1. Defining Mobile: 4-5.5 Inches, Portrait & One-Thumb in which Luke Wroblewski discusses smartphone interaction.

2. Apple iPad App Glitch Issue Causes American Airlines Flight Delays We’re simultaneously experiencing the benefits and drawbacks of relying on consumer grade electronics in high-stakes situations.

UPDATE: The root cause wasn’t an iPad glitch. It was a problem with a map update of Ronald Reagan airport. Also, I should clarify: the situation wasn’t high-stakes. I used that term loosely to refer to flying as having high-stakes situations. But this issue wasn’t related to such a situation. As an American Airlines spokesman said:

“That’s why it was not system-wide or a fleet-type problem,” said American Airlines spokesman Casey Norton. “It’s when the pilot accessed a particular map.” […] “We operate 7,000 flights per day,” said Norton “This is not anywhere close to a thunder storm.”

3. Bill Gates made these 15 predictions in 1999 — it’s scary how accurate he was. Great predictions with great accuracy. It shows how wide the gap is between idea and execution.

4. Tracxn, Which Aspires To Be The “Gartner Of Startup Data,” Grabs $3.5M Series A

5. U.S. Is Faulted for Risking Edge in R&D

A a report published Monday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology […] warned that the U.S. government was spending an ever-smaller percentage of its budget on basic research and development, fundamental exploration in a variety of fields that lays the groundwork for commercial products that may not emerge for years or decades, if ever.

The cutbacks might appear to be economical, but the report says they come at a high cost to both national prestige and long-term economic opportunity. “We are undercutting ourselves by not supporting basic science,” said Andrew Lo, a finance professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management who helped write the report.