You can often tell what month it is by the content of your inbox.  In the journalistic "dead zone" between mid-December and the end of the year, most writers seem to run out of new material and either do a summary review of the past year or take a stab at predicting trends for the next one.

Everything is speeding up, so I'm doing my first trend predictions for 2014 now, while there is little competition for punditry.  As everyone's attention spans are shorter, I will make these predictions only for the first six months of 2014.  After July, these will all be as lifeless as the batteries in a long-forgotten remote under a sofa.

Answers to your first two questions about 2014 are yes, and absolutely.