When Neil Fantom, a manager at the World Bank, sat down with the organisation's technology team in 2010 to talk about opening up the bank's data to the world at large, he encountered a bit of unfamiliar terminology. "At that time I didn't even know what 'API' meant," says Fantom.

A mobile app under development can filter phone calls and reroute them directly to voicemail by reading brain waves, cutting the need for users to press buttons on the smartphone screen.

Less than a year after Facebook called mobile one of its biggest risks, the social network has made another big move to attack the mobile market.

The technology has been around for quite some time, but like so many other fringe smartphone features, augmented reality has yet to present itself as a must-have for consumers.

The company aims to build an ‘Internet of Everything’ that will link sensors, mobile devices and network infrastructure, chief strategy and technology officer, Padmasree Warrior, said.

South by Southwest Interactive is best known as the technology festival that put such social networking mainstays as Twitter and Foursquare on the map. But if there was a 'next big thing' at this year's event, finding it would be pretty hard.

Facebook's Graph Search could be a powerful tool for steering people toward products and services on the social networking site, and marketers are starting to wrestle with the impact it may have on their brands.

As Google touts its new Glass technology one thing is becoming clear: if computerised eyewear becomes popular to the same level that smartphones have, Glass will change our lives forever.