Facebook Home, the social network's big mobile moment, turned out to be quite much less extensive than what we predicted back in 2011. It isn’t an OS and it isn't an OS fork, but it certainly goes deeper than an ordinary Android skin. Call it a spoon, a spork, an under-overlay, an unusually thick skin, or whatever else that soothes your soul. In the following, I’ll take a look at how it fits into what is developing into one of the most intriguing themes in today’s mobile industry – Google’s disintermediation from its own OS, and what Google plans to do for it. Samsung is a sub-story of its own, a hardware player trying to figure out software. In the case of Facebook et al, it’s more about web players trying to figure out mobile.

The M&A rumor mill went into hyper-drive Tuesday as substantial but anonymous reports of AT&T potentially collaborating with its arch-rival Verizon Wireless to acquire Vodafone. On the face of it, it sounds like a “cunning plan”. Verizon Communications wants to secure full control over its Verizon Wireless subsidiary, in which Vodafone holds a 45% share, and AT&T is keen on building out its international mobile carrier portfolio, having missed the mobile phone land grab back in the 1990s. Certainly the relationship between Vodafone Group and Verizon is fractious but it is professional and the two management teams have put in place supplier sourcing efficiencies of hardware and services.

Once more the banging of drums could be heard resonating through the streets of New York. Instead of a speaker proclaiming the arrival of “King Kong, the eighth wonder of the world”, Samsung unveiled its latest Galaxy S smartphone, the S4. The new smartphone was brought onto the stage by a little boy meeting JK Shin in the middle of the platform. The S4 follows on from S3’s arrival back in May 2012, less than twelve months ago. The smartphone models have some mild differences in shape, size, sleekness, and weight. We can note the strong trend for larger screen sizes as more people use their mobile devices for internet browsing and watching multimedia which the experience is arguably heightened with a larger smartphone. The term phablet springs to mind. Nevertheless, what really struck me about Samsung’s latest Galaxy release were its “eye tracking, scrolling, and air gesture”, and wireless charging features. We are finally seeing a shift in aware technologies in mobile to immersive combined with ambient.

If there is one strategic story standing out from the launch of Galaxy S4, it is Samsung’s push bring more and more of on its own software, apps and services onto its flagship devices. This was clearly noticeable already with GS3, and it looks like that since then the firm has just doubled down. Air View, Smart Stay, and Smart Pause are all meant add new flavour to TouchWiz and increasingly hide the taste of the Android vanilla.

The Tallinn Manual on International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare officially launches in London today. The Manual is the fruit of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. Developed by a group of experts from Academic and Military backgrounds, the Manual is the end-result of 4 years work to produce an independent manual on the law governing cyber warfare. The Manual is about 215 pages long and offers insight into such issues as sovereignty, state responsibility, the use of force, the applicability of the law of armed conflict and the conduct of hostilities among others.

After introducing Yolo, the first smartphone with Intel Inside in Africa, at a low price of KES 10,999 (USD 124.55) in late January 2013, Safaricom announced that it “is soon going to stop selling the cheap feature phones in all [its] retail outlets” and we “will now see the feature phones replaced by the cheap smartphones that are now readily available in the country.”

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There was a time that WiFi was the scrappy junior cousin of cellular mobile data services. Now most mobile carriers have begun to reassess WiFi as an effective complementary wireless infrastructure for offloading flood-level amounts of data traffic from smartphones, tablets and dongles from their cellular networks.

With the launch of Samsung's new flagship next week, the Galaxy S4, I thought it time to put down some thoughts regarding what we might expect, what might it bring that we don't expect, and what impact both this device and Samsung overall might have on the market in 2013.  I think it goes without saying that Samsung will be pushing the boat out with this one.  It has built a leading position in smartphones and it has seen what has happened to its rivals who don't live up to the hype and expectation with each launch.