Usability benchmark study:
This research study seems very important because companies who create apps for multiple mobile OSs and different types of phones need to be aware that there needs to be a common ground for all these apps. If usability for the same app is VERY different across different platforms, the same experience won't be felt between the different users, causing different reactions towards the app.
Gestural Interfaces:
I found this article very interesting, because I feel I experienced many of these things playing with the android phone I checked out from Dr. Watson, especially the part about misleading signifiers. While messing with the phone and browsing through the apps, I was completely unaware that the menu button actually on the phone and not the screen could be part of the function of the app. Some apps (such as Facebook) on the phone utilize this button, but other apps may not. In order to figure out which do and which don't, one would just have to manually test it out for each one, which is very misleading.
Usability of iPad Apps and Websites:
I had an experience with this when playing with iPads at both the Apple store and troubleshooting them for professors at my job. I noticed that some websites have a designated "mobile" version of their website which makes it more user-friendly when accessed on the iPad, while other websites do not have such thing, making it difficult and at times very annoying to access. I feel if the website knows there's enough traffic going through their domain and knows some users will most likely be iPad or mobile phone users, they should most definitely provide a mobile version of their website to ease the use for them. This would definitely best for a business standpoint for the website.