Shipments of GPS-enabled mobile handsets are expected to reach 250 mln units by 2010, up from more than 70 mln units in 2006, according to iSuppli.

86.6% of internet users now spend 6 hours or more online a week when they are at home, up from 83% at the end of 2006 and 50% at the end of 2005. Perhaps most eye wateringly almost 5% of respondents claimed to spend more than 80 hours a week surfing from home, Point Topic reports.

10% of US employees say their company has used email to fire or lay off employees. And 17% indicated their boss used emails to avoid other difficult face-to-face conversations. 5% of respondents had been the recipient of a humiliating email that was copied to other individuals. 23% of workers have received a politically incorrect email, 15% have been the recipients of an email sent in anger, and 13% reported receiving flirtatious emails, Harris Interactive reports. 19% said they had sent an email to the wrong person, and 38% had sent an email without an intended attachment.

The plasma display category is poised to grow 25% in 2007 as the industry enters the Q4 holiday sales season, according to the Plasma Display Coalition.

Nielsen//NetRatings published a list of top search engines in August 2007.

The number of households paying a remote access fee to control or monitor their automation or security system in North America will grow an average of 25% annually from 2007 through 2011, In-Stat says. 18.6% of US households subscribe to some kind of security system service.

The total market for contactless e-passport transponders alone is set to grow to nearly $300 mln by 2012, while the total market for hardware software and services providing e-ID documents will reach nearly $1 bln by 2012, according to ABI Research.

Mature categories such as retail and travel will continue to lead vertical search spending. However, the best opportunity for vertical search is in growth categories such as financial services, automotive, and health, in which combined search spending will grow more than 94% to $3.4 bln in 2011, JupiterResearch predicts.

Nielsen//NetRatings published a list of top video sites in August 2007.

43-44% of portable media player owners choose appealing video content and optimized video viewing experience as their top motivations to watch more videos on the portable platform, compared with 33% who are motivated by cost of content, 19% by personalization and connectivity features, and 16% by ease of use, Parks Associates reports.

Digital television is now installed in 84% of UK homes. Digital terrestrial is now the most commonly used platform on main TV sets, available in more than 9.1 mln homes. Satellite follows closely behind, with a presence in 9 mln homes. Sky now has nearly 8.1 mln subscribers, with 77,000 new customers in Q2 2007.

5% of Europeans expressed interest in watching television or video on their cellphones in the next 12 months. Some 20% of Asians said they would watch TV on their phone screens. Informa has projected entertainment services (games, music, TV, adult content and gambling) would grow to $38 bln by 2011 from around $18.8 bln in 2006.

World Fiber Optic Test Equipment (FOTE) markets earned revenues of $586.1 million in 2006 and will reach $891.7 million in 2013, Frost & Sullivan says.

By 2011, at least 80% of commercial software will contain significant amounts of open source code, according to Gartner.

Nielsen//NetRatings published a list of top blog hosts in August 2007.

Revenues in European Web conferencing software and services markets totalled $136.3 mln in 2006, and are projected to reach USD 878.7 mln in 2013, Frost & Sullivan reports.

For all sizes of LCD TVs sold by premium brands in June 2007, the ASP was $1,799. In July 2007, prices increased because of the addition of new models, rising 7.4% to reach $1,933. In August 2007, brand and retailer promotions on some models and new model introductions continued, keeping prices stable at an average of $1,931, iSuppli says.

Share of bachelor’s degrees in computer science awarded to women fell from 37% in 1985 to just 22% in 2005, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.