnership deal with China Mobile, the largest telecoms company in the world’s largest smartphone market.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.