Nielsen data shows that U.S. travelers of all ages are indeed in the midst of the hottest travel season, visiting a variety of travel sites to research and plan their destinations.

When it comes to mobile video apps like YouTube, Hulu or Netflix, consumers say the best things in life are free. According to a new study released by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) and Nielsen, 63 percent of survey respondents said that “free or low subscription rates” is the most important attribute for a video app.

Who watches the most TV? Women watch more than men, African-Americans outpace other ethnicities and older Americans tune in at higher rates than those their junior, according to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report. The report shares video consumption across traditional TV, mobile and online.

According to Nielsen, Google’s Android operating system (OS) now claims the largest share of the U.S. consumer smartphone market with 39%. Apple’s iOS is in second place with 28%.

Streaming video online is on the rise in the U.S., and how consumers tune in differs greatly across services. According to a recent Nielsen survey, the majority of Netflix users report watching on a TV screen. In fact, half of all Netflix users connect via a game console (Wii, PS3 or Xbox Live).

Typical for the summertime when school is out, the TV season has ended and people are vacationing, the number of online video viewers in the U.S. was down slightly in June to 142.6 million unique video viewers.

Roughly 13.5 million people in the U.S. tuned in to watch Japan’s shoot-out victory over USA in the final of the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, July 17, the end of a tumultuous and exciting tournament that left USA fans on the edge of their seats.

While fewer than 20 percent of Asia Pacific mobile users currently have smartphones, interest in upgrading is high: nearly half of consumers intend on buying a smartphone in 2011, according to Nielsen research.

According to Nielsen and Billboard’s Mid-year Music Industry Report, overall album sales, digital album sales, catalog album sales and vinyl album sales all saw increases over the same six-month period in 2010.

Games continue to be the most popular app category, and according to Nielsen research, 93 percent of app downloaders — those who have downloaded an app within the past 30 days — are willing to pay for the games they play. In contrast, only 76 percent of downloaders are willing to pay for news apps.