Sophisticated mobile applications, with the power to do anything from checking the weather to checking you into a hotel, were downloaded more than 10 billion times in 2010 alone.

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The top five tablet activities, based on a survey of users in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, are checking email (81 percent), reading the news (69 percent), checking the weather forecast (63 percent), social networking (62 percent) and gaming (60 percent).

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For the past two years, Ruckus has turned its attention to carriers who are overwhelmed by mobile users checking email, weather and Facebook and are looking for ways to offload 3G and 4G traffic from their cellular networks.

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The original device was useful enough: It shipped with a built-in Apple apps for checking the Internet, weather, e-mail, texts, stocks, calendars and the time.

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In Memphis, Tennessee, where highs hit 105 degrees Friday, firefighters went door to door, checking on residents to make sure they're bearing the weather well.

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