73% of mobile phone users in the USA use their mobile phones to visit social networking sites at least once a day, according to a new survey from ABI Research.

Social networking was the second most-popular mobile activity after checking email, which was carried out by 80% of smartphone, feature phone or tablet users.

Mobile application developer Handmark says it'll turn its social apps business and mobile ad services group into a new company later this month.

The new company will assume ownership of the TweetCaster and FriendCaster social apps, which have seen more than three million downloads.

Google has announced the launch of a new service called Google+ ('Google Plus'). It's currently an invitation-only trial with "some rough edges", according to the company.

The Google+ project is seen by many as an alternative to Facebook, enabling users to create 'Circles' of friends.

Mobile operators must make the most of mobile social networking by offering innovative devices, tariffs and services. That's the message from Pyramid Research, which has just published a report called The Peril and Promise of Mobile Social Networks for Operators.

It says communications patterns and mobile devices are both being influenced by social networking.

Nokia has appointed Michael Halbherr, who's recently been running the product unit in Nokia's Services business, to the post of executive vice president. As well as being a member of the Nokia Leadership Team he'll now lead a new Nokia Location & Commerce business.

The Location & Commerce business will create new 'social location' products and services while continuing to serve customers of Nokia's NAVTEQ subsidiary.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.