Telefónica UK and Vodafone UK have been given approval by the Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom to strengthen their existing network collaboration.

The two companies, which already work together on a UK mast-sharing project known as Cornerstone, now plan to combine the basic parts of their network infrastructure in a new company called CTI Ltd. This will own and manage the basic UK network infrastructure for both operators, although Vodafone and Telefónica (O2) will each continue to run their own independent networks.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has published an open letter apologising for the frustration that’s followed the recent launch of Apple Maps.

The company’s new Maps application, which forms part of the iOS 6 operating system used by the new iPhone 5, has been criticised for a lack of detail and poor accuracy in some cases.

Amsterdam-based augmented reality pioneer Layar says it’s adopting a new focus on ‘interactive print’, making it easier for businesses to bring multimedia interactivity to advertisements, packaging and other printed material.

The company launched a augmented reality mobile browser in 2009, superimposing internet-based information on top of real-world images shown by the camera in a smartphone. It’s recently passed 25 million downloads.

Hot on the heels of its BlackBerry Jam developer conference, Research In Motion has published its quarterly results.

Worldwide customer numbers were up to around 80 million users, with approximately 7.4 million BlackBerry smartphones and 13,000 PlayBook tablets shipped in the quarter. It reported a net quarterly loss of $235 million (approx. £145 million), although more than half of this was restructuring costs. A year ago the company had made a $329 million profit.

The forthcoming Firefox mobile operating system from Mozilla is expected to be used on 1% of global smartphone shipments in 2013.

That’s according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, which says the Firefox OS will be battling Android for entry-level smartphone users.