Technology business and former mobile pioneer Nokia says it’s planning to acquire digital health company Withings S.A this autumn.

It’s put a value of €170 million on Withings, saying the move will help accelerate its entry into the digital health sector.

Research firm Berg Insight has calculated that shipments of connected wearable devices reached 19 million this year, more than three times last year’s total of 5.9 million devices.

This includes smartwatches, smart glasses, fitness and activity trackers, individual safety/monitoring devices and wearable medical devices.

New research from Samsung Electronics predicts that people in the UK will spend £104.7 million on wearable technology this Christmas, putting them ahead of consumers in Germany, Spain and The Netherlands.

That’s a 181% increase in revenue from Christmas 2013, with unit sales up 120.8% on 2013.

Microsoft has launched a wearable fitness-monitoring device. It’s called the Microsoft Band and is currently available in the USA for $199 (around £124).

The device can link via an iOS, Android or Windows Phone app to the new cloud-based Microsoft Health service.

SMS Audio, the audio brand co-founded by Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, is working with Intel Corporation on a headphone system that’ll incorporate biometric sensors.

Its forthcoming 'SMS Audio BioSport In-Ear Headphones powered by Intel' will include an optical heart rate monitor to collect fitness data.

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?

This week we're talking about BlackBerry's options for the future, Vodafone's 4G launch, Apple's patent victory and LG's new smartphone.

We also discuss ZTE selling its Firefox phones on eBay, Nokia's acquisition of NSN, the cost of phone calls in Europe, the controversy about recycling bins that monitor footfall and the new face promoting HTC.

The Motorola Moto X smartphone opens this week's show, despite not having a European release... but there's plenty of other UK news.

We talk about O2's plans to launch 4G mobile services later this month, we look at the ASA's ruling against EE, we contemplate the government's plans to eliminate some mobile 'black spots', we wonder when Android's market share will start to shrink - and we discuss many other mobile telecom stories as well.

James Rosewell interviews Ruth Barnett, head of communications at British-based technology company SwiftKey.

As well as talking about the SwiftKey keyboard app they also discuss competition in the mobile application space, working with manufacturers and the opportunities presented by 'Bring Your Own Device' schemes.

In this week's show we look at Google's new product announcements, O2's closure of its mobile telecare service and the clearance of radio frequencies for 4G services.

We also talk about the latest collection of quarterly results from Apple, Samsung, Amazon, LG and Facebook. Who's doing well - and should anyone be worried?

We start this week's show by discussing the recent quarterly results from Google, Nokia, Vodafone and Microsoft.

There's also time to talk about SIM security, Ubuntu's crowd-funded smartphone, the HTC One mini, smart watches and an unusual process for recharging your phone battery.