The Isis mobile commerce joint venture from AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless is now available to use across the USA.

It was originally announced in November 2010 and launched pilot schemes in the states of Texas and Utah last year.

Mobile payment service iZettle says American Express has joined its list of financial backers. The latest funding round already included over £20 million from MasterCard and venture capital funds including Greylock Partners, Northzone and SEB Private Equity plus initial investors Creandum and Index Ventures.

iZettle will use the funding for product development and expansion into new markets.

The Google Wallet NFC payment app, which was launched in the USA last year, has been transformed into a cloud-based service.

Google Wallet was originally only available to customers who had a Citi MasterCard credit card or the Google Prepaid debit card.

Stockholm-based mobile payment service iZettle has announced it’s now able to accept American Express cards in Sweden and Finland. The company was already able to accept MasterCard, Visa and Diners Club payments via its card reader and app. 

iZettle’s reader plugs into an iPhone or iPad and turns it into a mobile payment terminal for ‘chip and PIN’ credit cards.

The Google Wallet mobile payment application, which was announced by the company in May, is now being rolled out to customers in the USA.

It’s currently only available on the Google Nexus S 4G phone to customers who have a Citi MasterCard credit card or the Google Prepaid debit card and are using the Sprint network, although Visa, Discover and American Express are also expected to participate in the future.

Mark Bridge writes:

The coolest person in the country admires the French president's wife and lives in East London. Oh, and they use a BlackBerry by day but an iPhone by night. That's what recent surveys say. Nonsense, isn’t it?

Mark Bridge writes:

The end of civilisation. The dawn of the future. Mobile phones are somewhere in the middle. Once seen as novelties for people with too much money, the mobile phone is now ubiquitous. And with that ubiquity comes an acceptance that they’re just tools. Doesn't it?

Which is why I was surprised to see a news article from Voice, a trade union that wants mobile phones banned from nurseries because of concern about inappropriate photographs.

Mark Bridge writes:

"Sounding good to me". So sang Charlie Dore, back in the day when radio stations started to realise that quality was as important as quantity. "AM, FM, I feel so ecstatic", opined Cliff Richard, although I’m betting he’d have preferred the lack of hiss and crackle on FM stations.

Yet no-one’s really thought much about the quality of a phone call. Until now.

Mark Bridge writes:

In last weekend’s Sunday Times, Ali Hussain asked "Is this the end for the landline phone?"

He pointed out that the average mobile bill almost halved between 2003 and 2008, while landline bills fell by less than a fifth – which has meant the average mobile bill is now lower than the average landline bill. He went on to list fibre-optic broadband, mobile broadband, mobile calls, VoIP calls and satellite phones as alternatives to using fixed-line phones.

Art Chimes of voanews.com writes:

Nearly two-thirds of the people on Earth now use mobile telephones, according to a study by the International Telecommunications Union. But how safe are those phones? Scientists still aren't sure, but some evidence is starting to suggest there may be danger along with the convenience.

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.