Three UK and the Countryside Alliance have announced a partnership that'll see them working with local MPs and campaign groups to help get people online in rural areas where broadband is poor or non-existent.

The Rural Broadband Working Group plans to give away dongles and wireless 'MiFi' devices along with almost 4 million MB of mobile broadband access.

It's almost the end of the 'silly season' for news - but this week's podcast finds plenty of serious stories as well, starting with the departure of Steve Jobs as Apple CEO.

Samsung Electronics has announced a free mobile messaging service called ChatON.

It's expected to be rolled out across all major smartphone and feature phone platforms in the next few weeks, enabling users to communicate using text, images, handwritten notes and video. Users can chat one-to-one or in groups.

ABI Research says the next five years will see touchscreens becoming as pervasive as WiFi chipsets are in smartphones are today.

In 2006, just 7% of all smartphones had touch-sensitive screens. Last year that figure had increased to 75% - and by 2016 it's expected to reach 97%.

Mark Bridge writes:

Today's news summary is a little early because I'm on holiday this afternoon. I'll be leaving Iain and James in charge... and, even though it's traditionally the "silly season", they'll have plenty to talk about in Wednesday's podcast.

A week ago, the big news in our podcast was Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility. This week it was HP's move away from webOS devices. And now we hear that Steve Jobs has stepped down from the CEO role at Apple, although he's remaining with the company as Chairman of the Board.